Publicis Canada has left Vancouver.
Bill Downie, former vice-president and creative director, has acquired the agency’s assets from Publicis, taken over its offices and existing accounts and launched his own agency–Slingshot Communications.
“We have always looked to expand our offices and our services in line with our client’s needs,” said Andrew Bruce, president and chief operating officer of Publicis Canada. “There wasn’t the same requirement for us to have that sort of presence in Vancouver. It’s not like we were running out of there with our tail between our legs. If we were, we wouldn’t have anything for Bill to acquire.”
Chrysler Canada had been Publicis Vancouver’s only national account. Publicis has formed a strategic alliance with Slingshot that will see James Boileau, client services manager at Publicis, continue to service Chrysler from the Slingshot offices.
This is not the first time Downie has run an agency. He started Drum with partner George Crookshank in 2000, which became Saatchi & Saatchi Drum six years ago and then changed banners to Publicis in March 2007 after Publicis won the Rogers account and needed a national presence.
After Rogers centralized marketing in Toronto, Publicis’ requirements on the West Coast changed, Downie said. The shop also resigned the Granville Island Brewing account earlier last year after the Vancouver-based company was acquired by Molson. (Publicis handles Labatt from its Toronto office.)
Bruce acknowledged that Vancouver is a tough market for out-of-town agencies to crack. “It is certainly a different market and it does seem that the strongest agencies are started there, or are local,” he said.
With five full-time staff (not included Publicis’s Boileau) and three freelancers, Slingshot will be 100% locally owned and much leaner than its previous incarnation. His client list includes Soyaworld, the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer team, Park Royal Shopping Centre, Canada Place and the BC Centre for Disease Control.
“We are going to develop the agency from a digital point of view,” said Downie. While he sees many small agencies specialize in digital, design or traditional disciplines, “we want to bring that all together and create campaigns that unite what we call traditional or offline with the new digital world.”
