How just one regular everyday normal guy is bringing down Doner, the largest independent advertising agency in the world: ACT 2 (Part IV)

November 30th

Pierre: "as requested by Kyle. tell me of u have any questions or need anything else from me..."










Mary: "Hi Pierre, Thanks for this. It looks very comprehensive. I will take Kyle through this tomorrow but first just want to chat with you about it. I need to make sure I understand it all as well as your rationale because he will ask this..."

Christine: "Je travaille à réviser le WBS pour commencer le 12 janvier et être en ondes le 20 avril. Tel que mentionné, Pierre, ça te coupe 2 semaines. Peux-tu me dire où est-ce qu’on coupe pour que je puisse compléter le tout?..."

NDLR:
Pierre knew at this point that he was already late on schedule on the project. 2 weeks late... if the project starts on january 12th. And for the project to start, the contract has to be signed...and the checks signed and cashed...

Mary: "Hi Kyle, Just a few more follow up points… Christine is working on revising the workback. She just needs the input from Pierre as to where we can cut some time out given we lose 2 weeks. They are working on it together. Also, Pierre sent me a chart with regards to his forecasting on the Twitter, Qik, etc… mediums. I can go through this with you over the phone tomorrow but first I need him to explain rationale to me. I’m also waiting on my radio contacts to give me some numbers on past participations. Should be shortly...."

Mary: " Pierre, I’m just leaving now but Michelle explained it to me. I’ll share the info with Kyle in the morning but I’ll be clear that we will not guarantee anything but that based on activity in the province, you feel this is feasible given all the support the project will have. I’ll see what he says...."


December 1st

Pierre: "allo michelle, je pense qu'il est temps que l'on commence à discuter d'un contrat entre Gramsclo et Astral.Es-tu d'accord ?"

Michelle: "Pierre, On va signer une entente de service avec toi c'est sûr si on signe Mazda. Tant que ce n'est pas officiel je ne peux m'engager avec toi car c'est le client qui paie. Mais ça semble plus que positif...."

December 2th

Kyle: "Hello, The purpose of the meeting is to answer any potential questions regarding the workback and any other creative/logistic concerns of this Quebec specific project for the Mazda 3 launch. Non-Toronto folks, we will dial you in from our conference room, please provide your contact numbers and we’ll call you.
Thanks....

When: Friday, December 12, 2008 9:30 AM-10:30 AM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).

Where: Anne, can we get MAIN?

Who: Dave Carey (dcarey@donercanada.com),
Brandon Marrelli (bmarrelli@donercanada.com),
Marie-Claude Turgeon (mturgeon@donercanada.com),
Annie Morad (amorad@donercanada.com),
Mark Gray (MaGray@donerus.com),
Daniel Willey (DWilley@donerus.com),
Pierre Côté (pierre@gramsclo.com),
Christine Pellerin (cpellerin@mix.astral.com),
Mary Lepage) mlepage@mix.astral.com

Pierre: "salut michelle, j'ai le feeling que doit être à Toronto le 12 pour cette réunion ? qu'en penses-tu ?..."

Christine: "Salut Pierre, Je me permets de répondre à sa place, comme nous en avions parlée plus tôt cette semaine. Comme Doner n’envoie pas ses gens de Montréal là-bas, nous aussi on va rester, mais aller rencontrer l’équipe de Montréal...."

Mary: "...Which is very helpful because part of this whole exercise is to bring that team up to speed so your presence in Montreal is actually better than Toronto...."

Pierre: "make sense. does montreal doner will have any input at all ?"

Mary: "Things are planned out of Toronto but since it’s a Quebec initiative, they will seek the market expertise from their Montreal arm…"

Kyle: "If you guys have documents and visuals please pass on at least 48 hours before the meeting so I can distribute and people can digest. It’s no longer a video conference meeting, so we’ll have make sure people have what they need to follow the discussion. Thanks..."

Kyle: "...We should have the revised workback to send as a starting point. The US folks likely want to see some of your creds, the creative team will be mostly interested in timelines and logistics. I'd like to get the info about interactions forecasts and delivery guarantees beforehand - and I will address those issues to the group if they ask for them in the meeting...but we don't need to distribute that info to the larger group...."

Michelle: "...Il faut garder notre calme et surtout continuer d’être pro. Une grande respiration……….. Ne démontre pas trop ton enthousiasme, ils vont croire que c’est la première fois...."

Pierre: "Good morning Kyle, Can we thrust on-line digital documents and visuals so we will all share the same info in real time ? But will need big screens and high speed internet connection in all 3 locations. What do u think ?..."

Christine: "Salut Pierre, J’aimerais que tu passes par moi quand t’as des questions pour le client. Je sais que c’est un peu plus compliqué, mais le but du Mix c’est d’être un guichet unique pour le client, une personne contact, et c’est moi cette personne. En cas d’extrême urgence et de time crunch, tu peux passer direct en me copiant, mais pas pour le day to day. Merci, je l’apprécie...."



Pierre: "Hi everyone, just wonder how you want me to prepare for the meeting ? what do you want from me that i could prepare ? is there some questions i could answer before the 12th ? Feel free to ask, i am at your service. and BTW, very glad to work with you guys..."

Mark Gray, DONER US: "Hello Pierre, Glad you’re onboard as well. As far as prepping for the meeting, I’ll defer to our account team on this. From my perspective and Dan Willey’s, if I can speak for him, we’ll be absorbing incoming information during the meeting. So questions on our end will be rather spontaneous. We’ll rely on our familiarity with Mazda to prompt any questions based on relevance and linking with Mazda’s efforts. Dave , Mike and Brandon may have further insight on this. Thanks,..."

Brandon Marrelli: "Hi Pierre, We are looking for overall details and background of the campaign is this a reality show/contest? Past example would be great! What is required on our end regarding the Twitter, Outdoor, decals etc. Does it include other Online elements? Print? etc. Are these turnkey executions or will we develop creative? A list of asset deliverables & deadlines. Updated workback schedule since it currently conflicts with our Christmas/New Year’s Holidays. Any creative specifications or limitations? What will the Post Analysis consist of? How are we tracking online elements? etc. If anybody can think of anything else, please include. Hope this helps...."

December 4th

Pierre: "allo michelle, quand auras-tu une quinzaire de minutes pour se parler au téléphone ? je voulais te parler de la réunion de vendredi avec Doner.je pense que cela pourrait être bon pour moi et la marque d'être à Detroit plutôt qu'à Montréal. Est-ce que cela pourrait aussi bon pour vous ? tu me diras ce que tu en penses...."

Michelle: "Bonjour Pierre, il faut laisser tout le leadership du projet a Kyle. C'est grâce a lui que le projet a vu le jour et grâce a lui qu'il pourrait prendre de l'expansion. Restons serein et concentrons-nous sur le travail a faire ici. Il y en a déjà beaucoup. Si on réussit au Québec , je crois que ce sera un bon début pour toi. Au meeting il faut montrer que nous sommes des pros, spécialement toi. On pourrait se parler demain...."


December 5th


Pierre: "hi everyone, though you should read this... tell me what you think of it please....i am curious.../The Medium Content and Its Discontents/Kevin Van Aelst/ Published: December 5, 2008..."

Michelle: "Je préférerais que tu n'interagisses jamais avec les gens de Doner sauf pour la bonne marche du projet. Christine Pellerin sera le relais ou Mary. Pourquoi? D'abord ils ne te connaissent pas, ils n'ont aucun rapport dit intellectuel avec toi et ils ne sont pas tes amis. Tu es trop intrusif. Ils ne veulent qu'un service qui permettra de vendre des autos. Pour ton bénéfice et celui du projet, je te demande de cesser ces communications durant tout le projet. Si tu veux entretenir des relations avec les gens de Doner, tu pourras le faire après. Désolé d'adopter un ton aussi directeur mais je crois qu'il est nécessaire en plus de te protéger contre les faux pas irréparables. Le monde de la publicite est un monde de perception et de diva. il faut plutôt flatter les ego s que de mettre de l'avant notre savoir. Si a la fin du projet on gagne un MIA, c'est Kyle qui ira le chercher et personne d'entres nous. C'est difficile pour notre ego j'en conviens. Bon samedi!..."

Pierre: "Ok michelle compris. Sent from my iPhone..."

Michelle: "Tu es vraiment excite et c'est normal. Il faut être enthousiasme pour être un créateur. Dans ton rôle actuel tu es un créateur producteur et c'est bien différent. Moi aussi je me retiens pour ne pas tomber dans ce piège de l'émotion. Car les gens nous jugent très vite et encore pire les anglophones qui sont plutôt froids. Ils ne veulent pas de troubles avec des gens trop emotifs. Sans rancune j'espère!..."

Kyle: "Per my voicemail, Kathryn will need a detailed breakdown of the timing and all the different elements requiring creative input for this project. Like I’ve said this morning, our creative directors in the US will be involved in this project and Kathryn will need to put together a creative brief. By way of introduction, Kathryn is our Account Supervisor on the account side at Doner..."


NDLR:

If Michelle Labarre did not want to Pierre to talk to Doner, How do you think he could share his vision to Doner creative director in the US ? Why Doner US creative director did not ask to work directly with Pierre at this stage in the project ? Why no one around the table saw the logical in the this situation: Pierre should now team up with Doner US to deliver this Mazda Alternate reality Game. Why no one at Astral told Doner that all the concept was coming from Pierre ? Is there someone was there to sell Pierre to Doner ? Did anyone wanted to push his expertise to Doner ? Does anyone wanted his expertise to be expose at all ? Why Pierre was not invited to work with Rob Strasberg from that day ? Did he knew that Pierre ever existed ? Did he knew that he did not work for Astral ? Did he knew that he did not sign any contract with any organisation ? Did he knew that Pierre received only 2000$ so far for all his work ? Did he realised that without this Alternate Reality Game concept for Mazda, nothing of this meeting had existed ? Did he knew that the schedule was already 2 weeks late ? Did he really care about all of this ??? What was is real agenda ? Use this project to bring Doner US at a new creative level ? Using Mazda dollars to create something to sale to other client in the near future ? So in fact what was happening, is that Rob Strasberg was using Pierre Côté idea to bring more business to Doner. In others words, Strasberg was using Pierre. An American was using a Québecois...En d'autres mots, un Québécois était entrain de se faire fourrer par un hostie d'américain..."