TAXI DELIVERS KNOCKOUT PUNCH - Strategy

media aoy media director of the year
Neve boldly leads new media thinking
Bruce Neve
president
Mediaedge:cia
Toronto
76 STRATEGY November 2008
BY CAREY TOANE
In the search for this year’s Media
Director of the Year, no name
came up more often than Bruce
Neve’s. The new president of
Mediaedge:cia was lauded as a
highly creative and intelligent
leader with an eye for nurturing
relationships with suppliers and
clients – as well as among his
own staff.
“He still likes to be in the
thick of it,” says managing
partner, connection planning Jef
Combdon, whom Neve hired to
lead the Molson business eight
years ago. “He likes the planning
and strategy and coming up with
ideas, and it’s welcome because
he contributes a lot and inspires a
lot of people to be like him.”
Over his 12 years at Mediaedge,
Neve has earned a reputation
for bringing in new business
and establishing new media
partnerships. In 2002, he played
programmer across the CHUM
network’s channels for an entire
evening to create “Here’s to
you, Canada,” a showcase of
Canadians on the world stage
and a platform to launch
Molson’s fi rst post-“Rant”
campaign (Neve brought in the
business in 2000).
In 2005, he struck a deal with
TSN on a “three-screen” program
during the World Junior Hockey
Championships that stretched
over television, web and mobile
– a rare accomplishment at
the time.
This past year he worked with
Facebook to get unprecedented
access to member data for his
www.strategymag.com
Molson Canadian and Coors
Light clients.
“He’s very smart, strategic
and forward-thinking,” confi rms
Lee Doyle, Mediaedge:cia CEO
North America, who has worked
with Neve pitching clients for the
past half-dozen years. “Bruce
has done a very good job as an
evangelist for online media, for
all the benefi ts it can bring to a
client’s communications plan,
[and] has done a lot to increase
the importance of online activity
in the marketing communications
mix for all of his clients.”
A self-professed gadget-head
and sci-fi fan – he is the proud
owner of a Battlestar Galactica
series box set – Neve is
enthusiastic about emerging
technologies. “We’ve been in a
period of incredible change in the
industry, driven by digital media
and new consumer behaviour,”
he says. After Neve identifi ed
this opportunity for growth, he
set about investing in his digital
department to attract more
business – a gamble that has
worked thus far.
In the media business for over
20 years, Neve graduated with
a degree in mathematics from
the University of Waterloo. After
eight years as VP media director,
he left Y&R in 1995 to head up
the media business at Saatchi &
Saatchi. A year later he came back
to GroupM to be part of the launch
of Mediaedge:cia in Canada, and
was groomed to take over from
former president Bruce Grondin,
with whom he’s had a two-decade
long working relationship that
earned them the nickname “the
Bruces.” Neve stepped into the
role of president when Grondin
retired in June.
Nobody in the offi ce was
surprised. “He was just a natural
leader that everyone looked
towards, and it was a given that
he would be the successor,”
says Combdon. “He is very
competitive, he’s driven to win.
He plays a lot of sports, and the
same thing refl ects on business.
But he’s not a bad sportsman;
he’s also there when you lose.”
It might be too early to tell what
Neve has brought to the agency
as president, but Doyle says he’s
been good for morale. “He’s very
collaborative,” he says. “If you’re
going to change the way people
operate, and if you’re dealing with
bright, talented people, they need
to be able to participate in setting
the direction for the agency. And
that’s one of Bruce’s qualities that
I really admire.”