While much of the recent upheaval in the ad business attributed to the recession involves plummeting budgets and the rise of procurement, it’s also exposed a rift between some of the industry’s top creative talent and how the business itself operates.
In the U.S., ad execs from large agencies like JWT, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and BBH have jumped ship to join or start smaller shops. That same sentiment is evident here in Canada, with former Zig executive creative director Martin Beauvais and managing director Christian Mathieu aiming to pull away the traditional barriers to creative collaboration with their new Toronto-based agency Open.
“The biggest thing, and the reason it’s called Open, is really wanting to open up the types of people we work with and particularly the process,” said Mathieu, who headed up marketing communications for IKEA North America before joining Zig five years ago (the agency is now called Crispin Porter + Bogusky Canada). “We want to be much more collaborative and inclusive with clients and consumers to take things a step further than we’d previously experienced.”
“Every time I’ve done something I’m proud of, or that’s been successful, it’s always been done in a very collaborative and open process,” said Beauvais, an award-winning creative director with stops at Taxi and BBDO. “It’s my experience that if you open up that process and involve people, you can achieve better results. By getting the client involved, it gets everyone more invested and often more likely to take risks, and the work is always much better.”
The first example of the new agency’s approach is a rebrand for Montreal-based media company Newad.
“Instead of taking the brief and disappearing for three weeks before coming back with a big ‘ta-da!’ presentation, it was a very involved and inclusive process” that saw the client take part in idea creation, said Mathieu. “We actually worked with their internal design team and the CEO was actively involved.”
“We believe that creativity isn’t just a department, it’s a discipline that goes across the company and the client,” said Beauvais. “The talent can come from anywhere, including the people we work for.”
Open is not the first agency to launch with such a collaborative focus. Another high-profile creative director, Zak Mroueh, opened Zulu Alpha Kilo in 2008 with the expectation that every staffer could contribute to the creative process, as could clients.
Beyond peeling back the curtain on the creative process, Open also hopes to expand on the popular notion of media agnosticism.
“What we’re trying to do is push that a step further to not even thinking in terms of media out of the gate, but instead about the right solution to the problem,” said Mathieu. “It could be a media solution, but it could also result in an entirely new brand or brand experience that has nothing to do with media. Perhaps the solution is within the internal structure of the organization and there may be no media at all.”
It’s often said that hard economic times present the best opportunities, something Beauvais and Mathieu firmly believe.
“This is an opportunity to create something new and relevant,” said Beauvais. “That’s what we’re trying to do. We both have 15, 20 years experience in this business, we’ve listened to many clients and know what they want and don’t want. I think we can build something amazing that will fit the times.”
