Our Business, Mission, Strategy and Capability to Deliver Results
Our Business
Yellow Media Inc. is a leading digital company offering media and marketing solutions to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Canada. Yellow Media Inc. is also a leader in national digital advertising through Mediative, a digital advertising and marketing solutions-provider to national agencies and advertisers. This section provides an overview of our business and our current priorities.
Directories
This business segment is composed of YPG, Canpages, Wall2Wall and Mediative.
YPG is Canada’s leading digital and print local commercial search provider and marketing solutions company while Canpages is a Canadian digital local search company. Wall2Wall manages activities, publications, and services related to the real estate, employment and hospital newsprint and online verticals.
We serve approximately 340,000 local businesses excluding Canpages, through our nation-wide sales force of approximately 1,500 media consultants. YPG also caters to the country’s largest national agencies and advertisers through Mediative, its national digital advertising and marketing solutions division
We own and operate some of Canada’s leading properties and publications including Yellow Pages™ directories, YellowPages.ca™, Canada411.ca™, Canpages.ca™ and RedFlagDeals.com™. Our online destinations reach approximately 9 million unique visitors monthly. YellowPages.ca™ can also be accessed on mobile devices through our various mobile applications on BlackBerry™, Apple iPhone™ and iPad™, Windows Mobile™ and Google™’s Android™. Our mobile applications for finding local businesses and deals have been downloaded 3.7 million times.
In addition, we are the official directory publisher for Bell Canada (Bell), TELUS Communications Inc. (TELUS), Bell Aliant Regional Communications LP (Bell Aliant), MTS Allstream Inc. and for a number of other incumbent telephone companies that have a leading share in their respective markets. In 2011, we published more than 400 different print telephone directories with a total circulation of approximately 29 million copies.
Our classified directories are delivered into almost every household and business in our markets, and are available online and through a variety of digital options. Our local content is rich and diverse which draws consumers to our directories and in so doing generates leads, calls, visits and clicks, and in turn attracts yet more advertisers.
We are the exclusive owner of the Yellow Pages™, Pages Jaunes™ Walking Fingers & Design™, as well as the Canada411™ and RedFlagDeals.com™ trademarks in Canada.
Vertical Media
On March 25, 2011, Yellow Media Inc. announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to sell the automotive and generalist print and online business of Trader Corporation. This divestiture was completed on July 28, 2011.
Consequently, during the first quarter of 2011, the Company changed the composition of its reportable segments in a manner which is better aligned with the way operating results are now reviewed by senior management to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segments and to assess their performance. The key changes included the reallocation of the real estate, employment and LesPAC businesses, which were not part of the divestiture of Trader Corporation, to the Directories segment. Vertical Media is therefore no longer a reporting segment.
Mission
Bringing local consumers and businesses together via our network of mobile, web and print properties.
Strategy
We have implemented a business strategy with an intent to reacquire growth in revenues and improve our operations. We continue to invest in order to transform from a print directory business to a digital media and marketing solutions company.
Our strategy remains to leverage our multiplatform media and marketing solutions, to enhance services to our advertisers, build traffic to our network of properties and improve user experience. Our goal is to serve the advertising needs of small and medium enterprises across Canada, by providing the right services and tools to manage and grow their businesses.
We are focusing on key areas, such as:
- Improving our operations with increased focus on sales effectiveness, product fulfillment, billing and customer support;
- Provisioning of new services for our customers with the objective of offering an overall better customer experience and return on investment by driving more quality leads through calls, clicks, forms and emails;
- Improving our value proposition for the consumer by enhancing our content on our online and mobile properties;
- Creating partnerships in traffic and distribution to augment leads to our advertisers; and
- Branding and promotion to raise awareness of our 360° Solution product portfolio and accelerate our brand transformation.
We achieve profitability by maximizing our operating efficiency and constantly reviewing all of our operations with a view to ensuring we maintain a competitive cost structure. Improving our cost structure remains a key priority and will continue to be achieved through:
- Business process redesign;
- Cost containment initiatives; and
- Investment in technology to better support our operations and our transformation.
For a review of developments and performance relative to key priorities identified for 2011, see Section 2 – Results.
Our key priorities for 2012 are to:
- Execute the Yellow Pages 360° Solution sales approach;
- Deliver superior customer value; and
- Lead our industry transformation.
Execution of 360 sales approach
The launch of our new Yellow Pages 360° Solution during 2011 was a key milestone of our business transformation. We now offer the key components of a complete media solution for Canadian businesses. The Yellow Pages 360º Solution is central in enabling our advertisers to be found by qualified buyers with online, mobile and print choices. Our sales professionals are now better equipped to offer the solutions that fit our advertisers’ evolving needs. In 2012 we will be introducing differentiated products and services for larger advertisers, increasing sales support effectiveness through the introduction of improved sales tools and simplified order processing and improving operational execution in fulfilment, billing and support.
In 2012 we will be introducing differentiated products and services for larger advertisers, increasing sales support effectiveness through the introduction of improved sales tools and simplified order processing and improving operational execution in fulfilment, billing and support.
Deliver superior customer value
Our first and foremost goal is to serve the needs of our advertisers, enabling them to manage and grow their businesses. In 2012, we will continue to focus on delivering a superior value proposition by expanding our product portfolio to meet large advertiser needs, by increasing digital leads to advertisers and demonstrating value through Yellow Pages Analytics. This performance reporting tool provides valuable insight into advertisers’ YPG campaign and allows them to gain access to online, near real-time statistics on visits, clicks, traffic trends and more.
Lead our industry transformation
We have undertaken a significant business transformation from a print company to a leading performance media and marketing solutions provider company and have made progress thus far. In 2012, we will continue to lead this transformation by making the required investments and focusing on key growth avenues. We will invest in our mobile offering, to grow our local lead generation and audience and further capturing local smart shopping. We will evolve our brand promise to include digital capabilities and also grow our national strategy.
Capability to Deliver Results
This section of our MD&A explains how we are positioning the Company to continue to operate on a financially viable and progressive basis.
Capital Resources
YPG generates sufficient cash flow from its operations to support required capital expenditures and to service its debt obligations. Its cash flow, along with the availability under its committed bank facilities provide sufficient resources to finance its cash requirements in the foreseeable future while maintaining adequate liquidity. Please refer to Section 3 – Liquidity and Capital Resources of this MD&A for an analysis of the company’s ability to generate sufficient cash and to meet operating needs in the current market environment.
Non-capital Resources
YPG’s critical intangible resources include:
- Strong brands;
- Established relationships with customers;
- Breadth and depth of local content;
- Dedicated and experienced employees; and
- Culture and values that characterize our organization.
Strong Brands
YPG is the exclusive owner of a number of leading brands which have high-recognition value among our various audiences including Yellow Pages, Pages Jaunes, Walking Fingers Design, RedFlagDeals and Canada411 trademarks in Canada.
Established Relationships with Customers
We employ a sales force of approximately 1,500 people, including sales support staff. This large and primarily face-to-face sales force is broken down into various customer segments allowing a more dedicated relationship between the sales force and the SMEs resulting in 87% of our advertisers renewing their advertising with us each year.
Breadth and Depth of Local Content
The quality of our local content generates usage which in turn encourages local and national advertisers to advertise in our print and online properties.
Dedicated and Experienced Employees
Our employees have consistently improved our operations. Despite a challenging environment, our employees have executed on the initiatives needed to position the corporation for transformation and we are confident that they will continue to remain focused on our common objectives.
Culture and Values
We have a performance-based culture. That culture is defined by all of our values and influences our thinking and our actions which drive our desire to compete to win. This focus on performance also dictates the competencies and skills we seek to attract and retain. All our employees are expected to value teamwork and be focused on our customers; they should act with integrity, respect and passion for the job at hand while maintaining open communications.
We believe that our culture and our values form the foundation of our organization and are critical to its sustained success.