Goodbye Zig, hello Crispin Porter + Bogusky Canada

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/agency/article.jsp?content=20100708_110653_7260
Zig officially merged with CP+B this morning with Chuck Porter, its founder and MDC's top strategist visiting Toronto to tell staff they now work at Crispin Porter + Bogusky Canada.

The merger was discussed seriously only a few months ago when Macaulay visited CP+B and pitched senior management on the idea. While MDC speaks often of making resources available across its agency network, Zig president Shelley Brown said "nothing is quite the same as feeling like we're part of one agency where you're just calling someone down the hall."

The merger also gives Zig the chance to scale its business up to the international level–something it has struggled with to date. Zig opened in Chicago in 2006 after purchasing local agency Hadrian's Wall. It never seemed to find its stride or a foundation client to build the business around. It broke the surface in 2009 with work for Playboy TV, but projects from the recession-beleaguered bunny brand have since trickled off. The merger means the closure of the Chicago operation.

CP+B doesn't need a presence in the region, so the small office will be shuttered by summer's end. Stephen Leps, who took creative lead at the shop in February 2009, left this past April and is en route to Leo Burnett Chicago. CP+B is now trying to find homes for the remaining Chicago staff at other CP+B offices.