Cossette announced Wednesday that Melanie Dunn has been promoted to president of its Quebec operations as well as chairman of its parent company, Vision7 International, in the province.
The agency also announced that Louis Duchesne has been promoted from VP to senior VP/general manager of its Quebec City office. He will report into Dunn, who reports into Cossette CEO Brett Marchand. Cossette employs more than 400 people between its two Quebec offices.
Vision7 chairman and CEO Claude Lessard said Dunn and Duchesne represent a “new generation” of Cossette leaders poised to lead during an exciting time for the marketing communications industry that requires “constant adaptation and visionary leadership.”
Dunn arrived at Cossette in 2000 and has spent more than a decade rising through the agency’s promotion and relationship marketing division. She became VP and GM in 2007, and assumed overall responsibility for its Montreal office as EVP and GM in 2011.
The promotion also means that Dunn joins Vision7’s senior management as a member of its international executive management team, becoming its seventh member.
“I want Melanie to have a bigger say on how the company is being run,” explained Marchand. “Because I was really the only representative of Cossette on the [Vision7] executive committee…I was almost the lone voice from the Cossette standpoint. I thought it was valuable to have Melanie on the committee both because she runs Cossette and because she’s been so successful.”
Cossette’s Montreal office has thrived under Dunn’s leadership, said Marchand, adding new clients including Aeroplan, the Royal Canadian Mint and Transat. Dunn was also instrumental in helping Cossette land an undisclosed new client the agency plans to announce within the next two weeks, said Marchand.
Dunn said Cossette’s two Quebec offices offer different but complementary expertise. Montreal offers capabilities across multiple disciplines, she said, while Quebec City possesses particular expertise with both smaller and retail clients, as well as government.
Dunn said both offices share a key trait, however: “We’re both driven by entrepreneurship, which I would say is our most important value,” she said.
The announcement also signals to Cossette staffers that the opportunity exists for a long career with the agency, said Marchand, who said that employee retention is among its key areas of focus.
“Having a path and not looking like there’s a ceiling you’re going to hit your head on is really important,” he said. “We have to build our senior talent from within. I don’t just have to think about the offices…I have to think about who is the future CEO.”
The Quebec City office has also performed well under Duchesne said Marchand, experiencing “consistent growth and product improvement” to become the market’s leading agency.
Marchand said he wants Cossette to become a bona fide contender for Marketing’s annual Agency of the Year honour.
It would be a “serious, serious contender” based just on the performance of its two Quebec offices, said Marchand, acknowledging that the agency is “behind” in English Canada based on account wins and a complicated restructuring process that included the launch of new divisions such as Dare, Elvis and Jungle Media.
“The restructuring in Toronto has taken longer and been a little more complicated, but I expect it to get back on its feet,” he said, noting that the success of Cossette Vancouver is also something that is rarely acknowledged by the industry.
“I think it’s tough for the world to look at Cossette as a contender until the Toronto agency is doing great work,” he said. “I would expect this to be a very good year for us, and if we’re not a contender this year, for sure next year.”
