Let's Get Frank

Robin Brunet

Description

Frank Palmer is a legend in the Canadian advertising world. He not only developed Palmer Jarvis, one of the country’s most acclaimed marketing communications agencies (and then became chairman and CEO of DDB Canada after selling Palmer Jarvis to the multinational ad giant), he is also credited with changing the face of Canadian advertising.

“He’s the only Western Canadian ad man who went to Toronto and wound up owning the town,” says former employee and now friendly rival Chris Staples.

Fellow ad man Bob Bryant elaborates, “What Frank also did that no other agency owner was able to do was become a star. No one else personified a company the way he did. He became the iconic brand of his own business.”

Palmer has earned a reputation for obtaining clients at any cost. He has clawed his way to prominence with wit, an uncanny knowledge of what constitutes effective advertising, and a business acumen nothing short of encyclopedic. Having started out as the boy last chosen for the baseball team by his peers, he set his sights on living his life in the role of the chooser—not the one waiting to be chosen.

Palmer is a fascinating study in contrasts. Though he always took his role as an employer seriously, at times his private life was a mess. And while his bald head and thick neck give him the look of someone you wouldn’t want to encounter on a dark street, he’s a notorious trickster—be it by placing an octopus under a colleague’s pillow or lacing a friend’s coffee cup with dental anaesthesia. At the same time, Palmer is almost as well known for his philanthropic work as for his business acuity and practical jokes.

In this lively biography, Robin Brunet captures the exhilarating experience of being in the presence of such a charismatic and driven man. Brunet’s wealth of interviews with the man himself and those who know him best get to the root of what it means to be Frank Palmer.

Informations

• Publié par: Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
• Date de parution: 17 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781771621823
• Langue: English

Extrait

Let’s Get Frank
Let’s Get Frank
Canada’s Mad Man of Advertising
Robin Brunet
For Wendy:
Who knows you never get anywhere by being like everyone else.
Copyright © 2018 Robin Brunet
1 2 3 4 5 — 22 21 20 19 18

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca , 1-800-893-5777 , info @ accesscopyright.ca .

Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
P.O. Box 219, Madeira Park, BC , V0N 2H0
www.douglas-mcintyre.com

Edited by Sara Weber
Text design by Shed Simas / Onça Design
Printed and bound in Canada
Printed on paper made from 100 % post-consumer waste
Photos courtesy of Frank Palmer unless otherwise credited


Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $ 153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Government of Canada and from the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Brunet, Robin, author
Let’s get Frank : Canada’s mad man of advertising / Robin Brunet.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77162-181-6 (hardcover). --ISBN 978-1-77162-182-3 ( HTML )
1. Palmer, Frank, 1940-. 2. Advertising executives -- Canada --
Biography. 3. Businessmen -- Canada -- Biography. I. Title.
HF 5810. P 36 B 78 2018 659.1092 C 2017-906343 -X
C 2017-906344-8
Chapter One
Big Frankie P
Holding a large cappuccino, the unassuming client enters the reception area of a sleek downtown Vancouver office, where he notices a stuffed envelope on a nearby table. The unsealed envelope is labelled “Rattlesnake Eggs,” and it belongs to the person he is supposed to meet: a tall, bald man with the build of an ex-prizefighter, who is standing beside the table.
“Rattlesnake eggs?” the client asks as they shake hands.
“Yeah. An idea I had for the food service industry.”
“Food service? Like restaurants?”
The bald man sighs. “Don’t laugh. Snake eggs are a delicacy in some countries. But not in Canada, unfortunately.” The words are tinged with disappointment and disgust, discouraging conversation. So a silence ensues.
As the client sips his coffee, his eyes are fixed not on the bald man or the nearby receptionist, but on the envelope. How can eggs be so small as to fit into that? Probably dehydrated, he concludes. But if so, how can they possibly taste good?
After a long pause, the client asks, “Could I take a look? I’ve never seen rattlesnake eggs before.”
The bald man shrugs. “If you want.”
Still holding his cappuccino, the client picks up the envelope. It weighs almost nothing. He gently lifts the flap with one finger, and suddenly a sharp rattle pierces the air. He and his cappuccino jump backward.
After regaining his composure and dabbing coffee from his face and sweater, the client realizes the envelope contains a tightly wound rubber band attached to a noisemaker. He also notices the bald man looking directly at him, his eyes twinkling and a grin spreading over his face.
The gag is so corny that it’s downright funny, and so too is the fact that this thuggish hulk of a man perpetrated it. The client starts laughing, and the bald man joins in. The receptionist politely looks away; she’s witnessed her boss pull pranks like this plenty of times before, and she’s more concerned right now that it’s pouring rain outside, with a chance of snow.
The prankster and his victim are well aware of the lousy weather, but for a few dizzy moments it feels like summer to them.
***
The envelope’s owner, Frank Palmer, is a legend in the Canadian advertising world. He not only developed Palmer Jarvis, one of the country’s most acclaimed marketing communications agencies (and then became chairman and CEO of DDB Canada after selling Palmer Jarvis to the multinational advertising giant), but he is also credited with changing the face of Canadian advertising. “He’s the only Western Canadian ad man who went to Toronto and wound up owning the town,” says former employee and now friendly rival Chris Staples. “Previously, Vancouver was a graveyard for ad agencies. A million of them had come and gone over the decades.”
One-time rival Bob Bryant, formerly of Bryant, Fulton & Shee Advertising Inc., elaborates: “What Frank also did that no other agency owner was able to do was become a star. No one else personified a company the way he did. He became the iconic brand of his own business.”
In Canada, where those who rise to the top seem to do so almost apologetically, this is a rarity. DDB Canada president and chief operating officer Lance Saunders points out, “When I was hand-picked by Frank to help run DDB Canada in 2010, he had a celebrity quality: you instantly recognized him in a crowd and got nervous at the thought of approaching him. And he’s achieved this degree of recognition because, unlike the vast majority of Canadian CEO s in any industry, he was never afraid to stick his head above the hole and take a position on issues.”
The talent Palmer is most credited for is not his artistic skill (which is considerable) or a flair for writing (which Staples and many others say leaves a lot to be desired). “Instead, I think Frank’s greatness—and uniqueness—is his ability to create an atmosphere in which great things happen,” says Staples. “This is due to his almost childlike trust in people and his emotional openness. He’s the last of the relationship guys.”
Purely from a business standpoint, Palmer clawed his way to prominence, and his huge capacity for work remains undiminished. His ex-partner George Jarvis remarks, “When I first met Frank in the 1970s, I was dumbfounded by the number of jobs he could take on and accomplish well. Today, although I have long since opted for a different career and the role of a doting grandfather, Frank is still at it. He has out-worked, out-fought and out-competed everyone in the business, and now he’s the last man standing in the ad world.”
These qualities are matched by an enviable ability to foresee—and capitalize on—business and social trends. Saunders says, “The best of us have that ability to a degree, due to the voracious reading of trade journals, reports, a network of contacts and generally keeping our ears to the ground, but Frank’s ability to predict what will be hot and what will not is extremely impressive.”
Saunders adds, “Put it this way: he was the first to build an in-house social media department as well as a digital department, at a time when many experts thought these breakthroughs were just passing fancies. People thought he was nuts taking social media seriously, but look what happened. And today, we have fabulous big data and analytic groups in-house thanks to Frank’s foresight.
“But instead of dwelling on these successes or going around saying ‘I told you so,’ his only interest is ‘What’s next?’”
Long-time friend and colleague Dean Mailey says Palmer “can’t help but be embroiled in the future, no matter how tumultuous it may be: I too remember when social media emerged, and Frank, who was in his sixties, said to me, ‘I’ll make an extra million dollars by opening Tribal DDB ,’ which he described as a social media shop. I thought he was crazy.” Today, the award-winning Tribal DDB specializes in interactive marketing; it conducts digital campaigns, produces online video and uses other cyber tools on behalf of clients such as Pepsi, Volkswagen, Nokia and Adidas.
Colleague Hugh Ruthven points out that Palmer’s leadership style is unique. “He works well with senior management while staying very close and plugged in to the soldiers,” he says. “He has always done this, having a good system for wiring himself in to the daily action and buzz of what’s going on with clients and the business in general.
“He also has a pretty good nose for figuring out who the key influencers are, and then he stays close to them to obtain a constant read on what’s going on at a day-to-day level. He has a lot of patience with smart people and very little for people he can’t get creative thinking from. He tends to build a point of view about people quickly, which can be a strength and a weakness.”
Ruthven, who is widely regarded as a master brand planner and who once worked as an account director and manager at DDB Canada, goes on to note that Palmer also has a reputation for being a meddler, calling it “a fault that we all clearly love him and hate him for. The intent on Frank’s part is always to make things better. He wants to be in the centre of things, because that gives him purpose. This is his way of getting out of the ivory tower and making things happen.”
To which Saunders adds, “By meddling, Frank will keep nudging people until they go in the right direction, and yes, this drives some people around the bend. But once they’re on the path, he’ll step back and offer hi