Hires and promotions
Following the hire of Steve Miller as ECD of Fuse in March, Fuse Live, the agency’s experiential arm, has added new staff to support its expanded offering. Lindsay Ditkofsky joins as group account director, Alyson Kincaid as account manager and Amanda Fusco as production manager. In addition, Lily Evans takes on the new role of account coordinator after having spent the last year working in-field at Fuse.
Bleublancrouge has expanded its Montreal headcount by three. The agency has hired Audrey Gaucher and Hang Tan Tang as art directors, and Ismael Neiva as a senior strategist working on the Desjardins account. Gaucher returned to Montreal in 2018 after five years spent in agencies abroad, while Tan Tang has worked at DentsuBos and Brad. Neiva has experience from DentsuBos, 360i and KBS.
Luc Brousseau has joined market research firm Leger as VP of digital, where he will lead customer experience management and the company’s new online community platform. He founded Lanla, a company specializing in mystery shopper programs and customer experience, and has served as its CEO for the last 20 years.
Matt Roth has been named senior director of strategy and business development at Toronto PR firm Provident Communications. He has a background in corporate communications, media relations, issues and crisis management and integrated marketing, having most recently served as a senior director at Kaiser Lachance Communications.
New business
Iscream, a maker of products for “tweens,” has picked Montreal’s CanspanBMG as its new agency partner. The business win represents CanspanBMG’s foray into the “tween lifestyle” category. It will lead strategy execution for Iscream’s paid digital and social media advertising, and support its organic social media campaigns. The agency was recently tapped by The Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company and Wicked Vision Ltd, both children’s lifestyle brands.
Media
The Globe and Mail announced at a town hall meeting this week that it will be laying off staff in an attempt to cut $10 million from its operating costs. The newspaper has offered voluntary buyouts, giving employees three weeks to consider the offer, before proceeding to a round of layoffs if its target is not met (full story for Media in Canada subscribers).
Bell Media OOH division Astral has made a first move towards place-based advertising with the acquisition of Newad, a leading indoor-advertiser. As part of the deal, Astral will rebrand Newad’s 50,000 advertising assets (full story for Media in Canada subscribers).
Philippa Brown has been appointed the first female CEO of PHD Worldwide, a significant first step for the Omnicom Media Group agency. Brown previously served as CEO of Omnicom Media Group U.K. and is the first woman to be named to the role a global level (full story for Media in Canada subscribers).
