The agency's Gold AOY win is the icing on its Silver Jubilee
2024 VOLUME 35, ISSUE 4
Brand of the Year
How marketing heavyweights EQ Bank, Kruger, Sephora, Tilley and the ROM are putting Canada on the world's stage.
Agency of the Year
Fourteen shops across creative, digital, design, PR and media make up the anniversary class of 2024.
A tribute to Toyota
Decades of durability define the automaker's 60 year journey in Canada.
4 Editorial The more things change, the more they stay the same 6 Upfront OVO brings street cred to luxury appliance brand Smeg + an update on shrinkfl ation shenanigans + temporary tattoos that fi ll a white space (and restore dignity) 74 Back Page Posters by the Design AOY fi nalists refl ect on the past, while looking to the future
ON THE COVER: So, turns out being number one in Canada is no longer good enough for Rethink. Nope. They had to conquer the world this year too, landing in top spot on The Drum’s World Creative Rankings as the most-awarded agency on the planet. (They also made Agency of the Year history with four Golds, in case anyone is keeping score. Aaaaand we are.) Listen, we don't want to go out on a limb or cause any trouble around here, but we're beginning to think these crazy Rethink kids might be on to something. You just never know. #HappyAnniversary
THE PHARMA REPORT
Canadian agencies are delivering creative solutions to support and empower patients and HCPs.
SUPPLEMENT Page 67
The AOY campaign with the highest score in Small was none other than Angry Butterfly's "Next to Stok'd."
EDITOR’S NOTE
Connections, change and cake
Ten years have flown by since we last donned our party hats. Never would I have imagined I’d witness a second milestone birthday for the strategy brand during my tenure. The first was in 2014. We marked it by digging into the archives for an aptly titled (for the times) series called Throwback Thursday. Our biggest takeaway/realization from the exercise back then? The more things change, the more they stay the same. The environment, data, tech, globalization, a neglected senior population, and agency mergers claimed the newsprint headlines in 1989. Even some of the same brands (hint: beer) topped the much-less busy Creative Report Card.
The industry did however grow a little more imaginative when it came to word-scrambling. Portmanteaus like infotainment, edutainment, infomercial and advertorial in the ‘80s and ‘90s set the stage for more memorable trends like shockvertising, reactvertising and giftvertising of the ‘10s. I don’t think I’ll ever unsee the image of St. Nick in a blue suit, on a tropical island, doing good deeds on behalf of an airline that, thanks to the strategic sorcery of its marketers, found a connection to gifting. We called it the “WestJet Christmas Miracle Effect” once we weren’t able to count the number of brands doing similar acts of kindness on one hand.
WHILE FAR MORE
COMPLICATED
TODAY THAN 35 YEARS AGO, THE INDUSTRY HAS ALWAYS BEEN, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, ABOUT CREATING CONNECTIONS.
It was about the same time branded content, UGC, experiential stunts, real-time marketing, gamification, transmedia, purpose-driven brands, augmented reality… *takes breath* … six-second ads, CSR, and crowdsourcing came onto the scene.
Reflecting on these trends brings a larger picture into focus. While far more complicated today than 35 years ago, the industry has always been, and always will be, about creating connections. Take a look at the posters on our back page – crafted by the 2024 Design Agency of the Year contenders – and you'll see this shift from one-way communications to a complex web of connections come to life.
You'll also see this focus on connectivity in our Brand and Agency of the Year features, where we dive into the consumer insights-driven work from five marketing organizations and 14 advertising firms. It's a hefty issue and fitting for a commemorative year.
At 25, we celebrated with cake at the AOY gala. This year we skipped it and let Rethink do the honours. (They did pull a six-year-Gold-streak, after all.) As for everyone else on the shortlists and podium, congrats This wasn't an easy year. But it never really is. Here's to the next 35.
Jennifer Horn Content Director, Editor, strategy
fall 2024 volume 35, issue 4 strategyonline.ca
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content director, editor | jennifer horn | jhorn@brunico.com
art director | tim davin | tdavin@brunico.com
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media in canada editor | greg hudson | ghudson@brunico.com
senior reporter | chris lombardo | clombardo@brunico.com
reporter | andrea hernandez | ahernandez@brunico.com
contributors | will novosedlik, brendan christie, ty burke, andrew jeffrey, val maloney, brennan doherty
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Above: Part of the proceeds from TuckTats goes to a philanthropic org called The Breasties.
By Ty Burke
Denise O’Connell has a scar on her stomach, and she wanted to cover it up. She thought about getting a tattoo, but a permanent one wasn’t a viable option.
“I can’t imagine putting a tattoo needle anywhere near my scar,” O’Connell says. “It’s a little sensitive, but also a little bit numb. It’s a weird sensation. I often wondered whether temporary tattoos could cover it, but there weren’t any available.”
So, O’Connell decided to make them herself. With close friend Amanda Hudson, O’Connell co-founded TuckTats, which makes realistic-looking temporary tattoos that are meant to specifically cover or adorn surgical scars left by c-sections, mastectomies and other procedures. They’re a little like the ones you may have used as a child, but with designs by professional tattoo artists and medical-grade inks and adhesives.
When she saw a TikTok video of breast cancer survivor @dani_trops tearing up after putting TuckTats on her reconstructed breasts, O’Connell realized the company was more than just your average business venture. “When I saw that video, I realized this is something that can bring happiness and joy into people’s lives. And that’s something they might have been missing for a while.”
To market its products, the company leaned hard into social media. At first, O’Connell joined Facebook groups for people who’d had surgical procedures. When members commented they didn’t like their scar, TuckTats made them aware of its products.
“That did really well for us and, as we’ve grown, we have tried to keep our social media presence, but we’ve also tried to organically market our products by being involved in these communities,” says O’Connell. “We donate part of our proceeds to an organization called The Breasties, which is focused on creating a community of support for survivors and thrivers. They market our product for us. The philanthropic part of it has been a great strategy for endearing ourselves to that community and making a name for ourselves.”
TuckTats is currently working on a new line of tattoos for people who have had top surgery – a procedure that removes breast tissue to give trans or non-binary people a less feminine-looking chest. The focus on this new line of products came at the suggestion of TuckTats design collaborator Shane Wallin, a San Diegobased tattoo artist who specializes in permanent tattoos for mastectomy scars.
The new line, says O’Connell, requires a shift in approach. TuckTats has tended to use very femininelooking designs, often with flowers, butterflies and accents in pink or purple. But its new designs will be more gender neutral to meet the needs of the trans and non-binary community.
“A lot of people remove their breasts because they don’t identify with either sex or gender, and we want to make a product that is inclusive,” says O’Connell.
SMEG MEETS OVO COLLAB
By Jonathan Russell
This month, Italian appliance brand Smeg announced a new Canadian partnership with October’s Very Own (OVO) – the global lifestyle brand co-founded by artist Drake.
The pairing makes sense when you consider Smeg’s previous collaborators: Dolce&Gabbana, Veuve Clicquot and Fiat. That’s right, you can own a D&G kitchen set, if you’re so inclined. Meanwhile, OVO –founded in 2008 by Drake, Oliver El-Khatib and Noah “40” Shebib – has struck deals with
brands like Nike, Air Jordan, Canada Goose and the NBA over the years.
In its newest collab, Smeg has unveiled a limited-edition collection that combines its 1950’s designs with OVO’s streetwear aesthetic, “merging high design with
WHITE SPACE
TREND contemporary cool.” The new line features three products from Smeg’s range: a mini fridge, a twoslice toaster and a kettle. Each is embellished with gold accents and the OVO owl logo.
“The retro design is a hallmark of the Smeg brand, a product movement that has grown and evolved over the last 20 years,” Gisela Mussen, general manager of Smeg Canada, tells strategy “This collaboration with OVO merges two iconic brands, each celebrated for their innovation and global impact in their respective fields.”
Mussen says the collection, which is available through order on both brands’ websites, is meant to speak to fashion and design enthusiasts.
“We’re seeing a lot of design elements coming to life from urban art work, urban fashion, all colliding into home décor, so it’s a natural step and we wanted
IS SHRINKFLATION ON ITS WAY OUT?
By Will Novosedlik
to be a leader in that space,” she adds.
The partnership marks OVO’s foray into the home appliance space, says Mussen, adding that Smeg chose OVO “because it’s iconic, Canadian and a global brand. We wanted to start with something very simple, streamlined and sophisticated.”
Mussen also points out that, while it’s a Canadian launch, the brand is receiving orders from the U.K. and Australia as well. “Everyone thinks it’s a global launch when it is very specifically Canadian,” she says.
The announcement was made in anticipation of the 2025 opening of Smeg Canada’s first flagship store, planned for Yorkville in Toronto. Mussen says Smeg Canada is also currently eyeing expansion in Montreal and Vancouver.
Shrinkflation – as you likely know by now – is the practice of reducing a product’s volume-per-pack while leaving the price the same. It’s usually done in response to cost increases for manufacturers. And while the last couple years have seen an uptick in package downsizing, consumers are taking notice, prompting some brands to respond and even make amends.
In October, PepsiCo in the U.S. started putting more chips in some of the bags for snack brands Lay’s, Doritos, Tostitos and Ruffles. The CPG co. is calling them “bonus bags” and they will contain 20% more chips for the same price as standard bags, but only in select locations. Meanwhile, Domino’s Pizza, in an effort to show that it doesn’t participate in shrinkflation, launched the “Moreflation Deal,” a 30-day promotion which allows online customers to upgrade a pizza to a large – for free – when they order two or more medium pies. Whenever shrinkflation happens, consumers tend to hold retailers accountable. And who can blame
them? Statistics Canada reports show that retailer profit margins have increased by 75% since 2020. The reputation of retailers is on the line, which is why French-based Carrefour this year placed signage around food brands – specifically PepsiCo – warning consumers of the practice and openly attempting to shift the blame to manufacturers.
Shrinkflation is a deceptive tactic that has been used by companies as a way to keep food prices low for years. But it’s also a practice that’s gone relatively unnoticed until now. According to 2023 data from Caddle, 44% of consumers reported “shrinkflation” among baked goods, compared with 39% in 2022.
“Nobody really talked about shrinkflation before…the rise of smartphone usage and social media,” Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, senior director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University points out. “We’ve now created this archive of online data that allows us to share and compare. Consumers are now wise to what used to go unnoticed.”
Clockwise from top left: Smeg Canada GM Gisela Mussen says the new OVO collab features three products from the range: a mini fridge, kettle and toaster.
2024 BRANDS OF THE YEAR
BOY
BY
JENNIFER HORN
GREG HUDSON
CHRISTOPHER LOMBARDO
JONATHAN RUSSELL
Canada, much like the 2024 Brands of the Year, has a knack for punching above its weight. The country may be considered the underdog to the States (by some, not us of course), yet it consistently shows up at the forefront of the tech revolution, and on lists that measure gender equality, quality of life, civic liberties, etc. As you’ll notice, the country’s claim to fame extends to four of the Brands of the Year, which were born and raised in the Great White North, with the fifth global brand making massive strides thanks to its Canadian arm. Read on to find out more about how the ROM is boosting its reputation on the world’s stage as an influential cultural institution; EQ Bank is being seen as a meaningful disruptor in a firmly established financial market; Kruger is flipping the emotional script on an otherwise functional category; Sephora is building an inclusive name for itself; and Tilley is reimagining the world of fashion through performance-driven wares.
We Like How You Roll
To our agency partners, thank you for making our everyday life more comfortable.
For absorbing every challenge, standing up for great ideas, being soft when you need to be, and even stronger when it counts. For not being afraid to take risks, having the tough conversations (don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of Scotties tissues to go around…), and treating our brands like your own.
Thank you for being unapologetically you, and for your contributions towards Kruger Products being named a 2024 Strategy Magazine Brand of the Year.
KRUGER BARES ITS HEART, BOOSTS MARKET SHARE
The CPG brand is finding resonance by making everyday life more comfortable. BY
JONATHAN RUSSELL
IIn 2024, many brands faced the same hurdles: changing consumer behaviour, an unpredictable marketplace and a painfully fragmented media landscape. But Kruger Products stood out by not only relying on a balanced mix of functional messaging and emotional marketing, but also through bold sustainability moves.
“Functional messaging will always play a key role in our marketing mix, particularly at the moment of truth,” says Susan Irving, CMO of Kruger Products.
“There’s a great opportunity to ensure that [consumers are] not just thinking about the categories but ensuring they’re choosing you every single time. What we’ve learned is that creating value with our brand… be it through emotional advertising, and even some of our functional advertising, we are making a difference [and] ensuring that we’re top of mind.”
Over the last few years, Kruger has been deepening its bond with consumers through masterbrand campaigns, while also staying true to its core mission of “making everyday life more comfortable,” according to Irving. The brand’s shift from tactical to emotional messaging was first seen in its “Unapologetically Human” platform, launched in 2020 with the help of Broken Heart Love Affair, who showed how Kruger’s products help manage everyday chaos.
In 2024, Kruger continued this approach by following up with the “Love Is Messy” campaign, reinforcing the idea that life’s messiest moments are often the most meaningful. Both campaigns have not only strengthened brand loyalty but also driven business success, according to Irving, who added that Kruger reported a $36.5 million increase in retail sales and a 2-point boost in market share.
One of Kruger’s most talked-about campaigns this year was the“Cashmere Ultraluxe Bathroom Guide,” which ranked top public bathrooms, much like popular city guides rank restaurants. “The biggest pivot this year was we had a different plan for Cashmere, in terms of advertising. [Our agency partner] Lifelong Crush came up with the bathroom guide idea and I fell in love with it and said, ‘We’re doing it,’” says Irving. “The most visited room in the house is the bathroom. Consumers care about cleanliness and the experience, [and wanting to] ensure that it’s a beautiful space just like the restaurant.”
That lighthearted and comedic tone was also key to “Nothing Absorbs Like It” for SpongeTowels UltraPro, which featured a video of a paper towel sheet landing in a community pool and draining all of the water; as well as “Scotties Hypnosis” from FCB, which played with consumers who mistakenly referred to Scotties former competitor Kleenex, which had just announced it would no longer be sold in
Above, clockwise from top left: Kruger connects with consumers on a deeply human level – and it takes an interest in the things they care about, like sustainability, which can be seen in marketing for Bonterra; the “Cashmere Ultraluxe Bathroom Guide” and the “Love is Messy” campaigns bring emotion and creativity to an otherwise functional category.
also help them make a positive impact on the planet,” explains Irving. Introduced in 2022 under Kruger’sReimagine 2030sustainability initiative, Bonterra products are made from 100% recycled paper, use plastic-free packaging and are produced in a carbon-neutral process. When the brand launched, Kruger unveiled an art installation that doubled as a wildlife habitat near the concert stage at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. And this year it chose to promote Bonterra with an animated campaign designed to educate Canadians about the brand’s efforts to improve its environmental impact.
“The biggest thing for us was the fact that sustainability was moving into the mainstream. Consumers are overwhelmed by sustainability, and they needed to be guided by small steps,” Irving says. “What’s one small thing I can change in my daily habits to help with sustainability? I’d say that was the biggest insight that we had about how we were going to launch the sustainability brand.”
Canada. In that spot, a young man, who was hypnotized, reflexively says the name “Scotties” every time he hears someone sneeze.
All of these campaigns were driven by one of the company’s guiding principles: consumer insights. “What we learned from ‘Unapologetically Human’ is that you can build strong brand loyalty when you uncover consumer insights deeply rooted in the role your brand plays in their everyday lives,” says Irving. “The biggest impact on our work has been the continued investment in consumer insights to drive our brand strategies. Strong insights into how our brands and categories appear in consumers’ lives will help us stay relevant.”
This consumer focus also led to one of Kruger’s most important innovations: the launch ofBonterra, an eco-friendly line of bath tissue, facial tissue and paper towels. “Our consumers care deeply about sustainability and we want to be the brand that provides them with products that not only meet their high standards for quality, but
Since its launch, Bonterra has partnered with eco cleanup company 4oceanto remove nearly 10 million water bottles from the ocean and supportedOne Tree Plantedby helping plant 110,000 trees across North America. Kruger’sReimagine 2030plan also targets reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and water usage by 35%, using only certified sustainable fibres and cutting virgin plastic in packaging by 50%.
Beyond emotional advertising and eco initiatives, Kruger is also deeply involved in community. TheKruger Big Assist, now in its fifth year, has provided $800,000 in funding to help more kids get involved in hockey. The Scotties brand has also sponsored the Tournament of Hearts, a curling championship, for the last 44 years, making Kruger the longest-standing supporter of women’s sports in Canada.
Another major initiative is the Cashmere Collection, now in its 21st year. The fashion show brings together Canadian designers to create couture pieces entirely out of bathroom tissue, with proceeds supporting breast cancer research. This year, Kruger is donating $1 to the Canadian Cancer Society for every special pack of Cashmereand Purex sold.
“These initiatives reflect our commitment to making a difference in Canadians’ lives,” Irving says. “We’re proud to support our communities and contribute to causes that matter to our consumers.”
Looking ahead, Irving is optimistic. “I’m excited that we’re going to continue the momentum in the marketplace and making waves and continuing to ensure that we’re connecting with Canadian consumers in a meaningful way,” she says. “Our strategic plan will always guide us, but our people will continue to be our top priority, as they are our greatest competitive advantage. Developing our people, investing in their careers and ensuring they enjoy the journey – along with our great agency partners – will always be our strongest competitive edge.”
Congratulations on winning Brand of the Year.
TILLEY PUNCHES ABOVE ITS WEIGHT
How the brand is making inroads with a whole new generation without alienating those who helped it get to where it is today. BY JENNIFER HORN
BBe fashionable, but also functional. Be iconic, but not dated. Be youthful, but don’t alienate those who’ve lived life. Be eco-friendly, but also affordable. The goal to be “everything to everyone” is a tightrope that many companies walk. Tilley being one of them. This is the story of how the heritage brand found its feet. It all began in 1980 when Alex Tilley, a man in his 40s, designed a boater hat that could do one simple task: stay on his head. He loved to sail but loathed the quality of what was available in the market. So he got to work. With the help of a couple friends, he designed a prototype with a fisherman’s knot to keep the hat steady. Some got wind of the invention and Tilley started selling the headpiece to buddies at the yacht club for $15.50 apiece, two dollars
more than his costs. Before long, the sailing hobbyist grew that one hat into a multi-million dollar apparel business with a link to Canada as significant as basketball and the telephone.
I cannot tell you how many times I heard the response “Tilley? Oh, yeah, my dad is a big fan” while researching the company for this article. Everyone – and I mean everyone – talked about an older family member who still sports the O.G. bucket hat or how they’ve kept their grandfather’s in storage. As someone who didn’t grow up in Canada, it quickly became apparent that Tilley is both a piece of national and generational pride. But heritage can only get a brand so far.
The rise of fast-fashion chains, outdoor clothing retailers like MEC and Patagonia, as well as a desire from consumers to mix fashion with function, led to more competition than the company could bear. In 2015, after decades of building a travel and adventure clothing empire, Tilley sold the company to Re:Capital, the Canadian arm of U.K. private equity firm Hilco Capital. While a cash infusion helped the beleaguered brand get by, it wasn’t until Tilley caught the eye of fashion mogul Joe Mimran and his partner Frank Rocchetti that things really started to get interesting.
In an interview with the serial entrepreneur –best-known as the founder of Club Monaco and Joe Fresh – Mimran corroborated the theory that Tilley is a much-loved brand in Canada. “There’s something about the Tilley brand. There’s always a family story. People still bring me their relative’s hat, like it memorialises their life. It’s very different from other fashion brands I’ve been involved with.”
At first Mimran and Rocchetti were simply passive investors. They later took on operational roles in 2020 after they convinced the management team to bring back the original bucket hat –which, to their surprise, had been discontinued – and refashioned it with a more modern, less wavy brim. They also introduced new millennialinspired hues and updated the fabrics. “Tilley used to have three colours: khaki, khaki and khaki. So it was all very contrary to where the brand had been,” explains Mimran. The “Remastered T1 Bucket Hat” very quickly became one of the best-selling products “and that’s when we got emotionally charged and into the business.”
Following T1’s success the duo built a team of product designers, developers and technical staff to take Tilley into more verticals. Although,
expansion into apparel beyond hats wasn’t entirely unchartered territory for the brand. Before its sale, Tilley’s portfolio had ballooned to hundreds of SKUs. It had a selection of shorts, shirts, vests, socks, even underwear with a secret pocket for storing valuables – all geared toward outdoor enthusiasts and travellers, with some of its hats carrying the brand’s famous “Guaranteed for Life” promise. But the challenge Mimran and Rocchetti faced was convincing a younger generation to see the brand as fashionable.
“At the very beginning, Joe, as the creative director said to the team, ‘We want to give the brand’s heritage a proper nod of respect, but if we don’t build this out and start attracting new customers and bring it to a more modern state, then we’re going to wake up and have a very small following over time,’” explains Rocchetti.
And therein lies the million-dollar question – how do you both modernise and pay homage to a brand’s old-school charm in a way that doesn’t alienate its loyal followers? You stick to what you know, says Rochetti. “We kept the principles to be aligned with the heritage brand, which is that the items should be enduring. They are made to last. They’re not fast fashion.” And you diversify, adds Mimran. “We’re taking the product lines and we’re seeing how we can segment the brand for various customers.”
Take, for instance, Tilley Sport. Available in stores like Pebble Beach and Trendy Golf, and a mainstay at The Masters Tournament, the sport line has allowed the brand to access a throng of new buyers. And that extends to women, too. Tilley was previously dominated by men, and the decision to introduce colours and styles that appeal to the opposite sex has helped the brand go from an 80/20 divide to a more even 60/40 split. As for expanding the line: “Golf is our focus right now, but pickleball is a really big trend right as well. So a lot of the clothes are also very suitable for that, which is why we’ve opted for Tilly Sport, as opposed to just Tilly Golf,” notes Mimran.
The delicate dance between legacy and contemporary continues in the way in which Tilley’s products are marketed. “You’ll see in some of our photography, we’re not always using young models. There are people who have lived life in our campaigns,” says Rocchetti. But sometimes a brand needs to be overt in its intentions. It’s no coincidence the duo chose to open Tilley’s first store under their leadership along Toronto’s Ossington St. “We picked that very strategically – it wasn’t because of the shopping traffic pattern. It was more psychographic,” adds Mimran.
That Ossington St. store later went on to house a pop-up for Cafe Olimpico, a decades-old institution in Montreal that attracts coffee enthusiasts from around the globe. Pairing the two quintessential Canadian brands was a success on all counts, according to Mimran, who recalls there being line-ups for days while the cafe was in town for three weeks. “Anytime you can bring two heritage brands together, where each of them have street cred, it’s going to be a very successful partnership.”
Beyond the cafe collab, Tilley has also struck deals with forward-fashion shoe brands like New Era and Royal Albatross, Shiseido and its skincare line, paddle board company Beau Lake (of which Taxi’s Paul Lavoie is a founder), The Tragically Hip, and
launched his namesake company with the bucket hat, originally meant for sailors; the brand does not discriminate against age in its product photography; Tilley opened a store in Toronto with a pop-up that featured Cafe Olimpico, a decades-old Montreal coffee institution.
soon, the NBA. All of which lead to the ultimate goal of presenting a brand that’s more inclusive, accessible, relevant, modern.
If you’ve been in the business as long as Mimran and Rocchetti, you’ll know hard choices need to be made. “I can’t tell you the number of times people come to see Joe to ask for advice on how to expand into apparel. And he always says, ‘Don’t do it. You’re going to die doing it.’ And invariably, some of them stop. Most of them carry forward, and it becomes a very painful exercise.”
Their advice for those who do? Over deliver on value – and never underestimate the taste level of the consumer. “Offer them something that punches way above its own weight,” says Mimran. Sound advice from someone who brought modern style to the grocery aisle.
Above: Alex Tilley
WHERE PAST MEETS FUTURE
The Royal Ontario Museum has evolved into a vibrant cultural space, telling remarkable stories of history, art and science.
BY JENNIFER HORN
AA giant oculus sits beneath the feet of a 50-million-year-old dinosaur. Light pours directly onto ancient artifacts once created by human hands. It sweeps across the foyer and into an atrium that doubles as a stage for musical performances. While breath-taking and sensational in its scale, the new gaping belly – currently under construction – at the base of the Royal Ontario Museum would be considered par for the course in a building that’s home to objects of historical interest. Except it’s not. It’s actually rather uncommon to see the fossil of a Stegosaurus, a granite bust of Cleopatra and The Death of General Wolfe painting all in the same collection. The ROM is among the few stewards of artworks, cultural objects and natural history specimens in the world. It’s this claim to fame that Josh Basseches, a PHD candidate,
former Peabody Essex Museum director and current CEO of the ROM wants to articulate to the public. The OpenROM concept described above – where the Hennick Commons is currently two years away from completion – does just that, and more. While it’s a literal billboard for the ROM’s unique tripartite collection, it also communicates Basseches’ vision for the historical hub to be seen as a cultural enclave in the heart of Toronto. By allowing the Commons to be free for all, the CEO hopes that people will drop in and drop out, using the space as a public plaza where they can gather, learn and exchange ideas.
The Brits have enjoyed universal free admission to museums for decades (much to our chagrin), so for the ROM to foot the bill for a 6,000 feet gallery space is both welcomed and disruptive. But almost everything about the museum these days seems unexpected. According to Sally Tindal, the ROM’s chief marketing and communications officer, that’s all by design. “Our strategic direction is very much about shaking up the way people perceive us as a museum.”
external
decorated
crisp photography and an updated brand identity
Leo Burnett; meanwhile, construction is underway to open the museum up to a wider audience by offering free programming in the
Commons. Clockwise from top
The ROM aims to be seen as a cultural enclave in the heart of Toronto, a choice clearly reflected in its public facing branding.
Take for example, the ROM’s six-minute “Immortal” film, which is as deep and as dark as the ocean waters. “We said, ‘Let’s break the rules here,” explains Tindal of the marketing team (which Diamond’s Lori Davison led at the time) and its decision to greenlight the award-winning spot by Broken Heart Love Affair. The commercial from 2022 was a sort of coming out for the museum; a creative punch that could be deemed risky for a 110-year-old government and privately funded institution, but which was embraced by Basseches because it aligned perfectly with his mission, says Tindal.
Directed by Mark Zibert, the dramatic message behind the gritty ad was that “we live on in what we leave behind,” an ode to human history. Of course, putting people at the centre tells only one part of the museum’s story. So the next film, which will be as surprising as the first, will be a “love letter” to the natural world when it launches later this year. “Part of that focus came from Josh, our CEO,” says Tindal. “Museums tend to be humancentric. But just because we see it from that perspective, doesn’t mean there aren’t other perspectives beyond us.”
The ROM also has a much larger place in the world than just being a place where objects are held, adds BHLA CSO Jason
Chaney. “And those objects aren’t passive. They’re very active portals to stories that connect us back to our past, make sense of what’s happening today, and help us understand how we can navigate the future,” says Chaney, citing the vision Basseches came to the ROM with eight years ago. In fact those objects –of which there are 18 million – are of such significance to the ROM’s marketing that they were infused into its brand identity by Leo Burnett, which includes an ultra-contemporary blackand-white wordmark and typeface that expands and contracts to show the history of our planet. The branding is still being rolled out across the floors of the museum, because “it’s an enormous institution and we can’t transform it overnight,” says Tindal. “But we’re starting to see the brand woven into exhibitions.”
When asked about the catalyst for the transformation, Chaney points to the museum’s desire to diversify its audience, which it believes can be done by “recentering the ROM as a cultural meeting place, where people can discuss and have opinions, more than just being a tourist destination or an entertainment centre.” Adds Tindal: “We’re all aware that consumers’ interest in going out and spending money has changed. So it’s critical that people see the museum as not just a one-off place for an exhibition.”
Top two images on left: The ROM’s
facade is
with
by
Hennick
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The CSO admits that, growing up, the ROM was seen as a “rainy day baby sister” and mostly attracted those who grew up in Ontario. “Now, our breakdown is 60% female, 40% male. Sixty-six percent of our visitors are between 18 and 44 and almost 60% were not born in Canada – 44% are first time visitors,” says Tindal of the shift that’s taken place over the last
couple years. “So new Canadians and new audiences that have never been through our doors before. This is the kind of data that we wanted. The profile of our visitor is no longer what one might have thought about a museum even five to 10 years ago. And that’s truly exciting.”
Toronto, she adds, is uniquely positioned because of its diversity and size, and so future growth exists in the ROM’s ability to create more access points for different communities. Through its exhibitions – and first-of-its-kind appointments, like the hiring of Dr. Soren Brothers as a Curator of Climate Change – the museum is attempting to deepen public engagement on topics that impact everyone.
Above
: While the ROM’s “Immortal” ad honed in on human impact, the next film from BHLA will study the power of the natural world.
Most don’t know that the ROM is also a scientific and research institute; that its scientists actively study meteorites from Mars, for instance, in order to better understand the past, present and future of life in the solar system.By being an active contributor vs. a passive purveyor and tackling the pressing issues of the day, Tindal believes the ROM will continue to maintain relevance. “It makes the ROM feel like it’s a place for the future and the past. We’re asking big questions and answering some of them – now we want people to join in asking questions and inspire them to think about life and history in different ways.”
WE LIVE ON IN THE AWARDS WE LEAVE BEHIND BRAND OF THE YEAR
CONGRATS TO THE IMMORTAL
EQ BANK TAKES ON THE BIG GUYS
How Canada’s challenger brand is presenting itself as a better banking alternative.
BY CHRISTOPHER LOMBARDO
HHigh interest rates. Economic uncertainty. Housing market declines. Regulatory challenges. The last couple of years have not been easy on Canadian banks. Yet, while the big banks recorded, at most, a 0.7% growth, with some earnings falling as much as 23%, EQ Bank managed to grow its net income by 11.2% in 2023. Those positive results led to shares of the mid-sized lender jumping more than 50%, making it the bestperforming banking stock last year.
Beyond its digital-only model, attractive interest rates and strategic collabs with fintech firms, EQ’s success has also been a result of its marketing strategy, positioning itself as a more optimistic alternative to the Big Five banks. While Canadians tend to be loyal customers – with many having been with the same financial institution since the day they were allowed to set up an account as a child – the arrival of EQ Bank in 2016 revealed Canadians had an appetite for disruption. In fact, says EQ’s SVP and group head of personal
Above: Customer satisfaction rates with banks are in decline. EQ has taken aim at the Big Five by choosing to be more optimistic in its “Make Bank” messaging.
banking Mahima Poddar, when it first debuted with a savings-based offering, it generated so much interest that the brand had to throttle customer sign-ups, what Poddar calls a “fantastic problem to have.”
“There was clearly a pent-up appetite for banking solutions that provide Canadians with value and our initial campaign very much exceeded our expectations,” she says.
While data shows that Canadians are averse to switching banks, recent SRG Research reveals that 84% of newcomers – a key segment all banks are fighting for – expressed a “willingness to consider additional banking options with the right offer and product.” That’s because many newcomers arrive in Canada from countries that have more competitive
Above:
Thanks in part to its “Make Bank” brand positioning, EQ recently crossed the 500,000 customer threshold, and welcomed around 400 customers a day in the last quarter.
banking markets, and so they are typically more open to switching banks or using a digital challenger for their primary account.
As for those who have been in Canada their whole lives, there is a higher degree of tension that’s endemic to the world of banking. Customer satisfaction rates with banks, according to J.D. Power, are in decline. People have been growing frustrated by the steep cost of living; some feeling stuck with bank accounts that have high fees and other onerous requirements. As a result, EQ Bank has mostly marketed in a way that looked to shake people out of this mode, unabashedly bashing the Big Five. For example, EQ’s “Make Bank” platform features messaging like, “I have zero interest in making zero interest,” and “Less take, more make.”
EQ is also targeting audiences differently and reaching out to “aspirants” – a strategy that’s more focused on mindsets, rather than age demographics or income criteria. It even chose a bright yellow palette to evoke feelings of optimism and joy, which aligns with its “aspirational” mission and positions the bank as a place
where people can grow their potential.
As Poddar explains, most bank brands tend to use a common financial marketing trope, whereby a customer will visit a branch to assist them with their banking needs. At EQ, Poddar says it consciously positions every message to instead say: “Come to EQ Bank, and we’ll give you the tools you need to achieve what you already know you’re capable of.”
After showing consumers that a different bank exists – one that’s worth switching to – EQ transitioned to a softer marketing approach with its “Second Chance” campaign. It began talking about pain points through humour, creating ads that are more casual and have a sitcom vibe, tapping into well-liked celebs to build trust.
The campaign features father/son actors Eugene and Dan Levy in English Canada, with “Deuxième Chance” starring mother/daughter Diane Lavallée and Laurence Leboeuf in Québec. Each of the spots, created by The Hive, feature casual (and often funny) kitchen
discussions about avoiding fees and bank accounts which offer zero interest, and the benefit of switching to EQ.
The work led to a 10% national lift in aided awareness of the brand year-over-year after just six months in the market. In Quebec, specifically, EQ saw a 16% lift in aided awareness within just four weeks of the campaign’s launch. “Our brand awareness is the highest it’s ever been since we began measuring,” Poddar notes. EQ Bank also recently crossed the 500,000 customer threshold, welcoming 28,000 customers in the latest quarter alone, or around 400 customers each day.
Poddar has noticed that Canadians feel compelled to “do more to get more” when it comes to banking with traditional financial institutions, and so his team has leaned into that by offering meaningful benefits for actions. These include payroll direct deposit options, which offer consumers a chance to earn an extra 4% interest rate, and removing what Poddar calls “unnecessary complexity.”
“It’s the core idea that drives our ‘Make Bank’ slogan. In an industry where there’s typically a lot of take, we’re flipping the script to help customers make.”
According to Poddar, the brand has also succeeded by not offering special promotional rates, which have become commonplace in the banking world. “We treat our customers equally by offering consistent, high-interest rates without requiring
them to chase temporary offers that would revert to unfavourable base rates,” she stresses. “With EQ, what you see is what you get.” No-fee offerings like its Notice Savings Accounts, which pays 4% or 4.25% if a customer agrees to give at least 10- or 30-days’ notice of a withdrawal, have also proven to be attractive to both existing and new customers.
Tactically, EQ has found “enormous success” in shifting ad dollars toward harder-hitting, higher-impact channels. “We adjusted our media mix based on insights from our media model to focus more on driving sign-ups, which has yielded better results in terms of customer acquisition and brand awareness,” Poddar says. “We find that digital platforms like YouTube and streaming services with video-based content allow us to lean into brand storytelling moments very effectively.”
If Poddar had a time machine, she says she would have invested in the brand early on and through more channels at greater regularity. “When you’re launching something new, consistency of message can make all the difference as you seek to maintain momentum, which is something we’ve learned and applied to more recent campaigns,” Poddar says. “Over the course of almost 10 years, one thing that we’re proud that has remained consistent – no matter the channel, campaign or how big we grow – is how we continue to drive change in Canadian banking and enrich lives.”
SEPHORA’S INCLUSIVITY STARTS WITH SPECIFICITY
The retailer is on a mission to keep up with the masses by focusing on individuality. BY GREG
HUDSON
SSephora’s success follows the same paradox that informs great works of art – which is that the more specific a work is, the more universally it resonates. That’s why people connect with the Mona Lisa. For Sephora, the more the retailer explores the highly specific needs of its individual consumers, the more ubiquitous the brand becomes. The word Sephora would use to describe this strategy is “inclusivity,” which is an almost obvious goal for most retailers. Barring ultra-lux brands that trade off exclusivity, most businesses want to connect with as many potential consumers as possible. But for a beauty brand, inclusivity is deceptively difficult. How does one build a community around something as individual and specific
as someone’s signature scent, preferred shade of lipstick or skin tone? Answering that question has been Sephora’s mission since it arrived in Canada twenty years ago. It’s what Sephora’s brand platform, “We Belong to Something Beautiful,” is all about.
“We have been on a mission to expand our reach, presence and widen our community to become the most inclusive beauty retailer in Canada, creating a space that inspires and allows everyone to celebrate their unique beauty and believing that there is beauty in our differences,” says Allison Litzinger, SVP, marketing, Sephora Canada. “Our work over the past couple of years has focused on bridging this mission with the joy, excitement and the beauty wonderland of our experience – and welcoming even more people into our community.
“As an inclusive, culturally relevant and experiential brand, it’s important for us to live and act like one through our go-to market strategy,” Litzinger adds.
Perhaps the best example is Sephora’s “Illumination” campaign that launched last year but will continue through 2025. Working with Zulu Alpha Kilo, the brand transformed its proprietary AI skin-scanning tool into an interactive experiential data visualization, turning all the scanned skin tones of Canadians into a beautiful work of art that “everyone could participate in.” Litzinger says the stunt was so successful it not only drove positive brand metrics, but also inspired a 60% bump in new customers coming into its stores to try the Colour IQ tool.
The “Illumination” campaign worked because it both celebrated and catered to customers’ uniqueness. In other words, it was authentic. Striving to be genuine, as opposed to performative, can be difficult. To help, Sephora leans on the creator community.
“We know how influential creators are, but partnering with them also allows us to live our purpose and have a more authentic community voice,” Litzinger says. “We prioritize representation in our marketing year-round and also partner with creators and artists in key communities to celebrate cultural moments. It’s important to ensure we’re reflecting and acknowledging what matters to them in their lives and how beauty at Sephora plays a role.”
And it isn’t just talk. Sephora was the first retailer to sign the 15% Pledge, which meant it would devote 15% of its shelf space
to Black-owned businesses. Then, it raised the bar even further by committing to have 25% of products on its shelves be from BIPOC-founded brands by 2026. The retailer has also invested in Classes for Confidence, a program meant to help marginalized communities explore and define beauty on their own terms. The classes, which are hosted by Sephora Beauty Advisors, have grown from a few virtual sessions in 2021, to over 25 in-person and online classes across Canada in 2024, reaching over 200 participants.
“From our Diverse Beauty classes that help clients with darker skin tones discover brands and products suited to them, to our DiversABILITY online classes that help people with disabilities explore the world of beauty, it’s truly moving participants to [feel] empowered by what they can discover about themselves,” Litzinger says.
However, the brand hasn’t simply planted a flag of inclusivity and waited for the community to arrive and rally around it. As Litzinger says, it’s an experiential brand, and so efforts have been made to take the Sephora experience to consumers, wherever they are. For example, the “Prêt-a-Party” pop-up at Osheaga and a sold-out “Makeup by Mario Master Class” at TD Music Hall in Toronto “helped bring the inclusive excitement and human connection of our brand out of the store and [kept] Sephora top of mind,” Litzinger says.
The makeup master class was taught by international makeup artist and frequent Kim Kardashian collaborator, Mario Dedivanovic, as he took the audience, and their raised smartphones, through the process of creating a glam look. The event generated more than337 social posts and92.7 millionimpressions.
Another example is its “Beauty at the Bentway,” a kind of community oasis the brand built under the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto. The long-term activation had the joint purpose of providing passersby with a place to recharge, sitting among greenery and art by local artist Avril Wu, while promoting the Clean and Planet Aware lines of products that avoid certain harmful ingredients and meet Sephora’s specific criteria for sourcing and formulation.
As far as locations go, the Bentway, a shared space that makes use of the neglected territory under one of Toronto’s main thoroughfares, is very specific. Yet Sephora was able to beautify the blighted space, fill it with art and life, and then open it up for everyone to enjoy.
All of these efforts have been paying off. Over the past two years, the brand has seen a 40% growth in its client base. “Since 2021, we’ve tripled our traffic and achieved a remarkable 13% increase in market share,” Litzinger says. “By the end of 2024, we will [have] 129 locations, expanding
A
with makeup
to bring Sephora’s experiential spirit to stores. Above: By way of its “Illumunation,”
“Beauty at the Bentway” and Clean line, the brand is showing up as more than just a retailer.
our reach and bringing our unique beauty experience to new communities across the country.” It’s telling that Canada is now the third largest market for the global brand.
“There are so many things that make Sephora special – from our sensorial experience, to our unmatched curated assortment driving industry trends, to the emotional connection our customers feel for our brand,” Litzinger says. “Most importantly we are a brand that is built on a foundation of purpose and values that inspires both employees and clients to feel a sense of belonging, and to feel free to be who they really are.”
Left:
collab
artist Mario Dedivanovic sought
THE THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL AGENCY OF THE YEAR AWARDS
So many industry conversations this year revolved around the rapidly evolving realms of AI, data and other techno-speak that it sometimes felt as though advertising had taken on an entirely new language. As brands find ways to navigate this brave new world, the challenge lies in maintaining the human touch. There remains a growing need to ensure that the emotional resonance of advertising isn’t lost. Consumers demand authenticity – they want relatable stories, not just perfectly targeted ones. So, it’s up to agencies and marketers to find ways to go beyond algorithms and predictive models to craft messages that connect on a deeper, human level. Luckily, in the 35th annual Agency of the Year Awards, you’ll see plenty of examples of teams who did just that.
By any metric, Rethink is having itself a pretty good Silver Jubilee.
Among its many recognitions in this, its 25th year, the shop found itself at the top of The Drum ’s World Creative Rankings as the most-awarded agency on the planet; named Independent Agency of the Year at the One Show; claimed top spot at the ADC Awards; nabbed a Grand Clio; acknowledged as both Independent Network of the Year and Independent Agency of the Year in Cannes; and now, it’s making AOY (and Rethink) history with its first quadruple Gold win.
Truly, the award shelf runneth over.
While many agencies might have a year in which a standout campaign runs the table, Rethink dominated 2024 thanks to a generous collection of campaigns and a slew of talent. As agency partner and global CSO Sean McDonald puts it, both clients and Rethinkers had career years.
And you might say: ‘Well, yeah… Rethink.’ But the agency’s success was far from fait accompli Nothing kills culture faster than growth and Rethink has had a lot of growth of late. In fact, since 2021, the agency has roughly doubled in both staff count and overall business, with offices to be found in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and New York.
“It wasn’t just exciting,” says McDonald of the agency’s momentum. “It scared the shit out of us. We had to double down and say: ‘What got us here? What was good?’ We took a very deliberate approach to keeping everybody on the same page and being really clear about what we think gets us to our goals.”
One primary goal was the aforementioned win in Cannes. Early in the year, the Rethink team deliberately set its sights on being named the Independent Network of the Year at
the global event. But wishing rarely makes things so.
“Goals are just goals unless you set conditions to achieve them,” explains the agency’s global CCO Aaron Starkman. “We were diligent this past year in setting the right conditions to achieve our goals.”
Starkman says that meant a laser-like focus on what he calls “eliminating wheel spinning” – meaning Rethink took every opportunity to create efficiencies within the group. That meant things like re-evaluating long meetings and other time sucks, and instead
CASES | AGENCY
1. Want to play a game?
For Uber Eats’ “Horror Codes,” the agency transformed Halloween promo codes into interactive puzzles. Fans solved brain teasers for candy discounts, driving engagement across digital platforms. In the end, the campaign brought in 44% new users to Uber Eats’ grocery and retail channel.
communicating via Slack, text messages or old-fashioned phone calls. Whatever it took to get to the best idea and execution swiftly and resourcefully.
“We moved quickly and efficiently at every step of the process – and we made a commitment of teaching and spreading CRAFTS, our lens through which we evaluate strategy and creative,” he explains.
In fact, CRAFTS – an acronym that stands for “Clear, Relevant, Achievable, Fresh, True and Shareable” –became the north star for the agency.
2. The Knix “Sport Your Period” campaign aimed at normalizing periods in sports by launching a visible period badge that could be worn by athletes during competitions. The initiative empowered women to stay active without fear of leakage.
3. Scotiabank’s “You’re Richer Than You Think” campaign redefined wealth beyond money – a message that resonated with financially stressed Canadians. Initiatives included a brand redesign and an interactive “Money Styles” quiz.
4. “Smack for Heinz” saw the agency place Heinz Ketchup-dispensing boards outside restaurants that weren’t serving the condiment. Fans could “smack” for Heinz digitally or in person, reigniting demand for the product in many areas.
For Rethink’s Agency Campaign of the Year, see p.58-59.
60, including 11 in Montreal, 22 in Toronto, 9 in Vancouver and 18 in New York
OFFICES
Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, New York
CASES | DESIGN
1. What’s old is new again For the Boréal 60th Anniversary Collection, Rethink revived twelve classic novels with minimalist, elegant cover designs. Using refined illustrations and a modern serif typeface, the collection transformed familiar titles into fresh discoveries.
2. The “Heinz Tattoo Label” reinvented the brand’s iconic keystone label into a tattoo-friendly design. By redesigning the label with tattoo stencil ink and collaborating with artists, Heinz created a buzzworthy, collectible item, leading to 65 million earned impressions.
3. Rethink offered up a nostalgic design overhaul for A&W’s brand. By revisiting iconic elements – classic colours, food photography and illustrations – the campaign evoked familiarity and consistency.
“We are holding CRAFTS sessions in every office,” says Starkman, “and we’ve ramped those up in the past year. We put pieces of work on the floor and people [score] each letter [of the acronym] out of five. Then we put the work up and we use those scores to talk about its effectiveness. We do that because it’s all about learning and growing. The more people that are truly fluent in understanding CRAFTS, the better it is for the products and the better it is for eliminating wheel spinning.”
What’s at the heart of it all? Well, while the agency has experienced significant growth in the last few years, that’s not been the overarching goal. It’s actually been about setting a new industry standard.
“I think recognizing that you want to set the standard pushes you to create an environment where people, who want to be the best at their craft, can do the best work of their careers,” McDonald explains. “If we stay focused on that, it inherently doesn’t allow us to sit still.
“There are very few silos within the company, very
few moments where you’re asked to do anything alone. With a bar that high, we do all that we can to pursue all these goals together. Every year, we look at ourselves to say, ‘What can we do better?’”
One move the agency recently made was the development of what it calls Brand Narrative – a formalized process in which it brings PR and comms specialists to the table to help clients and creatives develop headline-worthy work.
It didn’t fundamentally change the culture of the company, nor did it really change the process by which the work got done, but it did demonstrate how the agency is always ready to “rethink” what it’s doing to see if it can be done a better way.
McDonald says the move was made in recognition that Rethink was already one of the best PR agencies in the world, even if they didn’t formally acknowledge it. “We are in so much media because it’s our predisposition to exceed the media investment,” he says. “Frankly, I think it’s lazy just to paint by numbers
AGENCY | GOLD + DESI GN | GOLD + DIGITAL | GOLD + PR | GOLD
and fill in the media space that your client buys for you.
“Recognizing that media is both very fragmented and also a very competitive intermediate space to get into these days, we constantly look at ways of optimizing the way we work. Nobody who has ever seen how we work and what we’ve done accuses us of sitting still. It’s just not in our DNA.”
So, where do the Large Language Models and AI factor in? After all, those are the required buzzwords du jour for any meaningful agency profile.
Data and artificial intelligence are powerful tools, but they’re not decision makers, explains McDonald. He offers up Apple founder Steve Jobs as an example, noting how the eccentric innovator used to describe computers as bicycles for the mind. Just as a bicycle amplifies human efficiency, technology enhances our creative abilities. But it’s the human who steers
CASES | DIGITAL
the vision. In the same way, data might help inform decisions, but it’s people who make the final call, using tools to support, not replace, human judgment.
“You can see when people get obsessed with how much rational data they can find to tell a story,” explains McDonald of how Rethink does it differently. “In every single step that we take, we ask: Yeah, so what? Is what we are endeavouring to do clear? Is it relevant? Do we have the means to do it? Can we do this in a fresh way? Does it have a truth that, if we interrogate it, remains true?
“We all have access to the same data. Data can give you a sense of where the opportunity lies but not what the opportunity is. I believe when it comes down to the motivation, you have to recognize that people choose emotionally. [So] you have to connect with them emotionally.”
McDonald describes the agency’s problem-solving
1. Bringing words to life
“Living Stories” for Penguin Random House transformed bedtime reading into an interactive experience via a mobile app. By synchronizing voice recognition with smart home technology, it triggered lights and sounds to match the story being read.
2. “Worn by Drake” helped Molson Coors capitalize on Drake’s endorsement of the brand’s vintage jersey. The campaign used digital tools that consumers could use to track down the jerseys, which were re-released as limited-edition merchandise within Molson Coor beer cases. 2
For Rethink’s Digital Campaign of the Year, see p.58-59.
1. Now that’s spicy! When Rethink noticed that South Asian customers were hacking A&W burgers to be more reflective of their tastes, the brand created the “Piri Piri Potato Buddy Burger” to capitalize on the hack. The team then let the South Asian community be the voices of the campaign and partnered with influencers to generate over 241 million earned impressions. 2
2. “Bill The Maple” for Quebec Maple Syrup Producers tackled U.S. market challenges by offering to cover the cost of pure maple syrup for consumers. American diners had gotten into the habit of charging customers for the syrup, so the Canadian association made it up to them, inviting people to submit their expense for reimbursement. The PR-focused strategy achieved 100 million impressions and boosted sales by 4.4%. 1
For Rethink’s PR Campaign of the Year, see p.58-59.
process as one of “filling shallow holes” – a method of discovery and dialogue in which agency and client come together to quickly talk about ideas conceptually, before getting too deep into solutions. Then comes peer review and research. But, throughout it all, clients are involved in the idea and help shape the solution. There aren’t any surprises.
“One of the most coercive and, frankly, disappointing things that I hear is agencies asking clients for bravery,” he says. “I think it’s a cop-out asking your client to be brave, somehow challenging them to have enough courage to make a decision.” If the client is at the table, he notes, there are no surprises. And, if the work is clear, relevant, achievable, fresh, true and shareable, bravery rarely becomes a condition for success.
So, how long can the agency’s run last? While it’s impossible to read the tea leaves, Starkman remains pragmatic. Looking at Rethink’s sixth straight win as Strategy ’s Gold Agency of the Year, he references Michael Jordan’s run with the Chicago Bulls – six championships over eight years as the Bulls became
the team to beat in the ’90s.
“We don’t need to achieve a crazy goal every single year,” he explains. “We just need to believe in what we’re doing – believe in doing the best work in the category for our clients, and having Rethinkers do the best work of their careers. If we follow that, it truly doesn’t matter if we achieve a crazy goal like Independent Network of the Year at Cannes each year. We’ll be content and happy as long as we are following our vision and our values.”
Vision and values – two words that harken back to 1999, when Rethink was first founded by Tom Shepansky, Chris Staples and Ian Grais, after finding themselves dissatisfied in their work and wanting to create a shop that was focused on creativity and people. Doesn’t seem like much has changed over the last quarter century.
“When this agency was started by Chris, Tom and Ian, they saw Rethink as a one-word business model,” says Starkman. “As a company, we’ve been ‘rethinking’ for 25 years. But, as long as the world and the industry continue to evolve, there will always be new things to look at and rethink.”
Courage rides the wave
What’s in a name? For Courage, it’s an enticement; a strategic play to attract the type of clients who have the bravery to push the envelope. Who aren’t afraid to host a burial for their unloved deep-fried potato chips. Who will publish a book about bowel movements during child birth. Who will troll NBA players on massive billboards. Who will… well, you get the point. Courage CSO Tom Kenny took the stage with one of those brave clients, Tracey Cooke of Nestle, during strategy’s CMO Forum in October. The agency-client duo shared case after case, companies that understand the importance of “identifying the things that make a brand special” – as well as those that don’t. Their presentation pointed to studies that show 75% of
BY CHRIS LOMBARDO
brands could disappear and people wouldn’t care. And, even more depressing, only 5% of brands are considered unique by consumers.
Few brands, Kenny said, are able to identify their unique qualities, nor are they able to translate them into “genuinely distinctive advertising.” And that, in a nutshell, is what Courage set itself up to achieve.
“Whether it’s a new brand or a legacy brand, I think the thing we do really, really well is make brands relevant,” Joel Holtby, co-founder and co-CCO tells strategy, adding that the agency does this by tapping into cultural conversations happening around them.
Within its two-year existence, Courage helped legacy brands – KitKat and KFC – known for catchy taglines –“Have a Break” and “Finger Lickin’ Good” – revive those
long-standing platforms with creative punches that not only had an effect on consumers, but also the industry at wide: KitKat’s “Have AI Break” picked up a Silver Lion at Cannes this year. Meanwhile, KFC’s “Finger Lickin’ Open Endorsement,” a mock sponsorship that saw The Colonel step out of the kitchen and onto the court, picked up a Bronze. Last year, when KFC tapped Courage for a made-in-Canada platform, “Not Everybody’s Happy,” it was the QSR’s first major brand push in years as it entered a “large transformational journey,” says co-founder and co-CCO Dhaval Bhatt. The agency’s work has even been getting the attention of the restaurant’s U.S. team, which, in a recent meeting, called out KFC Canada for being among the most popular when it comes to Gen Z.
As for KitKat, Bhatt says the challenge has been to revive the Nestle brand, which is iconic in its own right but comes with tagline coined in the late ’50s that requires creative thinking to connect it to contemporary culture. Enter AI. Informed by a Google DeepMind study on Large Language Model-based AIs, the campaign demonstrated how prompting “a breather” before any Gen AI request improves the accuracy of the response.
Holtby says part of what enables the agency to tap into cultural connectivity is the diversity of its people, which gives the work not just a Canadian, but global flair. The shop’s success, he believes, also boils down to something as simple as enjoying the work. “The challenge is fun,” Holtby says. “The way to craft the work is fun. Finding enjoyment in every aspect of it is what makes you want to constantly come back to the table and beat the thing that we just did.”
Besides, the duo says not having larger agency bureaucracy and an institutionalized structure helps it focus on the work, which, in turn, helps attract talent and ward off turnover.
Bhatt likens success in the ad business to surfing. The waves come in, you get on the board and try to catch a good one; and then stay on top as long as you can. Extending the water metaphor, Bhatt adds, “We’re sharks, and doing great work is our movement. And if we stop doing that, we die.”
CASES
1. Not playing games
Courage created “190 Goals For Goals” for CIBC to celebrate soccer icon Christine Sinclair’s retirement by honouring her career goal total. At her final game, 190 young female players wore her jersey, emblazoned with their own personal goals. The campaign garnered 264 million impressions and raised $190,000 for Sinclair’s foundation.
2. For KFC’s “Fry Funeral,” the agency embraced the QSR’s reputation for sub-par fries by hosting a live-streamed funeral for them. The campaign, featuring a coffin and hearse tour, generated 3.7 billion impressions and boosted same-store sales by 8.6%.
3. KitKat’s “Have AI Break” revitalized the confectionary brand’s iconic “Have a Break” tagline by integrating Gen AI tools, showing how prompting AI to “take a break” improved the tech’s response accuracy. The campaign garnered 80 million organic impressions and reignited KitKat’s relevance with younger audiences.
4. North York General Hospital’s “What No One Tells You When You’re Expecting” included a book that shared untold pregnancy truths. Debuting as Amazon’s number-one bestseller in Pregnancy & Childbirth, it generated 15.3K new donor leads and significant media attention.
5. For Skyscanner’s “Trollboards” campaign, Courage leveraged the NBA “1, 2, 3 Cancun” meme to boost brand awareness during the 2024 playoffs. By placing billboards trolling eliminated teams, the campaign garnered over one billion media impressions.
AGENCY | BRONZE
BHLA on the art of flm
Everything is bright and sunny in Parkinson Canada’s “Find Your Swagger” ad that launched earlier this year.
The sauntering, middle-aged architect at its centre wins over a stranger at an intersection with a tulip and a jaunty stride. It’s a far cry from Simplii Financial’s “Start Your Engines” creative: a grim black-and-white montage of a greyhound ascending an industrial elevator, eagerly waiting to race down a hallway at top speed. Yet Broken Heart Love Affair is at the centre of both commercials.
The agency has a record for creating powerful film work, which also includes “Immortal,” a moving film for the Royal Ontario Museum that depicts the totality of the human experience. Of course, BHLA doesn’t just produce films. It also leads awardwinning strategy, influencer marketing and PR for an evergrowing roster of clients, including Kruger, Black Diamond, Burger King, World Vision Canada, Cheestrings and others.
By now, most already know BHLA’s origin story – industry heavyweights Jason Chaney, Todd Mackie, Carlos Moreno, Beverley Hammond and Denise Rossetto quit their jobs and launched a boutique ad agency the month COVID-19 struck. Some
BY BRENNAN DOHERTY
of them already had a reputation for long-form video before BHLA was born: Chaney and Moreno were on the team that produced SickKids’ high-octane “VS” platform.
“We create emotional calls to action,” says Hammond, partner and chief business officer at BHLA. “But they are anchored really deeply into groundbreaking strategy.”
BHLA wants consumers to see themselves as the main character in the films the agency produces. Chaney points to when Karate Kid came out. Every one of his friends walked out of the movie thinking they were Ralph Macchio. This approach requires deep storytelling, and BHLA believes the best way to do that is to go long on video. “Immortal” is a six-minute film. One of the cuts for BHLA’s “Unapologetically Human” campaign for Kruger – an ode to human messiness – was twice as long as a typical TV commercial.
“Long form video is the best mechanism to influence emotion in the audience and that’s the business we’re in – connecting brands with consumers’ emotional core,” says Chaney. “In fact, the best performing ad unit for ‘Unapologetically Human’ was the 60-second spot.”
KEY NEW BUSINESS
Burger King Canada, Loblaw Market Division, Levelwear, Northern Super League, Parkinson Canada, Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation
NEW HIRES
Rachelle Claveau, national EVP, managing director; Dave Watson, head of design; Erica Metcalfe, SVP, executive producer; Skye Deluz, Michael Morelli, and Marty Hoefkes, CDs; Isabel Chalmers, director of strategy; Gillian Fitzsimons, VP, partnerships and growth; Melissa Tobenstein, VP, client success; Lauren Gibson, group account director
OFFICES
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To Chaney, short-form video isn’t always the best medium for advertising. Much of the conversation comes down to the fact that short-form video was cheaper to produce from the outset, and because efficient ads were seen as better ads, he explains.
“We are much more concerned with affecting our audiences into action and making a lasting impact than spraying and praying… because we believe in the art of commercial creativity. It’s a well-designed approach that is having tremendous success for our clients,” says Chaney, using the “Start Your Engines” film as an example, which helped lower the cost for Simplii Financial to acquire customers by 50%.
Since the very beginning, BHLA has made frequent appearances on the awards circuit. In 2021, the agency grabbed a Bronze in the Small Agency of the Year category, but then a Gold the following year. This year it landed a Bronze in AOY, a category that’s typically stacked with larger, more-established shops.
BHLA is also growing in headcount. This year, the 55-person agency hired Rachelle Claveau as national EVP and managing director based out of the shop’s Montreal office, while 2023 saw the arrival of Dave Watson as head of design, plus CDs Shannon Skye Deluz (formerly at Rethink), Michael Morelli and Marty Hoefkes (previously at FCB).
The agency’s experienced team is what allows BHLA to charge a flat rate for its services, an approach not often seen in the complex, deadlinedriven world of advertising. This allows BHLA, not the client, to worry about process and timelines.
“Essentially, we’re selling strategic and creative products, and we focus on the quality of those, and then we own all the risk of the time that it takes to get there,” Hammond said. “But because the team is so senior, we can have those [high-level] conversations and we can move on how to support the client.”
CASES
1. Telling better stories
Broken Heart Love Affair worked with World Vision Canada on “Burp,” a campaign that used humour to highlight the joy of well-fed children. By showcasing kids happily belching, the campaign turned a serious issue into a positive message, increasing website traffic by 40% year-over-year.
4. GreenShield’s “Reverse Waiting Room” redefined Canadian healthcare by flipping the script, showing doctors waiting for patients. It also highlighted the company’s integrated modal of care.
5. For Kruger Products’ “Love Is Messy” campaign, BHLA created an epic ode to love and all its flaws. The campaign boosted Kruger’s market share by two points and a $36 million increase in sales.
2. Simplii Financial’s “Start Your Engines” focused on the bank’s real-time financial offerings. BHLA also replaced the company’s old visuals with new branding and worked with Magnum photographers to show street photography of people living in the moment.
3. Burger King’s “Whopper Whednesday” campaign transformed Wednesdays into a celebration of the brand by adding an “h” to make it more memorable. The work led to a 21% increase in Whopper sales.
Angry Butterfly’s inflection point
BY JONATHAN RUSSELL
In the 2001 book Good to Great, author Jim Collins describes the “flywheel effect” – a wheel that takes tremendous effort to push at first but, as more people contribute, gains momentum and starts turning on its own. At that point, it becomes almost unstoppable.
“It feels like we’re down that path,” says Brent Choi, partner and CEO of Angry Butterfly, reflecting on the Toronto-based agency’s four-year journey. “We are definitely at an inflection point.”
In 2024, that turning point saw Angry Butterfly cement its position as one of Canada’s most innovative agencies. From campaigns that playfully skirted federal regulations to ideas that spark long-lasting conversations, the agency has set out to create work that ripples through industries and audiences. “Our name is not a coincidence,”
he says. “We like to create ‘The Butterfly Effect.’”
The agency’s work this year, notably its awardwinning “Next to Stok’d” campaign for Stok’d Cannabis, embodies this ethos.
The work, which launched in February 2024, cleverly navigated Canada’s strict Cannabis Act, which prohibits direct cannabis advertising. Rather than promoting Stok’d Cannabis directly to consumers, Angry Butterfly highlighted the businesses located next to Stok’d retail locations – neatly sidestepping regulations while still driving consumer awareness. The campaign became a sensation, winning a Bronze Cannes Lion and sparking conversations across the cannabis and advertising industries alike.
“Everyone was talking about it,” says Choi, explaining how the agency initially held back on PR to let the campaign build organic traction. “We wanted to create that butterfly effect where people were talking about it and sharing it.” The success of the campaign wasn’t just in its clever approach to cannabis marketing, but in the agency’s ability to generate earned media and extend the campaign’s life into a second phase that outperformed the first.
“It’s one of those things where we think: what’s going to get people engaged?” Choi says. “Engagement comes
Ben Schroeder, Karen Hyman, Ben LeDrew, Roman Sidorov, Lorn Williams, Dennis Soler, Nikeetaa Ghaneckar, Louise Delfin, Cassandra Chung, Jack Kelleher, Karol Vargas
OFFICES
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through many different criteria but, in this particular case, it’s talking about it, sharing it.”
Such work isn’t an anomaly for Angry Butterfly. Choi describes the shop’s recent work pattern as “not a oneoff, not a two-off,” but a continuous stream of innovative campaigns that pushed boundaries, including its awardwinning 2023 campaign, “Bill It To Bezos.”
A key reason for Angry Butterfly’s success is the mindset its three core partners – Choi, CMO Erin Kawalecki and CSO Graham Candy – have nurtured since the days the three got the storied “flywheel” moving in 2021. Choi himself is a graduate of the Ivey Business School at Western University. Kawalecki brings a portfolio of award-winning ad work to the table. Meanwhile, Candy has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Toronto.
The agency’s staff count sits at 47, with some working out of the U.S., Egypt, India, France and Polynesia. “There is a real diversity of thinking,” Kawalecki says. “That means professional backgrounds, but it also means we have people working from five different countries. We sometimes hire people from outside the advertising world.”
In addition to art directors, copywriters and executives, Angry Butterfly also has a doctorate in mathematics and an archaeology PhD on its roster, bringing a certain rigor and cultural insights to the agency. “That is a big part of
CASES
1. Claims for the climate
The agency’s “Claim Changers” campaign for the Co-operators spotlighted the brand’s sustainability efforts by showcasing once-damaged items being restored by the company. Through a public showroom and media integration with The Social, the brand gave a new lease on life to damaged furniture, demonstrating its claims process and leading to an 85% boost in sentiment.
what makes us unique,” Kawalecki says. “We call it the left brain, right brain. We think they’re both quite strong, and it’s not always that our business analysts are impacting the creative work, but it’s through working together that we have a bit of a secret sauce.”
That team alchemy – and secret sauce – was on full display in Angry Butterfly’s September campaign for Porsche Canada, entitled “Cayenne Taste Drive,” which included offering test drivers a customized bottle of its signature hot sauce. In the spot, filmed at a Cayenne pepper farm, each driver was given a Scoville rating based on their performance, which was calculated using a custom Cayenne algorithm.
“We knew we could sell the idea because we had mathematical rigor behind it,” says Choi. “If it ever got interrogated, we could prove it was all legit. That kind of thinking allows us to be confident in the work we do.” This approach has made them a favourite among forward-thinking clients like Porsche, Dairy Farmers of Canada and The Co-operators Insurance.
Now, with AI sweeping the marketing and advertising industry, Angry Butterfly remains ever-more focused on using the “butterfly effect” to create an ever-growing ripple through the industry. “Our goal,” Kawalecki adds, “is to create beauty in chaos.”
2.The “Moo or False” campaign for Dairy Farmers of Canada used a polygraph test to debunk dairy myths, engaging millennials and Gen Z with videos, environmental information and entertaining content. The campaign achieved 804,000 full video completions and a 311% increase in purchase intent.
For Angy Butterfly’s PR Campaign of the Year, see p.58-59.
Lifelong Crush 2.0
Launched in 2020, Lifelong Crush was originally intended to be a supporting act for parent co.
Broken Heart Love Affair. Now the only time LLC and BHLA cross paths is when their coffee mugs get mixed up in the office kitchen.
For the better part of the last two years, LLC has been building out its own brand, capabilities and reputation, entirely separate from BHLA. Its motion to become selfruled was spurred on by creative powerhouses Christina Yu and Derek Blais stepping into co-CCO roles in 2023.
“When we arrived two years ago, we strategically redesigned Lifelong Crush to be its own entity,” says Yu. For example, for Kruger, a client that both agencies
BY CHELSEA CLARKE
pitch work for, BHLA takes care of master brand platforms while LLC handles culture-focused work; things like the “Cashmere Collection” or “Ultraluxe Guide.” In fact, the “Ultraluxe Guide” came to fruition after hearing that the bathroom tissue category was keeping Kruger CMO Susan Irving up at night. That’s when Blais and Yu pitched the idea to create a Michelin Guide, but for restaurant bathrooms, to Irving. She bought the idea on the spot and rolled it out four weeks later. It was too brilliant to pass up, Irving told strategy
“The idea came from the insight that everyone talks about restaurant bathrooms, but no one is setting a standard,” says Blais. The agency went whole-hog on
BUSINESS
Kicking Horse, Hayu, Arterra Wines, Scarborough Health Network Foundation, Lee Valley Tools, Kelsey’s, Brain Canada Foundation, OK Tire
the guide’s development, hiring bathroom inspectors, restaurant experts and interior designers to evaluate and rank the most luxurious restaurant bathrooms in the country. “I feel proud of the multi-dimensional, multichannel approach we pulled off,” says Yu. “We want [more] clients who are looking for more than just a typical campaign.”
Inspired by its moniker, Yu says the agency’s focus is to develop “unconstrained ideas” that “stick with you, that leave a lasting impression. You never forget your lifelong crush. We aim to create brands that occupy people’s minds in that way… [And] we watch for those genuine reactions that signal we’ve created something that’ll work.”
The CCOs recognize that finding new ideas that hold consumers’ attention is a tall order in our ever-connected society. “There’s a constant barrage of information coming at you every day, whether it’s in advertising messages or daily scrolling,” says Blais. “There’s never been a better time to be creative. It’s more challenging than ever before, but that also means the work has to be much more creative to grab attention for our clients’ marketing investment.”
As for its workforce, Lifelong Crush’s strategy is to find talent who are “multihyphenated,” as Blais puts it. “Our team possesses strong craft, creative and production skills,” he adds, noting that LLC is set up differently from your traditional shop, in that the teams are also responsible for all aspects of in-house production and development. Much of the agency is made up of dual-talent team members – for example, designers who are also able to direct a shoot.
This Jack-and-Jill-of-all-trades hiring strategy came about after recognizing that its clients are required to work faster than ever, says Yu. “This has motivated us to work smarter, especially when it comes to production. We focus on finding talent who are multi-hyphenated so we can collapse those layers to problem-solve faster and more efficiently.”
The agency spent the last two years carving out its independence by assembling the right team. But in the years to come, “we’re dedicated to finding the right clients and developing those unconstrained ideas,” says Yu. “Finding universal truths that are globally relevant is something that we’re really excited about.”
1. Love as medicine
The “Love Scarborough” campaign for Scarborough Health Network Foundation aimed to shift perceptions and boost funding for underfunded healthcare. By showcasing the resilience and dedication of SHN staff, the campaign secured $8 million in donations, garnered 1.1 billion media impressions and improved community support by 12%. 2
2. The “Let’s Do Something” campaign for Lee Valley Tools reignited Canadians’ passion for DIY hobbies. Through its winter “Second Life” effort and a spring campaign, Lee Valley achieved over 22 million impressions and a 439% return on ad spend.
3. Lifelong Crush’s “Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Guide” for Kruger redefined bathroom luxury by ranking top restaurant bathrooms using a Michelin-like rating. The approach generated more than 32 million impressions and boosted product mentions.
Mackie Biernacki marches to its own beat
BY WILL NOVOSEDLIK
Some folks, seeking corporate comfort, are happy to work their way to the top of the food chain in a networked agency. So they stay on that path. Others, tired of the creative constraints of reporting to a distant head office, yearn for entrepreneurial freedom. So they leave.
Eleven years ago, Steph Mackie and Mark Biernacki, co-founders of the eponymously named Mackie Biernacki, chose the latter option. Having spent several years at places like TBWA, Lowe Roche and Tonic, they opened their own agency doors in 2013. They were joined in April of this year by president and chief strategy officer Malcolm McLean, who previously worked at Cundari, Grey, TBWA, BBDO and many others.
For partner and co-founder Biernacki, opening up the shop came down to having a greater sense of control
over the work. “We were tired of the assembly-line approach that is common in larger firms, where you may be working on large accounts but can only deal with one part of the creative process before passing it onto the next person in line. Here, we like to own the whole project. Nothing goes out of here without our eyes on it.”
Being in control of your own creative destiny has its advantages. Over the last decade, it has allowed Mackie Biernacki to turn out award-winning work for clients like Audi, MacKenzie Health, O.B. Tampons, Billy Bishop Airport, Visa, Purina and, most recently, Sonnet Insurance.
For Sonnet’s “Adulting Made Simple,” the agency built off the insight that when Canadians hit their thirties, they are overwhelmed by the stress of their careers, marriage, child-rearing, the high cost of living, etc., so the last thing they need is the hassle of buying insurance. In several commercials, Sonnet pitches itself as a solution to adulting woes, offering digital insurance that takes only minutes to be approved.
The Marketing Awards-winning campaign led to a 15% lift in brand awareness and a 25% jump in brand recall, reaching four million unique users with a 93% viewthrough rate (300% above the industry average of 23%).
The success of the Sonnet creative, says Biernacki, has encouraged the agency to produce similar unorthodox
campaigns for its clients, such as Italian footballer Sebastian Giovinco, who made his MLS debut in 2015 as a member of Toronto FC. Named one of the 25 greatest players in the league, his request to Mackie Biernacki was to turn him into a brand, which they named Seba Things. They created a logo, clothing line, website (where fans could find merchandise related to the footballer), as well as a film, and launched it globally in a bid to build affinity and attract sponsorship deals.
Aside from taking on unique challenges, Mackie Biernacki also has an unconventional (for the ad world) approach to billing, from results-based compensation to partial ownership.
“This is a way for us to participate in the growth of small, emerging companies that don’t have the budgets of large, established brands,” says Biernacki, pointing to skincare and naturopathic upstart brands like Orazi and Harrington’s, of which the agency has partial ownership. For both companies, Mackie Biernacki developed everything from marketing
CASES
1. Simple but effective
Mackie Biernacki’s “Adulting Is Hard. Sonnet Is Simple.” campaign for Sonnet Insurance addressed the hassle of buying insurance by emphasizing how simple it can be in humorous spots. Targeting Canadians in their 30s, it reached four million users with creative that turned the insurance biz on its head (quite literally).
strategy to branding, packaging, advertising, content creation, POS, digital and social – the whole enchilada. “With these smaller companies, we can touch a lot more of the brand than we can with bigger brands,” adds McLean.
That’s not to say they don’t like working on big brands, as the aforementioned client list attests. Just don’t call them an “ad agency.” Instead, the firm refers to itself as a “special ops idea company.”
“We only fill the agency with thinkers [such as strategic directors, ADs, writers, designers and account service], and then build a customized team around the task,” says Biernacki. “So if we need to hire an interior designer to help build our clients’ retail stores, or a beauty editor to help develop a high-end beauty brand, or sports analyst to help us brand and build sponsorship for a soccer superstar – then we build a best-in-class special ops team for it.”
As the agency likes to say: “We’re all business junkies obsessed with problem-solving through creativity.”
2. The “Science of Natural” campaign for The Harrington Method launched a new line of naturopathic supplements with benefi t-driven packaging. The approach led to a threefold increase in retail listings, 200% higher return customers and expansion into global markets.
3. “Your Wellness Is Our Obsession” for Genuine Health highlighted the brand’s commitment to Canadian-specific research and consumer needs. The agency helped showcase how the brand’s products are linked to local data, and also redesigned its packaging across SKUs.
DESIGN | SILVER
LG2’s superpower
BY CHELSEA CLARKE
It could be argued that great design goes unnoticed by consumers.
For most end users, a website simply needs to work, or a print ad simply needs to communicate a message. But for LG2, design is a guiding principle that informs everything the shop does.
“We believe in our expertise,” says the indie agency’s partner and CEO, Claude Auchu. “So often, design has been a subsidiary of agencies. But at LG2, design is part of our core offering – it’s not an afterthought.”
LG2’s work begins and ends with strategy. “Design is inherently a strategic pursuit, and we look to strategy that has cultural insights,” says Ryan Crouchman, partner, VP and ECD. “We follow a roadmap and then bring it to life.”
That roadmap includes a 50-person strategy team that deploys social listening, research, testing, interviews and focus groups. “Nothing is built from a whiteboard,” says Auchu. “We work from detailed information and insights.”
Adds Crouchman: “Design connects on an emotional level, it’s almost subconscious. Leading with strategy, we begin from rational thinking and end somewhere that really connects with people. The two ends of that spectrum are important – design isn’t just decoration.”
The agency’s approach was apparent in its redesign of the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) branding this year. Recognizing that its previous logo lacked clarity and connection to Canadian identity, LG2’s approach was to position the CSA as a global leader, while ensuring that there’d be no mistaking where the space agency proudly hailed from. It took a Canadian icon only second to Celine Dion – the maple leaf – and featured it prominently alongside three stars symbolizing space, intelligence and community strength.
37, including Josh Stein, CCO; Andres Nurembuena, partner, executive director, experiential and brand activation
OFFICES
Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto
“While the work needs to be relevant, it shouldn’t be temporary,” says Crouchman of creating sustainable branding. “That’s an irresponsible approach. When you’re designing for a brand, you’re creating something that needs to last for a long time and resonate with lots of different people.”
LG2’s obsession with strategy and timeless design made it the perfect partner to revamp Ashton in 2024. Never heard of Ashton? You must not live in Quebec, because the restaurant was the first to introduce Quebecers to poutine in 1969. But therein lies two problems: how to expand Ashton fame outside of its home region, while also revamping a beloved brand that hadn’t been touched in decades.
It’s no secret that consumers hold steadfast to the things they love, and they’re reluctant to change. Recent research shows that while heritage branding is a common strategy, making changes to the original product or brand can cause negative reactions from consumers – even if those changes come with improvements.
“Ashton is a classic brand with a unique offering,” says Auchu. “But we knew that with such an iconic brand, we were opening space to be criticized. We had to understand what made it successful and recognizable, and make adjustments to modernize it without losing its identity.”
In the end, LG2 was able to modernize Ashton while also respecting its heritage. A new menu was introduced, showcasing classic items like milkshakes to attract both loyal customers and new patrons. Updated packaging reinforced the new brand image, a full renovation of its flagship restaurant served as a prototype for future locations, complete with new signage and uniform designs, ultimately earning Ashton a 35% increase in traffic and a 34% increase in sales. The agency even went as far as designing branded merchandise, such as toques, caps, sweaters and socks.
What made the Ashton revamp successful was a deep understanding of what made the chain feel authentic in the first place. Picking up on cultural nuances is something of a sport for LG2. The agency works in two languages and three cities. “A lot of agencies translate work from one market to another, but LG2 is actually based in those markets,” says Crouchman. “We adapt and understand them better because of this; we pick up on those cultural nuances and influences.”
But its design work is what puts LG2 in a class of its own. “We don’t call ourselves an advertising agency. We’re a creative agency,” adds Crouchman. “Design is one of the ways that we communicate, and if you can fully understand it, then design is a superpower.”
For the Community
Schools
and
a design system featuring hand-painted shapes inspired by musical instruments. The layered approach mirrored the “Parkscapes Vol. 3” album’s purpose as re-mixable source material, further showcasing student creativity.
Montreal resto
to transform its brand while respecting the institution’s nostalgic roots. The overhaul featured a blend of updated typography and elements inspired by classic diner aesthetics. It helped increase foot traffic and sales by up to 40%.
3. The agency’s Canadian Space Agency logo redesign took a minimalist approach, representing national pride and space exploration via a treatment that featured a maple leaf and three stars. The design, unveiled during the Artemis II mission announcement, helped enhance CSA’s global visibility.
2. LG2 worked with
Ashton
Music, by design
1.
Music
of Toronto
Kingsway Music Library, LG2 created
Sid Lee finds new agility in greater cohesiveness
BY ANDREW JEFFREY
Sid Lee has undergone a years-long journey to tear down barriers between its North American offices. And it all came to a head this year when the agency decided to combine the teams across its Toronto, Montreal and U.S. offices and create one cohesive unit that would help reinforce the creative-led values of an agency that has impacted the advertising world for decades.
Founded in Montreal as Diesel by Philippe Meunier and Jean-François Bouchard, before renaming to Sid Lee – an anagram of its original moniker – the agency now also operates offices in Toronto, New York,
London, Los Angeles and Seattle. This year, especially, brought major changes to the agency’s leadership as it looked to elevate its creative output and promote better teamwork across its offices.
Geneviève Boulanger has been at the centre of much of this reshuffling, having been promoted to president of the agency’s Montreal office in March as part of a stated effort to foster a new generation of leadership in Sid Lee’s Canadian offices. Later in October, agency co-founder Philippe Meunier transitioned away from his role as CEO to executive and creative chair, a position that will give him a tighter focus on the agency’s creative
NEW BUSINESS
Mielle, Sports Interaction, The Keg, RE/MAX, Bridgehead Coffee, Naturesage, Great Canadian Entertainment
NEW HIRES
Justin Furman, VP, growth & innovation; Geraldine Tixier, VP, head of strategy; Julien This, director, growth and innovation; FélixAntoine Brunet, Yura Lee, senior ADs; Olivier GouletLafond, senior CW
OFFICES
Montreal, Toronto
STAFF
output – while Boulanger was also promoted into her current role as COO, where she works to connect all of Sid Lee’s offices across the continent.
The purpose of all this is to benefit clients. Take sportswear brand FILA, which introduced its “Bellisimo” campaign from Sid Lee this year. The work was designed to celebrate the brand’s heritage while launching a refreshed look for the brand globally, and is the result of collaboration across all of Sid Lee’s offices.
In Canada, that’s especially crucial between Sid Lee’s Toronto and Montreal offices. Clients like salad chain Mandy’s, insurer Belairdirect and grocery delivery service Voila are looking to reach more customers across the country, and creative minds embedded in Canada’s major markets are needed to better understand how these brands can expand their reach.
“There’s no one better than someone that lives in the GTA to generate ideas for a brand that’s actually core to the GTA market,” Boulanger says. “I’d like to believe I can come up with those ideas living in Montreal, but it
has to be locally relevant.”
The result of Sid Lee’s intention to elevate its creative output can also be seen in “Any Way We Can,” the largest campaign in United Way Greater Toronto’s history that covers issues from food insecurity to mental health; Tennis Canada’s promotion of the “Best of Women’s Tennis” ahead of this year’s National Bank Open in Toronto (aimed towards bringing in younger fans); and “Know Thy Nuts” for Testicular Cancer Canada, which found an irreverent way to raise awareness for Testicular Cancer Awareness Month in April.
This is a continuation of work Sid Lee has excelled at for decades. The biggest difference now is that agencies are being tasked to find ways to bring clients’ visions to life more quickly. “We need to adapt the way we work and our structure to make sure we deliver speed, but also we deliver quality creative ideas,” says Boulanger. “I find we’re always on our toes. The thing we’re trying to nurture with the teams is to stay agile and open-minded, but also to have the courage to take risks.”
1. Drawn to success Sid Lee’s “(Re)search & Find” campaign for IGA/Sobeys and Fondation Charles-Bruneau featured an online game where players discovered 25 characters drawn by children in cancer remission. Design played a crucial role, transforming simple sketches into a vibrant, interactive experience, and helping to drive $498,252 in donations.
NEW BUSINESS
Mielle, Sports Interaction, The Keg, RE/MAX, Bridgehead Coffee, Naturesage, Great Canadian Entertainment
OFFICES
Toronto, Los Angeles
STAFF
2. The “Design Thinkers” campaign for the Association of Registered Graphic Designers embraced a vibrant, optimistic identity. Sid Lee used 3D software and open-source materials to create eclectic, dynamic visuals (including a liquid metal question mark), which sparked conversation and led to record attendance and multiple awards.
3. The agency’s new branding for Au Pied de Cochon revamped the Montreal restaurant with a distinctive pig icon, as well as typography reflecting chef Martin Picard’s culinary style. The design system, featuring over 30 pig variations and vibrant colours, unified the brand’s 37 products, boosting shelf visibility and sales.
McCann magnifies its digital expertise
BY BRENNAN DOHERTY
In early 2023, McCann Worldgroup Canada –which turned 108 this year – brought on CCO Ian Mackenzie from three-year-old, pure-play digital shop Performance Art, which was simultaneously folded into the agency. In addition to his CCO duties, Mackenzie was also named McCann’s global AI creative lead. A couple weeks after his hiring, the
agency launched “See You There” for Black Abroad. The campaign was more than a way for the cultural collective to connect with Black tourists – it also helped uncover the biases that exist in AI. During development, the team found that Gen AI was having challenges creating non-stereotypical images of Black travellers –many of the pictures looked like they were from povertystricken areas in Africa. Responding to this discovery, McCann created a website showing how AI models failed to show Black travellers in various locations, and encouraged others to take their photos in popular tourist spots using #WhereIsTheBlackTraveler.
“What we are trying to do is unleash the full potential of every idea that we have, and it’s almost impossible to do that without digital,” says AJ
NEW BUSINESS
Vidanta, Canadian
Red Cross, Black & Abroad, Sports Excellence, ATCO Energy, RÜMI, Forests Ontario
NEW HIRES
Ian Mackenzie, CCO; Arnaud Icard, group director, product developer
OFFICES
Toronto, Montreal, Calgary STAFF
Jones, chief strategy officer at McCann Worldgroup Canada. “Whether it involves a tremendously complex AI campaign or a billboard, McCann always thinks in terms of ideas rather than mediums.”
Bringing on a data-driven creative like Mackenzie – who has spent decades tinkering with tech and developing a host of award-winning work that lives in the digital-sphere – was not McCann’s first move to magnify its digital expertise. While McCann Worldgroup boasts a 12,000-plus workforce in 122 countries, with 215 staffers in Canada, Mackenzie says investing in skilled creative, strategy and innovationrelated talent has always been a pillar of the agency’s growth strategy.
In addition, the McCann team also has a global network to tap into when a campaign calls for higher production needs. For example, the agency’s Barcelona office is known for its CGI work. Meanwhile, the Toronto office is considered a “global centre of excellence” within the network when it comes to video post-production work. “We have an amazing team of post-producers, editors, motion graphics editors and VFX artists. Our team takes on work from McCann offices all around the world,” says Ryan Timms, president of McCann Worldgroup Canada.
So far this year, McCann’s efforts are paying off. At the 2024 Marketing Awards, six of the agency’s campaigns medaled or were shortlisted. “The Stage Zero Collection,” a campaign for Black-owned lingerie brand Love Nudes, picked up an M for Mpact Award, which highlights creative that advances social change and equality, as well as a Grand Prix at the Shopper Innovation and Activation Awards.
And, as the year closed, McCann kept knocking new wins. In October, the shop won a Bronze Effie for its work on the Wendy’s “French Toast Guy” campaign, where a man serving himself French toast on Toronto’s subway went viral, as well as two more Bronzes for “Roots Remastered,” an ad that brought together country music and the pivotal relationship between corn farmers and their land to promote a Bayer rootworm treatment. Both leaned on sophisticated approaches that went far beyond an interactive website or YouTube hit.
Perhaps, most importantly, almost all of these projects, including the AI campaign for Black Abroad, were built on tight budgets – a necessity in the Canadian market, Timms says.
“We can come up with really focused briefs that can then be executed in really interesting and innovative ways, but not necessarily on the multi-million dollar budgets that some other markets get to enjoy,” says Timms. “We have to be really clever and scrappy in how we make the most of what we have to work with.”
CASES
1. Gen AI at its best (and worst) “See You There” for Black & Abroad used Gen AI to personalize travel experiences for past guests, showcasing them at future destinations. The campaign also included a mass media push highlighting issues of bias and introduced an AI Bias Reporting System. The initiative led to an 81% email open rate and 81 million impressions.
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2. For Wendy’s “The Strip-cident,” McCann used TikTok to launch a new breakfast combo by pairing chicken strips with French toast sticks. The viral trend led to an over 3,000% engagement increase and 100,000 units sold in just four weeks. In fact, the combo was permanently added to the menu due to overwhelming demand.
3. For “Roots Remastered,” McCann worked with Bayer Crop Science to transform corn root health into a country music album. Using digital tech, they converted data into MIDI signals, creating a six-track album. The campaign boosted product demand by 20%, with over 10,000 streaming listens and widespread media coverage.
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DIGITAL | BRONZE
FCB gets creative with commerce
BY WILL NOVOSEDLIK
From launching a global platform that provides employees with access to cutting-edge AI tools, to working with Acxiom to target addressable audiences across media and creative, FCB takes future-proofing seriously.
But what is FCB? A digital shop? A CRM company? A shopper marketing firm? “We refer to ourselves as a creative agency,” says CEO Bryan Kane. “To be honest, I cringe when clients call us their advertising partner. It’s too limiting. It’s better to tell us what problem you’re trying to solve and let us come back with ways to solve it. That could be a product innovation or an experience, or something that doesn’t look like an ad at all.”
Semantics aside, FCB continues to do work that gets the attention of major brands, including SickKids Foundation, Scotties and Mazda, all of which began working with FCB in the last year. But it could also be a result of the agency’s knack for connecting with Gen Z and millennials via creative commerce.
For instance, take BMO’s much-celebrated “NXT NXT LVL” campaign, which won a Grand Prix at this year’s Strategy Awards. Gaming, for some, is replacing traditional advertising
media as it becomes a significant entertainment channel for millennials and Gen Z. BMO’s approach was to use gaming as a portal to authentically connect with the young adult community.
So, in 2022, it set up a Twitch channel and found an employee who happened to be a skilled gamer to discuss financial topics with users. This year, FCB expanded the campaign to introduce gamer handles, so that younger users – who have shown to be more hesitant when it comes to talking about money for fear of looking uninformed – could bank anonymously on the channel.
And for Lotto Max, FCB created “The Lotto Max Thrift Drop” (in partnership with Kevin Leonel who specializes in designing upcycled clothing) to encourage a more digitally native audience to engage with OLG. The designer helped create a selection of $200 hoodies, jackets and shirts, with each piece containing seven numbers that double as lottery numbers.
To generate ideas that bridge online and offline commerce, FCB borrows from practices normally associated with the tech world. One example is its hackathons. As part of a global collaboration between IPG’s Creative Commerce Labs and Amazon Ads’ Brand
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Innovation Labs, FCB hosted a two-day hackathon designed to deliver transformative ideas to their shared clients – including Burt’s Bees, BMO, and Aeroplan –who are looking to succeed in creative commerce.
It’s why FCB Canada has won more Creative Commerce Lions than any other agency globally. BMO’s “NXT LVL” and “Gear Up,” as well as Lotto Max’s “Dream Drop” and “Dream Bars” have all landed on shortlists and in medal counts at Cannes over the last three years.
“Commerce used to be synonymous with shopper, and it was focused on a very specific stage of the journey,” explains Kane. “We’ve seen the gap between brand and buy basically disappear now that everything is shoppable. So we’re trying to think about commerce as not necessarily being a stage of a journey, but a consumer behaviour.” FCB CCO Nancy Crimi-Lamanna agrees: “If I’m on Instagram and I’m being inspired, I can buy it in one click. Brand and buy are literally the same moment now.”
An example is Voilà’s “Trending 2 Table” campaign, which capitalized on viral TikTok food trends that
CASES
1. On time. On target. For BMO, FCB’s “Bills Paid on Time” targeted Gen Z by working with a TikTok influencer to promote the benefits of timely payments. The campaign, featuring a catchy track and personalized reminders, achieved 30 million views, a 129% increase in sign-ups and significant engagement on social.
were causing grocery stores to sell out of ingredients. FCB built a bespoke Trend Index that digests data from TikTok, Google, Pinterest and Voilà’s first-party search and sales data. Each data source was assigned a value based on its level of influence. These data points were filtered through FCB’s index to generate “trend energy” predictions, shortening the path-to-purchase by making TikTok content shoppable.
Embracing the link between creative and commerce, and demonstrating a knack for meeting consumers where they are – especially Gen and millennials – is why FCB Canada has enjoyed industry acclaim in competitions like Cannes, CMA Awards, Marketing Awards, the MIAs, SIAs, Effies, and the One Show.
“I think the ideas that we get most excited about are the ones that are impossible to categorize,” says Kane. “There may be debate as to what category an idea belongs in, but for us, that just means we’re redefining the formats and their conventions and connecting with people in new ways. Which, given how people are consuming media, is critical, right?”
2. For GE Appliances, FCB created a digital hub to spotlight and rally support for gender equality. By engaging fans through online submissions and social media, the “On The Line” campaign generated 64.6 million impressions and pushed Canada Soccer to equalize pay for women’s and men’s teams.
3. For Fountain Tire, the agency created “Rainfall Warnings” that featured rainactivated OOH murals in Vancouver to highlight tire safety in wet conditions. The murals, featuring skid marks from accidents, directed drivers to a QR code and website for tire checks. The approach boosted brand favourability by 21% and appointment bookings by 33%.
How Initiative is investing in its greatest asset
BY ANDREA HERNANDEZ
Amidst the rapid proliferation of AI, Initiative is adopting a thoughtful and measured approach to the integration of the technology, according to CEO Helen Galanis, who believes industry adoption of AI tools will soon level the playing field.
“[The technology is] going to become quite undifferentiated across the agency landscape,” says Galanis. “We will all be equipped with very similar tools, because technology is democratized and we’re all going to have to figure out how to use it effectively, eventually.”
So how does Initiative plan to get ahead? Galanis believes the agency will need to rely on the “people who are activating those tools” and that her mission now is to build out its “human advantage.” The best example of this, she says, is when Initiative partnered with McCann on the “See You There” AI-driven campaign for Black & Abroad.
Using Gen AI, the brand and agency teams created customized landing pages, placing visitors in images of
travel destinations such as Senegal, Ghana or France. The aim was to have travellers imagine themselves in new destinations. However, the team discovered that AI had some biases – the generative models tended to depict Black travellers in poverty-stricken areas of Africa.
In response, the teams collaborated with Shutterstock and asked millions of photographers to capture Black travellers in tourist spots and create a more diverse data set for future AI. The campaign produced the highest number of impressions in Black Abroad’s history to date, says Initiative’s chief strategy officer Sammy Rifai.
“We are very proud of the team, but also of the iteration of the project, as we learned more by playing with AI and found a real human solution for something that started as an AI-driven initiative,” Rifai notes.
For Galanis, the case is an example of where AI falls short and human intuition takes over, delivering better results. “That’s the big lesson and the message we
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reinforce to our people: learn how to use AI, but also learn how to interrogate it, to question the source and dig into what it is telling you… But we don’t want to discourage experimentation, because that is also fundamental.”
To encourage employees to keep exploring, the agency created a dedicated AI team responsible for upskilling team members, as well as an AI literacy and general knowledge program. Initiative also conducts monthly meetings and hands-on team training across all disciplines, and has developed an AI-based virtual assistant, My Bot, to help staff with day-to-day tasks.
While deploying AI is not a top priority, the agency does intend to leverage the technology to improve its work, predict the effectiveness of media plans, as well as measure reach, frequency and impact on both short- and longterm sales. “[But] we don’t rush to use AI at all costs. We rush to learn and use our critical thinking and experience to make sure we use [AI] in the best, most appropriate and useful way,” Galanis says.
Beyond AI, the agency has also developed programs that foster inclusion. It established a culture club to celebrate diverse cultural heritage and conducts monthly employee surveys to measure job satisfaction. Additionally, Initiative is aiming to address industry talent gaps through a high school program, inspiring students to pursue media careers. And finally, plans to build out more specialized areas – such as a new video games unit – will allow its members to strengthen their understanding of emerging media channels.
The agency’s commitment to training and development has paid off in terms of retention, one of Initiative’s priorities. So far, its turnover rate for 2024 is 5% – which is impressive given that the average media industry turnover rate is 22%, according to the IAB. She emphasizes that by investing in its employees, the agency has created a positive work culture that encourages its members to stay.
“The trick is to create space for [our] people to keep specializing and going deeper and deeper into their knowledge base,” says Galanis. “It’s really important to us that we bring in the best talent and we retain them by keeping them motivated and giving them the best learning and development.”
CASES
1. When at first you don’t succeed “See You There” for Black & Abroad initially used Gen AI to create personalized travel emails for guests who had previously travelled to a region, but then the agency ran into AI bias. So, they struck a partnership with Shutterstock to create a bias reporting system, reaching 2.1 million photographers who contribute to the site.
2. For “Return to the Wild” for Destination Canada, Initiative created a series on Disney+ to showcase remote Canadian locations that had yet to be shared on social media en masse. The film was given a red carpet premiere and drove global interest and engagement, making it Disney+’s largest branded series launch.
3. Initiative’s “Blackberry Museum” for the CBC tapped into nostalgia by creating a physical museum that showcased Blackberry’s history and helped promote a new film that was funded by the broadcaster. It used traditional media, like radio and mall ads, and also recreated the Brickbreaker game, with the campaign achieving a 33% increase in CBC Gem app downloads.
At UM, ideas roam free
In UM’s offices, on a wall next to the kitchen where employees will sometimes gather for meetings, are two words written in lights: “Yes, and.”
“Yes, and” is a concept that comes from the world of improv. The idea is that, when making up a scene on the spot with someone else, no matter how silly, boring or outrageous their suggestion might be, you not only accept it, you build on it. This philosophy is one that UM has embraced, especially when it comes to technology.
Take client BMO. The bank wanted to reach Gen Z and young millennials – cohorts not typically interested in banking. So, working with FCB on creative, the agency helped develop a first-of-its-kind global campaign, turning a BMO employee (who had a knack for both banking and gaming) into a Twitch streamer. “The entire Gen Z and young millennial audience now have this comfortable space to go and get financial advice,” says Cory Peters, VP, digital at UM.
Streamers on Twitch will occasionally take a break from gaming and pull up a screen that says they’ll be right back. Where some might see an inconvenience, UM saw an opportunity and turned the “break” into a game. Literally. “It became a BMO branded experience that gamers could try while they waited for streamers
BY GREG HUDSON
to come back,” explains Richard Fofana, EVP, strategy, adding that the agency was able to tap into a new media vehicle as a result of UM’s mindset.
Back in the world of improv, they’ll tell you one of the biggest impediments to “Yes, and” is ego, which leads to fear: not wanting to try something different, lest you look foolish if it fails. However, UM’s leaders say they’ve created a culture where that fear isn’t part of the equation.
“If you’re curious, you’re going to look for new opportunities to drive business growth for your clients, but you’re also going to look for new opportunities to learn and grow,” says CEO Ben Seaton. “If you’re courageous, you’re going to have the guts to try something new, to push your clients forward, to do something different for your team… We give people the runway to develop at their own pace.”
Another essential value at UM is recognition. To some degree, that’s true of the industry as a whole. But UM recognizes that not all work gets lauded with industry hardware, so they launched their own internal program called “Guts and Glory.”
This year, the agency received a record number of employee submissions. It rented out a movie theatre and presented winners with trophies. The awards went
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to campaigns that showed grit and determination, work that made something big happen on a small budget.
Still, as important as internal recognition is, Seaton is clear-eyed about what makes work good. “The cases that matter are the ones that drive products or get people in stores more often or have material impact on brand health,” he says.
As an example, Seaton points to the work UM did with Tylenol, which had signed on to be the official pain, cold and flu symptom relief partner of the NHL.
Seaton says that brands with big partnerships will often rely on the assets that come with the partnership.
“[However,] the push to get creative and do something more with those, I think, is what separates good from great,” he says.
In addition to in-store displays and dasherboards during games, UM brought more partners into the agreement to extend Tylenol’s reach. Suddenly, Amazon boxes were showing up with a Tylenol branded wrap
CASES
1. Want to play a game?
BMO worked with UM to create the “NXT NXT LVL” campaign, using Twitch, Discord and other platforms to provide anonymous financial advice through gaming influencers. It resulted in a 13% increase in digital account openings and significant engagement, including 15,000 hours of live content viewed.
that featured a QR code, “blowing the doors off of every metric and standard of conversion,” Fofana says.
“The other first was reaching out to newcomers and building a nationwide cinema experience where the Tylenol creative played before Hindi movies,” he adds. “It was another category first. All these things were tough to eke out, but, collectively, they were super powerful.”
Yes, even in a culture that is buoyed by the trifecta of courage, curiosity and community, there’s always more to “Yes, and.”
“We are relentlessly focused on driving growth for our client partners. It’s getting out ahead of some of the macro and micro challenges and bringing solutions that aren’t related to a brief,” Seaton says. “We currently inhabit [and continue to nurture] a very deliberate test-and-learn environment, where we can deploy [a campaign] in market and optimize as we’re seeing the impact of the work.”
2. UM’s “Feeding Frenzy!” campaign for Oh Henry! used innovative media strategies to tackle hunger and boost sales. By leveraging real-time text alerts, social and in-store, the campaign invited Canadians to participate in a scavenger hunt for Oh Henry! Bars in exchange for cash rewards. In the end, it achieved a 52% sales increase at Circle K stores, as well as a 5% market share lift.
3. The “Score Against Pain” campaign for Tylenol leveraged an NHL partnership to connect with Canadian hockey fans. Through digital ads, social plays, in-store tactics, Amazon wraps and multicultural media, Tylenol managed to achieve a 2.5% boost in market share.
Media Experts keeps evolving
BY VAL MALONEY
The transformation that led Media Experts to its spot on the Agency of the Year podium began – as many big changes do – with a period of major reflection.
That contemplation began in April 2023, shortly after Karel Wegert joined the team as Canadian CEO. Wegert’s designation as head of the Canadian shop marked a return to the agency, as he had previously worked at the agency for over 15 years earlier in his career.
Wegert explains the team’s evolution: “Media Experts has a long history in the Canadian marketplace with deep
regional expertise, but the branding and positioning had not changed for many years. The agency needed a reboot to examine who we were in the marketplace and as part of the IPG Mediabrands’ network.”
Wegert initiated a project to reexamine and redefine the agency’s brand identity, values, mission and market differentiation. The result is a refreshed brand that the CEO says highlights the shop’s uniquely Canadian position. “We don’t look like any other media agency because we don’t act like every other media agency. Media Experts was born and raised in Canada and
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continues to grow here,” he says. In addition to a rebrand, Media Experts moved audience insights closer to the centre of its work, adding a new audience and analytics team that allows the agency to tap into Canadian data sets that account for the nuances of the market. Wegert points to the “That’s Specsavers Love” campaign that helped the U.K.-based eyewear brand build awareness as it launched in Canada. With the help of its new audience and analytics team, Media Experts found a nuanced approach to communicate with different geographical audiences based on their mindset. For example, British Columbians are most interested in health, Alberta in value and Ontario residents in style. Wegert says the results have been “extremely rewarding,” with the brand going from zero to 80% brand awareness in Canada in less than a year.
Also playing an increasingly important role for the agency is the inclusion of attention metrics, which Wegert says are used across many campaigns as another signal for optimization. The next evolution for Media Experts will be integrating attention metrics into planning tools so planners can build media campaigns with attention as a key output where it makes sense, Wegert says. The agency used these metrics in its recent campaign promoting the BMW XM, with ads that analyzed the behaviour of over 29 million Canadians across 5,000 data points and 50 different attention indices to evaluate responsiveness across platforms, publishers and ad formats.
The second phase of the Media Experts repositioning journey is focused on re-imagining the agency’s approach to client strategy and planning, with a focus on building tangible and consistent connection points. Wegert says the strategy is grounded in the pillars of “forest” and “trees,” with the first focusing on how the agency can help Canadian marketers better understand how their efforts are contributing to the overall growth of their business and brand, using analytics to see the whole picture. The more granular “trees” speak to how Media Experts uses its proprietary data stack to build bespoke approaches to audiences and markets, as it did for Specsavers.
Wegert says he is optimistic about the future of his team and the momentum they are carrying forward. However, like many periods of change, there has some turbulence.
“I’ve learned to trust the process,” Wegert says. “When I returned to the agency, we met as a leadership team to take an honest account of our strengths and areas where we needed to develop. Throughout the last year we had many opportunities to second guess, rush or rethink things as we faced various challenges, but we trusted ourselves and followed through. It’s a reminder of why our roots do matter and that it is a long game.”
CASES
1
1. A fl ash of inspiration
In the “Bell Fast Lane” campaign, Media Experts showcased the company’s internet speed during the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Montreal. By integrating high-traffic metro takeovers and Uber partnerships, Bell highlighted its speed advantage against the city’s post-pandemic sluggishness.
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2. For Moosehead sub-brand Truly, the agency hosted a “Flavour Faceoff” live paint battle to foster inclusivity and community. By integrating Truly into events and targeting social platforms, the campaign achieved a 92% video completion rate and 16 million Reddit impressions.
3. Media Experts analyzed the behaviour of 29 million Canadians across 5,000 media touchpoints for the “BMW XM” campaign. The agency delivered custom content and connected viewers to influencers doing remarkable things. In the end, the campaign helped boost awareness by 57% and created a halo effect on other BMW models.
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Citizen Relations on building a better PR agency
BY WILL NOVOSEDLIK
From dotting the streets of Toronto with frozen mannequins for Coors Light to curating a gallery of enlarged – though elegantly photographed –buttholes for Tushy, Citizen Relations is more than blurring the line between traditional PR and creative advertising. It’s erasing it.
Much of the agency’s creative strength comes down to CCO Josh Budd, who was hired three years ago to build Citizen’s advertising capabilities. “It was a struggle at first to attract good talent because, at the time, Citizen didn’t have much of a creative portfolio. But Josh has really proven himself and brought our reputation along
with him,” says CEO Nick Cowling. And now Citizen Relations has a couple Cannes Lions to prove it – the agency picked up two Bronze wins this year for “Cheetle in Cheadle” and was also shortlisted for #Elimin8Hate’s “Reclaim My Name” and Duracell’s “Buy My Own Batteries.”
Hiring Budd was part of the agency’s deliberate shift from being seen as PR specialists to more of a multidisciplinary shop. The evolution began back in 2014 when Cowling added strategic planning to the toolbox. And while PR firms moving into creative agency territory is not new, Cowling insists that Citizen has no interest in competing with traditional advertising agencies. “When we add a new capability, it’s not about mowing creative agencies’ lawns. We just want to enrich and improve our own core offering.”
For example, Citizen has been experimenting with tools that bring together earned media and search in an effort to ensure that everything is performancedriven, at some level. “We have something called ‘Performfluence,’ which… focuses on leveraging
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influencers not just for brand awareness, but for driving measurable actions such as conversions and sales,” says Cowling. “The approach includes content creation in multiple waves, testing and optimizing performance, utilizing search-optimized keywords and incorporating both long-form and short-form content.”
The shop is also looking at using artificial intelligence to build what they’re calling a “Newsroom,” where relevant stories and trends are automatically tracked by AI tools developed by a dedicated team, and which then recommends content strategies for brands to “hack culture” in real-time.
To enhance Citizen’s culture hacking capabilities, it plans to continue investing in the digital team. Cowling refers to them as “creative technologists” and is reliant on them to develop AI tools that produce more responsive content to online trends. And, on the analytics front, Citizen has created a research tool it calls “conversation mapping,” which is essentially a form of online ethnography that not only listens to conversations, but extracts qualitative data that can be used for social media surveys.
The agency’s transformation from PR to a more multidisciplinary offering is nearly complete. “Three years later, I would call it more of an integration,” says Cowling. “We’ve worked on modernizing our approach to integration, significantly upskilled our digital marketing and built a robust data and intelligence offering – all with the goal of being an even better PR agency.”
In addition to backing new digital initiatives, the agency is investing in its global presence by opening its doors in Germany, which is also intended to support the London office with a growing EU client base. Depending on how that goes, the agency may open up another European office next year.
Beyond strategy and creative, Citizen now has a full experiential team, an analytics group and the digital team. “I don’t think we need to add any additional capabilities because we still have lots of opportunities to merge PR and digital,” says Cowling. “It’s more about how we work together across the various teams.”
The building blocks are in place. Now it’s time to optimize.
CASES
1.
SEEING A BETTER FUTURE
“Addy’s Crystal Ball” for the SickKids Foundation used a giant crystal ball to symbolize the future of its Precision Child Health. The campaign, anchored by 13-year-old Addy’s inspiring story of having re-energized SickKids’ mission to see past medicine’s limits before she passed, garnered 52 million earned impressions and exceeded donation goals by 26%.
2. The “Asshole Activists” campaign for Tushy transformed bidet users into environmental heroes. Featuring provocative photography of several buttocks inside an art gallery, it aimed to challenge norms and promote eco-friendly habits. The campaign achieved 243.7 million impressions, 301 media stories and a 285% increase in Canadian sales.
3. For Molson Coors, the “Keep It Real Can” helped launch Simply Spiked Lemonade in Canada, leveraging the world’s first lie detector in a can. The innovation was shared on the streets, at events and on talk shows to see how truthful Canadians actually are. The PR push boosted brand awareness by 65%, making Simply Spiked the fastestgrowing cooler in Canada.
How Edelman moves best
BY BRENNAN DOHERTY
It’s not easy for an agency to find a “sexy” angle for RSV or lung health. But not every agency is Edelman, where bringing the most complex issues to life is what the global firm does best.
Take “Our Lungs Make Our Lives” for the Lung Health Foundation as an example. In the spot, Olympic swimmer Maggie Mac Neil breaks down her accomplishments in the pool by the number of breaths she took to get there, showing just how difficult life can be for Canadians who struggle to breathe.
Then there’s the campaign for Arexvys, a vaccine to combat respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In it,
the agency shows an AI-generated version of Wayne Gretzky as a young man, talking about how RSV isn’t just a disease suffered by children. Edelman’s “Allegra Airways” work also took a unique approach to helping allergy sufferers, using a data-driven real-time navigation tool for people to find cleaner air to breathe.
These campaigns showcase one of the PR firm’s many talents: juggling creative, PR and government relations, and doing it all seamlessly.
Bianca Freedman, president of Edelman tells strategy that, in Canada alone, the shop boasts 285 staffers from coast-to-coast. Around 30 are devoted to creative and strategy work, but another 90 form a variety of teams – government affairs, business marketing and project management, to name a few. Edelman also has dedicated teams focused on health, tech and finance.
For clients like the Lung Cancer Foundation, for example, Edelman appoints an account lead who has a deep understanding of the health sector and its challenges. It means having a dedicated strategist and creative lead, both of whom tap experts inside and
outside of Canada for guidance – from data security and intelligence to misinformation and other non-PR specialties.
In 2023, when IKEA removed taxes on secondhand products, Edelman was able to build conversations inside the government itself, along with other behindthe-scenes efforts in a PR drive that included media pitching, executive positioning, as well as digital and influencer marketing.
But as the agency evolves, so too does its creative workforce. In January, former Leo Burnett Toronto ACD Natee Likitsuwankool was hired by Edelman to be VP, creative director. At the time, global creative partner Anthony Chelvanathan said the hire was done in an effort to bring “craft and design to PR” and that Likitsuwankool has a “mix of attributes that can make the work exceptionally better.”
Pulling in creative advertising professionals to round out its offering and be seen as a one-stop-shop has been
CASES
1. Getting in your head For Advil’s “Head Settings” campaign, Edelman tackled gaming headaches by partnering with neuroscientists and influencers to create optimized in-game settings that were designed to hack gameinduced head pain. In the end, the program achieved 66 million impressions and a 51% increase in brand awareness.
Edelman’s business strategy for a few years. “That’s where we move best – when we’re able to do the full mix of integrated work across the network,” notes Freedman.
And now, she says, it appears traditional ad agencies are moving heavily into PR, with more shops considering the talk value of a campaign. “I love to see the once-disparate worlds pushing each other to be better. The smartest clients are doing this internally, with more collaboration between PR and marketing.”
Edelman is expanding its business in Canada, with clients including PepsiCo Foods, Samsung and Microsoft. But its specialties in tech and health are also growing, and the sheer breadth of Edelman’s staff –both creative and PR – is helping to make that possible.
“The whole idea of truly integrated campaigns is not going anywhere. Those blurred lines will be a distant memory,” Freedman says. “You’re going to see more and more from us on that, and you’ll see more of it across categories.”
2. Edelman and Knorr’s “Yummy K’s” campaign managed to revitalize the brand among Gen Z and millennials by mimicking fast food with a pop-up takeout experience, featuring menu items from celeb chef Matty Matheson. The campaign leveraged TikTok to drive 88 million impressions and sell out in just three days.
3. The agency’s “SHT” campaign for IKEA tackled the unfair double taxation on second-hand items, with the retailer covering the extra cost. It sparked a national debate and urged policy change, generating widespread media coverage, securing 34,000 petition signatures and boosting IKEA’s as-is sales by 192%.
AGENCY OF THE YEAR | CAMPAIGNS OF THE YEAR
AGENCY
FROM MOMENT TO MOVEMENT
Rethink leveraged a viral mishap for “Coors Light’s Out” after Shohei Ohtani shattered the brand’s stadium billboard with a foul ball during a live MLB game. Embracing the mayhem, the team created a campaign that included billboards and a special edition can featuring a blacked out pixel (which quickly sold out) –leading to the brand trending higher than the official beer of baseball.
DESIGN
RECLAIMING HISTORY
Today, one in three North American kids question the reality of the Holocaust, while nearly half witness anti-Semitism firsthand. Worse yet, Holocaust education isn’t mandatory in every Canadian province. To change that, Liberation75 and DDB used AI to make survivors young again, allowing their stories to resonate with today’s youth and create a more empathetic world.
DIGITAL
GET TO THE BOTTOM OF IT
Rethink’s “QJar Codes” for Kraft Peanut Butter featured an AI-powered mobile tool that allowed Canadians to scan near-empty jars (and their swirls of peanut butter goo) so that they could get a new one instantly delivered to their home. The innovative approach drove a 120% sales boost and significantly increased engagement on social media.
MEDIA
ELECTRIFYING BROADCAST
Volkswagen needed to make a splash in Quebec, Canada’s largest EV market. Enter Sans Émission, a creative play on Quebec’s late-night “no broadcast signal” time. Partnering with Noovo, Touche! turned the channel’s 2 AM to 6 AM off-air slot into a four-hour TV variety special. The result? Over 63,000 late-night viewers and millions of media impressions.
SMALL
WORLD’S BEST NEIGHBOURS
The “Next to Stok’d” campaign by Angry Butterfly cleverly bypassed cannabis advertising restrictions by promoting neighbouring businesses instead. By using geo-targeted ads and collabs with nearby stores, Stok’d was able to infer cannabis and its benefits in a disruptive way. In the end, it increased in-store shoppers by 26%, online customers by 29% and revenue by 12%.
PR
A DEFINITE POWER PLAY
Rethink’s “See My Name” campaign for Molson elevated female hockey players by redesigning their jerseys for better visibility of their names, placing them at the bottom of the shirt and letting players’ hair cover Molson’s logo instead. Launched on International Women’s Day, the PR-driven campaign achieved 2.9 billion impressions and a 15.2% sales increase in Ontario. She shoots, she scores.
2024 AGENCY OF THE YEAR | PROCESS & SHORTLISTS
3AYO 5A Y O
AGENCY
Rethink
Courage
Broken Heart Love Affair
VML
Sid Lee
Zulu Alpha Kilo
Leo Burnett
Cossette
Bensimon Byrne
Ogilvy
LG2
McCann Publicis
MEDIA
Initiative
UM
Media Experts
Cossette Media
PHD Media
EssenceMediacom
Touché!
OMD
Jungle Media
Spark Foundry
Carat
Wavemaker
DESIGN
Rethink
LG2
Sid Lee
VML
Daughter Creative
Leo Burnett
Zulu Alpha Kilo
DDB
Mint
Cossette Pendo
THE 2024 AWARDS PROGRAM BEGAN with an open call for Canadian agencies to submit their best campaigns from the past 12 months. All eligible creative, media, digital, PR and design agencies entered the program with comprehensive campaign, program or project case studies – five for AOY and three for Media, Digital, PR, Design and Small Agency. Separate crossindustry and cross-country jury panels then marked the work online and in isolation. Each campaign for the agency, media and digital competitions was given two marks from one to 10 based on strategy and creativity, while judges scored the PR campaigns using the same criteria, as well as a score for impact. Design was judged on creativity, technical challenge and impact. Judges with conflicts were omitted from scoring on the applicable cases. The top-scoring agencies made up the shortlists, based on a natural drop-off point in the scoring. Scores were averaged with equal weighting and the agency with the highest marks was the winner. One case from each category with the highest points was named a Campaign of the Year. The finalists, in winning order, are listed below.
DIGITAL
Rethink
McCann
FCB
Courage
Zulu Alpha Kilo
Dentsu Creative
LG2
Mint
We Are Social
PR
Rethink
Citizen Relations
Edelman
Heads+Tales
Middle Child
Veritas Communications
Craft Public Relations
Agnostic
North Strategic
Proof Strategies
Media Profile
Weber Shandwick
Mint
SMALL
Angry Butterfly
Lifelong Crush
Mackie Biernacki
Hard Work Club
Juliet
Ray
Wunder
Will
Public Inc.
Target
C&B Advertising
Here Be Monsters
Berlin Communications
This is the sixth year in a row
Rethink has landed Agency of the Year Gold. Second spot went to Courage, while BHLA took third. To see all of the winners, visit agencyoftheyear. strategyonline.ca
AGENCY OF THE YEAR | HALL
1990
Gold: McKim Advertising
Silver: Cossette
Communication-Marketing
Bronze: Baker Lovick Advertising
1991
Gold: Chiat/Day/Mojo
Silver: Baker Lovick:BBDO
Bronze: MacLaren:Lintas
1992
Gold: Chiat/Day
Silver: Ogilvy & Mather
Bronze: MacLaren:Lintas
1993
Gold: Geoffrey B. Roche & Partners Advertising
Silver (tie): McKim Baker
Lovick/BBDO, Taxi
Bronze: BCP
1994
Gold: MacLaren:Lintas
Silver: BBDO Canada
Bronze: Geoffrey B. Roche & Partners Advertising
1995
Gold: MacLaren McCann
Silver: BBDO Canada
Bronze: Leo Burnett
1996
Gold: Leo Burnett
Silver: Palmer Jarvis
Communications
Bronze: BBDO Canada
1997
Gold: Roche Macaulay
& Partners Advertising
Silver: Palmer Jarvis
Communications
Bronze: Leo Burnett
1998
Gold: Roche Macaulay
& Partners Advertising
Silver: BBDO Canada
Bronze: Palmer Jarvis DDB
1999
Gold: Palmer Jarvis DDB
Silver: Ammirati Puris Lintas
Bronze: Young & Rubicam
2000
Gold: Palmer Jarvis DDB
Silver: Taxi
Bronze: MacLaren McCann
2001
Gold: Palmer Jarvis DDB
Silver: Ammirati Puris
Bronze: Taxi
2002
Gold: Taxi
Silver: Bensimon-Byrne
Bronze: Zig
2003
Gold: Taxi
Silver: Palmer Jarvis DDB
Bronze: Downtown Partners DDB
2004
Gold: Taxi
Silver: Zig
Bronze: DDB
2005
Gold: Taxi
Silver: Rethink
Bronze: BBDO Canada
2006
Gold: Rethink
Silver: DDB
Bronze: Lowe Roche
2007
Gold: DDB
Silver: Ogilvy & Mather
Bronze: Taxi
2008
Gold: Taxi
Silver: BBDO Canada
Bronze: DDB
2009
Gold: DDB
Silver: Rethink
Bronze: Zig
2010
Gold: DDB
Silver: Taxi
Bronze: Sid Lee
2011
Gold: BBDO
Silver: DDB
Bronze: Taxi
2012
Gold: DDB
Silver: John St.
Bronze: Taxi
2013
Gold: John St.
Silver: Taxi
Bronze: BBDO
2014
Gold: Leo Burnett
Silver: Rethink
Bronze: DDB
2015
Gold: Leo Burnett
Silver: J. Walter Thompson
Bronze: Taxi
2016
Gold: Cossette
Silver: Leo Burnett
Bronze: John St.
2017
Gold: Cossette
Silver: J. Walter Thompson
Bronze: Lg2
2018
Gold: Cossette
Silver: John St.
Bronze: Zulu Alpha Kilo
2019
Gold: Rethink
Silver: BBDO Toronto
Bronze: John St.
2020
Gold: Rethink
Silver: No Fixed Address
Bronze: BBDO
2021
Gold: Rethink
Silver: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Bronze: Ogilvy
2022
Gold: Rethink
Silver: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Bronze: BBDO Canada
2023
Gold: Rethink
Silver: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Bronze: McCann
2024
Gold: Rethink
Silver: Courage
Bronze: BHLA
WHEN PRODUCT IS (TRULY)
IN THE EARLY 1960S, TOYOTA CANADA SOLD JUST A FEW HUNDRED CARS EACH YEAR. NOW IT’S ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S BEST-SELLING AUTOMOTIVE BRANDS, THANKS TO A RELENTLESS FOCUS ON QUALITY. BY TY BURKE
Inside any showroom, at any auto dealership, you can find a shiny new vehicle gleaming beneath bright fluorescent lights. It will be tricked out with the latest tech and the finest leather the auto maker has to offer. And, for most automotive companies, the look and feel of that new vehicle will be a calling card that draws in new customers. But Toyota isn’t most automotive companies. What really sets a Toyota apart isn’t the way it looks when it’s new – it’s the way it works when it’s old.
Over the last six decades, Toyota has built its brand on value, quality and longevity. You’ll find proof of this in the parking lot of your local supermarket, where there’s a twenty-year-old Corolla still dutifully making
the rounds. Or out on the open road, where a kittedout RAV4 is hundreds of thousands of kms deep into living the #VanLife.
Every one of those old beaters is a rolling billboard for the company’s commitment to quality, and it’s no fluke they’re still going strong. Toyota’s quality is the outcome of a philosophy that begins long before a vehicle ever rolls off the assembly line. And it is the foundation of a brand that has become one of the country’s most trusted. As Toyota celebrates 60 years in Canada, the company is reflecting on its strengths and preparing to use them to meet the challenges of the future.
“Continuous improvement is part of Toyota’s DNA. We are always re-evaluating everything we do in the spirit of
PROTAGONIST
improving it,” says Cyril Dimitris, vice-president of sales and marketing at Toyota Canada. “We seek to become more and more aligned with what our customers want and what they need – high quality products and service. Over the years, that has helped us grow.”
Time is a secret ingredient
Today, Toyotas are ubiquitous, but it wasn’t always this way. When the company’s first vehicles landed on Canadian shores in 1964, Asian cars were virtually unknown. Back then, the market was dominated by the big three Detroit automakers: Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. At first, Toyota’s entry into the market didn’t move the needle. Quotas on imported vehicles and requirements for domestically produced auto parts put a hard cap on company growth, so Toyota sold only a few hundred cars in Canada each year. It wasn’t until the energy crisis of the early 1970s that sales of smaller, more fuel-efficient Toyota vehicles started to take off.
“Growth was slower than we would have liked, simply
Clockwise from top left: A Japanese-made Toyota is offloaded from a boat; the automaker’s dealership in Charlesbourg, Quebec; the very-first Toyota, a Corolla 1100, that was built in North America; an ad from 1975, promoting the Corolla as the most affordable car on the market; the Corolla at a Toyota manufacturing plant in 1985; an official truck handbook; rally driver Walker Boyce talks up the brand’s rugged dependability in 1970s ad; Toyota gifts a vehicle to the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Quebec.
due to the restrictions,” says Dimitris. “At the time, all Toyota vehicles were manufactured in Japan. Opening the economy to international trade was obviously helpful to Toyota’s growth, but another key thing we did was start building our vehicles where we sell them – not only in Canada, but throughout North America.”
Today, more than half a million vehicles are built at the company’s factories in Cambridge and Woodbridge, Ontario. The Toyota vehicles produced there are among the highest quality made anywhere in the world, and Dimitris credits the company’s manufacturing operations with accelerating growth in Canada. Local Toyota plants routinely earn J.D. Power Quality Awards for being among the best auto factories in the Americas, and the company’s South Plant factory in Cambridge was the first outside of Japan to build Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand. Dimitris credits the company’s success in localizing
the brand with how it weaved Toyota into the social fabric of the country, which made Canadians more receptive to buying a Toyota. But any effect on sales was gradual. When Toyota opened its factory in Cambridge in 1986, it sold a little more than 78,000 vehicles in Canada. By 1992, that number had risen to nearly 88,000. By 1999, more than 100,000 vehicles each year.
Toyota’s gradual growth gave the company time to build its brand. Consumers were initially reluctant to purchase a Toyota, which were all manufactured in Japan at the time. Back then, Japanese manufacturing didn’t have the reputation for quality that it does today.
the service side of the business. We like to say that the sales department sells the first vehicle, but every vehicle after that is sold by service.”
Customer loyalty is a big part of Toyota’s brand strategy. For most of its customers, their main point of contact will be their local dealership. They only buy the vehicle once, but they will have it serviced multiple times.
“Our dealers are the best people to serve our customers and execute on the brand promise,” says Dimitris. “We work together collaboratively, and Toyota tries to instill a sense of confidence by producing better vehicles. Over time, trust in our brand increases because our customers have a good experience. When it comes time to buy a new vehicle, they buy another Toyota. Before you know it, they’ve gone through four cycles.”
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the company advertised both its Corolla and Tercel models as being the cheapest cars available – while emphasizing that they were still well-made and fun to drive.
The brand built its reputation as having the most durable cars on the road. Dimitris notes there was no “big bang” moment where Canadians’ perception of the brand underwent a sudden shift. The company built customer trust by providing and promoting high-quality products, each one better than the last.
Over the years, the automotive industry has undergone many transformations – from sedans to SUVs; and from combustion engines to hybrid and electric vehicles. Given the industry’s constant change, Toyota must remain nimble to maintain its leadership position. With nearly 200,000 in annual car sales, the brand is among the bestselling auto brands in Canada. But the company is acutely aware that the strength of a brand is earned, not given.
“Trust is something that is very hard to gain and very easy to lose,” says Dimitris. “We put a lot of attention on
This connection between service levels and brand loyalty shows up in the data. According to Leger’s Annual Corporate Reputation Index for 2023, the company has the best reputation in the auto industry and ranks 17th among all companies in Canada. According to J.D. Power and Associates in 2024, the company had the highest brand loyalty of any mass market vehicle for the third consecutive year. More than 62% of its customers were repeat buyers.
An inflection point
In Japanese culture, a 60th birthday is a milestone known as kanreki. At that age, a person has lived through five full cycles of the Chinese Zodiac and has a wealth of experience to draw upon.
“Kanreki is a representation of rebirth and reflection, of taking stock of your present and resetting yourself for the future,” says Dimitris. “We chose this concept as the theme for our 60th birthday because it is very fitting for where we are, not only as a company, but as an industry. We have achieved a lot, but our focus right needs to be about what we must do to be successful for the next sixty years.”
In August 2024, Toyota marked its anniversary with a 9,000-kilometre-long cross-country road trip that visited every province in Canada. The 18-day-long event was a kind of relay between St. John’s, Newfoundland and Victoria, British Columbia, and it highlighted 20 different models of Toyota – from the sporty GR Corolla hatchback to the full-size Toyota Tundra pick-up truck.
Fittingly, the road trip honoured the company’s past in Canada while looking to the future. After a jaunt along the shores of Lake Superior to do a little fishing, the road trip
Above: Toyota’s 2024 campaign continues to centre itself in consumers’ lives, telling the tale of childhood friends who make memories in a Prius, among many others stories.
Right: Creative over the years, from its Red Tag Days to the “Start Your Impossible” platform.
TOYOTA SAFETY SENSE
With Toyota, safety comes standard. The Toyota Safety Sense is a suite of features included in all Toyota vehicles, such as its pre-collision system for pedestrian detection. A 2017 campaign developed by Saatchi & Saatchi put Toyota’s safety features front and centre with 60-second cinema and 30-second TV spots showing Toyota drivers arriving safely at their destination. The focus on safety was nothing new for the automotive company, but these ads put the accent on how emerging safety technologies can help keep drivers of all ages safe.
MONEY WELL SPENT
If you want to buy a new Toyota today, you’ll need to add your name to a waiting list and you could find yourself financing at an interest rate above 5%. That’s just the name of the game in 2024. But, back in 2009, the company was looking to move leftover vehicles off the lot. The Great Financial Crisis had shaken consumer confidence, and Toyota’s annual Red Tag Days sales event was promoted under the theme of “Money Well Spent.” It touted “never seen before” 0% financing on select vehicles and complimentary job loss protection for customers who unexpectedly found themselves unemployed. Those were the days.
START YOUR IMPOSSIBLE
It was during the Tokyo Olympics that Toyota and the U.S. offices of Saatchi & Saatchi launched the “Start Your Impossible” global campaign. The platform also made an appearance at the 2018 SuperBowl, where Toyota Canada told the life story of Canadian alpine skier Lauren Woolstencroft, an eight-time Paralympic Gold medalist. The 60-second spot was one of 100 stories, and Toyota chose to feature Woolstencroft’s story because of how well she exemplified the campaign’s themes of facing and overcoming adversity. Later, in 2022, Toyota focused on Canadian Paralympic cross-country skier Brian McKeever, who lost his sight to Stargardt Macular Degeneration, and told the story of how he and his brother trained together, with McKeever eventually becoming a 20-time Paralympic medalist.
RED TAG DAYS, CONTINUED
Remember 2020? Back when public health restrictions left new vehicles sitting unsold on auto dealer lots? Back then, Toyota decided to remind their customers of the charms of a new vehicle. In a campaign created by The&Partnership, Toyota promoted its annual Red Tag Days event with TV commercials featuring drivers daydreaming about a new Toyota. A man in lockdown stares longingly out his kitchen window at a new SUV. And a woman, who took up pottery as a pandemic hobby, imagines the pottery wheel’s pedal is the accelerator of the Toyota. The campaign sought to capitalize on the zeitgeist. At the time, most people did not feel comfortable travelling by air, but most said they were OK with road travel.
used the western legs of the tour to shine a light on its lowemissions vehicles and electrification.
“For the automotive industry, the story of the next sixty years will be the story of how electrification evolves,” says Dimitris. “As an industry, we are all navigating this journey, but it is still not clear exactly how it will go.
“At Toyota, we are building our chops to be able to develop products that will meet [consumers’] needs in an environmentally responsible way. We are still at the early edge of a major transformation, but that is our view of what leadership will be in this new era.”
In 2024, the company also launched its new masterbrand, “For What Matters Most,” which emphasizes that what matters to its customers, also matters to the company.
“The campaign was built around the pillars of what makes a Toyota vehicle unique: longevity, safety, excitement,” says Toyota Canada’s national manager of marketing, Ian Lanaway. “People already think of these things when they think of Toyota. The masterbrand retells a story they already know. It reinforces the importance of staying focused on the consumer, and what they need.”
In the campaign, TV spots position Toyota vehicles as an integral part of everyday family life, depicting the essential role they play in the memorable moments that make up life. Childhood BFFs grow up and take the family Prius on adventures. Parents wait up for a teenager out with friends, taking comfort in the strong safety record of their vehicle. A schoolgirl demonstrates family adventures to her classmates, before running to embrace her father when he arrives in a muddied Land Cruiser.
In each commercial, the product is a character in its own right, with its quiet dependability enabling the experiences of others. They tell the story of how a vehicle that lasts for decades is not simply a utilitarian way to get from point A to point B. It becomes an integral part of a customer’s life.
“When we tell people a Toyota lasts, we’re not making it up,” says Dimitris. “Some brands try to punch above their weight and sell an illusion. We are very, very fortunate we don’t have to do that. The way we claim to be is the way we actually are.”
RELATIONSHIPS YOU CAN COUNT ON.
FOR A LONG, LONG TIME.
In celebration of Toyota’s 60th anniversary in Canada, we thank our agency partners for being integral to our journey.
For what matters most.
The Pharma Report
AI and data analytics are transforming everything from disease detection to optimizing project planning, while closer collaboration between technical and creative teams is producing more holistic solutions. Agencies are embracing platforms like TikTok and Spotify to engage more diverse audiences. The fusion of innovation, creativity and compliance is reshaping healthcare marketing. If you’re wondering what the prescription for success might be for pharma and healthcare brands in this aggressively digital age, read on.
Unlocking unexpected solutions Combining powerful minds to create Fisika moments
Above/Right: 1 Fisika developed and branded Alaré, a proprietary software now ready to be submitted for approval with FDA and Health Canada. 2 This year, as the Program for Women’s Cancer Research moves to a new location, Fisika developed an event identity that elevates the female chefs who are donating their time to the culinary experience. 3 The agency rebranded the non-profit Ronnie’s Joy, and is supporting its mission to increase awareness of the gaps in care when it comes to grieving after the loss of a child.
M
MONTREAL-BASED AND WOMEN-OWNED FISIKA underwent a rebrand in 2022 and during that process they were focused on using their pharma knowledge, strong strategic thinking and tactical execution to anticipate changes within the pharma marketing space – and prepare for them.
The agency’s focus is on identifying unique spaces and solutions beyond the obvious to create what it calls “Fisika moments.” In Greek, fisika refers to whatever comes naturally. In practice, naturally doesn't come easily and Fisika "moments" are when the agency delivers surprising solutions that later seem obvious. This often means expanding into atypical areas for a marketing agency including going deeper into technical expertise.
“Our core business in marketing is still very prominent, we are a true mix of traditional marketing knowledge – and a unique blend of diversified expertise,” says Lisa Barbusci, one of the agency’s three partners.
Barbusci and fellow business partners Anna Tsouluhas and Priscilla Benfeito have been at the helm of Fisika for four years and have about 25 employees and a roster of North American and global clients.
CONTACT: Lisa Barbusci Partner lisa@fisika.ca
Fisika will often say seeing is believing and its natural approach is designed to create excitement, relevance and actionable outputs – or Fisika moments – while delivering more than expected.
The agency’s evolution since 2020 sees it taking on more types of clients and project-based work, from supporting consensus guideline development to strategic workshops and leveraging electronic medical records systems to allow it to respond to client needs.
For the last year, Fisika has been working with the board members of the Canadian Society of Nephrology to design the association’s long-term strategic plan. The agency has led qualitative research and multiple workshops to ensure the members' voices are present and relevant to the strategies in support of a unified long-term vision for the association in Canada.
Fisika has also run Delphi processes for consensus building which is a credible method that leverages expert opinions for recommendations and guidelines. Fisika’s role involves facilitating multiple touchpoints, crafting necessary surveys, and helping translate the knowledge through publications.
Fisika developed patented software as a medical device called Alaré. "Personal diagnostic tools have a growing role for patients and providers. Technology is literally at our fingertips and tapping into that was something we wanted to do as a company," Tsouluhas says of leveraging their independence to embark on R&D in accessible tech.
Alaré allows healthcare professionals to use a phone’s
built-in microphone to assess the sound of inhalation to help determine if a specific inhaler type is suitable based on a person’s “peak inspiratory flow.” Fisika has been working on Alaré for several years and the app is now ready for submission to Health Canada and the FDA. The agency recently finalized the branding and user interface. Owning the R&D for this project aligned with the agency’s focus on a sustainable business model while giving it the freedom to guide future investment opportunities to best serve both patients and clinical trial research in the respiratory space.
On a smaller, but very poignant scale, Fisika also designed the visual identity and digital presence of familyfounded charity Ronnie’s Joy Foundation, which was established in memory of Ronnie Joy Hollander, a two-yearold girl who passed away of sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC). The organization supports bereaved families in Montreal, and raises awareness and funds for research into SUDC.
Over the last four years, Fisika has worked with the Division of Radiation Oncology at McGill University Health Centre and its Program for Women’s Cancer Research (PWR), which works to improve outcomes for women with breast and gynecological cancer. The agency developed a brand identity for PWR, and for this year’s fundraising event, the campaign is spotlighting chefs who are donating their time to the experience.
“We don't like to only call ourselves a marketing agency. We stand out at supporting strategic development and solving problems, which then turn into Fisika moments,” says Benfeito.
Making a difference where it really matters Klick Health tackles real-world problems with a fearless approach to innovation
KKLICK HEALTH ISN'T JUST REDEFININGHEALTHCARE marketing – its aim is to revolutionize the industry.
Prize, an internal, million-dollar competition encouraging team members to come up with game-changing ideas in AI. It’s a contest designed to encourage innovation and open to everyone in the agency, with submissions judged by an external panel of clients. So far, $400,000 has been awarded in the first two rounds, with the final round planned for the end of the year.
How do they measure innovation?
“How is it good for our clients? How is it good for society? Do we think it’s feasible? Why do we think this could be a viable solution that solves pain in the marketplace?” explains EVP of Applied Sciences, Alfred Whitehead.
Klick’s work is defined by a deep understanding of medical and scientific concepts that move the needle, enabled by over 185 post-graduate, in-house medical experts. It’s a unique strength that allows the agency to create impactful campaigns that make a real difference in health care.
Left: The agency created Change the Ref’s 'American Cancer Story,' the shocking comingof-age short film cowritten and directed by José Padilha with original score by Maroon 5's James Valentine.
Established in 1997, Klick Health’s global presence includes almost 1,000 Klicksters in Canada and more than 1,500 worldwide. Its success stems from its unique blend of deep scientific understanding, cutting-edge technology and a commitment to innovation, all of which have garnered significant accolades. In the last year alone, the agency’s many recognitions include the Cannes Lions Innovation Grand Prix and being named both Cannes Independent Healthcare Agency of the Year and Clio Health Independent Agency of the Year for the second year in a row. Every year, Klick seems to find a new way to go from strength to strength.
“This past year, we had more opportunities to do bigger campaigns, bigger work, and work with larger multinational clients,” says Klick Health’s chief creative officer, Rich Levy. But it’s not just about the campaigns the agency has been able to work on – it’s about the impact. Klick’s work is being recognized for its ability to make a difference.
“When you are doing work that stands out in the industry, clients come to you because they want to do work like that,” he says. “But, internally, it raises the bar. Everyone wants to do work that moves the needle, saves lives, changes the industry and that makes people stand up and take notice. We’re all about making sure that the work we do has a meaningful impact in the marketplace.”
The agency fuels that drive with efforts like the new Klick
Consider one of Klick’s latest efforts, Voice to Diabetes, a new mobile-driven tool that uses vocal biomarkers to detect Type 2 diabetes – an affliction that remains undiagnosed in 240 million people worldwide. The effort began with research conducted by Klick Labs and demonstrates how AI can be leveraged to tackle global health challenges.
“Voice to Diabetes is an example where the timing was right, because the power of AI became sufficient to do this kind of project,” explains Yan Fossat, SVP of Klick Labs. “It’s not just an interesting story to tell. It’s a real, medical solution to a multi-billion-dollar global problem.”
Similarly, Klick is leveraging AI to detect audio deepfakes through vocal biomarkers such as breathing patterns and micropauses in speech. The agency is also exploring the potential of AI in drug repurposing through its LoveNet framework, which rapidly identifies new uses for existing therapeutics. It could significantly improve the drug repurposing process and revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry.
The agency is using AI internally too. Its Genome Perspective is the first AI tool developed by an advertising agency to streamline project planning and improve delivery efficiency for healthcare clients. As Whitehead notes,
“Our philosophy behind Genome and creating an operating system for our company has always been to make data-driven and evidence-based decisions to provide people with the right tools at the right time to help them do their jobs.”
These sorts of efforts are possible because of the freedom Klick enjoys as an indie, explains Levy. “It allows you to make big bets, to take chances and to live that entrepreneurial spirit,” he says.
“Sometimes you’ll fail, but often you won’t.”
“The same goes on the scientific research side,” adds Fossat. “We don’t know if it’s going to work, and that’s the idea of science. Having the ability to explore things for curiosity’s sake, because some of them may turn out to be fantastic. I think that’s freedom. That keeps us being who we are.”
Left: 1 Inspired by the journey of a boy with Down syndrome and produced in partnership with the Down syndrome community, Zombie Studio, and Canja Audio Culture, Klick created the uplifting animated short ‘47’ for Café Joyeux, the global family of cafe-restaurants that hires and trains people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 2/3 Klick developed ‘Voice to Diabetes,’ a pioneering smartphone app that turns voice samples into an equitable life-saving tool using AI to detect Type 2 diabetes through subtle vocal changes imperceptible to the human ear. 4 Klick Chairman Leerom Segal and CEO Lori Grant announced the $1,000,000 Klick Prize at their December Town Hall. The unique 2024 internal contest highlights the agency's commitment to diversity of thought and rewards Klicksters for game-changing AI ideas for clients. 5 Klick brought home eight Cannes Lions this June, including the coveted Innovation Grand Prix and trophies in Film and Entertainment, reaffirming that ‘great work is great work.’ It was also named the #2 Healthcare Agency and #2 Healthcare Network of the Year for the second year running.
Breaking through the pharma state of mind
Elite Health helps clients rethink what’s possible.
Above: To boost brand awareness of Organon’s Nuvaring, Elite Health developed an omnichannel campaign that included ads on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Right: 1 Elite Health’s founders believe its “work hard, play hard” culture is a key element of its success. 2 The agency launched a Spotify and YouTube campaign for Bravecto to help Merck Animal Health reach new audiences and better measure ROI. 3 Bringing gamification to the world of pharma, the Elite team created an immersive, Cialis-branded hockey game to generate site interactions and increase engagement.
LINDSAY
LCOHEN, MANAGING
DIRECTOR
AT ELITE Health Agency, thought she knew the pharma playbook inside and out. But what she didn’t realize was that it could be rewritten.
When she joined the digital marketing agency in 2019, years of industry experience had instilled in her the “pharma state of mind.” But company founder and CEO, Robert Burko, came at things from a different perspective. With over 20 years of digital experience as a founder of Toronto-based Elite Digital Agency, Burko’s expertise lay in disrupting old playbooks to help clients thrive in the digital space.
What initially seemed like opposing viewpoints became the foundation for a fresh, dynamic approach to marketing in the health space.
“There was the opportunity to bring our backgrounds together and work towards convincing people like me that there’s new and better ways of doing things,” says Cohen, who is now also VP of Elite Digital. “My immediate reaction used to be, ‘There’s no way we can do that in health.’ But now the thinking is, ‘How can we do that?’”
Elite’s healthcare clients have benefited greatly from the shift in mindset.
CONTACT: Robert Burko CEO rburko@elitedigitalagency.com
One of the most prominent examples is Merck Canada, the Canadian arm of the global pharma company that develops medicines, vaccines, therapies and animal health products.
Initially, Elite Health helped evolve Merck's marketing team to gain a digital lens, pioneering its social media presence and building healthcare professional (HCP) portals that brought together all of Merck’s brands. It also implemented marketing automation and email journeys, moving from “spray and pray” tactics to hypertargeted messages. “That digital transformation totally changed the way they engage with all their target audiences,” Burko explains.
Elite Health has also worked with Merck Animal Health to break new ground in the digital space. Their product, Bravecto, used to rely heavily on traditional radio for advertisement. Seeking to reach new audiences, better measure ROI and reduce ad spend, the agency expanded Bravecto’s campaign onto multiple digital channels, including Spotify. Though the team was initially skeptical of the approach, Cohen says the Spotify ads are delivering record engagement at the campaign's lowest cost per click, even more efficient than Google, Facebook and Instagram (all of which have also outperformed historical and industry benchmarks).
Burko says the Elite team is constantly collaborating, learning about what works for clients in other industries, then applying similar tactics to healthcare.
Elite Health has a dedicated client services team that has experience working with the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB) on regulatory approvals. And as a Veeva-certified partner, the agency knows the ins-and-outs of the cloud-based software, which is commonly used by pharma companies.
The health team sits next to designers and developers at Elite
Digital, which has worked with PepsiCo, Labatt, Mars Wrigley and other major brands. “It’s a wonderful cross-pollination of ideas, where key insights and best practices are shared across the agency,” says Burko.
While leveraging digital and social channels may be standard practice in other industries, the healthcare sector still has untapped opportunities.
Exploring new channels is one of them. For example, facing increased competition from generic brands, Elite Health developed an omnichannel campaign for Organon’s Nuvaring to boost brand awareness. The strategy included ads on TikTok, Snapchat and Spotify – channels not typically considered in pharma media plans. With over 10 million impressions and nearly 2 million Canadians reached, the campaign exceeded all client benchmarks.
Elite has even shown how the digital mindset can be applied to traditional pharma tactics. For instance, brands commonly target key opinion leaders (KOLs), whose influence comes from publishing in medical journals and presenting at conferences.
For Janssen, the pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson, Elite added a digital twist by identifying a new breed of KOLs: digital influencers. It drafted a list of HCPs with strong engagement on platforms like LinkedIn, creating new leads for Janssen’s sales reps.
Although Elite strives to help clients push boundaries and move past the “pharma state of mind,” Burko emphasizes that industry guardrails are always respected.
“Our clients know that we have that knowledge and that expertise,” adds Cohen. “That gives them reassurance that we won’t steer them in a direction that could compromise their brand, product or business.”
ONE FOR THE AGES
For the last few years, strategy has invited shops on the Design Agency of the Year shortlists to participate in a poster auction for charity at the annual awards gala. For the 2024 edition, we asked finalists to design a poster that reflects the last 35 years of advertising, a nod to strategy's anniversary. All proceeds went to NABS.
