Canadian-Based Network Joins Young & Rubicam Brands Roster of Companies

WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY) announced today that it is acquiring the TAXI creative network.

TAXI, founded in 1992 in Montreal by Paul Lavoie and partner Jane Hope, has built its reputation on its highly innovative creative work. It has five offices in Canada, as well as an agency in New York and one in Amsterdam.

The TAXI leadership team will continue to drive the organization, with Lavoie retaining his role as Chairman and Rob Guenette serving as TAXI’s CEO.  Paul will report to Peter Stringham, who is Chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands and TAXI will become one of the Young & Rubicam Brands agencies.

“TAXI is a fantastic addition to our group. It will fit perfectly with the 30 companies at Young & Rubicam Brands that span the marketing communications spectrum offering another exciting dimension to create innovative integrated  solutions,” said Peter Stringham. He added, “We also believe that their strong client roster will benefit from the wide range of resources and talents at Young & Rubicam Brands.”

“TAXI is extremely proud of what we have accomplished as an independent over the past 18 years, including US expansion in 2004 and Europe in 2009,” stated Lavoie. “The time is right for a partner as we continue to realize the potential of the TAXI brand around the world.”

“Our talks have focused heavily on sharing expertise and opportunities,” explained Guenette.  “For our clients, this represents access to a broad knowledge base and on-the-ground responsiveness,” he added.

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About TAXI

TAXI Canada Inc. (www.taxi.ca ), TAXI Inc. (www.taxi-nyc.com) and TAXI Europe BV (www.taxi-eu.com) are companies with core expertise in Strategic Planning, Advertising, Design, Interactive, Relationship Marketing and Content. Founded in Montreal (1992), the agency’s offices include Toronto and TAXI 2 (1992, 2006), New York (2004), Calgary (2005), Vancouver (2007) and Amsterdam (2009). TAXI was named Canadian Agency of the Year by Marketing Magazine in 2001 and 2005, and Strategy Magazine’s Agency of the Year award in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008. TAXI New York in 2007 and 2008 won the O’Toole Award for Creative Excellence from the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

About Young & Rubicam Brands

Young & Rubicam Brands is a global network of preeminent companies focused on building strategic partnerships to deliver global excellence in all forms of communications. Our family of companies focuses on the delivery of the broadest and most innovative of integrated solutions for our clients, a collaborative process long described as “Best Alone.  Better Together.”  Young & Rubicam Brands includes Young & Rubicam, BrandAsset Consulting, Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe, Enfatico, Landor, Robinson Lerer & Montgomery, Sudler & Hennessey, VML, Wunderman, among others.  Peter Stringham is Chairman and CEO.

About WPP

WPP is the world’s largest communications services group.  Through its operating companies, the Group provides a comprehensive range of advertising and marketing services including advertising; media investment management; consumer insight; public relations and public affairs; branding and identity; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion and relationship marketing and specialist communications.  The company employs over 141,000 people (including associates) in 2,400 offices in 107 countries.  For more information, visit www.wpp.com.

Contact:

New York
Aviva Ebstein
Young & Rubicam Brands
212-210-3532
aviva.ebstein@yr.com

Toronto
Lisa Jakubiak
416-979-4213
lisa.jakubiak@taxi.ca

Coupons used to be boring, and a lot of work. Think of all those hours spent at the kitchen table searching for the perfect coupon, then searching for the scissors, and then cutting it out. After all that effort you had to stuff it into your already overstuffed wallet only to have a clerk shoot you a dirty look when you handed it over. Luckily we now have sites like Groupon injecting a little fun into the mix. They have taken something old and tired and turned it into a social force, they’ve actually made couponing fun.

Groupon has spread across the US, Canada and Europe. Marketers both big and small are experimenting with the site, trying to learn what catches the crowds’ attention. Global retailers like Gap are featured one day, and then Bob’s Local Deli the next. It’s clear that there is value in Groupon’s proposition, although not for everyone. But how much do we know about what works on Groupon? We looked a little closer at the results for Vancouver and Toronto to see if there was a pattern worth exploring. While not a statistically significant investigation, we did see some interesting results.

There does appear to be a sweet spot when it comes to the Groupon deal. Those promotions that fell between 50-70% off and were up to $25 had the best sign up rates.

Of course not all offers are the same. The GAP offer back in August was hugely successful, it received 8,964 purchases in Toronto alone, but it is a national retailer with lots of pull. How do other categories besides fashion fare? Most offers fall into one of three categories: activity, food/drink or health/beauty. It appears that local activities are on average more popular than deals in the other main categories of food/drink and health/beauty. Groupon could be viewed as a quasi city guide, encouraging people to get out and explore where they live. Or it could be argued that activities tend to have a wider appeal than a particular restaurant or spa. Whatever the reason, marketers can on average expect between 1,115 and 2,324 purchases in their respective categories.

Groupon is still growing and its users are constantly evolving. The patterns we see today will change rapidly, but for now it appears there are some rough parameters for success. If you keep your price below $25 at the 50-70% off mark, you may come out alright.

There was a recent article in Marketing Magazine about a new effort to convince Calgarians to immigrate to Regina Saskatchewan. This struck a chord with me because I was born in Calgary and spent the early years of my life in Regina. Regina has always been “home” to me. My grandparents lived there, and as I moved from place to place we would always make time to return to Regina, our home plate. I now live in Toronto.

I found this idea of west stealing from west quite interesting. As someone who lives in the east who visits the west often, I’m fully aware of that cultural divide. This appears to be either the invention or the illustration of a new divide.

As I dug into the campaign I quickly realized that the supporting website (HelloRegina.ca) was less than stellar. It’s brocheur-ware at its most shallow. The site’s design and photography are as shallow as one would expect, but what really struck me was the use of pseudo-statistics to try to quantify their marketing position. Here are some examples:

All this statistic really means is that Reginans are more likely to rate their quality of life higher than in Canada’s largest cities. This could be negative. It could mean that Reginans are more delusional or more unaware of what they are missing. In effect it means they’re more content. In places like Toronto that (for better or worse) have a much more “driven” population, which is common among cities on the easter seaboard of the US, it follows that they might be less content and more likely to rate their quality of life lower.

Is the ability to find a doctor one of the top 10 reasons to move to Regina? Really? How far down the list of statistics did they have to go before they found this one? I think the sense of desperation conveyed by this statistic goes against the overall campaign promise.

Biking is fantastic, and I’m sure it’s a great reason to live in a smaller city. But I don’t understand why they felt the need to add statistics to support this point. The list of compared cities is unforgivable. Calgary and Edmonton are just as cold as Regina in winter and are much more sprawled making them an unfair comparison. This leaves Oshawa and Kitchener. Oshawa is a declining blue-collar auto manufacturing town that has turned into a bedroom community for Toronto. Of course you don’t ride your bike to work if you live in Oshawa, you work in Toronto. Kitchener’s a weird one, and I’m not sure why this statistic would be lower there, but they obviously chose it simply because it was lower.

This one is the icing on the cake. If anything this is a disadvantage. If you live in Regina you aren’t leaving it. However, if you’re commuting to Regina from Calgary (as is more often the case) then this is an advantage. This one is special to me too because my grandparents lived right under the flight path of runway 31. My sister and I would dive under the water in their backyard pool to escape the noise of the jets.

Obviously this campaign is a bit of a reach, as any Canadian knows. It has been more and more difficult to attract new people to smaller Canadian cities with aging populations and reduced local business economies. Still, I’m sure that somewhere in the mishmash of these bent statistics and strange marketing positions there’s a compelling reason why a Calgarian might want to move to Regina. Regina is a lovely place. There has to be truth in advertising, at least sometimes, but this campaign misses the mark.