The marketing world never sleeps, which means there are bound to be things that fly under your radar. To make sure you’re up to speed, here’s some news you might have missed over the last two weeks:
Hires, promotions and changes
Bridgitte Anderson (pictured, right) has been promoted to general manger of Edelman Vancouver, leading the office’s team of over 50 staff. Anderson, a former news anchor for CTV, joined Edelman in 2011 and was most recently SVP of corporate and public affairs. Kim Peacock, former general manager for the office, has left the agency to pursue other opportunities.
Agence Phi has opened its doors in Montreal. Founded by Miriem Mkinsi, a former strategic and creative director at Tactic Direct and marketing director at Groupe Modulo, the agency is looking to provide a full-service offering to non-profit and charitable clients throughout Quebec.
John Ozikizler has joined hospitality and service sector-focused agency LMA Communications as president and partner. Ozikizler joins from DAC Group, where he was VP and general manager of its Toronto office, and has also been VP and managing director of Publicis Modem and president of MacLaren Momentum. In his new role, Ozikizler will oversee all clients and pursue opportunities for new business.
Montreal’s Les Évadés has hired Jill Selick as director of brand strategy and client group. In her new role, she will be responsible for managing the agency’s international accounts. Selick joins from the client side at Reitmans, where she was director of marketing on the Penningtons brand, and also spent three years at Johnson & Johnson.
The Ad Rodeo has announced the judges for the 2016 Anvil Awards celebrating creative excellence out of Calgary. The year’s judges are Brian Sheppard, ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi Canada; Ebrahim El Kalza, head of strategy at Zulu Alpha Kilo; Jenny Smith, ECD and founder at The Ray Creative Agency; Kelsey Horne, CD at Sid Lee; Nick Richards, ECD and founder at Will Creative; and Rene Rouleau, CD at BBDO Proximity.
New business
Matchstick has been named social agency of record for Crayola Canada. The agency will develop a Canadian social media presence for the brand and attempt to reach both consumers and educators. The effort has already begun on Facebook with themes including “Colours of Canada” and “Colour with a ‘U'” to tell nostalgic stories for parents, and providing educational resources for teachers. Canadian content will be added to Crayola’s U.S. Instagram and Pinterest pages by the end of the year.
New Balance Canada has named Apex PR its public relations agency of record following a competitive pitch. The agency will handle all public relations activity and brand ambassador engagement, with support on strategic planning, social media and digital. The assignment will begin with media relations supporting the brand’s holiday and spring collections, as well as a “Girls Night Out” platform that will launch in January.
Alfred has been selected by Quebec’s Lavo to handle advertising for its La Parisienne brand of cleaning products. The agency, which was also awarded the work for the Hertel line by Lavo last year, will be tasked with creating a new campaign and brand positioning for La Parisienne.
Toronto-based Karyzma has been named public relations agency of record for E-Boardz Canada. The agency will handle media relations, influencer programs, event management and consumer engagement activities for the increasingly-popular brand of self-balancing battery-powered scooters.
Enjoy Life Foods, a CPG company specializing in foods free of gluten and GMOs, has named its new agencies of record. It has tapped U.S. agencies Blue Chip for creative and Anvil for media, but has split PR duties between Elevator Communications in Canada and Rachel Kay PR in the U.S.
Media
Rogers Media has rebranded its digital magazine platform Next Issue to Texture. The rebrand also comes with the addition of several new titles, bringing the count to over 160 titles, and is offering more “curated” collections of articles, in addition to reading issues cover-to-cover.
A new report from Magna Global predicts display and video inventory transacted through programmatic platforms will reach $14.2 billion globally by the end of the year, a 49% increase from 2014.
Ad Week has brought a number of announcements from some of the big players in digital. YouTube announced plans to allow video viewers to make purchases directly through ads on the site; Yahoo announced it would be unifying all of its ad tech capabilities under the Brightroll banner; and Facebook made a play to earn more TV advertising dollars with product updates that allow marketers to plan across TV and Facebook with a single currency.
ZenithOptimedia has named Andras Vigh CEO of Blue 449 as it continues it plan for a global roll-out of the company. Blue 449′s operating framework for its clients is called Open Source, and is focused on collaborative relationships between its media and technology partners.
