This story was originally published in the fall 2022 issue of strategy.
It’s not news that the pandemic caused many agencies to take a breath and analyze their approach to work and business. For an information-driven agency like PHD, that included making the right investments so that it was ready to roll with whatever came its way.
“Agility has never been more important,” says president Caroline Moul. “We definitely work in a more agile way in order to be able to meet our clients’ demands. Luckily, business has not slowed down, but that means there’s more pressure on our staff and we have to make sure our teams are equipped to handle it.”
Moul says PHD adapted by making investments – adding senior-level expertise and more capabilities in a variety of sectors, from data analysis to creative – in order to ensure brands were properly supported.
“For data and analytics, we put more focus on automation and data visualization, advanced analytics from attribution to audience analysis, and to rolling out clean room analysis,” says Moul. “We have seen progress when it comes to anticipating market conditions and what our clients will need to do to meet those conditions.”
Of course, it helps that PHD has access to proprietary tools inherited from holding company Omnicom – such as marketing science, advancing measurements from attribution modelling, consulting and clean room analysis. For over a decade, PHD has collaborated with the mother ship when it comes to a planning operating system that’s now called Omni Studio. It’s a framework that integrates smart thinking, smart data and the knowledge of over 5,000 PHD employees around the world.
“Our approach is to make sure we’re able to plug and play with the data we have available as the landscape shifts,” she sums, “not only for analysis, but also in terms of how we can activate in the marketplace.”
When it comes to activations, Moul points to one in particular that she is especially proud of. “When you think about society coming out of the pandemic, everything is about being purpose-driven,” she says. “That is something we saw in our Dove ‘Detox’ campaign.”
The Self-Esteem Project’s newest campaign, the work focused on fostering a healthier attitude toward body image that was more inclusive of all body types, not just those traditionally reflected in media. The campaign, called “DetoxYourFeed”, resulted from a research project that found half of Canadian teen girls are spending more time online with their friends than they are person – even though half also say the toxic beauty guidance they’re fed through their social media streams is hurting their self-esteem.
The campaign launched internationally with a spot called “Toxic Influence,” in which a group of mothers are exposed to the harmful advice their teen daughters are receiving – which then becomes further personalized when they, themselves, appear to be giving the advice through the use of deepfake technology.
Moul points to the campaign as one of the agency’s most innovative last year. “It was an opportunity to stand up for something and we are incredibly proud of that work,” she says.
Expect PHD to focus further on skills, data and technology to power its creative in future in order to be ready for whatever comes next.
“As industry changes happen, we want to be at the forefront of all developments,” she asserts. “In the last 12 months, we’ve really doubled down on commerce, both in talent and tools, and that is a trend that’s set to continue. We are also really excited to see how Web 3.0 will shape up and what that will mean in terms of developing capabilities, whether that be NFTs or the metaverse, or something else entirely new.”
Key New Business
Chanel, Unilever, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
New Hire
Jamie Norgarb
Offices
Montreal, Toronto
Staff
194
Media AOY Cases
1. Each year, SICO has welcomed new competitors to its home turf of Quebec. So it was important to create a campaign that could create passion for the brand. SICO “Shades That Show Your True Colour” spoofed the absurdity of paint names, using cultural references and colourful French language. It had a dramatic effect on the local brand’s consideration in Quebec: awareness hit 97% and consideration 74%, a peak in the province.
2. Unilever’s Dove “#DetoxYourFeed” campaign used deepfake tech to show moms the toxicity of social media for girls. It reached the parents of well over 3.5M Canadian girls and landed over 19.5M earned impressions.
3. PHD and Google rolled out “For All You Are” to promote the translation capabilities of the new Pixel6 phone – becoming the first Mandarin ad ever to air on English TV in Canada.
