To the surprise of no one, Toronto Dominion-Canada Trust has awarded both its creative and media accounts to former Canada Trust agencies.

The creative assignment went to Harrod & Mirlin/FCB, while media buying duties were given to The Media Company/MBS. Both agencies handled these responsibilities for Canada Trust prior to its Feb. 1 merger with Toronto-Dominion Bank. The value of the account is estimated to be approximately $25 million.

The outcome of the review furthers the perception in the community that the former Canada Trust marketing regime rules the roost at the new TD Canada Trust.

The former TD agencies will continue to work on some portions of the bank’s business, says Domenic Mercuri, senior vice-president of advertising and marketing services for the financial services giant. But all business under the TD Canada Trust name – TD Bank’s retail banking division – has been consolidated with H&M/FCB and The Media Company, to "ensure a consistent brand voice."

Peter Shier, president of Harrod & Mirlin/FCB, says he is "thrilled" with the win. (The agency also picked up the Compaq Canada business just days later, after the computer manufacturer’s U.S. head office moved its global account to H&M/FCB’s parent, Foote, Cone & Belding Worldwide.)

"I think we’ve done good work for Canada Trust in the past," Shier says. "That’s why they made the decision they did."

Since the Feb. 1 merger, the TD Canada Trust marketing department has been led by Chris Armstrong, executive vice-president of advertising and marketing services, and his second-in-command, Mercuri. Both are former Canada Trust executives.

Insiders expect a number of former TD marketing staff to be let go.

According to sources, Canada Trust’s marketing people were researching the potential implications of a merger with another financial institution long before talks with TD began. The goal was to ensure that Canada Trust would end up calling the marketing shots after such a deal went down.

As for the just-completed review, sources say that it wasn’t really a review at all, given the absence of a structured process or a written brief for the participating agencies, and contend that it was weighted heavily in favour of the Canada Trust agencies. (John Boniface, H&M/FCB’s newly appointed vice-president, general manager, was reportedly hired away from Padulo Integrated to head up the TD Canada Trust business even before the review was completed.)

The former TD agencies that retained pieces of the bank’s business are: TBWA Chiat/Day, which will handle TD Waterhouse in Canada; Gee, Jeffery & Partners Advertising, which has TD Asset Management and TD Securities; and SGCI Communications of Sackville, N.B., which also works on TD Asset Management.

McDonnell Haynes has been assigned collateral work, while Response Innovations will handle direct marketing. Both agencies are Toronto-based.

The Garden promotes two creative directors

ACDs Lindsay Eady and Francheska Galloway-Davis have taken over responsibility for day-to-day creative leadership at The Garden after being promoted to creative director roles.

The pair will also help develop the agency’s creative talent, formalizing mentorship and leadership activities they have been doing since joining the agency four and three years ago, respectively. In addition to creating the agency’s internship program, the pair have worked on campaigns for Coinsquare, FitTrack and “The Coke Challenge” campaign for DanceSafe.

Eady and Galloway-Davis will continue to report to The Garden’s co-founder and chief creative officer Shane Ogilvie, who is stepping back from daily creative duties to a more high-level strategic role, allowing him to focus on client relationships and business growth.

Naked Creative Consultancy names new creative and strategy leadership

Toronto’s Naked Creative Consultancy has hired Yasmin Sahni as its new creative director. She is taking over creative leadership from David Kenyon, who has been in the role for 10 years and is moving into a new role as director of strategy, leading the discipline at the agency.

Sahni is coming off of three years as VP and ECD at GTB’s Toronto office, where she managed all the retail, social and service creative for Ford Canada. She previously managed both Vice Media and Vice’s in-house ad agency Virtue.

Peter Shier, president of Naked, says Sahni’s hiring adds to its creative bench and capabilities, as well as a track record of mentorship, a priority for the company. Meanwhile, Kenyon’s move to the strategy side, he says, makes sense because of his deep knowledge of its clients, which have included Ancestry and The Globe and Mail.

Digital Ethos opens a Toronto office

U.K. digital agency Digital Ethos is pursuing new growth opportunities in North America by opening a new office in Toronto.

Though it didn’t disclose them, the agency has begun serving a number of North American clients, and CEO/founder Luke Tobin says the “time was right to invest in a more formal and actual presence in the area.” whose services include design, SEO, pay-per-click, social media, influencer and PR,

This year, the agency’s growth has also allowed it to open an office in Hamburg, Germany, though it also has remote staff working in countries around the world.

Moray Hickes was the company’s first North American hire as VP of sales, tasked with business development in the region.