As Montreal-based FCB Direct celebrates its 10th anniversary, the largest direct marketing agency in Quebec – indeed, one of the top 10 advertising agencies in la belle province – finds itself positioned as a powerful force on the national marketing scene.
Founded in 1989 with a staff of six people and a single client, Air Canada, FCB Direct has enjoyed consistent growth over the past decade. Today, the company boasts a staff of 60, annual billings of $45 million, a blue chip client roster including Air Canada, the CIBC, and Microcell, and over 100 industry awards.
Together with its sister company in Toronto, the Montreal agency forms FCB Direct Canada, which is, in turn, an arm of FCB Worldwide, the fifth largest communications company in the world with 280 offices in 85 countries. This global affiliation allows the Montreal agency to tap into a vast pool of marketing communications resources and experience on behalf of their clients.
In an industry where long-term business relationships are highly valued but hard to maintain, both internally and externally, FCB Direct has built an impressively loyal client list and dedicated corporate culture – rare in the high turnover world of advertising. Because the agency’s core of senior people have stayed together for many years, their tight web of ever-deepening professional relationships and personal friendships have helped forge the company’s sense
of integrity and drive its decade of
achievement.
‘Nine of our senior people have been together for 7-10 years, many of them since the company was formed in 1989’ says Mark Goodman, president of FCB Direct Canada. ‘It’s the key to our success. Each person has a different role and responsibility, yet our skills and interests complement each other enormously well, forming a collective strength that we pass onto our clients.’
In addition to Goodman, the core of senior people include Senior Vice-President Debra Murdock, a 10 year veteran responsible for database operations; David Klein, Vice-President and Director of Client Services (eight years); Yves Blain, Vice-president and Director of Strategic Development (seven years); Guy Tasse, Vice-President and Director of Creative Strategy (seven years);
Deborah Geneau, Creative Director (nine years); Joe Spilak, Director of
Production (10 years); Bianca Barbucci, Vice-President and Account Director for Air Canada (10 years); and Anne Fortin, Group Account Director for CIBC (seven years).
The seeds of the team were sown in the 1980s when Goodman, Murdock, Klein and Blain worked together at Wunderman in Montreal. When Goodman and Murdock founded FCB Direct in 1989, they brought the other senior members on board one-by-one. Today, only three of the nine senior staff are over 40 years old, yet the team averages 14 years of direct marketing experience per person — an effective combination of youth, experience and commitment that speaks powerfully to the agency’s past successes – and its promising future.
‘We all share the same values: a serious passion for the business of direct marketing’ observes David Klein. ‘We believe in a extremely tight partnership mentality and that translates into a total commitment to fostering the success of our clients’ businesses.’
Goodman believes that the inherent solidarity of his core senior team sets the tone and pace for the remaining 50 employees: ‘It’s a politics-free environment where a strong team spirit can truly thrive. Because of the loyalty and closeness of the senior people, it gives the entire staff a great sense of confidence in what we do as an agency.’ The longevity of the FCB Direct team also allows it to handle any short-term changes on the client side, acting as a steadying bridge between outgoing and incoming marketing people.
The secret of FCB Direct’s success can also be found in another key area: since 1989, the agency has fostered the development of home-grown marketing talent with its unique in-house training school. Bright, young university graduates are put through a formal apprenticeship training program in all aspects of marketing with a series of readings, discussion groups, presentations, and training sessions in technology, branding, direct marketing, systems and procedures, etc. With the limited
number of experienced direct marketers in the Montreal market, the school is an effective way of stocking the pool. ‘Our commitment to training is another reason we have grown and why we have enjoyed such a low turnover rate’ notes Goodman.
FCB Direct’s steady internal growth has, of course, mirrored the growth of its client base, beginning in 1989 with Aeroplan, Air Canada’s frequent flyer loyalty program. Over 10 years, Aeroplan membership has skyrocketed from 100,000 to 4 million members with the agency’s support. FCB Direct’s mandate has since expanded to include direct marketing programs in support of the airline in general,
Aeroplan partner initiatives, database management, and across-the board, strategic involvement
with many of Air Canada’s
departments.
Another major milestone was achieved in 1991 when the agency won the CIBC Aerogold credit card direct marketing account. Now one of the country’s leading premium credit cards, FCB Direct continues to be fully involved with Aerogold in one of the most sophisticated, database-driven programs in Canada, both on the customer acquisition and customer retention side. Their highly successful multi-media acquisitions campaigns included an integrated mix of ongoing direct marketing, direct response advertising, branch
support, and airport advertising.
The agency’s expansion was further fuelled in 1993 with the acquisition of the Royal Canadian Mint and the Liberal Party of Canada accounts; more recently, they have won major clients like Cogeco Cable, direct marketing insurance company Meloche Monnex, and Microcell, makers of the Fido wireless phone brand. For Cogeco, FCB Direct serves as both its direct marketing agency and brand agency, a sign of the ongoing blurring of lines among the various marketing disciplines within the agency world.
‘We are a distinctive company in that we create national direct marketing communications programs from our Montreal office’ says Bianca Barbucci. ‘Most large direct marketing agencies are based in Toronto, but as the biggest direct agency in Quebec, we can compete with anyone, coast-to-coast.’
In 1993, FCB Direct launched its unique, proprietary computerized systems and procedures, a tool which guides the entire marketing strategy, creative development, production, finances, and time-management of each direct marketing program.
‘We are very disciplined in the execution of our proprietary systems and procedures’ says Debra Murdock. ‘We believe the way we think about our clients’ businesses and get things done is unique to our agency. We deliver a special kind of creative and strategic expertise to our clients’ problems.’
The system also supports the Montreal agency’s
ability to closely service clients from a large geographical distance, whether they are located in Ottawa, Toronto, or Vancouver, keeping their projects tightly on track and on time.
Then, in 1998, the agency created ‘FCB Direct Blueprint’, a sophisticated system which allows the agency to develop a strategic platform with their clients to integrate the direct marketing discipline into their overall brand marketing mix.
Designed to help clients manage their entire relationship with their customers, the FCB Direct Blueprint is a five-stage developmental process that is overlaid on the client’s strategic initiatives. ‘With the system, our clients can retain their customers and meet their needs at every interaction, regardless of the channel – direct mail, retail, third party, internet, etc. – selling more products today while building brand value over time’ says Yves Blain.
FCB Direct’s guiding principle for their creative product is derived from the innovations of the founding members of Foote, Cone & Belding, an agency who have been creating advertising for 125 years. ‘Person-to-person’ advertising is their point of
difference, developing ideas and communications that are based on the most relevant consumer insights written from one person to another, with a focus on increasing brand value over time.
‘The discipline of our Creative Strategy Development Process, combined with our teamwork in nurturing ideas that are relevant, unexpected and brilliantly
executed, has allowed us to deliver a wide range of
performing creative for our clients over the years’ says Guy Tassé. This is clearly demonstrated by the over 100 national and international awards won by FCB Direct’s clients over the last decade.
‘We work hard bringing intelligence and creativity to our solutions with state of the art tools’ says Goodman. ‘We are experienced at advising our clients on how to manage, manipulate and segment their customer data, create a relevant, targeted message, and then do it all over again, one iteration smarter. It’s a strategic, long-term, staged approach to building customized, database-driven programs – learning from experience, becoming increasingly more focussed and informed on each successive communication, and building close, one-to-one relationships with customers that build life-long value.’
