Hires and promotions
Ève-Marie Boutet has joined the executive team at Montreal creative agency Tux as chief of client partnerships. Boutet joins from Cossette, where she was a senior director. Before that, she worked as an account director at Bleublancrouge.
Ogilvy has made two creative hires in Montreal. Mourad Bouaziz joins as a copywriter and Hayley Lim as an art director. Bouaziz has previous experience from McCann and Bleublancrouge and represented Canada in the print category at the 2018 Cannes Young Lions competition, winning silver with Édouard-Jean Coune. Lim has worked as an art director at Rethink and Bleublancrouge, and has earned recognition at Cannes Lions and the Clio Awards.
Citizens and Collaborators has tapped Barb Matheson to serve as managing director. Her hiring comes as the Toronto design firm looks to broaden its services and footprint within the retail sector. Matheson has spent most of her career in the film and television industries, most recently as director of publicity and promotions at Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Canada.
New business and other news
Toronto PR shop Rock-it promotions has picked up Atlantis, The Palm as a client following a competitive review. With a three-year AOR mandate, Rock-it will manage all Canadian PR activity, including media and influencer relations and brand partnerships, for the destination resort in Dubai, UAE.
Live Nation Entertainment, a California-based entertainment company, has acquired a majority stake in Toronto’s Embrace Presents. Embrace, a venue operator and event promoter, will continue to run its businesses and properties, including the Danforth Music Hall and Velvet Underground venues in Toronto, as well as the city’s Electric Island music festival.
Media
GroupM, WPP’s media investment arm, has hired Brian Wieser to lead as global president of business intelligence. Wieser is a longtime researcher and analyst who joins Group M from Pivotal Research Group (for Media in Canada subscribers only).
Swedish audio streamer Spotify has reached profitability for the first time less than one year after going public, raking in the equivalent of CAD$146 million in profit according to its Q4 financials. The company’s ad-supported revenue is growing at a faster rate than subscriptions (for Media in Canada subscribers only).
After retiring from Corus Entertainment in October, Barb Williams will join CBC as executive vice-president in May. The post previously belonged to Heather Conway, who left the public broadcast in December (story via Playback).
