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.

Beverly Cornish is touting herself as the Canadian commercial production industry’s new head cheerleader, and looking at her resume, there may be few people more qualified for the job.

Through her newly launched company, A White Dog Productions, Cornish will spin her 26 years in the Canadian advertising biz into a consulting service for Canadian commercial production.

Cornish, of course, is well known in Canada’s ad subculture, especially around Toronto, where she currently lives.

She started her career as a receptionist at MacLaren McCann. There, she moved up the ladder over the course of 12 years, establishing herself as a producer. In 1986, she began another 12-year stint, this time with Vickers & Benson. She would leave as VP, head of broadcast, in 1998. Cornish continued her journey through the advertising world, following friend and colleague Brad Riddoch to Cossette Communications. Upon her arrival, she realized how badly the agency needed someone with her broadcast production experience.

‘Cossette was in such transition because it had just gotten General Mills and Bell [accounts], and they had never had a broadcast producer,’ says Cornish, relaxed on the sofa in her very stylish Richmond Street apartment, her white bichon frise, Sam, by her side. ‘I went in there to work with [Riddoch] and help him set up that department. It was a great challenge, because I had been doing production for so long and I had run departments before and this was an agency that had nothing in place. The workload was incredible.’

In her first year at Cossette, Cornish, who was named head of broadcast once again, estimates the agency produced about 160 television spots and 300 radio ads, all of which were done with freelance producers. She watched the freelancers’ work and decided that was the path she’d take when she left Cossette.

‘I’d always wanted to work freelance,’ says Cornish. ‘I figured I’d like to do that and have a little more time to myself. Also, I wanted the opportunity to work on the production house side because that was the one missing link.’

By going over to the production side of advertising, in a freelance capacity, Cornish wanted to satisfy several curiosities she had about how spot shops piece together productions.

‘Our budgets can be pretty unaccommodating at times,’ admits Cornish. ‘I really wanted to see how they made it work, and the only way to do that was to be faced with the problems that we are asking [the production houses] to solve for us. I figured I’d be a way better producer on the agency side, even if I didn’t like the production house side.’

With her new company, A White Dog Productions (remember Sam?), Cornish hopes to better serve the Canadian advertising community in two completely different ways. Firstly, she provides broadcast production consulting on a project basis.

‘I know all the producers in [Toronto] and I know their strengths,’ says Cornish, who also has producers in the other major Canadian markets working with her. ‘I want to work on projects myself, too, but if a project comes in, I know who is out there [to] approach about working on it. It’s not like I have a number of producers I have to find work for. I want to find the best producer for that project rather than just throw it to someone who happens to need a job.’

She has created this part of her new company based on the number of agencies in Toronto that do not hire staff producers or co-ordinators needed on a day-to-day basis. She sees this as being prevalent in smaller agencies.

‘There are so many small agencies out there that don’t have the need of the overhead of staff producers,’ says Cornish. ‘Most of the people who have started agencies come from larger, more established companies and they are used to working with a certain calibre of person. They will not hire or have a staff producer, but when they work on a project, they’d want to work with a high-end, competent producer because that is what they are used to.’

The second facet of White Dog is the international element. Cornish acts as a guide for American commercial clients and agencies, showing them there is more to the Canadian production scene than just some wintry locations and a low dollar.

‘I think we have a lot to offer in terms of production facilities that the U.S. doesn’t take advantage of,’ says Cornish. ‘They do a lot of shoots up here, but they don’t post here, they don’t finish their music here. I want to be the facilitator. I want to be the person to give an unbiased point of view on Canadian production. I’m not really here to make certain companies here in Canada happy. In this element, I am here to make American companies happy with us.’

Cornish assures she is not directly affiliated with any companies in particular, but she is confident enough in her knowledge of the community to give all the companies a fair shake in recommending them to a U.S. production. She says, too, that while many companies (post and music houses, for example) are very enthusiastic about White Dog, some production houses are worried because of their U.S. affiliations and representation deals. Cornish believes there is opportunity to be found everywhere in her plan, including possible exposure for some underutilized Canadian helmers.

‘We don’t get to talk about our Canadian directors, and when they are starting out, we don’t give them much of a break. So if there is an opportunity in the States, why not get some exposure for them? If a project came in, the production company could make a decision as to whether they wanted to put a director up for it. There has been some confusion where some people think that I’m trying to get Americans work. I’m not. This is all about having them come up to Canada.’

Cornish feels her endeavor allows her to combine her knowledge of both the creative and production sides of the ad business and roll it into a valuable service for the industry.

‘I’ve talked to so many producers in the States and they still want to work in the U.S., but if I can crack them just a little bit and get them up here, I know they’d never ever be disappointed,’ says Cornish. ‘I’ve got the best brand in the world to deliver, so to speak. I’m very enthusiastic and proud of what we have here.’ *

-www.awhitedogproduction.com