Chris Torbay

Who I Can Help:

Brands that are in transition. Maybe you started a few years ago, and as your business has evolved, your brand hasn’t really kept pace with the business you’ve become. Maybe you merged or divested. Maybe your industry has undergone radical change, but consumers have been slow to catch up. Maybe you’re the new owner of a business, and you’re ready to make that big move forward. There are moments when you take a good, hard look at your business, your customers, your brand, your future and the messaging you need to bring it all together, and then you hit the ground running. I love those moments.

Who Is Not a Good Fit:

Clients who won’t stand for something. Successful brands know who they are and who their target customer is. They don’t try to sell “whatever you need” to “whoever’s buying.” I want to work with you to find out what makes your business unique, understand the audience who will appreciate that uniqueness, and build a campaign that will communicate that. When your target consumer hears your campaign, they should think “That’s the one for me.” If you aren’t willing to figure out what makes you distinctive and commit to that, it’s gonna be a tough road.

What I Do For Clients:

Part of what I bring from my big agency past is the ability to help clients stop advertising and start branding. Branding is why Apple people always buy Apple stuff. It’s why beer drinkers each have their own go-to brand. They have a brand in mind – that they know is the right fit for them – before they even need what you sell. They have a favorite tire store before they need tires. They have a favorite boat store before it’s even boating season. They know who they’d call to replace their old air conditioner way before the damned thing breaks. I create those relationships.

What Success Looks Like:

When Porsche Canada hired my agency a few years back, they were selling around 1800 cars a year in Canada. Five years later, they were selling over 7000 cars a year. But that’s a great story for another reason too. Sometimes you don’t need the ad to sell the car, just get you to take a test drive. Because the car will sell itself. (Do not test drive a Porsche. Seriously, I’m warning you …) Maybe your business is in the same situation. If only people would give you a try, they’d see what you’ve known all along. My job is to get customers to give you the chance to sell yourself.

What Breaks My Heart:

Here’s the absolute worst thing you can overhear at the water cooler: “I saw this really great ad last night! I don’t remember who it was for, but there were these two hilarious penguins and …”

Kills me every time. You had a great script, solid production values, a media buy that reached its audience, and an idea so powerful and memorable that people are talking about it the next day. But they don’t remember who paid for it.

A great ad is interesting, likeable, memorable, earns your attention … and makes you remember the brand. And what makes that brand worthy of your patronage. Great advertising ideas should be inseparable from the brand they’re advertising. If you remember the campaign, you remember that brand because this couldn’t possibly be an ad for anyone else.

I create those campaigns.