The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is the latest in a series of major Canadian advertisers to move its ad account from an old, established agency to a young, less traditional shop.

Padulo Integrated, of Toronto, cibc’s direct response agency for the past three years, has been awarded the whole ball of wax.

Nine-year-old Padulo, originally pigeon-holed by the industry as a retail agency, has, over the past few years, been successful in establishing itself as a leading integrated agency.

It has done so by developing strong capabilities in the areas of promotion, direct response, interactive and consumer research, point-of-sale, out-of-home and out-of-home shopping.

MBL/BBDO

cibc’s account had previously been with McKim Baker Lovick/ BBDO for more than 80 years, and because of the long association, Peter Stringham, agency president and chief executive officer, says the loss is an emotional one.

The bank’s paid media spending for the first nine months of 1993 was $7 million, but the total cibc account has been estimated as high as $40 million annually for corporate, investment and credit card advertising, direct response, in-branch and cibc’s new trust and insurance divisions.

There was no formal review for the cibc business.

cibc asked Padulo to make a proposal forecasting the future needs of the bank and, says cibc spokesperson Rob McLeod, the resulting presentation illustrated Padulo had a good understanding of what cibc is seeking to achieve and where it is going as a bank.

McLeod says the agency change is less a consolidation than a change in focus for cibc.

Although Padulo becomes agency-of-record, McLeod does not rule out using other shops for small projects.

The cibc pool of agencies had previously included agency-of-record and corporate agency, McKim Baker Lovick/BBDO; Harrod & Mirlin, which handled rrsp campaigns and other projects; The Gingko Group, for securities advertising and other investment campaigns; and Russo, which also took care of some direct response projects.

Other surprises

Other advertisers that have taken the industry by surprise by shifting accounts from large traditional agencies to small shops or non-traditional agencies include Labatt Breweries of Canada, which, last month, handed the bulk of its approximately $40-million business to Ammirati & Puris, a New York-based company that had been operating in Canada for just three months.

A year ago this month, Sears Canada shifted its account, valued in 1992 at $59.1 million including paid media and flyer advertising, to Prism Communications of Toronto from Franklin Dallas, which had held the creative portion, and McKim Baker Lovick/BBDO, which was handling the media.

(Two years earlier, Sears had shifted the creative portion of the account to Franklin Dallas from McKim and Ogilvy & Mather.)

Goodyear Canada followed last July when its $15-million assignment went to fledgling Toronto agency, Due North Communications from longtime agency McCann-Erickson.