Why ad agency CEO Ron Tite just became a book publisher

Loyal listeners of CBC Radio’s This Is That have learned to be a bit skeptical about any information associated with the satirical news program, but this one is actually true: this (Toronto ad agency The Tite Group) is that (a book publisher).

Available both in stores and also as an ebook or audio book, This Is That: Travel Guide To Canada marks a move into new territory for the Tite Group, whose founder and CEO says is a reflection of exploring new ways to add value as an agency.

“Agencies typically say ‘What’s my fee going to be?’ They put profit before purpose,” Ron Tite told Marketing. “We said, we’ll just work together (with the This Is That team) and if it makes sense to be involved we’ll figure it out. There was no expectation of profit.”

For those that haven’t already tuned in, This Is That has been compared to satirical news site The Onion and has been hosted by Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring since its debut as a summer replacement program in 2010. Tite said the collaboration initially began as agency discussions often do – exploring how to take a brand and extend it into spaces where it can get new audiences.

“There’s no reason why, if you think of this media property as a brand, that it couldn’t become lots of other things,” he explained. “You could be a This Is That game show, or a soap opera.”

The Tite Group’s collaboration with the program began by helping to create the This Is That Corporate Show, content that that can be used to market the hosts through Speaker’s Spotlight. Given the upcoming Canada 150 celebrations next year, a book that poked fun at travels across the country seemed like fertile ground for a book, Tite said.

Of course, The Tite Group knew better than to go it completely alone. The agency partnered with Vancouver-based Page Two Strategic Publishing, which offers book production along with traditional literacy agency services, among other things. A deal with Raincoast Books in Vancouver allowed the title to be distributed in stores.

For Tite, acting as a publisher was not only an interesting way to serve the This Is That Team but to expose his own team to new ways of thinking.

“We’re not trying to take over the publishing industry. This was just a great way to approach innovation,’ he said. “We didn’t want to think like a traditional publisher, but we didn’t want to be like a traditional agency, either.”

That meant doing away with the expected “brief” process, for starters, and also keeping things nimble. Tite said there were essentially two people from his firm closely involved in the book.

“It becomes really expensive if your entire team isn’t on board, because then you’re trying to optimize the process while you’re inventing it,” he said. If you think of a regular agency as an assembly line, there are very clear roles, very clear processes, and inefficiencies are pulled out. You can’t do that with innovation. We had to pull it off like a concept car.”

An agency-published book as concept car? Yes, apparently, this is that, too.