Montreal agencies' pitch a "Latin spirit" with "American business sense"

Ad agencies in Montreal are intent on convincing marketers that their city is the ideal place to develop and test international marketing strategies. According to a story in Advertising Age, the agencies have created YUL-Lab (the YUL standing for the city's 3-letter airport code) and have already signed their first marketer -- L'Oreal Canada, which happens to be one of the biggest and most consistent advertiser in women's interest and lifestyle magazines.

Long in the works, YUL-Lab sees many of Montreal's agencies working together to attract American and other marketers to Montreal. Their pitch? According to Sebastien Faure, the association's chairman and president of Montreal agency BleuBlancRouge, Montreal is an ideal testing ground for marketers because its different cultural influences have produced advertising styles that would be considered groundbreaking in other markets.

And aside from the city's multilingual, multi-ethnic population, Montreal agencies also have the technical and new media expertise to help companies understand emerging platforms such as Facebook and Twitter....

"We truly believe Montreal could be the innovation center of global brand teams in the world," said Mr. Faure.

"Consumers are in control so, basically, we need to learn how to talk to those consumers in the way they want now."

Montreal is the perfect place to figure that out, he argues, because it has a large talent pool that mixes a "Latin spirit with American business sense."