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.

Janice Bisson may be Cossette Communications’ new head of broadcast production, but she says she is happy just to be part of the team. And after a break from the wacky world of advertising, she is enthusiastic about being back at it.

With 10 years experience to her credit and a sibling in the business, Bisson is a name not unfamiliar to those in the Canadian advertising world. Mark Bisson, executive producer at Mad Films, is Bisson’s brother, and she credits him with her start in the biz.

‘[Mark] had been in advertising for about six years before I [got in],’ says Bisson. ‘He sort of led me down a path in advertising. When I finished university, he suggested I become an agency producer. He thought it suited my personality.’

Bisson started out by taking a receptionist post for Boardwalk Films, working with her brother, before landing a job at TBWA ChiatDay in Toronto. There, she started working at the agency as the assistant to producer Bette Minott, whom Bisson credits as a mentor and major influence.

With a little help from Minott, Bisson rose to the rank of agency producer, working on campaigns for Shopper’s Drug Mart and Nissan.

In July 1997, Bisson decided to leave Chiat to join friend Jeff Finkler, then creative director at Leo Burnett in Toronto. She retained a producer’s post, working extensively with the creative team of Jim Garbutt and Brian Hickling on the Bell account and others. Her work obviously impressed the right people, for after about a year into her stint at the agency, Finkler surprised her with a significant opportunity.

‘Jeff made me the head of broadcast at Leo Burnett, which was really exciting,’ she says. ‘Leo is a very big agency with a lot of production, so it was great. I had a chance to help build the department and Jeff was always very supportive of me.’

Although she was shocked by the appointment, and perhaps a little reluctant to accept, she realized it was a major step forward.

‘It was not something I was looking for at the time,’ says Bisson, ‘so it was quite a surprise for me. A job like that is not going to get offered to you every day, so when it happened I had to accept the challenge. There was no way I could turn down such a great opportunity.’

After a few years in that role, Bisson found Leo Burnett had become a different place. Finkler had accepted a job with Leo in Chicago, Hickling and Garbutt had left, and about a year ago, Bisson was ready to leave too. She says she felt she needed to drop out of the biz for a while and take some time for herself. She officially resigned from Leo Burnett last spring, satisfied with the job she had done for the agency.

Bisson returned to the advertising world in January after an old friend contacted her with a new proposal.

‘Jim Garbutt was now the creative director at Cossette,’ she says. ‘He approached me and said he was looking for a partner to ‘lead the creative product’ over at Cossette. Because it was just such a great opportunity, I was happy to come back into the advertising industry.’

Bisson was named the head of broadcast at Cossette, and says the timing of her arrival was just right.

‘Cossette had just won McDonald’s and had appointed a new president, Philip Donne,’ she says. ‘I knew [Donne] while he was president at Kellogg, because I used to produce a lot for Kellogg while at Leo. With my previous working relationship with Jim, we have a real strong bond of trust and he has a great creative mind.

‘I think what both Jim and I want to do is what every creative director and head of broadcast wants to do. We want to make sure that the quality of the creative coming out of Cossette is at a high standard and that the production quality is at a high standard. We are just working as a team to make it a great place to work, with a very supportive atmosphere.’

As the head of broadcast for a major ad agency, and with a brother running one of Toronto’s most respected production houses, Bisson knows her commercial production. Right now, in Canada, she likes what she sees.

‘I am a huge supporter of Canadian production companies,’ she says. ‘I think there is an unbelievable amount of talent here. The only way I can do a job as big as mine is by having great suppliers that I can trust and count on, and who pull through for me over and over again.’

Bisson says she is ceaselessly amazed by the quality of creative work coming from Canadian creatives. However, she feels Canada could benefit from some extra bucks to sink into production.

‘Because we don’t have a lot of the dollars to put behind huge productions, the creative teams have to be really smart in their thinking and come up with ideas that we can produce instead of being able to hide behind big productions,’ she says. ‘I think you see a lot of great boards coming out of Canada and you hear it from directors. I do wish we had more money. Sometimes we do have big budgets and I’ve been blessed with clients that actually have money, but it’s always a challenge.’

Even with the challenges, Bisson remains happy to be back in the saddle. *

-www.cossette.com