Meet Sid Lee

The 15-year-old company has 15 partners. It's located in Montreal?not generally considered part of the axis of advertising. It was founded by a lawyer and a designer. And its most formative client has been known to breathe fire. Literally. Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the... unusualness... was baked in from the start. And in light of the agency's recent successes, it's all looking quite prescient.Sid Lee turned heads earlier this summer when it announced that it had scooped up the Adidas Originals account. The win meant the agency would handle everything for the brand?from retail design and experiential marketing to advertising?including interactive. The agency also announced plans for global expansion, with an Amsterdam office set to launch in September. Canadian ad watchers knew of Montreal-based Sid Lee as the eclectic, design-driven creative shop formerly called Diesel (fatigued by repeating the phrase, "No, not the jeans company," agency principals opted for the current anagrammatic handle in 2006). The agency had distinguished itself in certain circles for its holistic, beyond ads approach and work for Red Bull, Cirque du Soleil, MGM Grand and Adidas. The company can also boast of being an early, early adopter of digital?web-focused projects go back to the mid '90s and the agency has consistently won top honors at Canada's Digital Marketing Awards from 2001 on. But Sid Lee was not an agency that had much in the way of profile; it was not an awards circuit stalwart. That was fine with agency co-founder Jean-Francois Bouchard?the company, he says, has been focused on doing the doing. Besides, a good part of the work the agency was doing?like designing retail spaces ?wasn't what ad awards tended to celebrate until very recently. "We've been working on our formula for years and we're ready to communicate it to the world," says Bouchard. "We thought, let's walk first and we can talk later."