This story was originally published in the fall 2022 issue of strategy.
If achieving success is difficult, maintaining it must decidedly be more so. But try telling that to independent creative agency Rethink – which has, for the fourth consecutive year, claimed Strategy’s Agency of the Year and Design Golds, while snagging a fourth straight medal finish in Digital and adding another in a category new to the agency: PR.
For Rethink, it’s all the by-product of an intentional strategy to drive creatives to do the best work of their careers – even through the pandemic, and notwithstanding borders and other boundaries. And it all stems from one simple fact: “Rethink is never going to sell.”
Those are the words of Sean McDonald, national managing partner and CSO at Rethink, who says it’s a fundamental difference-maker for one of the world’s largest and most-decorated independent agency networks. “The typical way an independent agency would think is: ‘How can we expand?’ because they want to grow so they can be worth more. Rethink is not motivated by growth. We’re not planning to expand, we’re planning to improve,” McDonald tells strategy.
It’s an interesting sentiment from one of the managing partners of an agency that has opened its first international office in New York City and expanded its total headcount by more than 35% in the past year alone – growing from a team of 235 last fall to approximately 320 as of press time. But McDonald is insistent that this growth is driven by a desire for improvement, rather than a higher valuation.
“If we improve, we have better relationships, which means we do better work. If we have better relationships and do better work, we have better careers,” he explains. “If we can expand the scope within which we have great relationships and do great work, and that requires us to be present physically in other places, we will do that. But the motivation is not growth, it’s improvement.”
That goal was at the heart of the New York City office opening. Rather than take a Field of Dreams approach, McDonald says, Rethink decided to plant roots in the media capital of the world because it was already a global agency. The agency had been doing international work with clients including IKEA, Molson Coors, Tazo and Kraft Heinz for years, as well as work in the U.S. for Kellogg on RXBar, an assignment won in the summer of 2021.
“We had the opportunities already in hand, and we’ve gained more since,” McDonald says, with specific clients to be named closer to when the first work with them is live and in market. “It was validated through the business lens, but we opened the office in pursuit of finding great people and work, in as many places as we can.”
And yes, that does mean that Rethink has its sights set on markets further afield. “Many Rethinkers and many of our clients are doing the best work of their careers in Canada. We wanted to do that with more people around the world,” McDonald notes. “That means in New York, and it also means well beyond Canada and the U.S.”
Speaking of “best work,” Rethink has secured its usual lion’s share of recognition this year – including 12 Cannes Lions (the most of any Canadian agency), 16 Clios, 10 One Show Pencils, five D&AD Pencils, and recognition as the top independent agency in the world at the Clios, top Creative Strategy Agency of the Year and third Independent Agency Network of the Year at Cannes. It has achieved that recognition as a result of work done for a variety of clients, nationally and globally, including Kraft Heinz, Scotiabank, McCain Foods, IKEA, the YWCA and more.
To service those and other clients, the agency has added a number of new talents. In Toronto, these include Michelle Spivak as CD and Allan Mah as ACD, along with Amira Moussa, Amber Arezes and Jaclyn McConnell as art directors and Marwa Hassan, Aman Soin and Sean Weidman as copywriters. Rethink has also promoted a trio of group strategy directors to lead the practice in Toronto: Julian Morgan, Crystal Sales and Nicole Rajesky.
In Vancouver, the agency has seen tremendous growth, expanding its mandates with WestJet and A&W and adding new work with Destination Canada and McCain. McDonald previously told strategy that the agency’s Vancouver strategy team, alone, had nearly doubled in size over the past year. To help the agency manage its growing workload in that market, Rethink hired Karen Pearce as general manager of the office, while Elyse Sanders was hired to take on the duties of head of strategy. Of course, thanks to its “long hallway” philosophy, growth in one market means growth across all markets for Rethink, which operates with a borderless approach, where employees of any office are encouraged and expected to contribute to work being handled in others. Approximately 45 Rethinkers are currently working on U.S.-based clients, for example – including Rajesky.
“We were born in Vancouver, have grown across the country and now into New York,” explains McDonald. “We’ve done that by replicating our model and staying as one Rethink, no matter where we go. COVID showed everyone something Rethink already knew: We are one agency, one culture, in many different places… The pandemic didn’t change us. It forced us to double down on what got us here.”
Key New Business
Tazo Nestle (Perrier, Pellegrino, Haggen-Dazs, Aero), Wonder Bread, Away Luggage, Scene, RX Bar, McCain, Destination Canada, Happy Planet, BC Women’s Health Foundation, Hudson’s Bay Company, Lactalis Canada (iÖGO, Lactantia), Special Olympics Canada
Offices
Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and New York City
Staff
320
Agency AOY Cases
1. Rethink’s campaign for Heinz, “Hot Dog Pact,” was an overnight success. Setting out to disrupt “big bun,” the campaign saw $13MM in earned media and 1.2 billion earned impressions, and even persuaded Wonder Bread to begin selling buns in 10-packs. Heinz’s most successful earned media campaign in its history, the brand saw a 2.3% increase in overall sales from 2019 and a 1% increase in market share.
2. For Decathlon, Rethink created signs of inclusivity. “Ability Signs” were made available for free download and gained international coverage, with many outlets requesting to use the symbols in their locations.
3. “Hockey for All” told true stories of discrimination in the sport. The campaign resulted in $2M in funding for underrepresented groups.
4. A&W needed to explain the value of better food to consumers, so “Grass-Fed Beef Chefs” focused on the brand’s commitment to quality. The effort helped increase market share by 0.4%.
5. Rethink created an unburnable book to protest censorship and book banning in schools. Social followers were enthralled when Margaret Atwood took a flamethrower to her own novel.
Design AOY Cases
1. It had been a long time since Canadians were able to properly celebrate over dinner. So long, in fact, IKEA realized our entertaining skills might have gotten a little rusty. Enter IKEA “Set-the-Tablecloths,” for people who needed a little help. The campaign delivered 6x the benchmark click-through rate, and 64% of site visits were new, showcasing IKEA’s holiday products to a whole new audience.
2. For more than 45 years, the National Magazine Awards have been considered the most prestigious in Canada’s publication community. Rethink was tasked with creating an identity for the 2021 installment.
3. Although Purdys had grown in sales over the last five years, it wanted to be sure it was serving all customers. The “Holiday Braille Box” was a fully accessible box of chocolates made in consultation with the blind and partially sighted community. An initial run sold out in hours and, as a result of the demand, the box has been made available year-round. The campaign had an earned media value of 395x the initial investment, with national and international outlets picking up the story.
PR AOY Cases
1. “Add the M” – an effort to point out the disparity between the support for women’s and men’s sports – achieved a total reach of more than 99 million earned impressions. With a production budget of just $2,000, Rethink started a conversation with no paid media, achieving an earned media value of over $922,000. It was YWCA Vancouver’s farthest reaching campaign ever.
2. IKEA looked beyond the rainbow Pride flag to create 10 custom love seats inspired by 10 different Pride flags. Love Seats was shared online millions of times with an organic reach of over 244 million. It was called “The Most Authentic Pride Campaign of 2021.”
3. Post-COVID, GO Transit and UP Express had the mammoth task of correcting a 92% dip in ridership. The people to help them do that were Rethink and Francis Bourgeois, TikTok’s pre-eminent trainspotter. The resulting videos garnered a total of 14.6M impressions. Weekend ridership improved from just 50-60% of pre-pandemic ridership to an average of 94% in the month following the video launches. Furthermore, ridership exceeded 2019 numbers for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Digital AOY Cases
1. For Simulate, a plant-based meat company, Rethink needed to convince the world that the brand’s marquee chicken nugget product, Nuggs, was just as good as the real thing. So, it came up with Flying Chickens, a campaign powered by fake videos of the mostly flightless birds… er, flying. The campaign captured more than 2.5M impressions in traditional media, 18.6M impressions in paid media and 7M impressions in organic social reach.
2. Tree Canada wanted to educate people about the impact of their online activity. So Rethink created “Offset Mode,” an effort powered by a free Chrome extension that calculated the emissions tied to your online activity. The app has now been downloaded globally by more than 1.5M, in locations like in Canada, the U.S., Bermuda, China, Norway, Ukraine, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
3. They are the iconic food power couple: fries and ketchup. Rethink blended Heinz and McCain for “The Love Collab,” the celebration of a truly great relationship. The campaign earned more than 105M media impressions and spurred a 700% increase in brand engagement.