Harrod & Mirlin is consummating its relationship with True North Communications and merging with the holding company’s general agency, FCB Toronto, to form Harrod & Mirlin/FCB, an agency to be headed by Ian Mirlin, president, and Brian Harrod, executive creative director.

h&m staff will be making the move into temporary offices in the fcb building at the end of the month and into their permanent, renovated space with fcb later this spring.

Combined 1997 billings for the new agency are estimated at $102 million.

True North, fcb’s parent company, bought Harrod & Mirlin in the spring of last year; the agency had continued to operate autonomously until now.

Brian Harrod says the merger affects only FCB Toronto and not True North’s other Canadian holdings, FCB Direct and TN Media, since all the units operate independently, reporting to Paul Mead, who took over as president and ceo of fcb last November when David Haan left to become managing director of Philadelphia-based Earle Palmer Brown.

h&m/fcb will also continue to operate its own media department because Harrod says there may be conflicts with some of the TN Media clients.

On the creative side, Harrod says Neil McOstrich (fcb) and Brent Peterson (h&m) will be co-creative directors and each will be responsible for half the client roster and creative staff. Both McOstrich and Peterson will report to Harrod.

Harrod says although a merger with fcb was something he and Mirlin thought might occur in the future, it made good business sense to do it now in light of recent changes at fcb.

Those changes include modifications at fcb’s media division, now operating solely as TN Media, following the loss of the Optimedia name and the defection of the company’s founders in Canada, Sunni Boot and Debbie King, to Publicis.

TN Media, now headed by Kathie Shearer, has recently lost two big accounts – Nestle Canada and General Mills – to Optimedia (see sidebar).

Last August, the agency had to resign another cornerstone account, Mazda Canada, because of a perceived conflict resulting from FCB Worldwide’s purchase of Bozell Worldwide, a Chrysler agency.

The client list of the new Harrod & Mirlin/FCB includes Coors Brewing, Tropicana, S.C. Johnson and Payless Shoes from fcb, and Nabisco Brands, Quaker Oats, Canada Trust, Levi Strauss & Co., Bristol Myers Squibb’s Mead Johnson, Canadian Pacific Hotels and Bestfoods from Harrod & Mirlin.

Sidebar: Optimedia nabs business

Optimedia Canada has snagged some of the country’s biggest brand names in the few short weeks it has made its home at Publicis Canada.

The value of the new business is estimated at about $90 million.

Most of the new clients are part of an English-language media buying consortium that was set up by Sunni Boot and Optimedia while under the auspices of FCB. At the time, in February of 1996, the consortium’s media buying business was valued at around $80 million.

The consortium of consumer-focused companies – minus one of the original members, Ault Foods – comprises: General Mills Canada, Nestle Canada, Coca-Cola Canada and its Minute Maid division, and Cosmair Canada.

In addition, Hasbro Canada, not a member of the consortium but also a former client of fcb’s TN Media, has made the move to Optimedia.

General Mills, which was a full-service client of fcb but was resigned due to a client conflict, is now searching for a new creative partner.

Last month, Publicis Communication took back the Optimedia name in Canada as the banner for the combined media units of Publicis-SMW and Publicis-BCP.

Optimedia, a global trademark of the company, had been used by FCB Canada since 1992 as part of a now-expired global deal between its parent company, True North Communications, and Publicis.