Note: This story has been updated
Vision 7 is launching a new business consultancy called Aperture1 that – to use the parlance of the industry and Aperture1’s press release – aims to serve clients further “upstream” before strategy and execution discussions take place.
Andrew Bergstrom
Aperture1 is for “the work before the brief,” according to Vision7 vice-chairman Brett Marchand. It’s an area where many agencies see opportunity to drive organic revenue growth with existing clients by serving in a broader business consultant capacity.
Generally, where a typical agency knows how to market a product, Aperture1 helps a business know what to market and to what kind of customer, Marchand said.
The Vision 7 leader said this kind of consultancy is clearly needed among brands. “Half of the new CMOs in Canada are ex-consultants: Joanna Rotenberg, who’s our new client at BMO, is ex-McKinsey; our client at Telus, Dave Fuller is an ex-KPMG consultant… One of the reasons for this [trend] is those organizations are trying to figure out where to put their [marketing] resources.”
Andrew Bergstrom is set to lead the new company (which could be up and running as soon as Oct. 1) as president of Aperture1 and chief strategic officer for the larger Vision 7 operation.
Bergstrom is currently executive vice-president and managing director of Vision 7’s Cossette Communication‘s Toronto office. Cossette would not comment on who would succeed Bergstrom as leader of Cossette Toronto, though said an announcement would be made soon. (Marketing reported Wednesday that Dave Lafond just left Proximity Canada, where he served as president, for an as-yet undisclosed post. Lafond did not say where he’s going but told Marketing something would be announced soon, while other sources suggested the Cossette job will be filled by Lafond.)
Bergstrom previously ran Cossette’s Nucleus Strategic Core Properties, an “upstream” strategy business similar in purpose to Aperture1 that was folded into Cossette’s centralized organization during a restructuring in 2011. Under Bergstrom’s leadership, the company revamped Shoppers Drug Mart’s in-store experience.
While Nucleus showed Cossette clients wanted consulting “further upstream, Nucleus was very attached to identifying messaging and brand value propositions,” Bergstrom said. “It was very much meant to help spark communication and campaign development.” In comparison, he said, Aperture1 is not “beholden to communications being the one and only outcome.”
Bergstrom official begins his new duties Sept. 9, staffing the new business with talent largely found outside Vision 7.
This story was updated @ 10:20 on Sep. 6, 2013 to remove mention of Lavalife. It had been previously reported that Nucleus was responsible for Lavalife’s brand positioning. In fact, Planning Ahead, a company acquired by Nucleus/Cossette, was responsible for that work. Marketing regrets the error.
