Québecor has leveraged data collaboration to achieve remarkable success in digital advertising. We sat down with Sasha Audet, Audience and Programmatic Solutions Supervisor from Québecor, to discuss their journey in digital advertising, how they leverage data collaborations with partners to grow their advertising business and their plans for TV ads. Explore insights from Québecor’s experience in our latest interview hosted by Ioana Tirtirau, the Director of Customer Success at Optable.

What specific objectives are you aiming to achieve with brands and agencies when it comes to data collaboration?

Our primary objective is to provide brands and agencies with deep insights into their audiences through our data. We've worked diligently with Optable to map all our data. Therefore, when a client comes in, we can match their data with ours. This allows them to see their media consumption within Québecor’s ecosystem. These insights add great value for our clients, and we can activate this data directly, employing multiple strategies to engage with the matched audience.

How do you use data collaboration to grow your advertising business today?

We identified new opportunities with data collaboration, particularly in TV advertising. We plan to use data collaboration in our addressable TV business. By integrating Québecor’s digital environment with TV insights, we can better understand real TV consumption patterns. This helps us identify what TV shows our audiences watch, the times they tune in, and the frequency of their viewing habits. These insights enable us to enhance our addressable TV business by providing more targeted advertising solutions.

Can you give us an idea of how you arrived at this point where you have all these interesting insights to show advertisers? How did you go about preparing your data set?

We invested several years in gathering and preparing all this data, ensuring everything complies with legal standards. We tagged all our properties and used first-party data to ensure accuracy and relevance. After years of hard work, in collaboration with Optable and our teams, we made our gateway to accessible and comprehensive data, enabling us to offer these valuable insights.

Does interoperability play a role for you? Is it important in your first-party data strategy?

Absolutely. Interoperability allows us to bridge different ad tech and data stacks, making it a single entry point for Québecor. This capability, enabled by Optable, allows us to work with a variety of data sources and activate data through advertising seamlessly, regardless of whether our partners are existent Optable users or not.

What have you learned from working directly with advertisers, and how does that change your approach in the market?

Advertisers have high expectations and expect the platform to be turnkey. After working with many clients, we learned that successful collaboration requires significant effort from our side, the advertisers, and the technology providers. These experiences taught us a lot, and we were able to streamline our processes and improve our approach. Now, we have established a great process for all parties involved.

Since you mentioned the process, how is it built within your organization? What is the structure between sales and ad operations for a successful product launch? 

We clearly define the roles of each person involved. The critical part is our subject matter experts. They are salespeople and experts in the product that work directly with clients. They play a crucial role, enabling us to minimize the time spent on learning from every individual involved in sales.

How do you qualify your advertising partners for the collaboration? 

We have business rules in place to qualify clients, ensuring they are ready for collaboration. Our subject matter experts are involved in the qualification process, helping our leads to learn and to work with the product. Experts use specific rules to determine a client's readiness. This process requires substantial preparation and alignment with our technology, especially during the initial adoption phase. Since it is a partnership, the partner must also bring the upfront investment with us so it leads to long-term, successful cooperation. 

Ultimately, we aim to provide long-term, evergreen business for our clients with Québecor. There is a certain amount of work at the setup, but once everything is rolling, there is not much intervention.   

Can you share your experience with onboarding advertising partners to prepare a successful campaign?

The key to a successful partnership is thorough preparation. Before we begin, clients must ensure that their legal, marketing, and other teams are onboarded and aligned. Once we start, we focus on optimizing the campaign, making adjustments as needed, and managing expectations regarding performance, as clients have expectations tied to the third-party cookie world. Both internal and external education must be in place for success. Ultimately, the collaborative effort ensures the campaign runs smoothly and achieves its goals.

Québecor’s strategic use of data collaboration and insights sharing shows how effective data management and targeted advertising can drive growth and success in the digital advertising landscape. We look forward to hearing more about innovative projects from Québecor in the future.

About Québecor

Québecor, a Canadian leader in telecommunications, entertainment, news media and culture, is one of the best‑performing integrated communications companies in the industry. Driven by their determination to deliver the best possible customer experience, all of Québecor’s subsidiaries and brands are differentiated by their high‑quality, multiplatform, convergent products and services.

Québecor is headquartered in Québec and employs more than 11,000 people in Canada.

A family business founded in 1950, Québecor is strongly committed to the community. Every year, it actively supports more than 400 organizations in the vital fields of culture, health, education, the environment, and entrepreneurship.