Didzbalis and Corriveau have almost 50 years of combined experience in
marketing and communications. The two, both former CEOs and corporate marketers who managed agency relationships, see their services as necessary to guide client organizations through a growing maze of marketing agency choice. According to industry statistics compiled by Dun & Bradstreet's Hoovers, the number of marketing agencies operating in Canada that employ more than one person has grown to 5,644 in 2007, up from 3,946 in 1990. Research firm MANTA lists 6,496 marketing companies in Canada.

AgencyLink's thorough search and performance services are designed to help corporations, associations, government and non-profits find and optimize the best agency. AgencyLink will also offer client-agency relationship building services, compensation negotiation, conflict resolution and evaluation programs.

"Two of Canada's most trusted and savvy marketing communications professionals have come up with a brilliant business model - the provision of truly independent analysis of agency capability and effectiveness," says Robert Waite, senior vice-president, stakeholder relations and brand, Canada Post Corporation. "This should not only save their clients time and money, but will also likely lead to better and more valuable partnerships in the long run."

AgencyLink will work with clients that use one or a variety of external agencies for public relations, government relations, investor relations, branding, promotions, graphic design, interactive, direct marketing, advertising, writing, photography, video, corporate social marketing, media training and marketing strategy.

"We're the only company like this, offering the full services that we do" says Corriveau. She sees the agency search assistance program of the Institute of Communication Agencies as a complementary service.

"We're doing due diligence, dealing with geographies, seeing alliances, conflicts, building data bases. We can save clients time, no matter what kind of communications agency services they require."

Corriveau and Didzbalis are currently building databases and making contacts with potential clients. They are AgencyLink's only partners, but are interviewing seasoned advertising and direct marketing professionals with whom they may work in association.

A successful business builder, leader and marketer, Didzbalis has 30 years of experience in communications, marketing and in senior organizational leadership positions. He was founder and CEO of BenchMark Communications Inc., growing the public relations and marketing agency from a sole proprietorship into a full-service firm with 65 people and offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

His agency experience touched almost 100 client organizations during a 10-year span, among them: CIBC, Celestica, Industry Canada, Hewlett-Packard, Clairol, the Canadian Liver Foundation, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare and Oracle.

After selling Benchmark to Omnicom, he guided Porter Novelli’s integration with BenchMark into what is now Porter Novelli Canada. Along the way he co-founded a successful joint-venture agency within the DDB Group.

He recently held a broader leadership role as general manager of architectsAlliance, creative architecture and urban planning firm, guiding the firm’s human resources, legal, administrative, financial, marketing and operations resources.

Trained initially as a journalist, he spent eight years with IBM Canada in various management roles in public affairs, product marketing, media relations, event planning, and internal communications; and at Inco Limited where he was involved in numerous international communications initiatives.

Corriveau combines international business experience with a proven track record in corporate, agency, not-for-profit and association environments.

As partner, president and CEO, Corriveau grew the Canadian operations of Porter Novelli to one of the top PR firms in the country, providing strategic counsel to Almond Board of California, ATI Technologies, Bell Canada, The Canadian Film Centre, Centrum, Gillette, Hewlett-Packard, Laura Secord, Monster.ca, Ontario Hospital Association, RCA, Toyota Canada and World Vision.

She was then promoted to Global Network Director and Partner to drive interdependence between 100 offices in 55 countries to ensure consistent client service standards. She resolved conflict issues, invented processes, oversaw policies, co-ordinated performance audits and directed other network management for Asia-Pac, Latin America and Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Trained in public and media relations, she previously spearheaded media, employee, investor, community and client relations at The Dynacare Health Group; organized events and marketed services for the Retail Council of Canada; helped co-ordinate the launch and editorial of the Canadian Retailer and managed the national GST media tour. Earlier, she was editor for the Canadian Automobile Association’s employee newsletter and promoted the Town of Goderich as a top tourism destination in Ontario.

The Canadian Public Relations Society presented her with the ACE Award as Public Relations Professional of the Year in 2005 and she has received numerous other honours.