Theo to be dissolved as Rogers moves creative to Sid Lee
In March, Theo was dissolved, making the dedicated agency one of the casualties of upheaval at Rogers the year prior.
WPP established Theo in 2020, pulling talent from John St., Taxi and Mindshare to service all lines of Rogers’ business. After it was disbanded, work for the Fido brand remained with Taxi (which held the account before Theo was created), while Mindshare held on to the company’s media duties. The rest of Rogers’ creative duties were given to Sid Lee without a review.
Breaking up Theo appeared to be one of the many aftershocks that radiated out from the conclusion of a public feud between the Rogers family for control of the company in late 2021. In January, Simone Lumsden – who was Rogers’ CMO when WPP pitched the business and created Theo – became the latest executive to leave the company. was hiring former Videotron and Quebecor CEO Robert Dépatie as president and COO of home and business in December. Following that, Myrianne Collin was promoted to fill the CMO position. Collin previously held the top marketing roles at Videotron during Dépatie’s tenure, a time during which the brand also worked with Sid Lee as its agency.
Senior staff at Rethink depart to begin a new agency
Spring is about changes and new starts, and this year that was especially true after creative partners Joel Holtby and Dhaval Bhatt left Rethink along with business lead Niki Sahni (pictured, above).
The trio would formally launch Courage the next month, a new agency backed by Dave Lafond and Serge Rancourt, who had previously created No Fixed Address (our story on that was our fifth-most read agency story of the year). Since opening its doors in May, Courage has picked up AOR assignments with CIBC, North York General Hospital and KFC, as well as attracted Ogilvy’s Tom Kenny as its chief strategy officer.
John St. names new executive team ahead of CEO departure
Stephanie Hurst left her job as John St.’s CEO at the end of June, but it wasn’t before helping the agency set up an executive team to guide the agency into the future.
The new leadership included Allison Ballantyne, promoted to president, and Matt Ball, who had been hired from Wunderman Thompson as chief strategy officer (previous CSO Megan Towers left the agency the month prior). The leadership also included a trio of existing John St. execs: CCO Cher Champbell, chief delivery officer Cas Binnington and Tishan Canagasaby, EVP of account management.
Rethink names new partners and local creative leads amid restructuring
In late October, Rethink restructured its leadership within its individual offices, giving each one a dedicated management team made up of positions overseeing each of its core disciplines. Caleb Goodman, partner and COO at Rethink, said this was done out of recognition that its previous partnership structure was “limiting” for the emerging leaders in the agency, and to give representation to every department in every office.
The restructure came with new positions for nearly two dozen Rethinkers, including Mike Dubrick (who was named CCO in Toronto) and Xavier Blais (who was named ECD in Montreal). The agency also made five more people partner: Falguni Patel, director of employee experience; Julian Morgan, group strategy director; and Zachary Bautista, Caroline Friesen and Robbie Percy, all creative directors.
Inside WPP’s new Toronto campus
Since two of the top five agency stories this year were about the opening of Courage, we’ll give you a bonus story.
It was a different time in 2018, when WPP first announced it would be the anchor tenant for the Waterfront Innovation Centre in Toronto. When it opened this fall, 2,000 staff from Ogilvy, Wunderman Thompson, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Grey, Taxi, Hogarth, Landor & Fitch and the media agencies in GroupM were brought together to work under the same roof.
But even though many companies are putting less of a premium on office space in an era when many people work from home for some (if not all) of the week, global CCO Rob Reilly and CEO Mark Read told strategy they still believed it was an important investment for the company’s Canadian business. As Reilly said, “the cobbler’s kids can’t have the worst shoes,” and the new space is one they hope will attract the industry’s best talent and help them do their best work once they arrive.
