Crush, Lollipop, Notch and Axyz have come together as a new creative agency that serves as a one-stop shop for production, post and digital experience design.
The new agency has been named Smith, which creative director Gary Thomas, former head of Crush, said is to evoke the image of a craftsmith, with both artistic and technical knowledge. “The thought was to go to blacksmiths and craft peoples — the idea being that you’re making things with your hands, but there’s an artists eye going into it,” he said.
“We also liked it because as a name it feels like an alias, and we liked the idea that we’ve all bundled in with a common identity and common purpose,” he added. “It’s kind of like we’re all Smith.”
Smith brings together Crush’s general creative approach to digital and film with VFX and animation talent at Axyz, digital user experience and site design at Lollipop, and colour grading specialists at Notch. The new 60-staff agency will be able to produce live action film, animation, VFX, CG, 2D design and stop-frame animation, interactive digital, social, mobile and web design, and illustration. Smith also claims to have the largest compositing and finishing team in Canada for advertising content.
Thomas said the four agencies worked together on most projects, but clients had been confused by the complexity of dealing with different shops for different stages of the content process. When Crush spun off digital-focused subsidiary Lollipop several years ago, client agencies were still operating in film and digital silos, he said — but that’s changed.
Putting the two sister agencies and their two closest partners together helps streamline the pitch and give them the scale to compete for large U.S.-based clients.
“We thought it was kind of silly to have these artificial silos set up,” he said. “It was too complicated a story to sell. Everyone liked all the various bits, but they liked them better when you just had one story.”
The combined team will work out of Crush and Lollipop’s office in Toronto, which has been redesigned to accommodate a larger group over the past five months. On Nov.11 Smith live-streamed a tour of the new studio online — through the eyes of Sadie the French Bulldog, who wandered the office with a GoPro strapped to her back. (The stunt earned a nod from Adweek.)
Thomas said the shops all had lean teams before coming together, and that aside from a few staff that left to work elsewhere, Smith will not be doing any restructuring. Executives from each of the four agencies will stay on in team-leadership roles focused on their previous specialities: Jo-ann Cook, former Crush EP, will remain an EP on creative film projects; John Stollar of Axyz will take on U.S. and international sales leadership; Wendy Linton of Notch will continue to focus on colour grading; and Carol Tompkins of Lollipop will lead the firm’s digital efforts.
