Team
Peter Holmes, President & Creative Director
Peter’s strategic consumer and business insights have helped drive some of the most successful advertising campaigns in Canadian history. He appeared on Marketing Magazine’s Power List of the 100 most influential people in Canadian communications and has received some 500 national and international awards for creative excellence from among others, Communication Arts, The One Show, The Clios, Cannes, The Art Directors Club of New York, The Obies and The Advertising and Design Club of Canada. He has also judged a number of advertising awards shows including The One Show, The Clios, The Andy’s and The Marketing Awards, which he also chaired.
Peter began his career as a graphic designer, opening his own design studio in 1982. In 1990 he became a founding partner in Franklin Dallas, an advertising agency and forerunner to Holmes and Lee and then Reason Partners. He has worked with clients across a wide range of categories, including tourism, packaged goods, automotive, communications, electronics, government, beverages, financial services, fashion, pharmaceuticals, electronics, retail and several charities.
Peter got involved in digital marketing in the early days when Holmes and Lee opened the digital shop, Competitive Reality, in 1997. Since then, he has remained very much involved in digital and online marketing
Peter’s work was Curator selected for the inaugural and permanent advertising collection of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Canadian Graphic Design History Project. He also writes and produces music professionally in the rock, jazz and R&B genres as well as music for advertising campaigns, including the Canadian launch of the Saturn ION and Credit Canada. His jazz album, The Jericho Notes, was ranked 6th best release (2004) in the U.S. publication Jazz Week Magazine. 2Scoops, an R&B/pop song he wrote, was picked up by Universal Music and is playing on top 40 radio across the country. It also won a Hollywood Music in Media award.
Brand experience: Sears, Canada Trust, Second Cup, The Weather Network, Land Rover, Credit Canada, Millenium Beverages, Ault Dairies, Sargento Cheese, Lactancia, Black Diamond, Cheese Strings, Parkay Margarine, MCI, PEI Tourism, Antiqua Tourism, Atlantic Tourism, Akzo Nobel, ICI Paints, Dulux, Glidden, Krinos Foods, Ontario Government (Ministry of the Environment), The Conservative Party of Canada, The Body Shop, Old Milwaukee, Sleeman Breweries, Upper Canada Beer, Masterfile, Citibank, JVC, Alpine Consumer Electronics, Luxman, LG, Zenith, Standard Interactive, Standard Broadcasting, MacLean Hunter Publications, Stanfields Underwear, Ogilvy Renault LLP, Valvoline Motor Oil, Tilden Car Rentals, Indian Motorcycle, ReMax, Staples, Neutrogena, Planters Peanuts, Fisons Consumer Health, Clearblue Easy, Delsym Cough Remedy, Cotton Ginny, Club Monaco, African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF), The Canadian Cancer Society, The Daily Bread Foodbank.
Kevin Wright, Director of Digital
Kevin’s career is based on solid advertising and marketing experience as an award-winning director for multi-national marketing and advertising agencies and interactive communications companies.
Kevin has directed and designed cross-media and new-media marketing campaigns since the inception of the web. Having worked for businesses in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., Kevin has been instrumental in formulating successful online strategies and architecture for custom ebusiness solutions across industries for clients such as Party Poker, Sympatico MSN, IBM, CIBC, L’Oreal, Rogers, Famous Players, Beck’s Beer and Vonage to name just a few.
With over 10 years of marketing and interactive media experience, Kevin has a keen eye for reading and predicting markets and customer needs. He combines this talent with a visionary entrepreneurial sense and proven success record. He has appeared on TV and lectured at Queen’s, Toronto and Western universities on the subjects of new media marketing, internet technologies and ebusiness strategy.
Kevin is a graduate of Queens University, a former diver in the Canadian Navy and a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario.
Brand experience: Access Copyright, Avelox, Aviva, Bayer, Beck’s Beer, CIBC, City of Markham, Compaq, Direct Line, Directors Guild of Canada, Dundas Jafine, Economic Development Commission, Esselte, Fiber Magazine, Fido, Filing Dealers of America, Financial Services, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Hamilton Hydro, Hewlett-Packard , Hydro One Networks, IBM, Inside Entertainment, Japan Camera, Kodak, Kraft, L’Oreal, Molson, Moosehead Beer, m-Real, Neighbourhood Watch, Office Specialty, Ontario Power Generation, Ontario Safety Service Alliance, Panasonic, Party Poker, Primus, Rethink Breast Cancer, Rogers Wireless, Royal Bank, Sanyo, Schering-Plough, Shaare Zedek Hospital Foundation, Sick Kids Hospital, Sitag, Sony, Sunwing Vacations, Sympatico.MSN, TeenEntertainment.com, Toro Magazine, Toronto Hydro, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Vonage, Weightcare, Wyeth Consumer Health.
Ira Patil, Media Director
Ira Patil is an award winning Senior Media Executive with extensive global experience working with multinational advertising agencies in Canada, Asia and the Middle East. Ira has developed an expert knowledge of marketing communications and strategic media planning working on a variety of diverse account categories including automotive, telecommunications, retail, alcohol beverage, government and packaged goods.
Most recently, Ira was Vice President, Media Director Due North Communications, where she provided strategic media counsel for many clients including Goodyear, H&R Block, 3M, LCBO Social Responsibility, Dairy Farmers of Canada, as well as numerous Ontario Government Ministries. During her tenure at Due North Communications, Ira won two Gold Media Cassies Awards and a Gold Cannes Media Lion. Prior to Due North, Ira was Media Director at GJP Advertising.
Earlier in her career, Ira worked for DDB Needham Worldwide in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as Media Manager. Ira successfully proposed and executed media plans in the Middle East for brands such as Clorox, Henkel, American Airlines, Riyadh Bank and Petromin Oil Products.
Ira’s diverse experience also includes being on the forefront of launching brands in an emerging Asian market. When at McCann Erickson in Mumbai, she successfully executed the first-time launch in India of GM and L’Oreal’s “Excellence” hair dye. During her tenure at McCann, Ira also worked on Coca Cola, Cathy Pacific, IBM and Reckett & Coleman.
In her spare time…what spare time! Ira is studying to become a Sommelier. Ira’s hobbies include wine tasting and painting. When the two hobbies converge it makes for some pretty funky artwork that she proudly hangs on her walls.
Brand Experience: Goodyear, H&R Block, 3M, LCBO, DAiry Farmers, Ontario Government, Clorox, Henkel, American Airlines, Riyadh Bank, Petromin Oil, GM, L’Oreal, Coca Cola, Cathy Pacific, IBM, Recket & Coleman.
Mike Mulik, Director of Art & Technology
Mike had a well-rounded start in the digital and entertainment world. He first studied film at York University and then digital media at the International Academy of Design. When he graduated, Blast media was the first to hire him as an interface designer. Mike then moved on to OperEx as an interactive designer. Then on to Sutton Javelin as head of design of their interactive department. Mike then decided to try something different as a flash designer at Dashboard, before joining former colleagues at Prescient Media, as senior interactive designer. Then, again to try something new, Mike joined Holmes and Lee as an art director in both digital and traditional media. There he rose to become senior art director and somewhat of a digital teacher and preacher. Along the way, he also garnered more than a few awards for his work, including the Marketing Awards, Digital Marketing Awards, New Media Innovation Awards, Communication Arts and The Advertising and Design Club of Canada. When he’s not working on the cutting edge side of digital media, Mike enjoys the much more safe and leisurely activity of motorcycling all over the world.
