CANADA: Canadian Consensus

It’s big, bountiful and bilingual, with a lively cultural mix that should be boosting creativity, but Canada currently seems to be experiencing a creative lull in its advertising. Or is it? There are those in the know that say it’s never been so good. Danny Edwards wanders a large country in search of accord and finds an industry in flux as it navigates the new digital landscape

When shots last paid a visit to Canada, at the rear end of 2010 it was a country in which the advertising industry had very recently felt the boom times; a country that had successfully gone toe-to-toe with the US with its own creative output and Lion-shaped input. Dove Evolution had picked up the Film and Cyber Grands Prix at Cannes in 2007 and campaigns for clients such as Viagra and Vim were winning hearts, minds and metal across the globe.

But it was also somewhere that was feeling that glow recede. Was it the financial downturn? Client inhibition? Maybe the natural peaks and troughs of creative inspiration? Maybe a combination of all three? No one had a definitive answer but whichever it was there was a certain negativity pervading the offices of Canada’s agencies and production companies, with one agency head claiming “other than a few people and places, the state of creativity in Canada is at an all-time deficit”.

So three years on, where does Canada sit now? Rob Sweetman, co-creative director at Vancouver-based agency One Twenty Three West [read more about them on page 54] is balanced in his approach to the topic. “Like any country, I think there are hits and misses,” he says. “Overall I think creativity could be a little bit higher in Canada. I just look at the results from Cannes and at smaller countries than us, smaller in size and population, which have a much higher level of creativity and of groundbreaking work. I just think there’s room for improvement here.”

Cannes is often the barometer of annual success and with three gold Lions, eight silvers and 17 bronze, it’s by no means a complete strike out, but neither is it an unqualified success. Work from, among others, Tribal DDB Toronto for McDonald’s, Grip Toronto for Labatt and Cossette Montreal for Enablis all impressed at this year’s Cannes gala but if size and population is a factor, as Sweetman suggests, then Canada’s almost 10 million square kilometres and population of 34 and a half million should really be outgunning New Zealand’s 32 Lions gained from 268,000 square km and four and a half million inhabitants.

Boundary-pushing clients

Of course, if size and population really was the be-all and end-all then Russia and China should have more metal than Motörhead because, let’s be honest, they’re not short of space or numbers, but in 2013 they took home 11 and 26 Lions respectively; once again not a bad achievement at all, but a way off the far smaller UK’s 101 wins. Sweetman’s other thesis is that Canada is, by nature, a little conservative in its approach.

“It doesn’t mean we can’t do great things, and don’t do great things now,” he says, “but sometimes we’re just a bit gun shy in doing things that are a little more outrageous or controversial. We can be a little bit conservative in our ways.” That conservatism would, in many instances, emanate from the clients but some of the Canadian agency heads believe that many of those clients are attempting to push boundaries and are challenging their agencies to come up with new and inventive ways of promoting their brand.

“There are some amazing and brave clients out there,” elaborates Brent Choi, chief creative and integration officer at JWT Canada, “clients that are leading the way, [but] I do wish some of our biggest brands, brands that play on the biggest stages, would find a way to align their organisations to allow innovative thinking. I don’t think many are set up to [allow] for something completely different. Many of our biggest consumer brands, with the biggest budgets, have basically received in-market research feedback that directs them to rely on a colour to represent their brand [instead of] an idea. So, with half the commercials you see, the number one takeaway is that they are ‘blue’, or ‘green’, or ‘orange’. Apple is an easy example but they are really known for thinking differently, and their communications reflect that [but] brands shouldn’t be about a colour.”

 The next big thing is... old

Originality and innovation form part of the soul of successful advertising ideas but Helen Pak, creative strategist at Facebook [former EVP and co-executive creative director at Saatchi Toronto], while praising clients who are willing to innovate, also warns against placing too much emphasis on the ‘cult of new’. “More than ever, clients are not only open to new and innovative ideas,” she says, “they are actively asking for them. Unfortunately, newness isn’t necessarily good. We are seeing a lot of ‘new’ ad units, a lot of ‘never been done before’ opportunities and media buys that some clients are beguiled by in an effort to stay current and relevant. [But] agencies need to step back and help clients navigate past this noise and find the right places to connect to the right people.”

Choi believes that Canada is currently in a state of flux. “One of the things I’ve noticed of late about our industry is a resetting,” he says. “More than usual, several top-flight creative directors have changed agencies, several colossal accounts have moved after a number of years at the same agencies and there have been several acquisitions and mergers. To me that indicates an industry in flux, an industry searching for a better way.”

Of course, what that better way might be is open to debate. Philippe Meunier, chief creative officer and senior partner at Sid Lee believes that the advertising industry in Canada should be looking outside itself to really learn lessons and improve its creative standing. “To improve the industry we have to leave the country and get global business brands,” he says. “It’s not only going to be good for the agencies, but for directors, photographers and illustrators. We should also be investing more into educating multi-disciplinary creative thinkers and encourage an environment where boutique agencies flourish.”

“Think globally, play locally,” says founder of Toronto-based production company Revolver Films, Don Allan, who believes that Canada has already started taking advantage of the global marketplace. “More and more in advertising we are, as Torontonian philosopher Marshall McLuhan said, ‘a global village’. This is particularly true as clients are increasingly coming from all parts of the world and Canadian talent is being exported internationally.” 

There are always theories and ideas as to how a country can improve its creative output but too much theorising suggests that positivity is thin on the ground when, in Canada, that simply isn’t the case. While all agree that there are improvements to be made, striving for better is an outlook that should always be embraced because as soon as you think you’ve got it licked is when you start to take your foot off the gas.

“It’s actually a very healthy landscape,” offers Sid Lee’s Meunier. “We have hit a tipping point in the industry [where] we’re shifting our focus from bought media to earned media, with social and content.” “It’s been a very exciting time in Canada,” continues Pak, “as it has been everywhere else in the world.Creativity seems to be at an all-time high with new ideas that are leveraging platforms and technology to its fullest. Invention and innovation are thriving, but the best ideas still focus on shareable storytelling and conversation.”

Spinning a good yarn

Storytelling is, indeed, the word of the moment. If you were to create a word cloud from all of the manifold advertising festivals, events and seminars from across the globe then two words would probably share top billing; ‘storytelling’ and ‘data’. And why not? Together they form the basis for effective, engaging and targeted messages, and Canada is working hard to balance the inventiveness of new technology with the appeal of traditional storytelling.

“Like the rest of the world, the industry [in Canada] is evolving dramatically as clients try to find their way in the digital landscape,” concludes Revolver’s Allan. “There seems to be a move towards experimental/multiplatform/event-based marketing, but ultimately it’s still about branding. And branding seems best served when it’s tied to good stories, regardless of the medium in which they are told.”