After spending 12 years as co-founding president of Montreal-based ad agency CloudRaker, Jean-Sébastien Monty has relocated with a holistic approach in mind.
Monty joined the executive team of Uranium Interactive, also based in Montreal, last month. He said that he considered leaving the city, but ultimately stuck around because he observed local agencies and clients in need of a more comprehensive plan of attack.
“In Canada, especially in Montreal, there’s a lack of agencies that can take their client from brand and marketing strategy to campaigns and all the way to transaction,” said Monty. “That’s the type of agency that I want to build.”
Echoing a statement issued by Uranium, Monty said that in order to be successful, an agency can no longer be exclusively digital.
“[Agencies] must move closer to the consumer and ultimately to the transaction that links the consumer to the company, product or brand… Uranium has become a business strategy consulting firm that is as creative as an advertising agency and as meticulous as an IT company,” said Monty in the statement. His plan is to integrate all the components of a brand’s campaign, from conception to creative to digital to transaction, a premise he said will be more efficient for clients and allow the agency to be more involved across the entire execution.
Speaking specifically about the Montreal market, Monty said that digital shops often get plunked in the back seat. “Here, if you’re a digital shop, you’re always second or third fiddle. You’re not at the table deciding what the strategy should be. You’re having to work with the creative platforms and strategies set forward by that client and that agency.” Instead of having an outside agency be handed web or transaction components, Monty wants Uranium to do it all.
“You have to push yourself to be much more integrated,” he said. “You have to think of everything from A to Z, all the way to transaction.”
Monty said the next 24-36 months will see Uranium expanding its strategic planning team and broadening its digital and creative products. He also noted a focus on bringing in new talent and taking on more clients.
Uranium has recently worked on the accounts of Sanofi-Aventis, Genetic, and the Canadian Cancer Society, as well as JJ Buckley Fine Wines of California, for whom the agency is rolling out an e-commerce platform.
