McDonald's Restaurants and Michelin win at the Media Innovation Awards gala for campaigns in partnership with Astral Radio!

Montreal, November 17, 2011 - Astral Radio is proud to announce that two campaigns broadcast on its stations have been awarded this evening at the Media Innovation Awards gala in Toronto. McDonald's Restaurants was awarded the Gold in the Best in Radio category for its “McTraffic” campaign, while Michelin won the Silver in the same category for its “Le bon pneu peut tout changer” campaign.

The “McTraffic” campaign, conceived by the Astral RadioPlus Media Creativity team, in partnership with OMD, was aired across Canada on Astral Radio stations from February to November 2011. In this tailor-made radio campaign for McDonald's Restaurants, traffic reporters from our different stations featured a different McDonald's location every day, informing listeners of the state of traffic around the featured restaurant. In addition to “McTraffic”, this one-of-a-kind, Canada-wide campaign also included the broadcast of 30-minute, commercial-free segments exclusive to McDonald's called “The McDonald's Drive-Thru”, every Friday. Tonight, McDonald's Restaurants was also awarded the Bronze in the Best in Retail and E-commerce category for its “McTraffic” campaign.

The “Le bon pneu peut tout changer” campaign, imagined by Astral Radio Creativity Team in Montreal and the MediaCom agency, was aired across Quebec in October 2010. Aired over three consecutive days on the ten NRJ and nine RockDétente (now Rouge fm) stations in Quebec, as well as on the web-sites of the two networks, the Michelin campaign featured the slogan “Michelin, le bon pneu peut tout changer” (which means: “Michelin, The Right Tire Changes Everything”). This unique campaign ended in grand style on Wednesday, October 6, 2010, when in the space of one day, NRJ hosts all over Quebec exchanged microphones with their RockDétente counterparts to powerfully demonstrate the slogan “The Right Tire Changes Everything.”

As proof of the well-earned success of this campaign and its related contest, Astral Radio recorded no less than 10,868 clicks on the different web formats of this campaign and, even more impressively, received a record number of contest entries in a very short 11-hour period: 11,450 entries across the two networks. This successful campaign has already distinguished itself by earning the Grand Prix Radio from the Prix Média d'Infopresse, in Quebec, this past May.

The Media Innovation Awards is Canada's premier awards show recognizing excellence in the planning and buying of media in the marketing/advertising sector. Three campaigns broadcast by Astral Radio were shortlisted this year at the Media Innovation Awards. Another campaign was submitted by the Astral RadioPlus Creativity team in Toronto (Cossette Media - TELUS).

Astral Radio offers its congratulations to McDonald's Restaurants and Michelin for winning these prestigious awards and to its media creativity teams which distinguished themselves once again, and whose success stands out in the Canadian advertising industry!

About Astral
Astral is one of Canada's largest media companies. It operates several of the country's most popular pay and specialty television, radio, out-of-home advertising and digital media properties. Astral plays a central role in community life across the country by offering diverse, rich and vibrant programming that meets the tastes and needs of consumers and advertisers. To learn more about Astral, visit astral.com.

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