In early March, Yves Gougoux sold his 100% stake in famed Montreal agency BCP and his 30% stake in Publicis Canada to Publicis Worldwide. While adamant that it’s not a retirement, Gougoux, 62, has stepped back from his day-to-day duties with the agency, handing the CEO role for Publicis Canada to Andrew Bruce. He spoke with Marketing from his forest retreat just outside of Stowe, VT.
We could view this move as you making a gradual exit from the agency world. Do you still plan to be involved?
I don’t like the word retirement. I’m reorganizing myself, to free some time to do some other things for the agency and for me. I know that the network wants to send me abroad for some missions from time to time. It’s not a retirement. It’s just a very nice evolution.
How did you came to own BCP, an iconic Quebec agency?
I headed Vickers & Benson [now Arnold Worldwide] in Montreal from 1980 to 1984. At the beginning of 1984, the plan was to move me to Toronto to become head of Vickers & Benson there. I accepted, but part of the plan was solidifying Montreal. That’s when I first tried to buy BCP for Vickers & Benson. Jacques [BCP founder Bouchard] turned us down, but he called me back a week later and said ‘I need to speak to you.’ I flew back to Montreal and he said ‘I’m not going to sell to V&B, but I’m prepared to sell to you as an individual.’
You and Jacques Bouchard worked together for several years before his retirement. What do you remember of those times?
I had a good relationship with Jacques [who died in 2006 at age 75]. He was an iconic and very lovable person. I had a friendship with him even when I was with V&B and would see him every week. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was sort of a long interview process. I bought half of the agency in 1984 and the other half in 1989, and we grew the business tremendously. Jacques wanted out, so I bought the other half and he moved over to France.
How did the Paris venture work out for you?
It depends how you look at it. We won a few interesting clients… We had maybe $3-4 million in revenue, which is not a big thing, and it was taking up a lot of my time. In November of 1995 I called [Publicis head] Maurice Levy’s office with the intention of saying ‘Would any of your subsidiaries be interested in buying me out, because I’m going to get out?’ He called me the same day and said ‘Come and see me at 7 o’clock tonight.’ I thought, ‘Holy shit, that’s quite fast.’ At the time they were just breaking up with the True North network and Maurice said to me ‘I’m not really interested in your small shop here; I’m more interested in establishing Publicis in Canada, with you.’
You’ve had a 38-year career in advertising. What do you consider to be the highlights?
The BCP turnaround was one of my career highlights. Jacques had been out of the agency for a few years [in the late 1970s to early 1980s] with some health issues, so the agency got a bit stagnant and lost a bit of business and lost momentum. Jacques was still flamboyant and we still had a considerable amount of revenue, maybe $10 million. It was a good agency with good people, but it just lacked a little bit of energy and focus and vision [and] we were able to turn that around. Out of 21-22 pitches, we won about 18-19 in a row. It was really spectacular.
There’s a story about you punching someone in Paris for making fun of your accent. Care to tell us what really happened?
[Laughs]. No, it’s not that at all. First of all, it was a friendly feud. What happened is that when I was heading Publicis in Paris, I brought over some of my ways of doing things. When I got there I didn’t change my accent or the way I worked. Obviously I was a bit different, but I will say I learned more from them that they did from me. At one point I got a bit severe with my policy about freelancing. I voiced my opinion and some people didn’t like it. Some creative people started a little poster campaign across the agency, which was quite large, in which they nicknamed me ‘Le Caribou.’ They said ‘Death to the caribou.’ I found the guy and he said ‘You’re trying to intimidate me, using the fact that you’re the president of this big agency.’ I said ‘Let’s say I’m no longer president. Let’s just go out and talk in the street. I’m not a president, you’re not a creative guy, and we’ll have a nice chat.’ It ended there.
So no punches were ever thrown?
Of course not. There’s been a lot of talk about me being tough and ruthless, and I always say the same thing: My barometer is how do my clients see me and how do my agency peers see me. This is a tough business, so you have to win and grow and I’m the type that when I work for a client that brand becomes mine. For me it’s war, and I’ve always had that attitude. You try to win that war with as much elegance as you can.
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