Ian Martins spent several years playing in bands, including as a touring bassist with Logan Staats, an Indigenous artist who won the first season of CTV's talent show, The Launch. You could say that experience was <cough> instrumental in Martins being named executive vice-president, managing director of Zenith Canada.
"I think most of my learnings came from the music business," he said on Wednesday. "The biggest skill I learned was the art of improvisation—getting in a room with a group of people, putting ideas out there and creating a safe space to collaborate. Playing music with people is a very intimate experience, and I think bringing that into the business world is a huge advantage."
Martins replaces Nikki Stone, who left Zenith in September for a new role as CEO of GroupM Canada's Wavemaker Media.
The company said in a release that his hire represents a "strategic leap" for the business, and that Martins is unlike "conventional candidates."
"He describes himself as a builder, marketer, and educator whose journey has consistently defied industry norms in both media and creative industries," it said.
"I think most of my learnings came from the music business," he said on Wednesday. "The biggest skill I learned was the art of improvisation—getting in a room with a group of people, putting ideas out there and creating a safe space to collaborate. Playing music with people is a very intimate experience, and I think bringing that into the business world is a huge advantage."
Martins replaces Nikki Stone, who left Zenith in September for a new role as CEO of GroupM Canada's Wavemaker Media.
The company said in a release that his hire represents a "strategic leap" for the business, and that Martins is unlike "conventional candidates."
"He describes himself as a builder, marketer, and educator whose journey has consistently defied industry norms in both media and creative industries," it said.
"We could have hired very storied and experienced media professionals, but while Ian has many of the media fundamentals, he brings something very different to the table," said Publicis Media CEO Alastair Taylor. "Zenith and Publicis have a huge bench of media professionals, so his experience in the start-up community made him both an attractive and unexpected hire."
While Martins, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as someone committed to "pushing media forward" and building "forward-thinking agencies," has worked with traditional agency groups including GroupM and Omnicom, he has spent the past eight years challenging their hold on the industry.
His nearly four years with Abacus Agency, for example, was spent "coming after" the big holding company networks and trying to steal away business in areas like social and performance marketing. "I spent a lot of time basically challenging the holdco system from the outside, trying to punch above my weight and win some business," he said.
His most recent role was as CEO with Bell Curve, a San Francisco-based growth consultancy that works with venture funded tech companies like Ancestry, Built.com, and Tumblr.
Asked what convinced him to return to the holdco world, Martins said that his conversations with Taylor revealed a company that is making "some bold bets in the right direction," and he was attracted to Publicis Groupe's "Power of One" philosophy, which treats the company as a platform rather than a house of brands.
"I saw a unique opportunity not just to rejoin the holding company world but to actively help shape it," he explained. "Zenith has a storied history of leading the media industry forward. It’s a privilege to now be a part of this legacy: to build, innovate, and lead a team that’s not just adapting to change but driving it."
"I’m really excited to have Ian join and help him shape the future of Zenith. It is a special brand with an amazing legacy in the marketplace, with today being its next chapter and a new dawn," added Taylor.
"In my time playing outside of the system one of my strengths in the agency's I've built and the way I've approach growth for clients is through integration," said Martins. "I don't look at the world through a media lens—I have a hard time talking about media without also talking about creative. I can't talk about data without also talking technology. I have a very holistic view on client growth."
