Tim Kavander, Duncan Bruce and Bryan Kane
Publicis has promoted Bryan Kane to president of the agency’s Toronto office – a job he’ll take on in addition to his current duties as managing partner of digital group Publicis Modem.
The firm also named Tim Kavander executive vice-president, creative director, Publicis Toronto, which will see him leading its creative strategy.
The personnel changes come six months after Andrew Bruce was promoted out of his role as Publicis Canada CEO to become president and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, North America. With his departure Duncan Bruce had taken on a larger role as president and chief creative officer (CCO) for Publicis Canada.
“I think that with the changing of my role and being president of Publicis Canada, it’s created a new role and responsibility for me on a Canadian scale,” said Duncan Bruce. “Before Andrew was given the role of CEO of Publicis North America, Andrew, Bryan and myself were running Toronto. Andrew had a bigger role for Canada. With his new position, I really thought we needed to have someone focused on Toronto.”
Bruce added that Kane and Kavander have been working together for nearly seven years, cementing a working partnership that will be key for the important dynamic between president and creative director.
“The reason for Bryan is really his last 13, nearly 14 years of working with us at Publicis,” said Bruce. “He’s traditionally trained – and as the world changed, he’s moved along with it. We had him working client side for a couple years, and he came back to head up Publicis Modem… There’s no one better than Bryan to make the move to president.”
Bruce said having a president who can communicate deeply with brands about the full media mix signals the growing importance of an integrated whole to their clients.
“Right now, all of our clients, Rogers as well, are looking for a more holistic, 360 degree view of marketing and communications for their brands that obviously includes digital as a big part,” said Bruce. “It does signal the changing business and all agencies including ourselves need to be able to understand the changes to the business. In the early days of digital, it was really new, it was really not as converged, it was not as integrated. Now it is part of the daily mix all our clients look for. Bryan’s understanding of the changing landscape of communications makes him an obvious choice.”
