Clockwise, from upper left: Jocelyn Goyer, Meggie Lavoie,  Corinne Sévigny and Martin Bouchard. 

Quebecor’s Colab Studio has added new creative and business leads as its internal teams begin to take shape.

The telco’s in-house creative studio has hired creative directors Martin Bouchard and Jocelyn Goyer, as well as account directors Corinne Sévigny and Meggie Lavoie, to lead work for Videotron and Fizz, two key brands under the studio’s remit.

Sébastien Viau, who Quebecor named Colab Studio’s GM last November, says the telco recently decided to internalize its needs in terms of creative services for these two brands. Colab is contained within the TVA group, and all production, content creation, strategy, as well as some project management, were regrouped into one team, an internal agency with what Viau calls strong capabilities. Internalizing Videotron and Fizz was a discussion from last fall, and the transition to a fully in-house model is happening now.

“These four appointments will allow us to move forward with this strategy,” Viau says. “We’ll start building dedicated teams that will work for these two key clients.”

Videotron is Quebecor’s main consumer internet, TV and phone brand, while Fizz is a low-cost mobile and internet carrier launched in 2019.

Viau says it is building the teams to have the same servicing structure as they would have previously. What used to be attractive to creatives is different today, Viau says, with more of them interested in stability, and with this model it gives creative the chance to work in a big enterprise but keeping the creative lifestyle people like.

“Some brands have tried [this model] and the main challenge is attracting talent,” he says. “When you look at the whole [Quebecor] family, it’s a big roster, and it’s also a production house for agencies. To internalize creative services is becoming a strategy to keep staff internally, and also to have more of a colleague relationship than an agency relationship.”

Bouchard, who joins on Jan. 18, will take over creative duties for the Videotron account. He is a veteran of both the creative and tech teams at Cossette, having spent the last five years as an art director and creative director, after previously spending more than seven years as one of the agency’s developers. The two stints were broken up by five years as partner and CD at digital studio Five.

On Jan. 25, Goyer will also join the Colab Studio, handling creative for Fizz. He most recently founded Studiogym, but also spent more than a decade at Sid Lee, where Quebecor was among the clients he worked on.

On the business side, Sévigny has begun lead the Videotron account as of Jan. 11, having previously held stints at Cossette, BleuBlancRouge and FCB. Lavoie, formerly of Sid Lee and Bleu Blanc Rouge, will oversee the Fizz account, joining on Jan. 25.