1994 – 1998
In late 1994, I began work for The Troppus Group in Montreal as their Creative Director after returning from Bermuda.
I remember being excited about this project as the company consisted of multiple companies and I felt I could really make a significant contribution – and I did.
During these years, my work won three consecutive Best in Show Awards for Trade Booth Design plus…
The Advertising Campaigns I created helped grow the business by attracting and retaining more than 50 new franchise owner/operators to the group”.
One of the more progressive ideas I was successful in creating happened in 1996, and against the approval of many of the senior managers in the company.
I began booking the groups domain names in anticipation of a more digital world. A prescient action and one which helped the company greatly, in my opinion.
The consistency of my work helped position the group as a nationally respected company. We are proud of the work shown below. Unfortunately, I have always felt this is the one company that treated me less professionally than any other company I worked with.
So when BBDO Canada / Chrysler Canada approached me and asked me to come work for them, it was a VERY easy decision to make. I was happy to leave…
The Image that personified my time with The Troppus Group
The Project
The Dicom Group (the main business of The Troppus Group) had 1,000 cars and vans and 1,200 trucks to promote and use as advertising vehicles.
The distinctive Dicom Express logo was boldly applied to all vehicles as was the slogan – ‘On Time or It’s On Us !’
In keeping with the tagline, and to promote awareness, in 1995 I developed this early piece of advanced photoshop work (above) for an advertising campaign of a delivery van crossing a raging river. Across the image was emblazoned the tagline – “On Tim or it’s On Us!”
It was an instant success within the company and externally as well.
Advertising
In 1996, The Dicom Group wanted to expand and I created this series of ads (above) featuring real life drivers in front of their vehicles with the caption, “Wanna Build a Really Neat Business’, and placed the ads in the Globe and Mail.
The campaign was highly successful, attracting more than 40 new Franchise Owners which translated into $4 Million Dollars in investment for the group.
I remember placing the ad. It cost $13,000.00 for a full page ad and at the time, the President of The Dicom Group division was angry with me for spending so much money on a one time ad placement. A few months later after collecting the new franchise money, he treated me with a little more respect, but not much. He was an arrogant self-centered man who thought the world revolved around him.
Over the years, rather than give me credit, he usurped my ideas and took credit for them with his employees.
Expressions
One of the obvious needs when I began working for the groups was that with over 1,000 employees, there was no corporate uniform so I proposed we develop branded clothing for the entire group of companies.
As a play on words, in 1996, I launched a completely new division of Dicom Express called Expressions. This stand alone company offered mandated corporate and work clothing and incentives that franchisees could purchase to help promote the company.
Each catalogue featured only associates from within the company as models, right down to the children used in all our promotional materials to help create a stronger bond between a ranging group of companies.
Porschehaus
The Dicom Group operated a Porsche Racing Team called Porschehaus and every year, one of my projects was to design the painting of the new Porsche.
A fun gig.
Air Montreal
Air Montreal was launched to service hard to reach regional areas of Quebec and also helped the company deliver goods faster to those regions by acting as a freight service as well as transportation for passengers. Our first four Metroliners. 19 seat passenger planes with considerable storage capacity.
A fun part of my life with The Dicom Group as we had our own hangar with all the planes – eventually 19 of them – all stored under one roof.
I remember on one of my first dates with Yim I brought her to the nager. I had the keys to the Citation Jet but she wasn’t impressed. She may have been had I been able to fly it but…
Steve, I have just finished reviewing your most recent marketing initiative and I have never seen a document as well put together in all of my 62 years. In fact I have never seen an approach as innovative as this. It is excellent! It is, quite frankly, fantastic. I cannot imagine what you can possibly think of next. I trust you realize we are ALL impressed.
The Family
Once all the pieces we in place, on a clear cold spring day, we rented the tarmac at the Montreal Airport and a fire truck to spray down the tarmac for that mirrored look. This is an actual photo with the Metroliner in that exact position. We did three passes before Air Traffic Control came over my head set and set, “Would you cowboys cut that out please’.
A company defining photograph.
Let’s go National
We then used that photograph to create a series of ads placed in local newspapers nationally to promote our expansion.
Go Air
Go Air was a real treat for me. I was given the sketches of an Airplane and the name of the company and told to create the branding and apply it to EVERYTHING.
It’s easy to love doing that.
In the air, these Embraers looked stunning. I always got a kick out of watching them sitting on the runway or taking off over the coming years.
Michel Barrette
Michel Barrette, a Quebec based entertainer was hired as a spokesperson and I developed a series of re-branded vehicles to carry his image and message to help promote Dicom Express across Quebec and gain market share. With 1200 Cars and Vans, applying the Michel Barrette graphics took a tremendous amount of coordination but in one year, we managed to get over 50% re-branded as part of the promotion.
The Dicom Durango
We purchased a Dodge Durango for Michel Barrette to drive to local events in which included images of the Dicom Porsche Racing Team. The entire vehicle wrap looked beautiful and was a big hit everywhere it travelled.
The Website
I developed a large scale website encompassing all of the companies and cross promoting all of them as well as integrating flight schedules, racing schedules, pick up and delivery options, waybill purchases and even incentive and clothing purchases…
My Take…
This was a company I was glad to part ways with… in fact, truth be told, other than the fact than I did very creative work over the four years working with The Troppus Group, I highly disliked the company atmosphere. It was not a good place to work… and is the only place in my entire career that when I look back, I know it helped further my career but the workplace was toxic.
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