New York exec moves to Hogtown
Franke Rodriguez
Anomaly is open for business in Canada, two months after it made public its plans to create a Toronto office.
Franke Rodriguez arrives today to assume the presidency of Anomaly Toronto, which as of this morning has an office staffed with approximately 10 employees.
Most recently global business director at the company’s New York office and a member of its management board, Rodriguez has served multiple roles during his five year tenure at the agency, including client service, new business and IP development.
Rodriguez, 32, came to advertising after a one-year stint as an assistant art director at The New York Times, serving under long-time art director Jerelle Krause. Joining Foote Cone & Belding as an account co-ordinator in 2002, he also worked at Digitas from 2004 to 2007.
Anomaly’s founding partner and CEO Carl Johnson had considered hiring locally for the president’s position, but said the company decided it needed a company man to kick things off in this new market.
“If you’re forming a company like Anomaly, you can’t just let it take shape,” Johnson said. “You have to shape the culture, its process, a great deal to make sure it’s not just a reshuffle of the talent deck. We decided the one key role we’d take from [Anomaly New York] is Franke… You need an experienced person here.”
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There are several senior positions left to fill in Toronto, most notably the executive creative director and head of planning. The majority of staff already hired are Canadians from within the Toronto agency community. Rodriguez expects the office to reach 30 employees by June.
“What we’ve found works in each of our offices is having 80% of the staff being native to that market, and then 20% international. We’ve always been interesting in operating as a global agency, more so than an American or British agency,” Rodriguez said.
“We’ve already hired a lot of people from Toronto, but because it’s such a diverse city by nature, we’ve already got an impressive line up in terms of where people of from and where they’ve already worked.”
The new Toronto president won’t say which current or potential clients will be served by the new office.
“We’ve got a great client roster in New York and I’ve worked with most of them. They all operate in Canada and we’re having conversations with all of them.”
Anomaly, along with the Toronto-based independent agency Grip Ltd., oversees the Canadian Budweiser account. Anomaly is also the beer brand’s global brand agency of record. It’s New York client list includes Diageo, Mariott Hotels and Nike.
Anomaly has not yet officially named Rodriguez’ successor in New York.
