Stephanie Nerlich, currently the president of the Toronto-based Lowe Roche, has been named president of Grey Canada.
Nerlich will replace Ann Nurock, who joined the agency in 2008 from Grey South Africa. According to a release, Nurock is considering opportunities “outside advertising in Canada.”
Despite some globally visible work from its network of agencies within WPP (Grey New York creates the ETrade Baby ads that have become perennial Super Bowl favourites) Grey Canada has struggled to find prominence.
Nerlich told Marketing she was excited to “rebuild one of the great agency brands. [Grey CEO] Jim Heekin and the team at Grey Worldwide have put a tremendous emphasis on improving the calibre of the creative work.”
Grey recently won agency of record status with the Salvation Army and redeployed Playtex’ Mommyville.ca. It also found some viral fame with its global mood clock.
“Grey Canada has had some terrific momentum of late both in Vancouver and Toronto–they’ve won at Cannes and they are consistently being shortlisted for some of Canada’s most exciting new business opportunities… It’s our industry’s best keep secret.”
Heekin said his new president’s “energy, client focus and proven ability to deliver famous ideas that build brands will serve Grey Canada well.”
Nerlich is expected to start her new role in early May. Geoffrey Roche, founder and chief creative officer at Lowe Roche, is looking to fill his agency’s presidential chair “as soon as possible. We already have a list of people we’re looking at.”
