MacLaren McCann is dismantling its direct response, relationship marketing and event management unit, Relationship Marketing Group, and splitting the functions between two new divisions.
Kay Ganser, president of Vickers & Benson Direct, is joining MacLaren later this month as vice-president, general manager of MacLaren McCann Direct.
Rick Janes, who has been heading up rmg, will become general manager of MacLaren Sports & Entertainment.
Tony Miller, MacLaren McCann’s chairman and ceo, says the restructuring is due to the growing importance of direct to the agency’s clients.
He says there has been a sizable escalation in the amount direct response is used by clients such as General Motors, Royal Bank and Unitel.
For her part, Ganser says more new business pitches are including a direct response component.
As well, she says there’s been an acceleration in the use of direct response television.
‘When I moved to Canada in 1988, I came from a direct marketing agency where 45% of our billings were direct response tv and only a small component was direct mail.
‘In Canada, the mix was a lot different. There was a bit of direct response tv going on but not to the degree I had experienced in the u.s.’
Ganser says the change in direction signalled by telcos such as Sprint and Unitel are ‘just the tip of the iceberg.’
Ganser began her career in 1970 as a retail sales promotion copywriter for Montgomery Ward in her home town of Chicago.
She has been with v&b since early 1994.
Before that she was vice-president, director of Valentine-Radford Direct in Kansas City, Mo.
She first worked in Canada when she moved to Toronto in 1988 to open Kobs & Draft Advertising as the direct marketing division of Backer Spielvogel Bates (now Bates Canada).
