It’s time to review our finalists for 2011 Agency of the Year. To find out which of our top 10 shops takes top honours, pick up the January 2012 issue of Marketing.
TBWA
New energy in Toronto and a massive account win
Jay Bertram and Jack Neary have a funny kind of tension to their long-time friendship. “He calls me Larry David,” Neary says of Bertram, who is godfather to his youngest daughter (and vice versa). And Neary calls Bertram “the fat agent.” The comparison sends both men into a fit of laughter during a recent afternoon at TBWA\Toronto, where Bertram is president and Neary is chief creative officer. These days, they have reason to be laughing. Since the two reunited in the latter half of 2010—two decades after they first worked together at predecessor agency ChiatDay—TBWA has been in the midst of what they call a cultural and creative “reboot.”
And clients credit the dynamic between the two principals for part of the success. “Jack is a creative guy who is business-minded, and Jay is a business guy who is creatively minded. So they complement each other very well,” says Brenda Woods, head of marketing for Visa Canada. “That helps them solve marketing issues from both a business and creative perspective.”
Indeed, the TBWA approach—they call themselves “a disruption and media arts company” aimed at challenging the status quo—appears to be gaining traction. In one of the year’s most hotly contested, multi-agency pitches, TBWA landed the WestJet account that had been with Taxi since 2005. (TBWA’s Montreal office Tam-Tam is also on the account.)
The pitch stretched for more than six months, and Bertram says the thorough process worked to their advantage. “That is when we feel we’re at our best: when we can show a client how we work and who we are as people,” he says. “The team at WestJet felt really comfortable in our office.”
In fact, in awarding its account to TBWA, WestJet said it was a plus that the agency “didn’t have matching furniture, and the carpet had stains,” says Neary. It doesn’t bother clients, who say they’d rather work with an agency that invests in people over décor.
Indeed, TBWA has invested heavily in talent acquisition, fuelled by organic growth and five new clients this year, including KPMG and Australian wine brand Yellow Tail. Since Neary left BBDO New York and officially joined TBWA in September 2010, he has made 10 new hires within the creative group alone, recruiting mostly from other agencies.
Integer, a shopper marketing firm within the TBWA network also opened a Toronto office, and now has eight staff. At press time, TBWA\Toronto had 103 staff in total, up from 80 a year prior.
To grow its team while staying true to its internal culture, Neary says the agency used a recently established set of “beliefs” as a hiring filter. Those agency beliefs—communicated in posters as well as employee “contracts” along the agency walls—include “Clients first,” “None of us is as good as all of us” and Jay Chiat’s old mantra, “Good enough is not enough.” Despite the inspiration, Neary says that, from a creative standpoint, “we could be a lot better.”
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