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Born on the cusp of the new millennium, Toronto’s agencythreepointzero is carving a niche for itself by focusing its sights squarely on the future – converging media.

The seven-month-old ad agency offers clients full and personalized service for all aspects of a campaign, from tv and print to the increasingly important interactive components. What sets it apart, say its principals, is that it can ‘build a campaign from the tv ad down [and] from the website up.’

Launched in January by former Young & Rubicam associate creative director Jon Freir (now 3.0 creative director), former head of MacLaren McCann Interactive Dave Chant (3.0’s strategic director) and British businessman Trent Fulton (director of client services), the strategy appears to be working. The upstart’s growing client list includes Roots Canada, The Digital World Cup, House and Home, Project Navigate, and Webhosting.com.

Freir met Chant during their overlapping time with MacLaren, shortly before Freir left for y&r. Chant was still an audiovisual man at the time. The two became friends and at several meetings over drinks discussed the many things they would implement at an agency if they were running the show.

‘We both had the same complaints,’ says Freir. ‘[We wondered] why we couldn’t have the same marketing muscle on interactive [as for print or tv]? At agencies you get these 25-year-old kids who write code and do that stuff but they have no idea what marketing is and what brand-building is. One of the inescapable conclusions we came up with was, if I have a client and I am multimedia – television, radio, print, interactive – and we are all on the same team working on all of it, why does some work get funneled down to the interactive department and this to that?’

He says this train of thought led to the creation of agencythreepointzero and its focus on converging media. It also helps to better explain their choice for a name.

‘Agency 1.0 is a Leo [Burnett], bbdo, y&r, or MacLaren – traditional media agencies,’ says Freir. ‘Agency 2.0 are these little Web shops who build sites and by default get the Web advertising and all of that. They have a great knowledge of where the Internet is going but have no idea what marketing is or what a brand is. Agency 3.0 is sort of the combined strengths of the two.’

Freir says clients enlisting the help of agencythreepointzero to handle their campaigns can be certain their brand won’t be passed around to various creative departments.

‘If you come here you know that I’m going to be writing your interactive banner as well as your tv ads as well as your radio ads, and the art director is going to be working on the tv as well as your interface design.’

‘Marketing guys and ad guys’

Sadly for Freir, agencythreepointzero can perhaps best be described using a term he loathes.

‘The agency is full-scope and fully integrated in the true sense of the term,’ says Freir. ‘That is such a lame term [‘fully integrated’] because everybody uses it so much it doesn’t have much meaning anymore. But the unique selling proposition that we have is that we can build a campaign from the tv ad down and, unlike most, we can build a campaign, a brand in fact, from the website up.’

A common misconception about agencythreepointzero is that Freir and company design websites, which is not the case at all. He says they can do the marketing and therefore design the interface and graphic elements, but beyond that he and his cronies are ‘marketing guys and ad guys.’

Winning the Roots account is exciting for Freir as creative director because it offers a chance to put the agency’s business plan into action. He says his group will be creating tv ads and an outdoor campaign based on Roots once again being a Canadian sponsor for the Olympics. The agency will also be working on the online advertising for Roots.

Young blood

Freir says in terms of television advertising, he is very excited by the new directorial blood coming out of this country. He believes in today’s ad market, the younger directors have more opportunities than many established directors.

One of these advantages, says Freir, is that the younger directors’ asking prices aren’t nearly as high as those who are already established. By the same token, however, there is a certain stigma attached to an established director who hasn’t helmed anything really noteworthy for a while, in which case agencies tend to shop for younger talent or pan for gold in the States.

‘The directorial talent here is really great and it is getting a lot stronger.’

Unlike some other Canadian creative directors, Freir is positive, yet still honest, about the work Canadian directors and production companies are churning out these days.

‘I think it is probably at its strongest level in a while,’ he says. ‘Obviously the recent showing at Cannes is going to effect anybody’s judgment, but spot for spot there are not necessarily a lot of amazing ones from Canada. Still, there are more spots I’d rather watch than turn off.’

Now in a casual recruiting phase, Freir wants more people to help handle the increasing workload. He and his partners recently hired a new producer (Tanja Friedrich), copywriter (Mike Halminen) and art director (Lyranda Martin-Evans), but says there are several desks unoccupied – for now.