THENEWRATPACK - Strategy

iz.
partners – PR fi rm Veritas
else out there right now
Communications and event
who can provide this
planning specialist Integrated
service with a single person
Health Care – joined forces
leading it,” notes Johnson.
to form Ingredients Nutrition
“Clients are responding
Insights Group in March, a
extremely well. Most of
new shop that offers 360-
those we’ve talked to have
degree expertise to food
said: ‘This is exactly what
marketers increasingly
we’re looking for.’ And
challenged by nutrition trends
we’re very close to two or
and regulatory issues. All three
three major opportunities.”
companies already specialized
However, while he is
in nutrition marketing and are
optimistic that the shop’s
members of Toronto-based
future looks robust, Johnson
holding company MDC Group.
says it’s hard to speculate
Says Terry Johnson,
on how much business
president of Allard Johnson:
Ingredients will actually
“Consumers are more
demanding about nutrition
and the products they
Top: Ethos unit helps JWT grow its biz by attracting social strategy clients such as Sick Kids
Hospital and HSBC (right); below: Andrés Croc Crossing tapped into Capital C's Big Ideas Group
devour. “It’s diffi cult to
ascertain, because we’re
not going in to clients and
are consuming and the
suggesting that they change
government is getting more involved in what can be put in those
ad agencies. We’re going in and suggesting that we have a service
products. We believe there’s a signifi cant future for this type of company, that crosses the entire board, and if they are looking for some outside
and not just in the short term. I think it’s going to get greater and greater consulting, we’re the people who can put together an integrated plan.”
as people become more concerned.”
He adds: “It’s not that we’re not looking for advertising clients, but
Like JWT, the folks at Ingredients realized this was an area that was this is our going-in position.”
not only accelerating in importance within society, but was also one that Meanwhile, Toronto-based agency Capital C has
remained relatively untapped by agencies. “I don’t think there’s anyone focused on amassing powerful digital capabilities, a
strategy that was accelerated by the purchase of
Mississauga, Ont.-based data mining expert Kenna
Group last fall, as well as the hiring of two digital
marketing veterans – Glenn Chilton, who formerly
ran JWT’s interactive practice, and technology guru
Paul Quigley, who was president and CEO of iWorks
in Richmond Hill, Ont. – to run it.
Capital C founder Tony Chapman says it was all
made possible by the shop’s decision to join the
Newport Interest Trust a year ago, an assembly of
seven like-minded entrepreneurs from various
industries. Joining the trust allowed Capital C to
free up capital for the acquisition.
Adds Chapman: “We feel incredibly fortunate to
be in an era when all these tools and technologies
are coming into play. It’s a brand new day – and
it’s a day that doesn’t belong to the mass media
agencies like it used to, [but] whoever has the best
ideas and whoever can amplify them in a way that
can be measured. Our goal is not to become the
biggest agency in the country. It’s to become the very
best at helping clients physically and digitally enhance
their brand.”
Chapman calls this a 360-degree approach—one that
involves anything from picking up the product in the
store, to entering a promotion, visiting a website, using a
cellphone, and attending sampling events.
The acquisition of Kenna, which is currently being
integrated into the agency, follows a twelve-year period of
“organic growth,” he adds. (The only other acquisition being
Capital C’s purchase of a 50% stake in Montreal-based promo
agency P2P last year.) During those six years, however, Capital
C, like other agencies mentioned here, added divisions in
response to emerging marketing trends, all while remaining in