This story was originally published in the Fall issue of Strategy Magazine

By Val Maloney

The transformation that led Media Experts to its spot on the Agency of the Year podium began – as many big changes do – with a period of major reflection.

That contemplation began in April 2023, shortly after Karel Wegert joined the team as Canadian CEO. Wegert’s designation as head of the Canadian shop marked a return to the agency, as he had previously worked at the agency for over 15 years earlier in his career.

Wegert explains the team’s evolution: “Media Experts has a long history in the Canadian marketplace with deep regional expertise, but the branding and positioning had not changed for many years. The agency needed a reboot to examine who we were in the marketplace and as part of the IPG Mediabrands’ network.”

Wegert initiated a project to reexamine and redefine the agency’s brand identity, values, mission and market differentiation. The result is a refreshed brand that the CEO says highlights the shop’s uniquely Canadian position. “We don’t look like any other media agency because we don’t act like every other media agency. Media Experts was born and raised in Canada and continues to grow here,” he says.

In addition to a rebrand, Media Experts moved audience insights closer to the centre of its work, adding a new audience and analytics team that allows the agency to tap into Canadian data sets that account for the nuances of the market. Wegert points to the “That’s Specsavers Love” campaign that helped the U.K.-based eyewear brand build awareness as it launched in Canada.

With the help of its new audience and analytics team, Media Experts found a nuanced approach to communicate with different geographical audiences based on their mindset. For example, British Columbians are most interested in health, Alberta in value and Ontario residents in style. Wegert says the results have been “extremely rewarding,” with the brand going from zero to 80% brand awareness in Canada in less than a year.

Also playing an increasingly important role for the agency is the inclusion of attention metrics, which Wegert says are used across many campaigns as another signal for optimization. The next evolution for Media Experts will be integrating attention metrics into planning tools so planners can build media campaigns with attention as a key output where it makes sense, Wegert says.

The agency used these metrics in its recent campaign promoting the BMW XM, with ads that analyzed the behaviour of over 29 million Canadians across 5,000 data points and 50 different attention indices to evaluate responsiveness across platforms, publishers and ad formats.

The second phase of the Media Experts repositioning journey is focused on re-imagining the agency’s approach to client strategy and planning, with a focus on building tangible and consistent connection points.

Wegert says the strategy is grounded in the pillars of “forest” and “trees,” with the first focusing on how the agency can help Canadian marketers better understand how their efforts are contributing to the overall growth of their business and brand, using analytics to see the whole picture. The more granular “trees” speak to how Media Experts uses its proprietary data stack to build bespoke approaches to audiences and markets, as it did for Specsavers.

Wegert says he is optimistic about the future of his team and the momentum they are carrying forward. However, like many periods of change, there has some turbulence.

“I’ve learned to trust the process,” Wegert says. “When I returned to the agency, we met as a leadership team to take an honest account of our strengths and areas where we needed to develop. Throughout the last year we had many opportunities to second guess, rush or rethink things as we faced various challenges, but we trusted ourselves and followed through. It’s a reminder of why our roots do matter and that it is a long game.”

New Business
Honda, WestJet, King’s University College, Netflix, Services Canada, The Canadian Red Cross, UBC, TVO

New Hires
Sarah Crouch, group account director

Offices
Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver

Staff
200

Cases

For Moosehead sub-brand Truly, the agency hosted a “Flavour Faceoff” live paint battle to foster inclusivity and community. By integrating Truly into events and targeting social platforms, the campaign achieved a 92% video completion rate and 16 million Reddit impressions.

Media Experts analyzed the behaviour of 29 million Canadians across 5,000 media touchpoints for the “BMW XM” campaign. The agency delivered custom content and connected viewers to influencers doing remarkable things. In the end, the campaign helped boost awareness by 57% and created a halo effect on other BMW models.

In the “Bell Fast Lane” campaign, Media Experts showcased the company’s internet speed during the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Montreal. By integrating high-traffic metro takeovers and Uber partnerships, Bell highlighted its speed advantage against the city’s post-pandemic sluggishness.