TAXI DELIVERS KNOCKOUT PUNCH - Strategy

media aoy bronze • PHD
Blazing trails
“What a year!” says Alain
Desormiers, president of
Montreal-based Touché!PHD, of
2008. “We had incredible growth.”
PHD added nine clients to its
roster, including Cirque du Soleil,
Société des Alcools du Québec
and New Balance. “There’s been a
lot of momentum,” confi rms Fred
Forster, president of Toronto-based
PHD. “There’s been a coming
together of the PHD network,
which washes over us in a positive
way and energizes everybody.”
Since the merging of PHD and
Touché! in 2004, the global PHD
network has grown from three
offi ces in North America and the
U.K. to include continental Europe,
the Middle East and Africa.
Here in Canada, the partnership
has been paying off. “When we
decided to put our two agencies
together, Alain and I agreed that
there was a niche for us to fi ll,”
explains Forster. “There wasn’t
really, as far as we could see, an
agency that was truly integrated,
with English and French.”
Both Forster and Desormiers
acknowledge that one of PHD’s
challenges in managing its growth
is fi nding and keeping the best
talent. The agency is one of the
few media shops to invest in
creativity with workshops and
company-wide exercises. Passport
Branded Content +
Unconventional Opps
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88 STRATEGY November 2008
to Innovation is an 18-month
management-level program that
was developed to foster
creative-thinking skill-sets within
the agency.
Balancing art and science,
PHD also uses innovative tools
and technologies to ensure it
produces work based in strategic
thinking, with a seamless
connection to creative.
In 2006, it began introducing
clients to neuroplanning – a
proprietary process developed
by PHD in the U.K. It gains
insight into consumer thought
and behaviour through
neuroscientific methods
combining psychology,
psychophysics, fMRI (functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
and marketing skills. And on
the data management front,
this year PHD started using the
new Eloda Protocol web tool
– launched by Montreal-based
Eloda in February – which is
designed for real-time tracking
and management of TV ads.
That kind of pioneering work, in
tandem with stand-out creative
such as the Quebec Foundation
for the Blind effort that was
shortlisted at Cannes and Dove’s
Sleepover for Self-Esteem, has
helped drive new business growth
over the past year. “They’ve really
demonstrated the value that they
add,” says Alison Leung, marketing
manager, hair and deodorant,
Dove Canada. “They want to try
new things, and they really want to
be trailblazers.”
“You can’t rest on your laurels,”
says Forster. “If you’re standing
still, you’re going to get passed.”
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BY JONATHAN PAUL
Locations: Toronto, Montreal
Number of employees: 148
New hires:
• Alex Gillespie, account director
• Angela Genovese, account supervisor
• Chi Ip, account supervisor
• Mai Duong, digital strategist
• Thucloan Lieu, digital strategist
• Stephane Hue, SEM strategist
• Miriam Bernath, research
• Lindsay Durrant, account manager
• Vanessa Porter, account manager
• Ryan Gilroy, account manager
New business: Belron Canada, Olymel,
New Balance, Cirque du Soleil, Agropour,
Structube, CMC Markets, Certifi ed
Management Accountants (CMA),
Société des Alcools du Québec