The Communique Group of Toronto has become a full-service agency through the acquisition of Kornblum International by parent company Incentive Design Group.

Kornblum will move its accounts and key people to the Communique headquarters by the new year.

Warren Kornblum, now chairman and chief executive officer, becomes president of Communique.

Current Communique President Geoff Genovese becomes chairman.

Each agency has different and complementary strengths.

Communique has below-the-line capabilities such as event marketing, incentive travel, direct marketing and a design studio.

Seven-year-old Kornblum calls itself a transaction-based agency because, although it has a lot of retail business, it also has brand accounts.

Kornblum also has a full media department headed by Vice-President Julius Freilich.

Media buying for Communique clients has been handled by Media Buying Services of Toronto.

Existing clients will decide individually whether to stay with mbs or move placement to Communique.

Communique clients include MasterCard, Japan Camera, Rubbermaid, Avon Canada, Nissan (corporate) and Cantel (corporate.)

Kornblum brings accounts such as PharmaPlus, Pizza Pizza, Canada Games, Cashway Building Centres, National Bank of Canada (Ontario), Georgio Armani and Valentino.

The acquisition of Kornblum raises Incentive Design projected capitalized billings for the coming year to $27 million. PS