Rain 43 has acquired fellow Toronto agency Pass Go Creative and installed the latter firm’s principal, Trudy Fraser, as vice-president, client services.
Fraser had operated Pass Go Creative, a full-service firm specializing in pharmaceutical and packaged goods brands, for the past several years.
Rain 43 absorbed Pass Go’s four full-time employees, including Fraser, earlier this month. The deal also bolsters Rain 43’s client roster with the addition of Pass Go clients such as Mentholatum Canada and Medieval Times Canada.
“The ability to bring in senior leadership in client services with Trudy really helps us with our vision, which is to continue to grow without just doing it organically,” said John Yorke, president of Rain 43. “We were able to get great talent in Trudy and her team and we were able to expand our revenue base in a category we hadn’t been in before.”
Fraser said the opportunity to join Rain 43, which employs her former Young & Rubicam colleague John Farquhar as chief creative officer and partner, was too good to pass up.
“I have an incredible respect for [Farquhar’s] talent and leadership,” said Fraser.
“I think some of the big agencies have gotten very top-heavy and that was one of the reasons I’d gone out on my own,” said Fraser. “I think these guys at Rain 43 have really figured out how to do it better and I was excited to be a part of that.”
Fraser added that the clients migrating with her from Pass Go would benefit from Rain 43’s in-house creative staff. Pass Go Creative had employed a model that relied heavily on freelance contributors.
Yorke said the acquisition of Pass Go Creative and its staff brings the number of employees at Rain 43, which has doubled in size in the past year, to 35.
