Deacon Day Advertising and Scali McCabe Sloves, both of Toronto, will merge following The Lowe Group’s acquisition of New York-based Scali McCabe Sloves Group.
Deacon Day is an affiliate of British-based Lowe.
Although not official, it is expected the newly merged Toronto office and Scali’s Vancouver office will be named Lowe & Partners – SMS.
The transition will be completed next month.
The Toronto operation will be headed by a triumvirate that includes Gary Prouk, formerly Scali chairman and creative director, as chairman and creative director of the new agency.
David Deacon, Deacon Day president, and Stephen Graham, Scali president, complete the team, however, their exact titles are not yet known.
Vancouver staff will remain the same and retain present titles.
Lowe parent firm The Interpublic Group of Companies paid WPP Group US$32.9 million for Scali, but the final price tag could be as much as US$55.5 million, subject to completion of certain terms and conditions of the agreement.
Scali Chairman Marvin Sloves will join The Lowe Group board as vice-chairman.
Sam Scali becomes deputy chairman of the New York agency and of Lowe Group North America.
Frank Lowe, chairman and chief executive officer of The Lowe Group, has also taken on the role of chairman of the New York agency.
The fate of Cal McLauchlan, chairman of Deacon Day and The McLauchlan Group, has also not been decided.
Deacon says it will be up to McLauchlan, who is on vacation until the end of the month, to decide whether to stay with the group or go it alone with The McLauchlan Group.
More will be known this week as executives from Lowe New York will be in Toronto to meet with the Canadian team.
Deacon Day clients include Braun and Prudential Assurance accounts, which it shares with Lowe N.Y.
Scali lists Labatt Breweries of Canada, Purolator Courier and Ralston Purina Canada.
The new agency will also handle the English-language portion of the Diet Coke account.
Last month, the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta aligned Diet Coke globally with Lowe in all countries in which English is the principal language.
The assignment was previously with MacLaren:Lintas of Toronto.
The French-language portion of the Diet Coke account is with Marketel McCann-Erickson of Montreal.
Also part of the Lowe purchase were, in the u.s., Scali McCabe Sloves, New York; The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.; The Stenrich Group, a direct marketing agency in Richmond, along with Scali McCabe Sloves of Mexico; Audour Soum Larue/ SMS in Paris, and Rilova Zamorano & Rodriguez/SMS in Madrid.
Lowe did not buy the Scali offices in Germany, Brazil or Scali-owned Fallon McElligott in Minneapolis.
In cutting these agencies out of the deal, Lowe says it did not need a second Dusseldorf office because it already has a major presence in Germany and a strong office in that city.
In regard to Brazil, Lowe says expansion to South America is not part of its corporate strategy at this time.
Fallon McElligott was not part of the negotiations because it has been operating as a standalone agency, something that is not part of Lowe policy.
Fallon McElligott wanted to retain that status, and, last month, 30 employees of the agency bought it from WPP Group for US$14.6 million.
The 1992 billings of the Scali units acquired were more than US$550 million.
The Lowe Group now has 40 offices in 15 countries, with billings of US$2.6 billion.
