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August 2006 - Strategy Magazine
Special Reports: Tribute: ICA's Rupert Brendon

Where 'fear of failure' gets you
As Rupert Brendon gets ready to step down from the ICA, his peers recall his tenacity - with fondness

by Lisa D'Innocenzo
page 53

He's been called "passionate," "committed," even "stubborn." However you describe him, one thing's for sure: When Rupert Brendon believes in an idea, he'll go to extremes to push it through.

This characteristic has been an underlying factor in his 40-plus years in the ad business, including the last 12 during which he's served as president/CEO of the Institute of Communications & Advertising (ICA). Alan Middleton, assistant professor, marketing at York University's Schulich School of Business, who worked with Brendon to establish the Cassies, puts it this way: "When Rupert gets a bit between the teeth, he goes for it."

Even now, with Brendon set to step down from his ICA post in December, he shows no signs of slowing down. He will continue to push for support for the brand communication program at Wilfrid Laurier's School of Business & Economics, a curriculum he was instrumental in getting off the ground. This has meant finding a university that would offer the program, and raising $2.5 million to make it happen. To get there, Brendon created the Marketing Communications Education Trust, then visited agencies and marketing firms to ask for support. He has so far raised $1.65 million. This has taken years.

Says Brad Davis, associate professor of marketing communications and research at the School of Business & Economics: "It would have died in the water without Rupert. No one got it, and he persevered, and I don't know many other people who would have stuck through that kind of nonsense."

For Brendon the need for the program was just too great. In the U.S., business students can receive a degree in advertising, but in Canada, until now, no such luck. He and Davis recognized that the discipline of marketing was in trouble. "It's getting excluded from the boardroom," says Davis. "We also want to get a group of graduates out there who think in terms of brand equity and long-term brand building," as opposed to cutting the marketing budget to save costs. The first graduates of the program had their convocation on June 8.

Frank Palmer, CEO/chairman, DDB Canada, one of the first agencies to contribute to the trust, says he was impressed to find out that Brendon personally donated $50,000. "I think it says a lot about [him]."

In explaining why he pushed so hard for the degree, Brendon, who considers it one of his proudest accomplishments, gives two reasons. The first was rational. "We need it, the Americans have it, the Brits have it, why can't we have it? There's a logic that said this must happen." His second explanation is more personal: "The thing that drives me on is a fear of failure. I hate to fail at something - I'll go on, backing up and finding a way around, underneath or over until I get there."

This was certainly the case when it came to the National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS), a service he decided the industry needed back in 1983. At the time Brendon was president of Benton & Bowles (later D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles) and he saw a lot of similarities between the Canadian market and that of England, where the Brit started his career.

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