When he lured him away from Publicis to work at his small start-up agency in 1996, The BrainStorm Group founder Ron Telpner knew that Bob Froese would one day succeed him as CEO.
That became official Thursday, when Telpner, 61, handed the day-to-day operations of the agency he founded in 1992 to his longtime colleague. Telpner will remain with The BrainStorm Group as chairman, working with the agency in what he described as a “big picture” capacity.
“It was a shortlist of one,” said Telpner of the succession plan that he built with Froese – who he hired while at McKim Advertising’s Winnipeg office in the 1980s – and chief creative officer Dorothy McMillan. “We’ve talked over the years about how we would transfer responsibility, and this is totally according to plan.”
Speaking with Marketing Friday, Telpner said he and Froese are a study in contrasts. While Telpner is a self-admitted “showman,” the type of person who plugs an old-fashioned telephone handset – and a purple one at that – into his iPhone, Froese is a low-key individual with a keen eye for what makes a strong creative product.
“I always used to say that I cast the shadow, but if you want somebody who’s steady and gets the job done every day without rocking the boat or making you nervous, Bob is your man,” said Telpner. “He’s one of those guys who is not only creative and understands good creative, but from a strategic and analytic perspective he’s at the top of his game.”
Telpner went on to praise Froese as one of the “smartest” people he knows in advertising, singling out work such as the launch of Mike’s Hard Lemonade (“Lemons were hurt real bad in the making of this product”) as an example of his capabilities.
Telpner has spent the past 38 years in advertising, but said that a September 2010 diagnosis of prostate cancer led him to re-evaluate his priorities.
“Now that I’ve reached the halfway point of my life, maybe it’s time to play a little more,” he joked. “[The cancer] has slowed me down a bit, I have to tell you, and I thought that with all the rapid changes in the industry…Bob had that much more energy than I did.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to watch him double the size of our agency.”
Froese, said Telpner, has been instrumental in building The BrainStorm Group’s branding, digital and social media practices, which he said represent the agency’s future. The BrainStorm Group’s client roster includes Canon, Minute Rice, Kenneth Cole, Jones New York and restaurant chain Applebee’s.
