It's hard to tell which is more important to Tony Altilia, president of Vickers & Benson Advertising, Toronto: great advertising itself or development of the people who can or will do that great advertising.

Of course, they're inter-related. While the premise of the advertising agency business is to do great advertising for clients - and Altilia is passionate on that topic - he's equally as passionate about finding and training the talent to do it.

Further, if after V&B develops that talent, some of it moves off to competitors or other segments of the industry, he waxes philosophically that "it's good for the industry."

V&B has always been known as a company where employees had a great feeling of family. The Creative Edge: Inside the Ad Wars, Randy Scotland's 1994 book on V&B, mentions how some people had grown too comfortable in the confines of the 'family' and had to be moved under chairman & CEO John Hayter's goal of making the agency the home of the 'big idea.'

But care for its employees has never gone away, and, says Altilia, if the agency does spend the time and training on developing good employees and then they get stolen, "Then shame on us. It means we should have done more to keep them. We should have treated them better, paid them more, promoted them. But if they do get stolen, the industry will be better for it."

V&B is generally known as a good place to work. Little touches like two tickets to the Cineplex Odeon theatres (a client) on birthdays, a flower for every employee on Valentine's Day, reimbursements for recommending people that the agency hires, financial assistance for educational courses, show appreciation for each staff member.

InterestDrawn by e-mail Address

But what intrigued Altilia, who came on board last July, was the company's e-mail address: ideaguys.com.

Lured back to Canada from Leo Burnett in Chicago where he had held positions as worldwide account director on Reebok and international account director on the McDonald's Restaurants business, he says, "I felt that here was a company that really believed in what they said. They wanted to be known for their creative that translated the big idea.

"My challenge is to help the agency deliver against that vision, and to deliver it ethically and with high moral standards. We want to make our clients rich and our mothers proud."

Celebrating 75 Years

V&B is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Founded in 1924 by Rex Vickers and Donald Benson as a small office in Montreal, today it operates in Toronto (with a few people in Montreal) as one of Canada's largest, independent, fully-integrated communications companies with more than 200 employees and an impressive list of accounts that includes the Bank of Montreal (for which it launched mbanx, Canada's first virtual bank), McDonald's Restaurants in Ontario (currently celebrating an agency-client 20-year partnership), and the Canadian Tourism Commission (for which it developed an industry-government partnership for Canadian travel marketing).

Under the leadership of Hayter, president since 1991 and chairman since '96, Vickers & Benson Companies Ltd. has had impressive growth, with an increase in revenues between '96 and '98 of 23% annually. Owned by Hayter, Jim Satterthwaite, executive vice-president and Terry Bell, executive vice-president, chairman of creative services, the company consists of Vickers & Benson Advertising (with '97 gross revenues of $29.2 million); Vickers & Benson Inc., a full service agency in Chicago; VBDI direct and interactive communications; MaxxMedia Inc., media research, planning and buying services; and Warwick & Associates public relations, promotion and special events.

Altilia isn't bothered by not being a shareholder.

"I've done that at Leo Burnett. It's not important to be an owner, unless you want it to get rich or need it for your ego."

Altilia isn't concerned with either at this stage in his career. A graduate of the business school at Sir Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., he started his career with the Campbell Soup Co., then moved into account management with Cockfield Brown, Enterprise Advertising and J. Walter Thompson, the latter as deputy general manager in Montreal. In 1988, he joined Leo Burnett in Toronto as vice-president client services director for the Wrigley, Seagram, Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods accounts, and in 1992 was named executive vice-president, chief client services officer, moving to Chicago the following year.

Altilia admires many things about the Leo Burnett operations and Chicago. In fact, he commutes to Chicago weekly until the end of this school year, following which his wife Jo and three sons, ages 16, 13 and 10, will join him in Toronto.

Business Ethics Important

But one of the things that drew him back to Canada was, he says, that the business ethics in Canada are more in tune with his own personality, morals and ethics.

"There are good folks in this country," he says. "I feel I can trust people. If you can work with people you trust, it's worth a lot of money and peace of mind."

But there was also the challenge of building V&B. "While people recognize the great creative coming out of here, like the stuff we've done on organ donors and for ExpressVu, Cineplex Odeon, Jhirmack, we're not yet perceived as a creative power house. There are signs we can do it. We have the ability and the talent. We're doing good. But perception is everything.

"I have every confidence that we can and will be. But there aren't a lot of creative opportunities in Canada, so everything you do, you have to hit it out of the park."

Altilia's role in this is to grow the agency, add value to existing accounts, contribute to improve the advertising product, and to enhance the profile of the agency in Canada.

"My strength is probably that I'm strong in identifying human insights that lead to ads and ideas, and assessing whether the ads deliver against the insights and are terrific ideas in their own right," he says. "They can't just be ideas for ideas sake."

Learn From American Belief

Is V&B's reputation as a very 'Canadian' shop a hindrance or an advantage?

"I don't pay much attention to that. Ideas can come from anywhere. If in creating the idea, the discipline is there and you're as good or better as [good as or better than] others in getting the job done, it doesn't matter whether you're Canadian or Bulgarian. You just have to believe in your ability to do it. If they can do great ads in Minneapolis or Portland or Virginia (creative hot spots), then surely we can do it in Toronto.

"We have a strong creative talent pool, fine art schools, and some of the best universities in the country. It's the belief that we can do it that's important. The U.S. is terrific in that they think they can, so they 'will'. We think we 'might'.

"Part of whether we're successful is the belief that we can do it. We have to be focussed on great ads based on great insights."

"Stop Whining"

Altilia gets annoyed with people in the industry moaning that they can't find good people.

"Whose fault is that?," he asks. "Go and recruit them. We're taking a leaf from Burnett and we're going on campus to recruit. We'll hire and train. And we'll maybe hire three in the belief that we'll keep one, and the others will go on to help the industry."

This year, account director Rob Grimbach went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., to recruit. Plans are to interview three or four prospects and decide to whom the agency will make an offer. Training will be conducted under Christine Andrews."

To keep talent within the agency, V&B has developed a program whereby every employee is evaluated annually based on whether he or she achieved personal objectives submitted six months earlier.

"If those objectives were achieved, good. If not, we look at why not and see how we can correct that," says Altilia. "Most people know if they're doing a good job or not. By formalizing the process, it forces discussions on subjects they may not want to talk about."

The agency imports speakers to inspire staff to think creatively. One is Roger van Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative. The agency's entire staff of 200 will attend for a creative thinking exercise, because good ideas can come from a billing clerk as well as a creative director, Altilia says.

While the agency tends to recruit on campus, V&B's owners originally got into the business without major university degrees. Is that still possible?

"It's more difficult today, but still possible, especially if they get in through the interactive media sector," says Altilia. "Two guys at Burnett were self-taught geeks who became partners. If you're truly passionate about the business, if you're a student of advertising and communications, someone will recognize that and hire you, especially in creative, or in planning, where being a student of life is important. If you're smart you can do it. Being smart and being educated are two different things.

Respect in Business and Personal Life

"This is a simple business and a lot of fun," he says. "If you care passionately about your work and who you're doing it for, and they like and respect you, and you do good work, other people will want to work there or use your agency. Clients respect agencies if they earn that respect."

Respect is important to Altilia. It's one of the reasons he encourages his own sons to get into such extra-curricular activities as hockey, lacrosse and music.

"It not only keeps them in shape physically, but helps them in their social dealings, learning from their dealings with different adults, and from mixing with people from various economic and social backgrounds."

Altilia's spare time interests revolve mainly around his sons and their activities, although he personally plays squash and golf, paints "a little" on vacations, and reads when time permits. A former Board member of the Montreal YMCA, he is president of the Evanston Youth Hockey Association and on the Board of the Toronto Squash Club. But this year has been hectic with travel, particularly the weekend commutes.

The experience of working in the U.S., however, gave him a certain perspective on the business. For instance, he saw that the Burnett agency has been able to work all across the U.S. for 2000 clients from only the one Chicago office, so he doesn't have any plans in Canada to open up a Vancouver office of V&B. (V&B did set up its separate U.S. office, under Bill Flynn, president, a year ago to house staff working on its Harris Bank account.) "You don't need an office everywhere to do the job," he says.

Should clients need services the agency cannot provide directly in an international market, V&B belongs to the Advertising & Marketing International Network (AMIN), an alliance of more that 50 independently-owned communications agencies, mainly in North America and Europe. This allows it to offer full services and retain the client while working with an independent agency that knows a specific market. V&B recently used AMIN to help a client planning to do business in Vienna.

On Being Independent and Canadian

But its own plan is to stay Canadian, says Altilia. "There's a certain psychological advantage. As a privately held company, it doesn't have to report to Wall St., or New York or Chicago offices. If a U.S. agency is under pressure, there's a huge commitment to deliver dollars rather than creative. For us, there's no one questioning. It's a very liberating feeling."

However, V&B is keeping its finger on the pulse of the trend towards huge media shops. "We deliver an excellent media company and product (through MaxxMedia). Size isn't the only measure of success. And alliances are not easy to make. We've stuck to our knitting and haven't been disappointed. We won't jump, but we won't be tortoise-like, either."

V&B is supportive of the Institute of Canadian Advertising's efforts to attract business from the U.S.. "We can work internationally," he says. "The biggest hurdle is whether that market will buy from a foreigner.

"It's hard to compete with the global set, but there's still a lot of Canadian business. However, maybe there are too many agencies in Canada as there are in the U.S.. It's hard to make money.

"But there's a lot of good work being done in Canada for international companies. Look at Ogilvy & Mather's work for IBM, Cossette's for General Mills and McDonald's, TAXI for Lever Ponds. And we were able to win Jhirmack. It's not impossible."

In fact, V&B was one of the first companies to do business with the People's Republic of China when it opened its doors to the western world. Dashan and Friends in Canada, a 13-TV series viewed in China by an audience of approximately 60 million, is a co-production between V&B, China Central Television and CTV network. Designed to teach business English and western business customs, the program is so successful that a second 13-week series in now in production.

Closer to home, V&B's use of new media and interactivity is becoming an ever bigger part of the business. "From the technical point of view, we've invested a ton in computers and new technology, and under Heather MacPherson (president of VBDI), we're putting processes together and selling it to potential clients. Interactivity and e-commerce is revolutionizing the communications category."

So what's in view for the 21st century?

"It's important to get the basic blocking and tackling done," says Altilia. "Changes in the industry will be incremental. The need for great advertising and the building and maintaining of powerful brands won't change. The need is for good advertising with human insights. The challenge is how to deal in new ways. That's why thinking creatively is so important."