1989
September: The debut issue of Strategy appears … The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) voices unhappiness with the proposed Goods and Services Tax.
October: Jim White, who helped spearhead the launch of Loblaw’s President’s Choice brand, predicts that private labels are the key to successful retail marketing in the next decade.
November: Decima Research chairman Allan Gregg tells the CAB: ‘None of us are in the mass marketing business anymore.’
December: The Interac Association plans the first major test of a debit card system in Canada … In the wake of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre, a Strategy editorial ponders the responsibilities of advertisers and the media: ‘Intelligent advertising and intelligent programming can draw viewers without resorting to the tried and true of sex and violence.’
1990
January: A study by Saatchi & Saatchi Compton Hayhurst suggests that consumers are returning to traditional, conservative ideals …
MacLaren:Lintas establishes its new media buying subsidiary, Initiative Media.
February: Quebec communications minister Liza Frulla-Hébert warns the province’s agencies about the perils of globalization: ‘The future of the Canadian advertising industry depends on Canadian ownership and control.’
May: Microsoft pours $10 million into the North American launch of something called Windows 3.0
June: Strategy publishes its first fall television preview. Sunni Boot of FCB/Ronalds-Reynolds calls Cop Rock ‘a slick, contemporary production that should appeal to today’s viewers.’
August: Lyons Tetley Canada introduces its revolutionary round teabag. Rioting in the streets is swiftly quelled.
November: Bob Reaume of the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) says clients are increasingly aware of the importance of media, which he calls ‘the battleground of the ’90s.’
December: Environment Canada names three agencies to handle an ‘unprecedented’ communications blitz in support of the most extensive environmental program in Canadian history: the Green Plan.
1991
January: Allied forces bomb Iraq. Live coverage pre-empts regular television programming, but broadcasters say the loss of advertising revenue is not disastrous, since the war conveniently broke out during a period when inventories weren’t sold out. Iraqi civilians rejoice at this news.
March: Toronto’s Gee & Gee Advertising goes into receivership, a victim of the recession. But its principals make a fast recovery, launching a new shop: Gee, Jeffery & Partners Advertising.
May: Toronto Argonauts owner Bruce McNall spends $26 million to sign U.S. college superstar Raghib ‘Rocket’ Ismail. ‘All the elements,’ opines Strategy, ‘are now in place for a Rocket-driven revitalization of the moribund Canadian Football League’ … In what could not possibly be construed as a cheap, cynical re-election ploy, the Mulroney government plans a marketing and communications extravaganza to mark the country’s 125th anniversary in 1992, and to sell Canadians on national unity.
July: Molson Special Dry declares victory over Labatt Dry in the two-year-old battle of the dry beers.
August: Media Canada merges with the media department of Vickers & Benson to form Genesis Media.
September: Shoppers Drug Mart dumps Beatrice Arthur, its spokesperson for the last six years, in favour of Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry, the charisma-challenged stars of LA Law.
October: Atlanta-based Coca-Cola shocks its agency, McCann-Erickson – not to mention the rest of the advertising world – by hiring Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency and its high-powered chairman, Michael Ovitz, as worldwide media and communications consultant. Gary Prouk, head of Toronto’s Scali McCabe Sloves, calls this ‘an open declaration…[that the advertising agency is] no longer the sole custodian of ideas. Nor of image.’
December: A Strategy editorial describes 1991 as a year of transition ‘in which the world in general, and the marketing world in particular, first began experiencing a series of tumultuous upheavals which would eventually lead to wholesale changes in Canada and beyond.’
1992
January: Levi Strauss, Kellogg and Nestlé realign their international reporting structures, forming North American business units. In the months that follow, the likes of Coca-Cola, Kimberley-Clark and Warner-Lambert will follow suit. Does anyone see a trend here? … McKim Advertising and Baker/Lovick/BBDO, two of Canada’s oldest and largest agencies, merge under U.S. ownership.
February: After 22 years, Thomas J. Lipton retires its long-running ‘Only in Canada, eh?’ campaign for Red Rose Tea. Pity.
March: Loyalty Management Group Canada introduces a wacky, doomed-to-failure concept called the Air Miles Reward Program, which – get this – offers consumers points toward free air travel when they make everyday purchases.
April: Coca-Cola Canada and TSN gear up for a breach-of-contract court battle, prompted by the network’s decision to drop Coke as exclusive soft drink advertiser on Toronto Blue Jays games, in favour of Pepsi.
June: Creatives Paul Lavoie and François Sauvé depart Cossette Communication-Marketing to start their own Montreal-based shop, TAXI.
August: Hershey Canada recuts a TV spot for Nibs, in response to complaints that Japanese-Canadians might find it offensive. ‘At what point,’ frets a Strategy editorial, ‘do we politically correct ourselves into a communications straitjacket?’ Actually, isn’t that straitjacket reference potentially offensive to the insane?
September: A court decision leaves TSN’s deal with Pepsi intact, shocking many in the media community … Imperial Oil resurrects the Esso Tiger.
October: The ‘No’ side wins Canada’s national unity referendum. Copywriter Peter Byrne of Einstein Brothers, who worked on the ‘Yes’ advertising campaign, says there’s a message here for marketers: ‘If we want to talk to people, if we want them to listen to what we have to say, we’ve got to find new ways of doing it. They’re just not buying our shit anymore.’
1993
January: At the Canadian Congress of Advertising, Labatt Breweries of Canada president Hugo Powell issues his famous ‘wake-up call’ to the industry, calling for a ‘revolution’ in the way agencies structure themselves and operate … Meanwhile: Kraft General Foods introduces blue Jell-O.
February: Canadian magazine publishers fume about Sports Illustrated’s plan to launch a Canadian edition.
March: Molson Breweries and Labatt go to war over ice beer, launching their respective entries in this newly created category within a few days of one another.
June: In Strategy’s annual Fall TV Preview, media directors give a unanimous thumbs-down to a weird show about the paranormal called The X-Files. ‘Gone by next year,’ pronounces Saatchi & Saatchi’s Bruce Baumann.
August: Canada’s poor showing at the Cannes International Advertising Festival prompts Brian Harrod of Harrod & Mirlin to wonder why this country doesn’t produce more great advertising. ‘We are conservative people … We don’t want to offend anybody, and good creative is going to offend some people.’
October: The Progressive Conservatives go down to crushing defeat in the federal election – a debacle blamed in part on the backlash to mean-spirited TV spots ridiculing the appearance of Liberal leader Jean Chretien.
1994
January: Call it the Hugo Powell effect – Labatt surprises many by handing its major brands over to Ammirati & Puris, an agency that didn’t even have an office in Canada a year ago.
March: Prism Communications founder Elliott Ettenberg says the day of ‘big idea’ creative is over: ‘The consumer isn’t interested in bright, creative ideas. The consumer is interested in why he or she should be purchasing that brand instead of another brand.’
May: CBC makes a successful $20.8-million bid for broadcast rights to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta … Adams Brands rocks the gum world by adding an unprecedented eighth stick to packs of its major brands, including Trident.
June: Wal-Mart Canada launches. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid … Meanwhile: a front-page story indicates that something called the ‘Internet’ is attracting the attention of marketers.
July: Bell Canada prepares for competition, as deregulation comes to the Ontario and Quebec long-distance markets.
August: David Harrison of Harrison, Young, Pesonen & Newell praises the new relationship and database marketing tools – but let’s not forget about traditional brand advertising: ‘Nothing beats a really good advertising campaign for reaching consumers quickly and efficiently.’
November: The CRTC rules that private broadcasters may air long-format infomercials at any time, including prime time.
1995
January: A new crop of specialty channels hit the airwaves, greeted by howls of protest from consumers incensed by the ‘negative option’ marketing tactics of the cable companies.
February: The Canadian Direct Marketing Association predicts that the information highway will mean ‘online, one-to-one relationships that are more targeted and more segmented than ever before’ … TBWA International and Chiat/Day merge.
March: The CFL needs to ‘get the sizzle back,’ and hopes the addition of new U.S. teams like the Shreveport Pirates will help.
April: New York-based Interpublic Group combines MacLaren:Lintas and McCann Erickson to create Canada’s second-largest ad agency – MacLaren McCann. The Lintas name moves over to Ammirati & Puris.
June: The CRTC orders a Labatt Genuine Draft spot off the air, on the grounds that it features characters who ‘could reasonably be mistaken for persons under the legal drinking age’ … The Federal Court, meanwhile, rules that the commission’s regulation prohibiting the broadcast advertising of spirits is invalid.
August: A billboard for Swatch, featuring a woman’s nearly naked torso, is pulled after a flurry of complaints, prompting the inevitable debate about political correctness and free expression … Microsoft launches Windows 95 with a global hype-o-rama of unprecedented proportions.
September: A Supreme Court decision ends the ban on tobacco advertising.
November: The Association of Quebec Advertising Agencies campaigns to end speculative creative pitches, a practice that Strategy columnist John Burghardt calls ‘one of the stupidest techniques ever evolved by any business profession.’ Other industry groups later follow suit … Following the strategy of parent company Nike, Canstar Sports will attempt to build Bauer into a ‘superbrand,’ dumping some of Canada’s best-known sports equipment brands in the process.
December: The federal government awards four national licences for personal communications services, opening up a whole new competitive arena in telecommunications … First sign of the coming apocalypse: Givenchy launches a fragrance for babies.
1996
January: Marketers fear a brain drain in the Canadian industry, as senior jobs move south due to consolidation … A YTV study shows that tweens command an astonishing $1.1 billion in discretionary income.
February: Pepsi-Cola Canada ventures into territory largely uncharted by packaged goods manufacturers, with the launch of its Pepsi Stuff loyalty program.
May: Who says bigger is better? Dark horse candidate Gee, Jeffery & Partners wins the coveted Canadian Airlines business, beating out larger players such as Ogilvy & Mather and Vickers & Benson.
June: Roche Macaulay & Partners sells a minority ownership position to The Lowe Group of the U.K., and merges its operation with Lowe’s Toronto office, Lowe SMS. Geoffrey Roche says the deal shows that Canadian agencies can grow internationally while maintaining independence. But all is not smooth sailing: The months afterward see client defections and senior staff departures … Meanwhile: Clearly Canadian launches Orbitz, a fruit drink that, inexplicably, contains floating globs of gelatin.
September: With a pointed nod in the direction of greater consumer choice, the CRTC grants licences for 23 new specialty channels.
October: Bank of Montreal hijacks Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin” for the launch campaign of its new interactive banking service, mbanx…Strategy launches DirectResponse as a quarterly supplement.
1997
January: After a lengthy account review, Purolator Canada rejects all the finalists on its shortlist, which leads to much grumbling in the community about the way reviews are handled, and some soul-searching about the state of the client-agency relationship.
February: Baton Broadcasting System assumes majority control of CTV … The beginning of the end: Eaton’s files for bankruptcy protection.
March: Media Buying Services joins forces with MediaCom Worldwide in New York to form a new media management company called The Media Company/MBS.
April: Ottawa passes Bill C-71, which will effectively prohibit tobacco companies from taking title sponsor positions at live events.
May: Multinational agency DMB&B acquires Toronto-based creative shop Bensimon Byrne … Meanwhile: H.J. Heinz launches ketchup with sparkles!
June: The widespread use of U.S. creative on the Canadian airwaves is said to be contributing to a dramatic decline in the number of people employed in this country’s ad industry.
July: Nike comes under attack for its offshore labour practices … Saturday Night, meanwhile, takes criticism for publishing a Mordecai Richler short story with Absolut Vodka as presenting sponsor.
August: The NHL says it will not renew Molson’s contract to manage the league’s national broadcast rights in Canada. Labatt eventually claims the prize.
September: Shock-radio king Howard Stern debuts on the Canadian airwaves. Some advertisers pull ads from his morning slot on stations in Montreal and Toronto.
December: Vancouver’s Palmer Jarvis Communications agrees to sell to Omnicom Group, merging its operations with the multinational giant’s Toronto subsidiary, DDB Group Canada. ‘Either you’re a world player,’ says PJ’s Frank Palmer, ‘or you’re no player.’
1998
February: Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal contemplate a merger. Problem: the name ‘Humungous Bank’ is already taken … Air Canada launches a worldwide branding effort conceived by a ‘dream team’ of representatives from 11 different communications suppliers.
March: Post mortem on the Nagano Winter Olympics. Big winners: Those American-born Canadian patriots, the boys from Roots, who gained major exposure by outfitting the Canadian team … Forward into the past: Volkswagen launches its new Beetle.
July: Peter Holmes and John Lee, former colleagues at now-defunct Franklin Dallas, reunite as co-owners of new agency Holmes & Lee … U.K. media giant Carat makes its first successful foray into Canada, acquiring Montreal-based Stratégem.
August: Bell Canada awards its $60-million account to Cossette, amid charges of executive interference in the decision.
September: Consolidation in the media business continues: Omnicom combines the media functions of all its Canadian agency groups to form OMD Canada, a behemoth responsible for more than $900 million in billings.
October: A survey suggests the old 15% commission system for agencies is all but dead … Conrad Black’s much-anticipated new daily paper, the National Post, hits the streets.
November: The merger of grocery giants Oshawa Group and Empire Co. sparks concern that packaged goods manufacturers will find it even harder to secure shelf space.
1999
January: Marketers agree – Roche Macaulay’s advertising work for Eaton’s is first-rate. But it may not be enough: The retailer limps into the new year with a projected year-end loss of $29 million for 1998 … Carat forms an alliance with Toronto-based David Cairns and Company, solidifying its position in Canada.
February: The Globe and the Post quibble over the latter’s circulation figures, with The Globe accusing Conrad Black’s rag of resorting to ‘smoke and mirrors.’
May: Strategy introduces redesinged look…Molson divorces its longtime agency MacLaren McCann, and announces a review … Cossette decides to issue an IPO, hoping to raise $35 million to $40 million to fund its ambitious expansion plans.
June: Canada and the U.S. finally reach a tentative compromise on Bill C-55, the controversial law governing the right of Canadian firms to advertise in split-run foreign publications.
July: A TV spot by Palmer Jarvis DDB for Finesse Shampoo wins the Grand Prix as the best overall commercial at Cannes – the first Gold Lion that Canada has taken home in at least a decade.
August: Eaton’s sinks at last; newspaper and magazine publishers brace for the loss of ad revenue … Lose one, win one: Former Molson agency MacLaren picks up the coveted $40-million Rogers Communications account.
September: Strategy celebrates its tenth anniversary.
Also in this report:
– Reflections on a decade of advertising p.B2
– It was the best and worst of times: Industry leaders sounds off on the developments of the decade p.B8
– Then as now, the customer is king: After 10 years, Richard Peddie hasn’t changed his mind p.B18
