Rethink takes Toronto, opening up a shop in April

If 2009 was the year of the downturn, 2010 looks like the year of the turnaround, at least in the Toronto advertising community. With Red Urban and David&Goliath both set to open shop shortly, and doug agency becoming doug + serge with a mandate for expansion, there seems to be a lot happening in ihaveanidea’s old hometown. And now you can add Vancouver award show darlings Rethink into the T-Dot mix.

Cue the press release:

After a 10-year run as one of Canada’s most talked about advertising and design agencies, Rethink is ready to take on the biggest market in the country, with a new office on Spadina Avenue opening April 5th.

“We’re ready for more national work and we think national clients are ready for a real alternative,” says Chris Staples, who founded the 60-person Vancouver-based shop in 1999 with Ian Grais and Tom Shepansky.

Staples notes nearly half of Rethink’s business is currently with Toronto-based national clients like Sobeys and Bell Canada (Solo Mobile and Sympatico). The agency also does national work for A&W and Mr. Lube. In the past decade it has been named Canada’s agency of the year twice by competing trade magazines.

“Toronto-based clients have told us they want their agencies to be more efficient, more effective and more accountable,” Staples says. “We offer a truly integrated model that puts digital thinking at its core, plus a pay-for-performance plan that puts up to a third of our profit at risk, based on results.”

The Toronto office will be headed by a high-profile pair of digital marketing specialists. Managing director and partner Pema Hegan most recently founded GigPark, a popular social web start-up which was acquired last year by Canpages. Hegan is a Rethink alumni, having worked at the agency as an account director in 2003/04.

“It took an amazing opportunity to draw me back into the agency business,” says Hegan.  “My experiences in the digital world have helped me see the tremendous potential for clients to expand their marketing mix beyond the tried and true and to have meaningful conversations with people.”

Hegan will be joined by Toronto creative director Dré Labre, who left a creative director post at Tribal DDB, one of the country’s top digital agencies. Labre has also had high-profile posts at Blast Radius and MacLaren McCann.

The 4,000 sq. ft. Toronto office will have in-house resources that include data analysis, creative, account management, and even in-house production capabilities. It will also draw on the full resources of Rethink Vancouver.

Sounds like Rethink is ready to shake things up in this increasingly interesting environment.