CREATIVE TRIO FORMS AD SHOP
By Adnews Staff
Gee, Jeffery & Partners of Toronto has moved from collecting clients to collecting agencies. The ad shop has bought a minority share of a new agency currently being set up in Toronto under the name Garneau Wurstlin Philp Brand Engineers. The three principles in the new shop all worked together not long ago at Vickers & Benson Advertising in Toronto. When Bruce Philp left V&B to go on his own in December last year, Phillipe Garneau was promoted to replace Philp as executive creative director. Last month Garneau left V&B with senior art director Michael Wurstlin to start their own agency. Shortly after, they teamed up with Philp. "They (Garneau and Wurstlin) are wonderfully talented fellows," Gee, Jeffery chairman Alan Gee said yesterday. He told Adnews that his agency went after the pair as soon as word got out they were free. Gee, Jeffery got to know Philp's work first-hand when he helped the agency with a project this year for Rogers Cantel, one of Philp's clients when he was at V&B. "We're scared to death. We're opening with no business," Philp commented, adding that the young shop is now pitching a fashion account. Gee Jeffery is currently a passive investor in the new agency and is also providing administrative services. However, there is a possibility that the two shops will work together on accounts in the future, Gee indicated. He characterized Garneau Wurstlin Philp as "brand builders" and his own agency as a"brand driver."