Creative duo join DS+P as partners, Ian Schwey departs
One of the leading creative teams in the country has left DDB Canada to join the agency formerly known as Doug & Serge.
Denise Rossetto and Todd Mackie are taking the creative reins at the Toronto-based shop which has rebranded as DougSerge+Partners, or DS+P (though the agency is going with lowercase dougserge+partners or ds+p) .
L-R Denise Rossetto, Todd Mackie, Doug Robinson, Serge Rancourt, Adam White and Mike Welling
The creatives join as partners, taking a seat at the table next to agency founder Doug Robinson, Serge Rancourt who joined him in 2010. Mike Welling and Adam White round out the six-person partnership team.
Marketers are under more and more pressure to get maximum value from their agencies, but most of the network shops are also under similar pressure from their head offices to drive down their costs and increase profit, said Rancourt.
Those two competing goals represent an opportunity for independent agencies, like DS+P, which have more freedom to invest in their human resources and add talent, he said.
Rancourt admits the perception has been that the agency is too small to handle big accounts. “Too many marketers think of the agency as just Doug and I making ads,” he said.
But the rebranding and the addition of Mackie and Rossetto are both intended to be statements that it is more than Rancourt and Robinson and that it is determined to get on the radar of more big marketers.
“When you have a chance to scoop up one of the country’s hottest creative teams, you want to seize that opportunity,” said Robinson in a release announcing the change. Mackie and Rossetto will have complete control over day-to-day creative decision-making.
The agency has about 40 full-time staff and has ambitions to grow beyond that, said Rancourt. Miele, Canada Goose, GoodLife Fitness and York University are among the brands on the agency’s client roster.
With Mackie and Rossetto’s arrival, the agency parted ways with long time creative director Ian Schwey in late January.
Staff at DDB were notified of the departure of Mackie and Rossetto Wednesday. The pair had led creative at DDB Toronto since 2010.
Kevin Davis, DDB’s chief creative officer overseeing creative across DDB’s Canadian offices, said it is “tough” for the agency to lose the pair. “They are an amazing, talented creative team,” he said. “But at the same time, we have a pretty deep bench here.”
As for who will take over creative at DDB Toronto, Davis said they’re still weighing options, including promoting from within or bringing in new talent from outside the agency. For the next little while, the ACDs will take the lead on their respective accounts though Davis will also be spending more time and focus on Toronto.
