A cleveland ad agency has opened a Toronto branch office offering a combination of creative and production services.
Alan Glazen, head of Glazen Advertising, has entered into a partnership with Jim Banks of Reel Impressions, a small Toronto production house, to form Elixir Film and Music.
Glazen says the hybrid shop, which opened last month, is designed ‘to complement the marketing departments of companies that perform most of their marketing and advertising in-house.’
Glazen, who will serve both as a director and creative director at Elixir, says that, in his experience, an increasing number of companies do not require the account services, media buying and research functions traditionally offered by full-service agencies.
Rights to manufacture
‘Many companies today don’t even manufacture,’ Glazen says. ‘They only have the rights to manufacture and parcel out the work to actual manufacturers.’
He says such companies exist almost solely on the basis of their marketing expertise, so they are invariably inclined to maintain firm control over most of the marketing functions.
‘You’re not going to tell me they’re going to parcel out the marketing too,’ Glazen says. ‘They are the marketing experts.’
He says Elixir’s in-house production will appeal to marketers who know what they want in a tv or radio spot and do not want to deal with layers of agency personnel before they get it.
Glazen says he hopes to interest traditional full-service agencies in hiring Elixir for production work, but is prepared for resistance, since some agencies might view Elixir’s creative department as competition.
