SHAKE-UP AT CP COULD BENEFIT AD SHOPS
By Adnews Staff
The re-organization of CP Rail could mean more work for ad agencies in general and the Calgary office of BBDO Canada in particular. As part of a restructuring of parent company Canadian Pacific Ltd., CP Rail will cut staff and move its headquarters from Montreal to Calgary. CP management says that 80% of the railway's business is done in Western Canada. BBDO's Montreal affiliate, PNMD/Publitel, is CP Rail's main agency. But PNMD hasn't been working much for CP lately because the railway has being doing mostly direct marketing and handling it in-house. It has also been using Montreal and Toronto creative shops on a project basis, says Ken Key, assistant vice-president of communications and public affairs. Media advertising has been confined to business and trade publications. In the future, staff layoffs will also hit the marketing and sales department, now called the "commercial group," and this will likely mean the department will have to send out more work to ad agencies and graphic suppliers, says Key. While the railway will continue to have marketing offices in Minneapolis and Toronto, most of this function will be concentrated in Calgary. Key says he expects CP will work with BBDO's Calgary office. This is because BBDO has offices across Canada and CP has been happy with work done by PNMD in the past.