The focus of this regular section is on agencies in Canada. Looking for agency business strategies and creative teams’ secret weapons? We tell all in Ad Missions.

The Publicis smw duo of copywriter Gary Watson and art director Chad Borlase has come a long way in a relatively short run as a creative team.

Watson arrived at Publicis in May 1999 after seven years with Ambrose Carr Linton Carroll.

Borlase, a native of South Africa, moved to Toronto three-and-a-half years ago from Vancouver, where he worked at Palmer Jarvis ddb and later Rethink. He says the move east seemed like the right thing to do for him and his wife.

‘I couldn’t stand the rain in Vancouver,’ says Borlase. ‘I came here because there is no rain and no tree-hugging, granola-eating people.’

He’s kidding – at least we think so. It’s tough to tell as Borlase and Watson have made a fast name for themselves as the creators of some quality comedy spots for clients like Microsoft and cibc. The two are very much like an old-time comedy team, with Watson playing the straight man, quick to toss in a wise-crack here and there, to Borlase, whose brash, rapid-fire sense of humor can catch one off-guard.

The two speak seriously about their jobs, however. Since joining up, Borlase and Watson have churned out a varied collection of spots. Within days of teaming up, the two were given the task of creating campaigns for two sizable new clients on the Publicis accounts list – cibc and Microsoft.

‘I had been [at Publicis] for two weeks when the Microsoft promotion came in and within two weeks I was already working on two or three tv spots,’ recalls Watson. ‘It was a great way to start.

‘We’ve been very fortunate because we got the first kick at the can on the first two big projects for the first two new clients,’ says Watson. ‘Publicis had won a lot of business on cibc and Microsoft earlier in the year. Chad did the pitching and I came on board after they had already got it all.’

The two have garnered a lot of attention for their Microsoft campaign, which dates back to the summer. Watson’s first job with Borlase and Publicis was a small campaign for Microsoft’s Hotmail e-mail service. The spot was originally intended to air on MuchMusic and was aimed at teens and the younger demographic that, over the summer, might have let their Hotmail accounts run out.

The spot features a finger replaying a message on an answering machine over and over. The message is from a young man, thanking a girl for the great time the night before. A second shot reveals a man (the girl’s father) to be the one sharpening a sword on a grindstone as he repeatedly listens to the message.

‘They came up with a promotional idea for MuchMusic, and we told them that was great but it’d also be great to do some branding spots at the same time,’ says Watson. ‘They ended up thinking it was a good idea and wanted to get it into the cinema.’

Borlase says in planning the spot, he and Watson considered a number of ways to best sell the ad to the client.

‘To sell it we took a bunch of ads we’d seen on MuchMusic, some of the scariest [material] we could find, and showed the clients the spots,’ says Borlase. ‘It was a clever way of selling. We [were able to] show them what their target market is so they know what they have to do to sell their product.’

Watson continues: ‘There are strategies to selling ads, not just strategies to making ads. Being able to come up with the ads is only half of the job. You actually have to get the client to buy the stuff.’

With the spot generating big laughs in movie theatres, Watson and Borlase were given the opportunity to continue working on the Microsoft account. This resulted in a three-spot campaign for Microsoft, featuring Hermes, Swami and the Grim Reaper. All three spots received accolades from other ad folks as well as the public. Borlase says the good work is largely due to the fact the client was so willing to to sit down with the creative team at the beginning of the process and explain what they wanted out of the campaign.

The directing team of Spooner & French co-helmed the Microsoft spots. It was the first time either of the Publicis boys had worked with a directing team, and they agree it was a positive experience.

Watson says the sag strike in the u.s. last summer was an unexpected plus for ad agencies in Canada.

‘We were really lucky over the summer with the sag strike because there were so many u.s. directors up here,’ says Watson. ‘That’s not to slag the Canadian directors in the least, but when you have the calibre of directors that are already up here from the States and they are all saying bring it on, it’s great.’

Watson and Borlase are also working on a new cibc campaign that features past prime ministers of Canada on the different denominations of paper currency.

‘The thought itself is a strategic thought but executed in an interesting way,’ says Watson. ‘There isn’t a lot of great bank advertising out there.’

‘It’s really hard to move some of the bigger [banks],’ adds Borlase. ‘By all means, cibc is one of the biggest banks there is, so it was really fun to do some of its stuff.’

The team gets through the slow times by freelancing. They say they have been working with a few Toronto post houses which run ads in trade mags and helping the shops create an identity.

Freelancing, known as the ‘f’ word in some places, is more than just permitted by the creative higher-ups at Publicis, says Borlase.

‘It’s not just tolerated by Duncan [Bruce, Publicis creative director], it’s actually encouraged so long as affairs are taken care of at home,’ says Watson. ‘You don’t have to sneak around after hours and not tell anyone what you’re working on. To be doing good stuff for your clients day-in and day-out, but also to be able to go out and get other clients and do really neat work for them, is great.’ *