Marie Robertson

Producer, BBDO Canada

No, I don’t feel endangered. The nature of this business is constant adjustment. If you think about the last 10 years, before the fax, or computers, or film versus tape, there are editors in this city who have never cut on film before. We’re one industry that manages to adapt quickly to whatever is coming along. We may not always be well in front of it, but we’re in front of it.

Things are going to happen, whether it’s interactive television or the Internet, and most agencies are already exploring how to make those things work for us and our clients. Unless television becomes obsolete, I can’t see television advertising becoming obsolete.

One thing that’s been really promising has been getting the Red Dog campaign picked up by the u.s. There’s a lot of opportunities out there. People seem to be hooked on the idea that what we do is adapt to the u.s. influence, but to me, we should be thinking that the u.s. might want to adapt to the headway we’re making up here. I think we should begin thinking internationally.

I know it’s not that basic, and I don’t mean to sound like a Pollyanna, but I think if we think of ourselves as global players, we’ll be treated that way.

The creative people are definitely on top of what’s going on out there. They’ll come to me as a producer with ideas on how to use the creative on the Internet, or something of that nature, and ask me to find out who is doing it. This happens before they get to the client, so we’ll be able to tell them exactly what the idea and the distribution plan are. We do explore how it can work on the new media, depending on who the client is and what product they’re selling.

I think every agency must be doing that kind of thing now. It’s not as simple as making a 30-second commercial and an outdoor campaign. You have to think about where the 12-year-olds are going to be and what can we do to get their attention.