Grey’s “borderless” agency network model has let its global offices work more collaboratively – and the relationship between its Toronto and New York offices has led to more work being brought back to Canada.
As of mid-January, the Pringles Canada business is now part of Grey’s remit in Toronto, which James Ansley, SVP, managing director and ECD at Grey Canada, calls a “sizeable” account.
The borderless model is based on limited staffing in cities globally, but taking advantage of the global Grey network talent pool. It’s an approach also being pursued by sister agency Tank.
Grey New York was handling all the North American business for the Kellogg’s snack brand, but now Grey Canada, Ansley says, has been briefed on several Canadian-specific Pringles projects, beginning ongoing work the agency will be doing for the local market.
The new CPG account follows two health accounts that Grey Canada brought on last year through its borderless arrangement with Grey New York. It has been leading creative for GSK’s Preparation H and Nexium brands since late spring of last year, and has also been collaborating with the New York office on its Tums account.
This new business growth led it to expand its talent across creative, production and account services last year.
“Borderless has enabled us to hire globally recognized talent to bolster our roster and bring world-class thinking to these amazing new opportunities,” Ansley says. “This is a people business and you’re only as good as the people you have on staff.”
Michelle Spivak and Simon Au were hired last summer as creative directors to lead the GSK business. Spivak joined the agency after spending time at TBWA\Chiat\Day and Code & Theory in New York City, while Au came from with John St.
Dan Bache joined the agency in the fall as creative director to lead key Canadian accounts, including the recently won Echoworx business. Bache previously worked at Momentum and Anomaly. Copywriter Emily Ferraro, formerly of Anomaly and Juniper Park\TBWA, rounded out the creative hires, joining in July.
Neal Owusu also joined the agency last year as director of production, coming from the client side after leading production at Tokyo Smoke. The agency has also added to the account team – account executive Emily Turner came on last month, joining Sean E, who was hired in October.
Top row, left to right: Dan Bache, Simon Au, Neal Owusu and Michelle Spivak; Bottom row, left to right: Emily Turner, Emily Ferraro and Sean E.
