Ontario media buying on the block

The Ontario government's $30 million-plus media buying business is up for grabs. The three-year AOR contracts for domestic and ethnic media buying, currently held by Toronto agencies MBS and Genesis respectively, are being combined into one contract. In order to be considered, agencies must be 100% Canadian-owned. Although MBS has entered into a joint venture with MediaCom Worldwide, the global media buying network owned by Grey Advertising of New York, to create The Media Company/MBS, MBS also continues to operate as a fully Canadian-owned company. Both Genesis president Bruce Claassen and MBS president Peter Swain say their companies will pitch for the business.