Prism Communications has a new chief and some aggressive plans for growing the Toronto agency.

Marty Rothstein, who joined Prism as president and partner last month, has already targeted a number of categories, including government business.

‘Prism has a well-deserved reputation for helping retailers discover how to leverage brand names and do better in the marketplace,’ Rothstein says.

Rothstein was with MacLaren for 27 years, the last four as president and chief executive officer, before leaving more than a year ago.

He began his career on the client side in product management with General Foods.

Rothstein and Elliott Ettenberg, chairman and ceo of Prism, which opened first in Montreal in 1976 and still has an office there, believe there are also opportunities south of the border.

‘We have a very strong exportable process,’ Ettenberg says.

Ettenberg calls the Prism method of putting the strategic solution before the creative and media executions ‘holistic’ advertising because it is not concerned with advertising but rather with the effects of advertising on consumer behavior.

‘Holistic communications stakes its belief on the fact the consumer is going to do what she wants to do, therefore you start with the consumer and move backwards,’ he says.

This approach means it is the consumer, not the creative person, who is guru at Prism.

Rothstein says he feels right at home at Prism because this philosophy was part of his classic brand management training.

‘When Elliott and I started talking, we were both talking the same language,’ he says.