Instead of a boardroom table, Rethink Communications has a ping-pong table.

To get to it, you have to cross a bilious expanse of Astroturf. White road pylons hang from the ceiling as lighting fixtures and a drum set sits on a platform.

The only expensive touch is the three white Philippe Starck chairs in the entryway. The rest, explains art director Carson Ting, is "proudly Ikea."

At the ping-pong table, creative director Rob Tarry practically effervesces. Keeping up with him is like trying to catch bubbles. One idea lands, pops and another three follow.

"The table illustrates Rethink's ping-pong theory," he explains.

"If you throw one ball, the person across the table will catch it. If you throw five balls at someone, they don't catch any of them."

Tarry, Ting and Libby White, an account manager, giggle when they hear about DDB's clutch of under-30-year-old "community cultivators" huddled in the basement reporting on what's hot and what's not.

The entire crew here looks like they're barely out of high school. The ones that aren't under 30, like former DDB-er and wunderkind co-founder Chris Staples, look like they could be.

They wear sneakers. There's a Lego room. They have "beer o'clock" on Fridays.

On the surface, at least, it's all about play. But don't be fooled. Rethink might be the new kids, but they are the giant-killers.

Tarry, who "fell backwards" into advertising from journalism, has filmy blond hair, plays bass in the Rethink band and doesn't watch Mad Men.

But he gets why producers would have picked the early 1960s for the show, a historical moment just on the lip of New York ad legend Bill Bernbach's "creative revolution."

Bernbach pioneered the creative team, pairing artists and writers, opening doors between departments, he explains. His belief that advertising could be inspiring, "alive, vital and meaningful" is still a core concept.

Rethink is a young company; 10 years in, co-founders Chris Staples, Tom Shepansky and Ian Grais are considered superstars. They've just opened a digitally focused agency in Toronto.

"We want to tell a story. You still have to have an idea," Tarry says.

Rethink capitalizes on the current problem: that customers don't follow predictable patterns any more. Traditional "bought media" like TV spots are no longer the most important part of a campaign.

A typically successful Rethink campaign? A giveaway promoting free chequing at Coast Capital Savings. A vending machine filled with stuff. Bags of Q-Tips. Old socks. Broken glasses. A Barbie doll leg.

People, including reporters, were lining up to get their free stuff.

Television coverage of the event followed, web buzz happened. There was a sort of viral acquisition of the event, resulting in the most credible media exposure around these days: earned, not bought.

Read the full story in The Vancouver Sun »

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