A new Toronto agency is promising to infuse advertising with some of Hollywood’s creative excellence to produce unskippable brand content.
Zerotrillion is the brainchild of former Nomads execs Alex Paquin and Adam Fierman, joined by accomplished Canadian-born actors Italia Ricci and Robbie Amell. The agency is launching with offices in Toronto and Amsterdam, and plans to open in Los Angeles. According to its website, Zerotrillion will offer a wide range of services, from strategy and brand identity to advertising, product design, production, digital and even sponsorship. The agency is currently hiring an account director and full stack developer for the Toronto office.
Paquin began his career focusing on digital and strategy in the Toronto ad world before going abroad to join Nomads—where he steadily rose up the ranks, becoming CEO early in 2017. In a release announcing the launch of Zerotrillion, Paquin rejected the popular marketing lament about shortened attention spans, saying the problem isn’t a lack of attention but “uninteresting, skippable” content from brands.
“We feel there’s a huge opportunity to hook up with the entertainment industry’s top-tier writers, directors and producers to make work for brands that competes for attention in authentically interesting ways, but the first step is to recognize the problem,” he said in the release (Paquin was not immediately available for an interview).
“We know that if you hold brand work to the highest standard of storytelling and production, you have a real chance of propelling your business forward, even in today’s world,” he added. “That’s what Zerotrillion is here for, to dissolve the divide between advertising and entertainment.”
Fierman was most recently creative director of Nomads in Amsterdam.
Ricci has a number of Hollywood credits to her name, but is best-known for playing Emily Rhodes in the Netflix show Designated Survivor. Amell has also acted in a number of recognizable shows, including The X-Files and The Flash, and is currently producing a science fiction movie called Code 8.
“Zerotrillion represents a chance for great brands to connect with audiences in ways that don’t just disrupt the entertainment they’re actually seeking, but instead become the entertainment they most remember,” said Amell.
-David Brown
