Diageo – which owns alcohol brands like Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Baileys and Guinness – has selected AV Communications to lead its multicultural strategies in Canada.

AVC has been tasked with localizing Diageo’s multicultural strategy and insights on the Canadian market. Audiences vary greatly between Canada and the U.S., says Joycelyn David, the agency’s owner and CEO, across a number of vectors: source country, language and generation/tenure. She adds that more brands are realizing that they need multicultural agencies at the table to help navigate these differences.

The first work by AVC for Diageo launched as part of efforts for Johnnie Walker for Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese cultural tradition, in September. The agency is actively working on additional work to launch in 2023, including the Lunar New Year.

The win is a substantial one for the agency, which has more than doubled its headcount from 10 to 21 since it named new ownership in 2019. Joycelyn David, the agency’s owner and CEO, attributes some of the growth to growing awareness among brands of the importance of multicultural marketing, which has become “an imperative for all Canadian companies.” The agency has clients in six countries, including Arbor Memorial, BMO Financial, Canon, Trend Micro and Western Union.