When one of the country’s hottest advertising creative teams hooks up with one of the top advertising strategists, chances are the resulting entity will be an advertising agency. After all, if it smells and tastes like you-know-what, then it must be… right?

Well not in this particular case, according to Andy Macaulay, Lorraine Tao and Elspeth Lynn, the principals of Zig Inc., a new Toronto marketing consultancy that threw open its doors last week.

Although the troika is adamant that Zig is not an ad agency and will not be pursuing conventional advertising assignments, senior Zigger Macaulay concedes that the best solution for a client may, in fact, lie in the realm of traditional advertising.

‘Lots of people will say, oh, they’re just another advertising agency,’ says Macaulay, ‘but the proof is really in the structure.

‘We’re not going to have a creative department, and the way we’re going to be paid is very heavily involved in incentive compensation,’ he says, adding that Zig will be seeking project rather than retainer work.

Barely out of the starting gate, Zig has already picked up its first client project for the Zeller’s Gen-Z children’s loyalty program. ‘Even though they have over 580,000 members, they [Zeller’s] haven’t made much of a noise with it,’ says Macaulay.

‘They’ve given us the mandate to help figure out what to do with it.’

Zellers vice-president of marketing Peter Housley could not be reached to comment on the nature of the work being performed by Zig.

Zeller’s agency of record is Ogilvy & Mather of Toronto.

Macaulay left Roche Macaulay & Partners last month after nearly eight years with the award-winning Toronto agency, most recently as senior vice-president and director of strategic planning.

Tao and Lynn will leave Ammirati Puris Lintas later this month, although they will continue to work on existing assignments that are expected to be completed in May.

The duo is one of the most lauded creative teams in the country, having received industry-wide recognition for their work on Kellogg’s Special K and Fruit of the Loom during their three years at Leo Burnett. The attention also got them noted on Maclean’s ‘List of 100 Canadians to Watch’ and in ‘Canada’s Who’s Who for 1998.’

They joined Ammirati Puris Lintas in March 1998 and worked on creative assignments for Labatt Blue, Sunlight and President’s Choice.

Doug Robinson, chairman and creative director of Ammirati Puris Lintas, says Tao and Lynn are huge talents and will be missed, but adds that they did not have exclusive creative control over any one piece of business within the agency, so the impact of their departure will not be debilitating. Both Tao and Lynn had some involvement with Labatt Blue, arguably APL’s most cherished account.

Because most of the creative department is already well staffed with veterans such as Tom Gowdy and Neil McOstrich, Robinson says he doesn’t feel pressured to replace Tao and Lynn immediately with another senior team, although he has already been fielding calls from interested talent. Robinson says he expects to announce the hiring of two or three new creatives within the next six weeks.