Award-winning online marketing firm Rocket XL joins Cossette Communication Group

Word-of-Mouth and Social Media Marketing Media Specialists Will Play Key Role in Cossette U.S. and Global Digital Strategy

QUEBEC CITY and LOS ANGELES, CA, May 1 /CNW Telbec/ - Cossette Communication Group Inc. (TSX: KOS) is pleased to announce that it has acquired a majority-ownership stake in Rocket XL, a U.S.-based, award-winning online firm specializing in social media and interactive word-of-mouth marketing. Rocket XL will be working convergently with Cossette’s business units in the U.S. market and abroad to help bring innovative digital online and influencer marketing programs to their client bases.

“Rocket XL represents a very significant addition to the Cossette U.S. roster, as it considerably enhances our Convergent Communications(TM) offering in the United States and expands our ability to offer digital, new media and word-of-mouth online influencer marketing services on an international scale,” said Colin Schleining, Chief Operating Officer, Cossette Communication USA Inc.

Craig Howe, Chief Executive Officer of Rocket XL, said: “Joining Cossette Communication Group enables us to broaden the scope of creativity and innovation to more companies and brands looking to use digital media in more meaningful and impactful ways. Our commitment as part of Cossette is to push the boundaries in this space and offer our clients the unique ability to converse with online influencers using the most advanced strategies and technologies available.”

Rocket XL is a full service online marketing agency specializing in online influencer and word-of-mouth campaigns, and the development of cutting edge web based applications. As an agency comprised of former marketing executives and video game developers, Rocket XL combines strategic brand sensibility with advanced technical prowess to deliver a truly unique offering to its diverse client base, leveraging the Internet as a vehicle for delivering cutting-edge content and messaging directly to consumers or other targeted audiences. Since 2003 Rocket XL has worked with a broad range of brand assignments, from new product launches to Fortune-500 companies, including Sony Playstation(TM), HBO, Activision, Marshalls/TJX, and Comcast amongst other.

Rocket XL’s distinctive service offering will compliment Cossette Communications in New York and Cossette’s U.S. public relations agency PainePR. Based in New York, Cossette Communications offers clients fully integrated Convergent Communications(TM) and marketing strategies across multiple sectors, including healthcare, financial services and consumer products. Cossette Communications serves a prestigious roster of clients of all sizes.

PainePR is a top U.S. public relations firm with full-service offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Orange County (California). Consistently named among the best-managed, best workplaces and most creative agencies, PainePR represents many leading clients and is widely regarded as a leader in U.S. consumer and business-to-business PR and marketing communications. The firm is a leading provider of innovative brand-building influencer communications and other strategic communications services that stretch well beyond traditional PR, and includes fast-growing areas of social marketing, social responsibility, diversity communications, cause-marketing, sustainability and reputation management, and organizational/internal communications.

About Cossette Communication Group

Cossette clients include: Barclays, Bell Canada, BMO Financial Group, Cadbury, Canada Post, Coca-Cola, General Mills, General Motors of Canada, Home Depot, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, McNeil Nutritionals, Mitchells & Butlers, Molson/Coors, Nike, P&O Cruises, Perfetti Van Melle (Mentos), Procter & Gamble, Rio Tinto Alcan, Schering-Plough, Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix, Sony Corporation, Sony Ericsson, The McGraw-Hill Companies, U.S. Coast Guard, Yellow Pages Group and Vodafone.

Cossette Communication Group Inc. offers a full range of leading-edge communication services to clients of all sizes, including some of the most prestigious brands in the world. A customer-driven organization built around highly specialized business units, Cossette also offers Convergent Communications(TM), a unique working method that brings added value to the client by integrating various services offered by the Group, including strategic planning and research, advertising, media planning and buying, sales promotion, CRM, database and direct marketing, interactive marketing and
technology solutions, public relations and alliance marketing, branding and design, ethnic marketing, sports marketing, branded content and product placement and business-to-business communications (B2B practices). Cossette has approximately 1,650 employees and offices in Quebec City, Montreal,
Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, New York, Irvine, Los Angeles, London, Moscow and Shanghai.