The 2009 Small Talk series kicked off on January 27th at Zig, the Chicago counterpart to the Toronto-based “ideas company.” With a total staff of 115, the two offices “work as one,” says partner Kevin Lynch, with “a really long hallway.”

Among Zig’s core values is the notion that people are their most important investment. So you won’t find fancy conference room chairs in their obscurely located West town office. “Our location lends itself to an independent spirit,” said Steve Carli, managing partner. This “spirit” takes its form in Zig’s strategy-focused, multi-disciplinary approach. Each project team is loaded with an arsenal of expertise, including account managers, strategic planners, writers, designers, creative directors and, sometimes, digital strategists. This client-facing dedication to human resources is important to Zig in ensuring that there are no limitations on their creative applications.

Working with big brands, like Molson Canadian, Ikea, Playboy and Unilever, Zig offers research-based, strategically brilliant design. For Scream TV, a Canadian cable channel, the group developed an award-winning guerilla-marketing scheme on a dime. The genius of it derived from a keen understanding of both target consumers and Internet communities to launch a real-life ghost story that was blogged about for weeks.

Moving forward, Zig faces a challenge that many agencies share: how to make impactful work on increasingly tight budgets. One way they succeed is by “listening to [the client’s] vision,” said Carli, and being willing to think larger. By taking a step back to analyze the client’s request, Zig puts their strategy-foot forward, offering ways that problems can be solved with the best use of dollars in mind. What that is may or may not be what the client had in mind.

“Our clients look for terrific ideas,” said Carli, “And they don’t care what form those things take.”