Telus is launching a series of RFPs as it seeks new creative, strategic and media partners to complement its existing roster and help the growing company meet all of its marketing needs.

The company is launching a series of invite-only RFPs that will “evolve our agency model to best map and address Telus’ diverse needs through the marketing funnel,” says Lisa Mack, VP of brand marketing for Telus. The RFPs are not meant to replace The&Partnership on the telco’s agency roster, but rather strengthen its bench to supplement their work: Telus is seeking agencies to handle tier 2 and tier 3 creative production and digital media, as well as a national and integrated media strategy and planning partner.

Tier 2 creative is adapting design and creative into new platforms, such as from print to digital. Tier 3 creative is repurposing creative and making new ad versions. The&Partnership will continue to handle tier 1 work – high-level creative and strategy – for the Telus masterbrand and mobility businesses, but it is opening up its other lines of business for potential new partners through the RFP process.

Telus will invite Cossette, which has also had a longstanding relationship with the company, to participate in areas representative of the agency’s core competencies, Mack says.

The move is a bit of a reversal from recent trends in the marketing sector, where many clients have sought to simplify their agency rosters to find financial efficiencies. But in recent years, the telco has expanded into new sectors like health, agriculture and consumer goods and incorporated heavy purpose-driven messaging and efforts into its mix, facilitating the need for a a deeper workbench.

“That growth and evolution within our business is really propelling the need for us to reimagine our approach to how we market and tackle our communications and the partnerships we benefit from to do so,” Mack says, adding that the complexities of the marketing world also contributed to the decision. “The advertising, media and marketing landscape is ever-changing, but it has changed especially in the past few years. The scale and scope of our business has also changed, and the ever-shifting suite of tactics and technologies we need to leverage and employ and the way we need to engage our parters has, as well.”

The RFPs come alongside internal overhauls, Mack says. “We’re also evolving our own internal marketing operations structure. We think it’s important that we’re best-in-class marketers so we can be best-in-class clients to these best-in-class agencies.”

The goal is “really building on the trajectory and the momentum we’ve had since we evolved our brand promise,” notes Mack. “Strength in partnerships helped us get there and we’ve seen great success from that work. We’ll continue down that path strategically. And we’re excited to make sure we have partners to help us bring that to life across the marketing ecosystem.”

The&Partnership has been Telus’ creative AOR since 2014, while Cossette has had media duties since 2010. Cossette had also added CRM duties by 2017, when it teamed up with The&Partnership to create The Greenhouse, a collaborative and dedicated team working on Telus.

The telco will announce its decisions in the spring.