TRANSCONTINENTAL AND BELL ACTIMEDIA CREATE ADBAG.CA
By Adnews Staff
Transcontinental Group and Bell ActiMedia, both of Montreal, are creating an electronic Ad-Bag for the Internet. "Twenty years ago we introduced the Ad-Bag, which we now distribute to more than 5.5 million households in Canada. Adbag.ca is simply one more way for us to achieve our goal of helping retailers and advertisers reach consumers," Transcontinental CEO Remi Marcoux said. The Ad-Bag is a plastic bag containing advertisements, retailers' weekly circulars, coupons and other promotional materials, that is delivered to homes each week. The agreement, made yesterday, finds Transcontinental partnering up with Bell ActiMedia to develop Adbag.ca (Publisac.ca in French), an electronic pre-shopping site in Canada offering consumers coupons, promotions, sales and items from local or national retailers and advertisers. Transcontinental will be the majority shareholder of the new company set up to develop the new product. The site is expected to be launched this fall. Advertising is planned for the product launch but plans have not been confirmed.