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 week:
Hires, promotions and other news
TD Bank has named Mathieu Beaudoin its new director of marketing and communications in Quebec. Beaudoin joined TD a year ago as director of Quebec public affairs after more than five years at Morin Public Relations.
Weber Shandwick has made two additions in its Montreal office, including Rachel Yates as senior VP. In her new roles, Yates will help drive business and client growth in Quebec and across Canada, support the operations of the office and work with Christian Marcoux, EVP of healthcare and managing director, to help further expand its team and oversee client business strategy and programming. Yates was most recently director of marketing and strategic planning at Telus Health, and has also had communications positions at Merck, McGill University Health Centre and Astral Media. The agency has also hired Dana Frank as an account manager in its corporate practice, coming from Jewish General Hospital, where she had been an events coordinator and communications coordinator on special projects.
New business
Taxi has been named agency of record for Fido following a competitive review. The move ends a 20-year relationship between Fido and DenstuBos, which participated in the review. Bos, as the agency was known prior to its acquisition by Dentsu in 2012, had been Fido’s AOR since it launched in 1996. The win marks Taxi’s re-entry in the mobile game, having lost its own long-term client, Telus, to The&Partnership following a review in 2014.
Toronto’s Ireland + Hall has been named agency of record for Helix Healthcare Group. The assignment will see the agency handle all public relations, marketing and website redevelopment efforts for Helix, a Toronto-based facility that combines standard medical models with holistic and natural treatments for individuals with substance abuse, addiction and mental health issues. The agency also re-signed with the Acne and Rosacea Society of Canada to once again handle public relations efforts around its national spring awareness campaign.
High View Communications has recently added three new accounts to its client roster: Rakuten Kobo (which provides the Kobo e-reading service), non-prescription sleep aid Dream Water Canada and Spanish jewellery brand Carrera y Carrera. High View will help lead a number of PR initiatives for new projects Rakuten Kobo has planned this year, while it will be assisting in Dream Water and Carrera’s Canadian launches. Rakuten Kobo and Dream Water were both won following competitive reviews, while Carrera selected High View based the agency’s experience with luxury brands.
NKPR has been named agency of record for beGlammed, an on-demand beauty service that delivers products and stylists directly to customers through an app. The agency will develop and lead an ongoing public relations, influencer relations and strategic partnership plan as the U.S.-based service launches in Canada this month.
Media
Yahoo has entered into the e-sports arena, adding a competitive video game section to its sports-based sites to give advertisers greater reach to the growing community. The section will feature written and video content, blogs, match pages, team rosters, stats, scores and a live chat space.
Social media firm iNvolved Media has announced it will be expanding into Canada, hiring Karim Kanji, formerly of GroupM’s Catalyst, to lead operations as director of social media strategy. INvolved, which also has offices in the U.S. and U.K., runs paid campaigns across platforms and has previously worked with Canadian clients, but needed a local presence to better capitalize on opportunities in the market.
U.S.-based emotional marketing company MediaBrix has also opened a Canadian office, led by former Mode Media executive Brian Fields. The company uses potentially “emotional” moments in apps to deliver ads relevant to the frustration, elation or motivation they might be feeling.
Torstar has announced its Q4 earnings and, despite a 22.7% increase in revenue for VerticalScope, the digital media company Torstar purchased as 56% stake in last summer, it still saw a 4.9% decrease in total revenue compared to the same period in 2014, and a 6.7% drop for 2015 as a whole.
