Letter To The Editor - Leaving On a Jet Plane

Despite Paul Vella's protestations, the real reason for Calgary born and bred businesses like Petro-Canada, Forzani Group's last TV project, A-Channel and WestJet are heading anywhere but Calgary's advertising agencies, is boredom and complacency.

It has nothing to do with ego or an inferiority complex. It has to do with the ingrained boringness of Calgary's advertising agencies.

As Vella wrongly states, the problem is not that local agencies in this city do a piss-poor job of promoting themselves, but that the local advertising agency industry assumes the local business will stay local, even when it goes worldwide.

Instead, Calgary agencies prefer to whine after the horse is decided to leave the barn.

The Calgary companies do not want another, 'brand evangelist,' but someone who is creative and knows how to produce marketing communications that work in the big world, that exists outside of Calgary.

Marketing is more than branding.

Marketing to the world means you need more than an advertisement with a cowboy hat and good old folksiness.

We have several companies involved in real worldwide advertising and marketing communications. They do not sit back and whine, but go out and compete on the world stage. And win.

White Iron is one.

Rare Method is another.

Critical Mass is another.

Despite what Vella says, WestJet is another. An airline that has survived in the real world of trying to make a buck in the airline business. It is an airline that has survived the on-slot of all comers.

Vella should be asking the Calgary advertising community to apologize to WestJet for treating them as a cash cow, and assuming they could be bad and uncreative and still expect WestJet to use them. It looks like it took a, 'new amateur marketing guy,' to show the real side of the Calgary advertising community and its uncreativeness.

We do have all the tools in our creative marketing communication's tool box here in Calgary.