It’s increasingly difficult to come up with a unique selling proposition in today’s agency world, but three of Canada’s most acclaimed ad executives are giving it a try with their new venture, Send+Receive.
The Toronto independent is eschewing agency-of-record relationships and their time-honoured billable hours approach to remuneration in favour of project-based relationships, where a mutually agreed fee is determined up-front.
Secondly, Send+Receive’s three founding partners – creative partners J.P. Gravina and Simon Craig, and partner/strategist Andrew Carty – have committed to donating 10% of all agency revenues to creative projects outside the marketing realm.
The three-month-old agency is also pledging a not-entirely-unheard-of “hands-on” approach, ensuring that clients have access to a senior leadership team capable of developing quick solutions to their business problems.
“Part of the problem with the traditional agency model is that they’re selling hours, so it’s to their benefit to take a long time doing it,” said Carty, pulling back the curtain on established agency practices.
“It’s such a funny way to start a relationship when you’re trying to sell [clients] more hours and they’re trying to buy less hours, but everyone wants the same output.”
Craig said a project-based approach would be Send+Receive’s mandate “for the foreseeable future,” noting the marketing world is increasingly moving in that direction – particularly as large network agencies seem unwilling (or unable) to provide clients with any relief from the continued downward pressure on their marketing budgets.
Send+Receive has already completed several projects, some with clients who continue to maintain their existing AOR relationship, but have enlisted the agency for what Carty characterized as “smaller, more unique” projects.
Its work to date includes a rebranding effort for a cruise line, re-positioning a women’s cancer foundation, the launch of a new retail brand and working with a technology accessories company. It currently has about six projects in development, and is also involved in new business pitches in both Canada and the U.S.
Send+Receive’s three founding partners boast a combined 35 years of experience in Canadian agencies, with resumes that include work for blue-chip clients RBC, Audi, Pepsico, Kraft and Unilever, as well as non-profits such as the Heart & Stroke Foundation and the U.S.-based Moms Demand Action.
All three partners worked together at Lowe Roche in the late 2000s, while Gravina and Craig also went on to become a creative team at BBDO Worldwide. Carty’s resume, meanwhile, includes a stint as associate director, cultural and business insights with CP+B, and a two-year stint as VP, strategy and innovation at Grey – where his awards haul included a Grand Effie, a Cassies Grand Prix and 11 Cannes Lions.
While all three men are highly acclaimed, Craig said their skillsets are complementary. “J.P. and I like to consider ourselves strategically-minded creative, and I would say that Andrew is a creatively minded strategic person,” he said. “We play off our strengths quite well.”
Gravina said there is no formal “hand-off” of projects that could possibly lead to friction between the principals. “There’s no ownership of any given part of the process,” he said. “We’re kind of owning it collectively the entire way through, so there’s no point where we say ‘This is mine up until this point and I’m going to hand it off to you and you’re going to work on the other half.’ It helps level the playing field for all of us.”
While Send+Receive is the first startup for all three partners, Craig said they knew instinctively they were perfectly suited to the role. “As much as you can get great experience at any agency, we were best suited to that small, nimble, independent kind of spirit and culture,” he said.
All three laugh when asked if it requires a different mindset to operate without the scrutiny – and the safety net – of a major holding company.
“We have to make sure that everything is taken care of: Not just the work, but everything from billing to making sure that we’re talking to the people at Rogers or the bank, whatever the case may be,” said Carty. “But, there’s also a different mindset in how we’re approaching the business and the care we’re putting into the work.”
The fact they don’t have to kick 30% of their revenues upstairs to a holding company (“an insane amount of money” according to Gravina) also provides the partners with the ability to fund projects within the creative community – in the process gaining exposure to people and projects that don’t typically fall within an agency’s scope.
“This business is built on the back of creative thinking and problem-solving, and [we wanted] to reinvigorate some of the creative people in this business and partner with them from the ground-up,” said Gravina.
Currently, Send+Receive is providing backing for a short film created by Michael Clowater, a commercial director represented by Radke Film Group who has directed spots for clients including Hotels.com, World Wildlife Fund and General Mills.
The agency provided funding for the short, tentatively called Bubbles, as well as some design and advertising services aimed at securing placement in various film festivals.
New model?? We launched this model 20 years ago fellas and grew our agency based on this exact premise. Not a new model at all. However, it works very well, contact me if you would like to know how we perfected this method enough to sell to a private equity firm two years ago.
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