On August 1, 2003, Yellow Pages Group, through Yellow Pages Income Fund, completed the largest income trust’s IPO in Canadian history. By 2004, the company had completed its transi- tion to a stand-alone publicly traded entity while laying the foundation for a new future. On May 25, 2005, Yellow Pages Group com- pleted the purchase of Advertising Directory Solutions Holdings Inc. (ADS), creating a national platform for its print and online directories.

THE PRODUCT Yellow Pages Group publishes more than 330 Yellow Pages™ and residential directories annu- THE MARKET as the creation of an online Advertiser Center ally. The Yellow Pages™ directories are present in Yellow Pages Group is Canada’s largest telephone and e-Newsletter. markets that cover 93 percent of the Canadian directories publisher. Its national platform of print Today, Yellow Pages Group is one of Canada’s population. That means that virtually every house- and online directories affords it a unique geo- leading media companies. Since the Yellow Pages hold and business in these markets receives a graphic positioning for a media company in Group IPO, the company has achieved industry- Yellow Pages™ directory. Canada. Yellow Pages Group is the incumbent leading levels of organic growth and operating Yellow Pages Group is the exclusive owner of directory publisher in Quebec, , , margins. Yellow Pages Group continues to have the Yellow Pages™, Pages JaunesMC and Walking and the Territories, and in great momentum in its operating and financial Fingers Design™ trademarks in Canada. through Aliant ActiMedia. metrics and believes that with its strong national In addition to its print products, Yellow Pages The company owns and manages Yellow platform, it is well positioned for the future. Group operates leading online directories, Pages.ca™ and Canada411.ca*, Canada’s most YellowPages.ca™ (Find a business), Canada411.ca* visited online directories, as well as CanadaPlus HISTORY (Find a person), and CanadaPlus.ca™, a network .ca™, a network of seven local city sites. Yellow Yellow Pages Group is in many ways a new and of local city sites including MontrealPlus.ca™, Pages Group offers deep online local content on rejuvenated company with a 100-year-old history. QuebecPlus.ca™, TorontoPlus.ca™, CalgaryPlus.ca™, a national basis. The company published its first directory in EdmontonPlus.ca™, OttawaPlus.ca™ and Vancouver With its strong nationwide sales force that 1908 and operated as a division of Plus.ca™. These sites attract approximately 7.5 mil- maintains long-standing relationships with over until 1971, when it was incorporated as Tele- lion unique visitors per month, making the 381,000 advertisers, Yellow Pages Group is ide- Direct (Publications) Inc. At that time, the com- network the sixth most visited by ally positioned to gather content that is not only pany published directories that covered nearly all online Canadians. thorough and detailed, but also up-to-date and rel- of Ontario and Quebec, following the local tele- evant to today’s Canadian consumers. phone service footprint, and the markets of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. ACHIEVEMENTS In 1999, Tele-Direct (Pub- The year 2003 marked the rebirth of two of the most lications) Inc. changed its well-known brands in Canada — the Yellow Pages™ name to Bell ActiMedia brand and the Walking Fingers Design™ brand. The Inc. and repositioned itself company’s first step was to re-think what the brands as a multimedia company. meant to users and how their positioning could dif- Yellow Pages Group was ferentiate them in the marketplace. After extensive formed in 2002, with the market research, a mass advertising campaign was acquisition of the directory launched. The company invested heavily in its prod- publishing operations of ucts, notably by redesigning the directory covers to Bell Canada by Kohlberg better reflect its new positioning. Kravis Roberts & Co. In 2005, the company redesigned its brand and (KKR) and Ontario corporate logos to reflect its more modern, inno- Teachers’Merchant Bank. vative and youthful products as well as its leader- On May 15, 2003, Yellow In 2006, Yellow Pages Group ship in the Canadian directory market. The Pages Group concluded the purchase of started extending its product company also expanded the definition of the brand the CanadaPlus.ca city sites network from line, as a complement to its tra- notion to include online and wireless formats. Bell Canada’s Sympatico Portal Division. In ditional Yellow Pages™ directory Concurrent with the modernization of the 2005, Yellow Pages Group launched the advertising offering. The com- brand, Yellow Pages Group enlarged its market- TorontoPlus.ca™ city site, completing its nation- pany entered into a partnership ing strategies to include B2B initiatives such wide city sites presence. with Transcontinental Media to

108 luggage trolleys and electronic dis- play boards to deliver unexpected and memorable messages. It is not just at airports where Yellow Pages Group has been getting creative, though. It is also at home, bridal and maternity shows. Essen- tially, Yellow Pages Group wants to be involved in every business search in a remarkable way.

BRAND VALUES Yellow Pages™ directories are more than search engines. They are “find engines.” They are not used as enter- develop specialized guides that contain both edi- consolidate its leadership position in the area of tainment or for casual surfing, but are instead torial content and directory information for a spe- local search. perceived as a singular resource to find some- cific topic. The first guides on home improvement The WebNumber™ service also demonstrates thing. And finding ultimately connects buyers were launched in Toronto and Montreal in 2006. the company’s commitment to offer broad visibil- and sellers. ity to advertisers. Launched in May 2005, this Consumers have come to rely on Yellow RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Pages™ directories to help them make clever buy- Yellow Pages Group is focused on extending the ing decisions. That is because they know they are directory category by developing new products efficient and easy to use, and they trust that they beyond the print book. The company seeks to offer will help them find exactly what they are looking the public seamless solutions that do not distin- for — every time. guish between print, online and wireless formats. The Yellow Pages™ brand is constantly evolv- The goal is to incite people to turn to one of ing to serve new audiences in new ways. The Web Yellow Pages Group directories, in any of its for- site offerings play a pivotal role in that mats, whenever they are looking for a product, evolution. Directory users get excited by next- service, business or person. This objective also generation products. But they need a reason to leads to a broader visibility for advertisers and believe — and that reason lies in the insight that greater content for users. Yellow Pages™ directories play a different role The new YellowPages.ca™ search engine is a than other search engines. So they must continu- prime example of this. In 2006, Yellow Pages service provides a free Web site to every business ally entice audiences emotionally, push them Group launched this unique, keyword searchable in Canada that has a Yellow Pages™ listing. The towards new products and ultimately link the online search platform that allows users to submit Internet address for these sites comprises the unstructured queries and obtain structured results. merchant’s telephone number, followed by The newYellowPages.ca™ Web site has become a “yellowpages.ca” or “yp.ca.” “find engine” that will enable the company to Another new product being piloted is HelloYellow™, a voice-activated tele- phone directory assistance service that allows users to conduct a busi- ness category search by phone. products, the experience and the value with the PROMOTION Yellow Pages™ brand essence of “fuelling clever Yellow Pages Group advertising and buying decisions.” promotions are aligned with the objective of expanding the directory * Canada411 is a trademark of Stentor Resources category. Recent campaigns were Centre Inc., used under license. intended to further rejuvenate the brand and increase the top-of- mind awareness of the company’s THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT online properties. YELLOW PAGES™ DIRECTORIES The way Yellow Pages Group has been doing this is by combining the usual gamut of media — TV and ❍ More Canadians than ever refer to directo- radio spots, out-of-home and street ries — 76 percent have used an online or advertising — with some truly unex- print directory in the past month. pected guerrilla tactics and stunts. ❍ Sixty-six percent of users make a purchase Initiatives that have been getting lots after using a directory. of attention at airports include the ❍ Fifty-four percent of the purchasers are new “Sleeping Dummy” media — a man- customers for the advertiser. nequin that resembles a woman ❍ Yellow Pages Group network of Web sites sleeping on a bench. Above her is a reaches 35 percent of all online Canadians Yellow Pages.ca™ ad that reads every month. “www.5 star hotel within 5 km.ca,” suggesting that she should have used ❍ On average, every dollar spent in advertis- the directory to find a hotel. ing in a Yellow Pages™ directory generates Other innovative airport tactics $26 in revenue for the advertiser. have included the use of suitcases,

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