"Innovation has blazed the trail for Gold Book over the past decade," says Canadian Champion publisher Neil Oliver.

"From humble beginnings in 1998 when its first local directory rolled off the press in Halton, it has grown to be the leader in the directory industry -- with many of North America's largest directory publishers now imitating Gold Book's products and business model."

A new multimedia facet of goldbook.ca -- its on-line business search directory -- the Virtual Consumer initiative allows small business owners and operators to "converse" with potential clients even before they call. Designed to make the potential customer more comfortable dealing with the advertiser, it's a showcase in which advertisers can communicate how accommodating, friendly and competent they are.

Virtual Consumer joins a fleet of other low-cost multimedia marketing offerings for small business, including animated talking characters, 30-second video commercials and photo galleries.

Paying tribute to the thousands of local real consumers who've helped make them number one over the years, Gold Book's on-line anniversary contest at goldbook.ca will award one super getaway for each year of growth, says Oliver.

"We want to give back to the communities that support us. It's our way of saying thank you."

In 2007 Gold Book underwent its largest growth spurt to date -- expanding into 42 markets across southern Ontario, with directory distribution to more than 2.4 million. Each year in June, 48,000 copies of the Canadian Champion Gold Book are distributed to homes and businesses. Oliver says few remain who are not yet familiar with the "gorilla" brand.

Gold Book was the first in North America to integrate phone book and website companies, offering each print advertiser a web address and website at no additional cost, and bridging print and on-line by including websites and online icons in its print product. As a result, goldbook.ca now hosts detailed multimedia profiles of more than 10,000 local businesses and draws more than 600,000 unique visitors each month.

You can enter the Gold Book Tropical Breezes Anniversary Contest on-line at goldbook.ca.