Harnessing tech to drive performance

TORONTO-BASED SALT XC IS PART FULL-SERVICE agency and part tech company, ready to create bespoke solutions that help clients achieve their objectives through a combination of media, creator, content, experiential, sponsorship or shopper solutions. But while it attends to the full funnel, Salt is hyper-focused on performance.

The Salt mantra is: “Experiential Commerce.” It looks for ways to use first-party data, digital media and memorable moments that drive valuable transactions for brands. And, that message is resonating.

With offices in Toronto, Montreal, Chicago and L.A., Salt has doubled in size in each of the past two years. It now has over 200 employees, with revenue climbing to about 150% year over year.

Salt president Jeff Rogers partly attributes that growth to the world reopening. Clients are coming out of the pandemic with big ambitions, and Salt believes it is perfectly positioned to help bring those to life. After only three years in business, Salt has focused on building out capabilities across the entire marketing/sales spectrum. In the last year, it bought pop-up retail company Brika, and joined forces with former Studio 71 EVP of Canada Jordan Bortolotti to launch media services and technology company Nectar First. Nectar builds in-house solutions that empower partners to take control of their digital media, social buying and first-party data strategies. Salt also added Outpoint to the family with its automated media mix modeling platform that empowers brands to grow revenue and reduce wasted spend.

New Canadian clients include Kraft Heinz’ shopper business, Bell, The Bay, Adidas, Mercedes-Benz, Hershey, Airbnb, Bumble, and Ancestry. In the US, Salt added Kraft Heinz, Xbox, Anheuser-Busch, and Sonos. It also significantly grew its roster of creator/influencer and media clients.

The agency has continued to mature its internal offerings, including production talent collective Media Mob, and smart social-boosting tool Frontrunner, both of which Rogers highlights as important for brands heading into tougher economic times. He notes that marketers using Media Mob can produce content 30% to 40% cheaper than the market average.

“You have to be more efficient with the dollars you have in a world of shrinking budgets,” he explains. Recognizing that need, Salt looks to push harder into the US in coming months, as the Canadian-based team can bring cost savings to advertisers down south.

And the agency will soon be busy in the US with Bud Light, having been brought on for strategy, creative and experiential –encompassing headline events including the Super Bowl and music festivals Governor’s Ball and Coachella.

But plenty of the agency’s recent projects have earned significant buzz and attention at home, too.

Budweiser Zero signed retired footballer Sebastian Giovinco for #ForzaCanada, a campaign designed by Salt to get local football fans to support team Canada during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In a social media post, Giovinco and CF Montréal right-back Alistair Johnston introduced the Budweiser “Team Zero” roster and encouraged fans to attend an event in Toronto’s Little Italy. The effort drove brand relevancy while gaining 42 million PR impressions and 9.3 million social impressions.

For the Royal Canadian Legion, the agency pitched and produced Poppy Stories, which allowed Canadians to scan Remembrance Day poppies with their phone to get the story of a fallen soldier. The campaign earned roughly $10 million in free media (including about 20 million PR media impressions), and resulted in over 34,000 poppy scans in just the first two weeks.

Salt has also recently been tasked with launching the PointsBet gambling brand in Canada, managing strategy, creative design, media buying, social, experiential and web.

Rogers says the growth comes from the agency living up to its purpose: “Earn the world’s attention.”

“It comes down to the fact we want to help brands sell more,” he says. “That’s Salt at its core. We have a strong bias towards lowerfunnel performance-based solutions that drive action. And we’ll continue to add and build new service capabilities that solve our client’s pain points.”

BELOW: Budweiser Zero recruited footballer Sebastian Giovinco to inspire Canadians via social media to rally behind the 2022 FIFA World Cup men’s national team, celebrating Canada’s first World Cup appearance in 36 years. Salt XC led strategy, creative, the connections plan and overall execution.

ABOVE: To launch Coca-Cola with Coffee, Salt XC created a multi-sensory activation to recharge consumers by immersing them in a consumption experience combining the ice-cold beverage with customized audio, scent diffusers, and synched chromotherapy lighting and visuals.

LEFT: Salt XC helped lead creative, strategy and production oversight of the annual Xbox FanFest in Canada and the US, assembling content creators, media and FanFest members to once again experience the Xbox world via on-stage programming and immersive environments.