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June 2007 - Strategy Magazine
Taxi Tribute

The timeline

by Lisa Sylvain
page 50

Summer 1992

Taxi Incorporated

Taxi is born in Montreal with the credo "doubt the conventional, create the exceptional." The premise, explains cofounder Jane Hope, is that the new shop will doubt solutions before adopting them. And then there's the meaning behind the moniker: that the number of people needed to do great work should be able to fit in a cab. Hope and partners Paul Lavoie and François Sauvé borrow space in a friend's studio and rent tables and computers to pitch new business.

Taxi wins Reactine

One of the agency's early clients is Pfizer. Taxi has since credited at least some of its huge success for the pharmaco - need we say Viagra? - to the lucky pennies creatives have thrown into the Pfizer fountain before every presentation.

Spring 1993

Taxi wins YTV

Taxi again borrows office space, this time in Toronto to pitch YTV. Despite the fact that the agency places a handmade sign over the company's logo on the front door, the pitch goes well. That is, until the client asks to use the phone. Quick to respond, Lavoie promises that if they win, they'd actually rent the space and get working phones. YTV signs up with Taxi and the shop creates irreverent ads for the net, like this one dissing school.

YTV needed to migrate from a kiddie network to a tween destination - note the high school reference - to access tween demo ad revenue. Phase one promoted specific shows, while the "You rule" campaign was phase two, linking the irreverent self-importance of tweens to the brand.

Fall 1995

Taxi turns heads

Paul Lavoie is likened to Jerry Della Femina in Creativity magazine. The only difference, quips the New York-based pub, is that Lavoie has talent. Quite a statement, considering Della Femina was once an icon of the New York ad industry (not to mention also outspoken

and bald).

Spring 1996

Taxi wins Clearnet

The new cellphone brand is a major coup for the agency. After a successful pitch, Taxi creates an initial campaign for the Clearnet Mike Network. Then, in 1998 Taxi debuts the now-ubiquitous spokescritter campaign for Telus. The mobile company's CEO allegedly makes the comment that he paid "one million dollars for a duck." In fact, he pays the sum for what will soon become one of the most recognized brands in Canada.

Fall 1998

Rob Guenette meets Taxi

Jane Hope and future Taxi Toronto president Rob Guenette meet at an awards show. Guenette eventually meets Lavoie and they too hit it off. Soon after he becomes a client for Taxi, while working at Unilever and then Molson. Lavoie et al love Guenette's dynamic personality and penchant for great creative. Guenette is equally impressed: "My overall impression was that if I took a piece of business to Taxi, they would provide me with something fresh, something different, something unconventional. That's exactly what I got." In 2004, Guenette would replace Lavoie as Taxi's Toronto president and soon after become featured on strategy's first magazine issue cover.

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