So
Canada could be easily influenced or even controlled by the United States. The
United States does tend to exploit its’ greater power and affect relations
between the two countries. The function of advertising is to develop awareness
and recall of a product or service that results in market increase. Canada uses
all of the same mediums as the United States, to expose the consumer of products
and services. In 1993 the gross advertising revenues for all media reached $9.0
billion. Newspaper advertising accounts for 26.8 percent of this total revenue.
Radio and television make up 27 percent of the total.
Catalogues and direct mail
account for 21.8 percent, periodicals use 15.9 percent and outdoor and
miscellaneous uses the remaining 8.5 percent (Strategies). (See pie chart) All
of the advertising in Canada can be divided into two components, local and
national advertising. Local advertising represents about sixty percent of all
media (about $5.4 billion) (Strategies). This advertising is placed into the
industry by a companies’ media representative and usually does not require the
help of an advertising industry. National advertising accounts for the remaining
forty percent of all the media (about $3.6 billion) (Strategies). This component
is responsible for the revenues of the advertising agencies. Large businesses,
which market their products worldwide, are a part of national advertising. Ad
agencies coordinate the production, creation, and placement of the advertising.
Television is the primary medium, but not exclusively. Print media such as
direct mail, catalogues, magazines, newspapers, and radio are also vehicles used
in national advertising.
There isn’t one national newspaper or magazine for
Canada because it is so large. This is the main reason why the Canadian
advertising industry will spend more on broadcast media, such as television and
radio. The CBC is a major broadcasting corporation of Canada. These vehicles
have national broadcasts for the country (Grabowski). The consumer is able to
listen to a station or watch a program or newscast that is nationally recognized
and available. This type of media will reach a larger group of consumers. The
structure of advertising in Canada is very important to understanding the
industry. Canadian advertising agencies have restructured themselves to meet
customers’ demanding needs. Agencies are becoming more productive by
establishing separate subsidiaries that provide different services. They have
developed separate departments to meet the individual needs of each company.
There are fifteen top agencies in Canada and thirteen of them are foreign owned,
compared to 1960 when only three of them were (CASI). This is because Canadian
owned agencies are domestically oriented and are at a disadvantage in attracting
international advertisers as clients, for a fear that they cannot produce
results that are accepted internationally. Most Canadian firms handle the local
or small accounts that are advertising primarily in the country. This directly
affects the highest possible revenue a Canadian owned agency might get. The
foreign owned agencies will therefore receive all of the top advertisers’ as
clients. These will also bring in the highest revenues.
