Chris Hall, president and partner at Huxley Quayle von Bismark (HQvB), founded the Toronto agency with Andy Shortt and Mark Tawse-Smith with an aim to get consumers involved in its clients’ brands. With a moniker crafted as a humorous nod to its acronym-laden colleagues in the industry and an investment from ad legend Terry O’Malley, formerly president and creative director of Vickers & Benson, HQvB has since worked with clients including Travel Alberta International, Vincor Canada, Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum, Trent University, Area Fitness, The Canadian Newspaper Association and The Toronto Community Foundation. Mr. Hall spoke recently with the Financial Post’s Hollie Shaw.

Q What is your favourite piece of advertising?

A Maybe 10 years ago, there was a TV commercial for [BMW's] M5. It was very simple, a trial demonstration of one of those land-speed cars that was all tricked out and looked like a missile. The ad showed footage of about 20 seconds of this car going up to speed and slowing down. The shot pulls back, and you can see that the entire thing was being filmed by a camera [attached to] a BMW M5, which was going as fast as this land-speed car. It was smart idea, and it really spoke to what their brand was about at that point–more about performance and less about lifestyle. That was when they were calling them “the ultimate driving machines.” It was a really simple demonstration of performance.

Q How do you define good advertising?

A Good advertising takes you on a journey through the brand and makes a connection with somebody in a relevant way. It is more than just getting the word out there –it changes somebody’s mind, or reinforces someone’s decision to be a follower of that brand. Now, and more and especially what [HQvB] is trying to do is to get people involved [with brands] because we can. For a while you were seeing commercials just jammed with information; now you can connect emotionally on television, for example, and go somewhere else for the nuts and bolts.

Q You opened the agency in 2008, just as the economy was heading into recession. Do you think that was an asset or a hindrance?

A Well, we opened with no clients, which is also kind of crazy. Some startups end up being defined by that major brand, and we thought we could start something unique and attract people to it–to figure out our brand and to have people come for that brand. The recession hurt us because there were no projects coming up. Agencies were letting people go and you weren’t hearing about a lot of new business activity. But we managed to find projects here and there, which was good for us because we were small, and we could handle them. And there was always another project after the first project.

Q You created the global website for Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum. Did you think about crafting a brand message that resonates around the world, or were you looking to target local markets?

A It started as a classic Web design project– a function of pictures and moving parts. But we come from branding backgrounds, and it became a brand project. [Appleton] had a great story that needed to be told. They are a spirit from Jamaica, from this incredible place that is hidden away from the beaches; the geology only appears in two places in the world. When something is from a place like that, the spirit of the place emanates from the brand; the idea was to take that place and spread it around the world and tailor it to each market. The Exceptional Spirit campaign [has since] been used [offline] in the U.K. and Mexico to launch products in their markets.

Q Why is it important for agencies to brand themselves through creating projects that don’t come from clients?

A We spend some of our time as an agency developing ideas to take to people business ideas, properties or programs that we create. It’s just another way of doing business in the agency world. What’s cool about this area is that we can build ideas and get people involved in them. You have three media nowadays: You have got your own media, your earned media and paid media–traditional. If you can put ideas out there, you are apt to spend less and do more. One project we are building, for example, the “Hero Project,” is a social-cause brand that companies can get involved in. It’s a lot like Red [by the clothing giant Gap Inc.]. We are building a program where we will invite corporations to participate and designate a product that would be a “Hero” product. You would buy into the program, and participation [in it] would go toward the Military Families Fund that General Rick Hillier [former Chief of Defence Staff] put together to assist military families [in need]. We have seen research that says people have no problem giving their support to commerce–that is, rather than asking [consumers] to donate, they buy a product that they might have already bought: a Hero-branded Coke or Hero-branded gas. It becomes a brand that is synonymous with supporting our troops. The Hero brand stands for compassion for people who are in service to our country.

hshaw@nationalpost.com

See the article: http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/marketing/story.html?id=2968337#ixzz0nYrSGB9R