Transcontinental Media’s Recettes.qc.ca, one of the company’s strongest brands, has launched a Facebook application and widget that serves users with recipes and user generated content. The Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec is the first advertiser to sign on to use the tools. Montreal-based agency Touché!PHD has purchased placements for La Crème on both platforms.

The application lets users transfer their Recettes profile information to their Facebook account, which allows them to actively share recipes and accumulate points on both sites. It also tracks friends and community members through Facebook’s mini feed. Users can also view top recipes, search by recipe or by ingredient, vote for favourite recipes, compare their recipe performance and invite friends to join the Recettes network.

The Recettes du Québec widget, downloadable to a computer or personalized Web portals like iGoogle, lets users receive daily meal-planning ideas. The widget features a recipe of the day, new recipes and a by-ingredient search engine.

‘Transcontinental Media is at the forefront of new Web 2.0 functionalities, particularly when it comes to capitalizing on the power of social networks like Facebook,’ says digital media marketing director Guillaume Brunet. ‘Our expertise ensures strong traffic to our sites. These strengths are attractive to advertisers who want to speak to a specific – and already interested – audience.’

Montreal-based K3 Média handled design, development and integration, while 90 degrés and Martin Lessard were consultants on the initiatives.

Recettes.gc.ca attracts about one million unique visitors per month and has over 150,000 active members. The company’s digital media group reaches over 4.3 million Canadians through more than 200 websites.