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On the 28th floor of 16 York Street, Toronto, overlooking a fog-shrouded Lake Ontario, Canada’s best, boldest and brightest in marketing and advertising gathered at LinkedIn’s office to partake in The Institute of Canadian Agencies’ (ICA) Canadian Marketing Effectiveness Summit 2023.
Naturally, this meant the reveal of this year’s Effie Awards winners. Perhaps the most hotly contested race was for the Grand Effie, which saw four pieces of work from three different agencies vie for the crown. These were:
- ‘BeyondLIMITS’, a campaign by Diamond which repositioned Fairmont Hotels & Resorts as not just a group of hotels, but as a collection of once-in-a-lifetime experiences that push the limits of possibility.
- ‘Trending 2 Table’, an FCB campaign for grocery delivery service Voilà that made viral food TikToks shoppable in one click.
- ‘Scotiabank First Day’, a campaign by Rethink for Scotiabank, which spoke to Canadian newcomers, reminding them that the best people to help them are those who have been in their shoes.
- ‘NXT LVL’, an FCB campaign for Bank of Montréal (BMO) which saw the financial institution launch a channel on Twitch, in order to increase brand awareness among younger generations.
Yet, while all of these had secured Gold standing, only one could win. And that piece of work was ‘NXT LVL’, which saw FCB and BMO presented with the coveted prize.
With people watching over 15,000 hours on the channel, equating to 123,245 unique views and 8.5 million video views, this campaign was responsible for several key successes for the brand, including a 40% improvement in unaided awareness, a 13% increase in ‘Everyday Banking’ accounts, and a 24% in student account openings.
FCB’s dominance didn’t stop there, however. The Grand Effie success proved enough to see the agency awarded Agency of the Year, and more than that, client BMO won Marketer of the Year, marking a clean sweep for Canada’s division of the IPG giants.
Recession or Resurgence? Canada’s Economic Forecast
Of course, that wasn’t all the day had to offer. Panel sessions hosted by an esteemed assortment of guest speakers, coordinated by the ICA, drew intense focus, introspective questions, and offered cutting edge insights into the Canadian marketing landscape as we know it today.
Up first was award-winning journalist Rita Trichur (of the Globe & Mail), who sat down with Shopify head of commercial revenue and Effie Awards Canada co-chair Ali Leung to discuss the effects of 2023’s events on the economic scene of 2024.
“The question everyone’s asking is, ‘What happens now?’,” said Rita. “This is the big debate. Some economists are saying we’ll see a recession, and others are claiming we’re actually going to see ‘an extended period of mild growth’. So what do we root for?”
Apparently, as counterintuitive as it might sound, a mild recession might be the ticket for long term success. While yes, it will mean layoffs and jobs lost, the upside is that overall, it could be an opportunity for inflation and the economy to be brought under control. “On the other hand, if we muddle along and have a period of slow growth, inflation may not be kept in check,” she warned.
However, ‘might’ is the operative word. Aside from the obvious repercussions, a recession could catalyse the volatile wildcard that is household debt levels. On average, Canadians have $1.81 in debt for $1 of disposable income – one of the highest rates in the G7, if not the highest – meaning that an even deeper recession could quickly be caused via debt crisis, despite the fact that, according to Rita, “The very last thing a consumer in Canada will stop paying is the mortgage.”
Another crucial factor, Rita continued, will be the job market – something she was keen to discuss at length. “Currently, unemployment is at 5.5% for September, but mostly because the hiring has slowed down. It’s not a layoff story – just a vacancy story.”
However, she added that this could lead to some interesting implications for talent competition. Due to the fact that Canada has 465,000 immigrants coming into the country just this year, as well as a record 900,000 international students, the situation will absolutely be one to monitor should a recession occur.
But, it wasn’t all ominous news. While going over the economic forecast, Ali and Rita noted that although inflation is still almost double the Bank of Canada’s 2% target rate, it did come down in September from August. Moreover, household savings rates across the country were still up, which means that Canadians still have money to spend.
“We’ve seen a decline on restaurant spending and travel – an overall pullback since the beginning of this year in terms of leisure spending,” said Rita. “Businesses are also doing the same. They’re being cautious about investment and big expenditures, but there’s absolutely an opportunity if done correctly.”
Specifically, the auto sector is high on Rita’s watch list for big marketing opportunities. “People still need to drive,” she elaborated. “I know we’re talking about transitioning away, and there’s a question of whether the population can even afford electric cars, but people still need to get around. They still need to buy food and essentials. That’s an opportunity – it just means you have to be able to explain why you deserve people’s money.”
So how does one do this? Well, working harder for a share of the wallet all comes down to good advertising, branding, and honest, clear communication.
Of particular importance in achieving this, Rita noted, is getting rid of corporate jargon. “Consumers are busy. Simplify, explain better and be clear about what’s happening. For example, there’s a real opportunity for the banking sector to step up and explain what to do with money at this crucial time. All these things that look negative have a flipside, but you have to explain to people what all of this means.”
As to whether or not that will happen – that remains to be seen. Rita finished with the fact that generally speaking, every interest cut or hike takes six to eight quarters to work its way through the economy, meaning that the earliest the country might feel it will be in Q3 of 2024.
“So, until then, let’s just embrace Taylor Swift’s mentality and all just ‘Shake it off’.”
‘Big Swings’, Benchmarks and Bare Minimums
The second panel of the day was more directly Effie-focused, with The Hive CSO and partner, and Effie Awards Canada co-chair Dustin Rideout chatting with effectiveness guru Peter Field, and Edelman global CSO Brent Nelsen about marketing trends, effective case study writing, and why big swings in advertising shouldn’t actually be considered risky.
Looking specifically at this year’s finalists, Peter was quick to praise the new ways of thinking and the creative approaches on display. However, equally noteworthy, to him, was the use of tried and trusted techniques at the backbone of these campaigns. “Yes, we’ve got banks moving into gaming, but these case studies have used these classic techniques to add value,” he said. “When consumers are questioning whether they really should be paying inflated prices, the thing you really need to do is reinforce the reasons for why they’re buying it.”
In particular, emotional affiliation with brands was at the forefront of Peter’s list. “The great strengths of these case studies is that they use emotions,” he continued. “Some people say the knee-jerk reaction during tough times is to get rational, but that’s just not true. Look at the way some campaigns use humour. It’s the most powerful emotion we have, which makes it very valuable, even if it’s increasingly rare. If you’re not getting emotional, you won’t be getting top bang for your buck.”
Building on this, Brent added that while humour is difficult on a global scale, due to its nuanced nature and the fact that “what’s humour to someone might be a significant issue to another,” emotion itself is always a reliable seller. “Just look at what streams across every platform now. It’s emotional. Every piece of content is a drama, a comedy or a pseudo drama, and every reality show they make is emotionally based.”
The other big thing, the panel noted, is simply making consumers believe that brands aren’t full of shit.
“Buzzword bingo and jargon – nobody wants that, or to hear ‘consumer-centric’,” said Brent. “Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen. People don’t understand the shoes of the customers they walk in, and it’s a huge opportunity wasted. You’ve got 80% of brands thinking their online is fantastic, with only 37% saying it’s not that fantastic, but that dichotomy is simply not possible.“
To this end, Brent added that case studies he saw also suffered a similar flaw, being too busy trying to pull wool over people’s eyes without category context, and not focusing on strategy formation, creative formation and good case writing – a Canadian, market-wide problem.
“A lot that we saw were good, but there were also a lot that tried to build on intermediate data,” expanded Peter, continuing the discussion. “You need to amplify paid media with earned media, but it’s a means to an end. Putting numbers of value in earned media is good to show, but it’s not proof. What works is the commercial results. How much more did you sell, and how much more money did you make for the brand? I’m not levelling this as a broad criticism, but there are areas where we need improvement.”
So how does Canada get better across the board? Well, aside from focusing on this, and just gritting the country’s collective teeth and bearing down, according to Brent, it’s two things. The first is simple – something everyone familiar with Canadian advertising has heard countless times before; embracing the spirit of doing more with less. “Unlike other markets, we don’t have $10 million to throw a Super Bowl, and then another $100 million to make it omnichannel.”
But, the second is a bit more complex. To be precise, Brent wants the Canadian scene to spend a bit more time looking outward. “What keeps me delightfully paranoid every day is looking at what the world is doing,” he said. “Sometimes, I see more creativity from kids in Sao Paulo than creative agency people. Let’s benchmark against the world’s best, whoever they may be, rather than internally. We have the capability to compete! We just need to be more overt and not as Canadian in being delightfully humble. Yes, federal policy contributes to some of that constrained, captive marketing, but if you look at India, they’re competing every day with anyone who has a business idea. And that drives massive abouts of profitability.”
This shouldn’t be seen as a ‘big swing’ by any stretch of the imagination either. Instead, it’s the bare minimum, and, as a whole, Brent believes we should be far less liberal with the term.
“Why is doing something different from your competitors a big swing? It seems like an obvious strategic imperative,” he questioned. “And even beyond that, I’m not convinced there’s a lot of risk in taking a big swing. There’s enough data to lessen a big risk.”
So what does the data say? First things first, believe it or not, people aren’t waiting on the next piece of advertising with baited breath. According to Havas’ study on meaningful brands, in fact, people said that they could care less if 76% of brands disappeared.
And that aside, just understanding what’s popular and knowing how to operate in that space lends credence to any campaign. “Newsflash, online gaming is popular,” Brett finished. “That’s not a big swing! You’re just tapping into existing human behaviour. And even if you’re doing something different, I don’t see the risk. The world has never progressed by all doing the same thing, or we’d all be sitting around a fire right now eating raw meat.”
How to Create Gold Effie-Worthy Work
Although the Grand Effie wasn’t to be theirs, the next segment built on the discussion of doing different work and creating effective case studies, as ICA EVP Leah Power sat down to interview Diamond president Josh Diamond, alongside Accor’s Lindsay Tessis, director, social media and content marketing, and Denis Klurfeld, SVP, procurement.
When asked about how their client-agency relationship started, and what it meant to have been awarded a Gold, Denis was quick to chalk it up to the power of effective conversation. “What we were really interested in was having someone who understood the objectives. Even in the brief, measuring effectiveness was a key component of that evaluation criteria. So being here and being awarded for that is really great.”
Continuing, he said, “The biggest thing in procurement is being able to allow agencies and suppliers to differentiate themselves. If you don’t have clear qualification or selection criteria, it becomes very difficult to justify your choice. So, effectiveness was one area where we could differentiate, because it could be measured and quantified, beyond just the bigger idea.”
So how did the campaign actually come to life? Eight weeks, daily communications, avoiding competing in food or service – spheres that are hard to differentiate – and the decision to move in and offer something that nobody else was doing.
“We could see the vision,” Lindsay said. “People were craving experiences after covid-19, and not only did we want to drive a huge number of impressions, but we also wanted heads in beds. So, embracing the fact that our guests were looking for something different; experiential made sense.”
Orchestrating concerts in cenotes and curating underwater ballet was not a simple task, however. Obvious logistics aside, big tasks included convincing the owners that this was a worthy investment of marketing dollars, and figuring out whether it was feasible to even give these full time employees what was effectively another job.
“Before we could sell to the guests, we had to sell to the hotels. If they didn’t buy into it, it couldn’t happen, since they were the ones bringing it to life for us,” Lindsay put it.
Thankfully, things went smoothly. And this was, in many ways, thanks to Diamond’s excellent strategic work. “We were like, OK, we’re going to have a hard time ‘out-amenity-ing’ these brands, but we did target research and experiences were screaming off the page,” Josh said. “In fact, they were the communication breakthrough tactic. With each event having its own content machine, even though not everyone could book them, it allowed us to differentiate.”
Equally important, he continued, was playing to culture and seeking opportunity through that. This was demonstrated through a three-day experience in which Bruno Mars came to Hawaii with his new rum, bartended, and then delivered epic performances. “To afford Bruno Mars is millions of dollars, but the team understood that he had a rum and wanted to sell that rum,” noted Josh. “Now, because of that, the brand equity score has gone up, and this is just what Fairmont is.”
Concluding the discussion of strategy, Josh said the final fundamental piece was clear goal setting ahead of time. Crucially, this included value creation, to ensure the teams knew where they could and couldn’t outvalue, and the decision to push for 1.5 billion impressions at all costs.
“What we were focused on was breakthrough in every channel and every tactic, and we knew if we focused there, we’d be able to see the results on the bottom line,” he added.
And since then, the success of this execution process has given way to a platform with room for expansion. According to Lindsay, Fairmont staff are actually suggesting ideas as well, while working under the single parameter that it can’t be a one and done event. Included in this will be an upcoming dinner series in Barbados, in a cave… although for now, that’s all we’ll get to know about it.
Embracing Canadian Spirit, and Writing Better Case Studies
Wrapping up the day, president and CEO of the ICA, Scott Knox celebrated the award-winning work, and offered a few pieces of great insight as to where things are heading in 2024.
Addressing the room, and why there were only four submissions receiving gold despite a finalist list of 64 campaigns, he said, “You’ve gotta work effing hard to get a gold award, and we judge against the standards of not only this country, but the entire world. We want these case studies to go shoulder to shoulder with the best, and we proudly stand next to this case study from FCB as the best that came out of the country this year.”
However, Scott also acknowledged the previous comments from the panels, agreeing that Canada’s ability to craft case studies, as a country, is woefully poor. “What we’re trying to do is push that we do great work, but sometimes in the judging we watch great work slide down and down because of case study writing. It’s not just about context. It’s about winning business and standing up against tech companies and consultancies to sell what we do,” he explained.
What this means, should the country be successful, is a unique selling proposition, both nationally and beyond. In the case of the former, it’ll mean less need for books and consistent editorial constantly talking about risk and reward, with, ideally, brands and c suite officers firmly trusting that agencies know how and what to spend on, and that it won’t be risky.
But beyond that, “the world needs more Canada,” as Scott put it simply. “In a world that is fracturing, splitting, and divisive, if we’re as capable or better than, then that work can be done by Canadian agencies and brands. We are open for business, and bringing that business here is the rallying cry of the ICA to the world. I’m not asking you to be as arrogant as us Brits, or those Americans, but you need to believe in sales more. You need to believe that you’ve got something to sell, and then do it!”
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