Capital C

Space Pioneer

CANADIAN BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Capital C's Tony Chapman says an Unconventional Interior
gets his Clients Thinking in Unconventional Ways

It's Tony Chapman's business to change the way people think. His firm, Capital C, designs promotional marketing campaigns for the likes of Kraft, Pepsi, Molson, Microsoft, Frito-Lay, Hallmark and even Canada Post. It also tries to shift the way consumers regard established brands. But before Joe and Jane Public can be shaken out of their preconceptions, clients need to get out of their own ruts. Brand managers - and their advertising agencies - gravitate toward tried-and-true marketing strategies, and breaking free of stale thinking requires a little intervention.

Enter Chapman. As he sees it, his job is to bring together companies and their ad agencies with his own creative employees to reinvigorate - or even reinvent - their brands. Success hinges on everyone thinking in a whole new way.

To that end, Capital C's downtown Toronto offices are set up to encourage creativity. At first glance, the space looks like any converted brick-and-beam warehouse, straight out of the dot-com era. There's more to it than that, though. Over the course of seven months, Chapman spent upward of $80,000 to redesign Capital C's meeting areas - and he also spent a lot of time thinking about how people exchange ideas. "With our clients working in staid office environments, where your title dictates how many square feet you get, we wanted people, as soon as they walk in our door, to feel their hearts beat," says Chapman. "It's like when you were a kid in school, walking into art class. It was chaos. There were big tables and paints, and you felt like you were in a different state of mind. You left history and geography behind, and you got really excited. That's what we're hoping to capture here."

Sessions at Capital C are an intense five hours long, never longer, and they start in the main boardroom - although there's no boardroom table in there. Instead, there are free-rolling lounge chairs with cup holders and small tablets hinged to the arms for note taking. "You can't hide behind a boardroom table in here," says Chapman. "It's almost uncomfortable in that sense. You're exposed, you're up front. There's always those two or three peacocks that will take over a meeting. Sometimes the greatest ideas are from people that don't have the courage to express them. We spend a lot of time making sure they do." A computer-networked 36-inch flat panel and surround-sound enhances how the assembled review previous campaigns or reference movie clips and other pop culture. "This is to really get people excited and energetic and having a good time," says Chapman.

Within 45 minutes, however, the client group will break up into smaller teams, which are plunged into different environments. Chapman is constantly shuffling people around, and would rather have some things go unsaid than let a session grow stale. "Always leave the stage with the audience wanting more," he explains.

A Cool Place to Work

GLOBE AND MAIL
REPORT ON BUSINESS
JANUARY, 2004

A COOL SPACE TO WORK SETS STAGE FOR CREATIVITY –
EVEN OPERABLE WINDOWS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

When Norman Mayot and his business partners founded Sonic Boom Creative Media Inc. in 1996, “we didn’t want to create a corporate hell,” where employees were crammed into a hideous workspace and ordered to generate great ideas.

Having a cool place to work does not guarantee creative endeavour, but it helps set the stage, he said. Something as simple as opening a window is greatly appreciated by a generation of employees accustomed to working in hermetically-sealed environments.

“You worry about stuff flying in, birds and things, but it hasn’t happened,” said Mr. Mayot, whose firm has helped clients in the financial, beverage and retail industries revitalize their websites. The prefabricated airplane on the wall of Sonic Boom’s reception area, the cozy kitchen, the smell of the lanolin-infused floors, the dartboard — “we were thinking of pool, but it’s too noisy” — all contribute to a comfortable working environment for employees, he said.

However, York Heritage Properties, owner and developer of the west-end Toronto Carpet Factory office site and other converted industrial buildings in the city, discovered almost by accident that its tenants were using their funky work environments as a recruitment and retention tool, said Robert Eisenberg, who develops and manages the properties with his business partner, Michael Cruickshank.
Initially, the sites were designed as affordable alternatives to downtown office towers, and the old-fashioned windows were left in working condition to keep costs down for tenants who could not afford air conditioning, Mr. Eisenberg said in an interview this week. But the tenants loved them, even as their fortunes improved.

“Something as simple as operable windows, it sort of speaks to freedom,” Mr. Eisenberg said.
Across town, the office design at Toronto-based promotional marketing agency Capital C, also speaks to “creative chaos,” said chief executive officer Tony Chapman. The boardroom, more commonly referred to as The Bistro, has a long harvest table where Capital C lays on feasts for clients after brainstorming sessions. Just outside The Bistro, there are two banks of theatre seats arranged in front of a big screen. The company fires up the popcorn machine for guests. There is an X-Box near the graphic design area — Microsoft Canada Co. is a client — and a cluster of cafe-style tables for small, informal meetings. There is a large meeting room with no tables, but 16 chairs on wheels that can be rolled in and out of different configurations, and a bar, where the products of clients Molson Breweries and Pepsi-Cola Canada Ltd. are on display.

Near the entrance is a small, glass-enclosed room that Mr. Chapman would like to turn into a tree-hut.
“Clients love to come here,” said Mr. Chapman. And the company, which has 53 employees, attracts and retains top talent. The workspace is a definite draw, he said.

Employees show off the office to their parents — it is a young work force — and Mr. Chapman happily relates that clients often ask: “Do you guys get any work done? It just looks like a hang out.”
Matthew Diamond, a partner in the firm and managing director of Capital C’s big ideas group, said the acoustics generated by the hardwood floors and high ceilings “create a stimulating sound. . .what makes this place magical is there always seems to be a buzz.”

Toronto-based industrial psychologist Guy Beaudin said there is growing recognition among employers that the work environment can condition certain behaviour. An open concept encourages more collaboration and impromptu meetings. While corporate lawyers might feel closed offices and fancy addresses are more in keeping with their images, creative workers tend to prefer less structure.
The work environment sends a clear signal to prospective employees: “How well do they understand me? Does this workplace reflect who I am?”

Dr. Beaudin, of RHR International, a consulting firm of psychologists, said playthings such as popcorn, video games and pool tables actually help the creative process by giving employees a restorative mental break.