Custom content company Totem is bidding farewell to another of its senior executives. Marketing has learned that senior vice-president of marketing and business development Joseph Barbieri is leaving the Toronto-based company, a division of TC Media, effective Jan. 31.
Barbieri said that after 10 years with Totem and its forerunner, Redwood Custom Communications, he was eager to pursue a new career path. “It’s been a great run,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It was largely a personal decision to want to move forward and take on a new challenge. I’m really keen on the idea of seeing what might be next and taking on some new ideas and challenges.”
Barbieri said he was proud of his accomplishments with Totem, most notably growing the business from a “small upstart” to a “category leader in the content marketing space, not just in Canada but in North America.”
The former senior account manager with The Globe and Mail also led the rebranding of Totem from Redwood following its 2008 acquisition by Transcontinental. “I think we did a great job of really transferring the equity that we built in Redwood to Totem,” he said.
The company’s emphasis on content and storytelling, he said, has also been adopted on a widespread basis within the marketing realm. “Imitation’s the highest form of flattery,” he said. “A lot of brands are really gravitating to that unique positioning that marries the best of journalism with the best of marketing acumen. I think it bodes well not only for Totem, but the industry as a whole.”
Barbieri is the second senior executive to leave Totem this month, following the Jan. 5 announcement that editorial director Dick Snyder was leaving to pursue a freelancer writing career and devote more time to his food and wine magazine, CityBites.
However, both Barbieri and Totem president and CEO Eric Schneider stressed that the personnel changes are not a reflection of any turmoil within the company. “I think it’s natural for people to want to move on and take on new challenges,” said Barbieri. “A lot of it is coincidence and serendipity, but I think with any agency you’re going to go through a natural cycle.”
Barbieri will continue to serve on the board of directors of the New York-based Custom Content Council, but said that his short-term priority is spending time with his family before embarking on the next stage of his career.
“I’m going to do the very thing that a break like this affords a person,” he said. “Take some time to reflect and look at options.”
Speaking with Marketing Tuesday, Schneider called Barbieri a “brother in arms” and said he was part of the fabric of the company. “He was one of the core people that worked tirelessly with me in both good and tough circumstances in building Totem into what it is, and he will be missed.
“I’m hoping and expecting that he will continue to accomplish great things.”
While acknowledging that 2011 was a difficult year for the company, Schneider said there is “massive respect” within TC Media both for Totem’s strategic value and its market presence.
“There’s a lot of renewed energy being put into ensuring that the Totem mojo is maintained and built upon,” he said. “Like any organization, we deal with the regular challenges of wins and losses… but I think Totem as an organization has maintained a particular point of view in where the world of marketing is going, and it’s proving to be more and more relevant with TC’s overall positioning.”
Totem will announce a successor to Barbieri later this week, said Schneider. While not disclosing the person’s name, Schneider characterized Barbieri’s replacement as a “senior manager” with seven years experience at the custom content company.
