Brett Marchand isn’t used to resigning accounts, but “sometimes you know”
After nearly 13 years together, Cossette and BMO are breaking up with the agency announcing it was resigning the account.
The decision comes after the bank decided to put the account into review and Cossette opted not to take part.
“I have been here eight years now and never resigned a client,” said Cossette CEO Brett Marchand, moments after notifying staff of the decision late Tuesday afternoon.
“Sometimes you know. You know it’s the end,” he said. “It just felt like it was time to move on.”
Earlier this year, BMO had awarded some work to Y&R, said Marchand. The result was the “BMost of Summer” campaign, and Y&R handles the bank’s business in the U.S.
Marchand said Cossette has recently picked up new business from a handful of clients including Telus (its direct business) and General Mills as well as three other wins he could not disclose. With the new business, he said Cossette would not have to lay anyone off because of the split with BMO.
“To go through this review, to pull the resources away from our current clients, to throw our new talents onto this, it just doesn’t feel like the right thing to do,” said Marchand. Over the last few months, Cossette added creative firepower in the form of Glen Hunt, Joe Piccolo and Sean Barlow, while Dave Lafond was recently hired as president of Cossette’s English operations.
The BMO review comes months after both TD and CIBC switched agencies, the former moving to Leo Burnett from DraftFCB and the latter to Juniper Park from Publicis. Sources have also confirmed Royal Bank is conducting a review, an account held by BBDO. Of the big five banks, only Scotia remains with its long-time agency Bensimon Byrne.
