Leafs-fan Frank decides he can no longer handle sub-zero Canadian temperatures and asks his Habs-fan buddy Dale to help him deep-fry himself in a vat of doughnut grease; a suave Polar Bear with a British accent asks Chilly Beach residents if he may devour them, and being polite Canadians, they usually oblige.

Welcome to Chilly Beach, a full-sound Canuck cartoon created in Flash animation for the Internet. Chilly Beach is - according to its creators - Canada's fourteenth friendliest town, nestled on the banks of a meandering ice floe. Main character Dale McDonald is a recent college grad whose life revolves around the national staples of hockey, doughnuts and beer. He is also a late-night dj with a soft spot for Anne Murray records.

In production for more than a year, the Chilly Beach site currently offers 15 one- to nine-minute "webisodes" which visitors can download free of charge. The producer, Toronto-based Infopreneur, is an Internet content provider and developer that has extended other companies' print and television properties to the Net for the past two and a half years while also creating its own original programming.

"It started both ways, because the company realized they wanted to maintain ownership over properties they developed," explains Infopreneur vp business development-content Brian Katz. "And the way to do that is to invest in them and market them themselves."

The wacky minds behind Chilly Beach are creator and executive producer Dan Hawes, writer and animator Doug Sinclair, character artist and voice artist Todd Peterson, background artist John Goodwin, voice artist and story contributor Steve Ashton, and Web page designer Jocelyn Stretton.

Infopreneur may soon reap large dividends from its Chilly Beach property, as its in-house animation team puts the finishing touches on a 22-minute television pilot that has attracted the interest of broadcasters including The Comedy Network, Teletoon, and mtv. According to Katz, "We haven't decided which one we're going with yet."

Meanwhile, Infopreneur is working on how to make the Chilly Beach website more profitable.

"People are used to getting 'free' content on the Net, but that's a bit of a misnomer," Katz points out. "They're paying for access to the Internet, just like they're paying a monthly subscription fee to cable networks. Advertisers are paying the tv broadcast companies, who in turn are licensing programs from producers. In this model, no one is really paying the Internet producers for their content, so they are forced to go directly to see advertisers, working with the marketing departments."

One advertiser Infopreneur has approached is Molson Canada, and as a result the site incorporates references to the brewery's products. For example, a Chilly Beach cyber-tourist brochure describes the town as "where proud Canadian traditions like hockey brawls and Molson Golden are cherished."

Katz believes Molson fit naturally with the Chilly Beach content being developed around beer and hockey.

"Where you can, you have to integrate the products into the storyline [so as] not to make the storyline corrupt or take away from it, but to generate some kind of product appeal that complements the characters and what they're doing," Katz explains. He indicates that also potentially in the works are banner ads, so long as they "add something of value to the story or characters."

Katz believes this type of brand integration calls for Internet content producers to work closely with their sponsor in order to harmonize with that company's mandate and ad campaign.

"Large companies like Molson are just now starting to realize how to work with Internet companies on an ongoing basis," he says. "Chilly Beach is not only a project on a website, it's the ability to use the site as a network that has to be refreshed every day, almost like a tv program, and it's being broadcast around the world. [The question is] how can Molson take advantage of that? It's not just an ad on a bus shelter - it's a live, breathing entity that can have world appeal."

Less back bacon

and maple syrup

The dilemma Infopreneur faces as Chilly Beach grows in popularity is how to take advantage of the global opportunity the Web presents with such distinctively Canadian content. Katz estimates that 80% of the site's 50,000 unique hits per month are coming from the u.s., and the tv broadcasters interested in a Chilly Beach series would deliver the show not only in North America, but to England and Australia as well.

"I think the storylines are going to be more generic or universal in nature, even though the characters and setting might be Canadian," Katz suggests. "[It] has to be understood by an international audience that's looking for that kind of content - very similar to South Park [in] the way it's clearly understood in most of the English-speaking world."

While the creators may tone down the Canadiana, they will also look for ways to include other nationalities.

"Our focus is not Canada, our focus is the world," Katz continues. "So where we can, we're going to bring in story elements from other countries - other personalities, other characters."

One way the site has already sought that wider audience is by creating parodies of Hollywood movies and shows in webisodes titled "Apocalypse Snow," "Rink of Dreams" and "Hudson's Baywatch." Nonetheless, the webisode archive includes stories revolving around such national themes as the rcmp, Hockey Night in Canada and curling. Katz suggests that for audiences outside of Canada to "get it," the site may have to add "areas of clarification, or maps of Canada, just to make it a little more identifiable."

Katz recognizes that securing international audiences also means attracting a different level of sponsorship.

"When you try to reach a global market, you are more able to get global brands sponsoring and advertising with you," he says. "It was difficult at the beginning for us to say, 'This episode is going to be for the world, let's go after Coca-Cola and get them as a world sponsor.' But as the stories and personalities get more broad, we'll be going after those world brands."