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

AGENCY | GOLD + DESIGN | GOLD + DIGITAL | GOLD + PR | GOLD

By any metric, Rethink is having itself a pretty good Silver Jubilee.

Among its many recognitions in this, its 25th year, the shop found itself at the top of The Drum’s World Creative Rankings as the most-awarded agency on the planet; named Independent Agency of the Year at the One Show; claimed top spot at the ADC Awards; nabbed a Grand Clio; acknowledged as both Independent Network of the Year and Independent Agency of the Year in Cannes; and now, it’s making AOY (and Rethink) history with its first quadruple Gold win.

Truly, the award shelf runneth over.

While many agencies might have a year in which a standout campaign runs the table, Rethink dominated 2024 thanks to a generous collection of campaigns and a slew of talent. As agency partner and global CSO Sean McDonald puts it, both clients and Rethinkers had career years.

And you might say: ‘Well, yeah… Rethink.’ But the agency’s success was far from fait accompli. Nothing kills culture faster than growth and Rethink has had a lot of growth of late. In fact, since 2021, the agency has roughly doubled in both staff count and overall business, with offices to be found in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and New York.

“It wasn’t just exciting,” says McDonald of the agency’s momentum. “It scared the shit out of us. We had to double down and say: ‘What got us here? What was good?’ We took a very deliberate approach to keeping everybody on the same page and being really clear about what we think gets us to our goals.”

One primary goal was the aforementioned win in Cannes. Early in the year, the Rethink team deliberately set its sights on being named the Independent Network of the Year at the global event. But wishing rarely makes things so.

“Goals are just goals unless you set conditions to achieve them,” explains the agency’s global CCO Aaron Starkman. “We were diligent this past year in setting the right conditions to achieve our goals.”

Starkman says that meant a laser-like focus on what he calls “eliminating wheel spinning” – meaning Rethink took every opportunity to create efficiencies within the group. That meant things like re-evaluating long meetings and other time sucks, and instead communicating via Slack, text messages or old-fashioned phone calls. Whatever it took to get to the best idea and execution swiftly and resourcefully.

“We moved quickly and efficiently at every step of the process – and we made a commitment of teaching and spreading CRAFTS, our lens through which we evaluate strategy and creative,” he explains.

In fact, CRAFTS – an acronym that stands for “Clear, Relevant, Achievable, Fresh, True and Shareable” – became the north star for the agency.

“We are holding CRAFTS sessions in every office,” says Starkman, “and we’ve ramped those up in the past year. We put pieces of work on the floor and people [score] each letter [of the acronym] out of five. Then we put the work up and we use those scores to talk about its effectiveness. We do that because it’s all about learning and growing. The more people that are truly fluent in understanding CRAFTS, the better it is for the products and the better it is for eliminating wheel spinning.”

What’s at the heart of it all? Well, while the agency has experienced significant growth in the last few years, that’s not been the overarching goal. It’s actually been about setting a new industry standard.

“I think recognizing that you want to set the standard pushes you to create an environment where people, who want to be the best at their craft, can do the best work of their careers,” McDonald explains. “If we stay focused on that, it inherently doesn’t allow us to sit still.

“There are very few silos within the company, very few moments where you’re asked to do anything alone. With a bar that high, we do all that we can to pursue all these goals together. Every year, we look at ourselves to say, ‘What can we do better?’”

One move the agency recently made was the development of what it calls Brand Narrative – a formalized process in which it brings PR and comms specialists to the table to help clients and creatives develop headline-worthy work.

It didn’t fundamentally change the culture of the company, nor did it really change the process by which the work got done, but it did demonstrate how the agency is always ready to “rethink” what it’s doing to see if it can be done a better way.

McDonald says the move was made in recognition that Rethink was already one of the best PR agencies in the world, even if they didn’t formally acknowledge it. “We are in so much media because it’s our predisposition to exceed the media investment,” he says. “Frankly, I think it’s lazy just to paint by numbers and fill in the media space that your client buys for you.

“Recognizing that media is both very fragmented and also a very competitive intermediate space to get into these days, we constantly look at ways of optimizing the way we work. Nobody who has ever seen how we work and what we’ve done accuses us of sitting still. It’s just not in our DNA.”

So, where do the Large Language Models and AI factor in? After all, those are the required buzzwords du jour for any meaningful agency profile.

Data and artificial intelligence are powerful tools, but they’re not decision makers, explains McDonald. He offers up Apple founder Steve Jobs as an example, noting how the eccentric innovator used to describe computers as bicycles for the mind. Just as a bicycle amplifies human efficiency, technology enhances our creative abilities. But it’s the human who steers the vision. In the same way, data might help inform decisions, but it’s people who make the final call, using tools to support, not replace, human judgment.

“You can see when people get obsessed with how much rational data they can find to tell a story,” explains McDonald of how Rethink does it differently. “In every single step that we take, we ask: Yeah, so what? Is what we are endeavouring to do clear? Is it relevant? Do we have the means to do it? Can we do this in a fresh way? Does it have a truth that, if we interrogate it, remains true?

“We all have access to the same data. Data can give you a sense of where the opportunity lies but not what the opportunity is. I believe when it comes down to the motivation, you have to recognize that people choose emotionally. [So] you have to connect with them emotionally.”

McDonald describes the agency’s problem-solving process as one of “filling shallow holes” – a method of discovery and dialogue in which agency and client come together to quickly talk about ideas conceptually, before getting too deep into solutions. Then comes peer review and research. But, throughout it all, clients are involved in the idea and help shape the solution. There aren’t any surprises.

“One of the most coercive and, frankly, disappointing things that I hear is agencies asking clients for bravery,” he says. “I think it’s a cop-out asking your client to be brave, somehow challenging them to have enough courage to make a decision.” If the client is at the table, he notes, there are no surprises. And, if the work is clear, relevant, achievable, fresh, true and shareable, bravery rarely becomes a condition for success.

So, how long can the agency’s run last? While it’s impossible to read the tea leaves, Starkman remains pragmatic. Looking at Rethink’s sixth straight win as Strategy’s Gold Agency of the Year, he references Michael Jordan’s run with the Chicago Bulls – six championships over eight years as the Bulls became the team to beat in the ’90s.

“We don’t need to achieve a crazy goal every single year,” he explains. “We just need to believe in what we’re doing – believe in doing the best work in the category for our clients, and having Rethinkers do the best work of their careers. If we follow that, it truly doesn’t matter if we achieve a crazy goal like Independent Network of the Year at Cannes each year. We’ll be content and happy as long as we are following our vision and our values.”

Vision and values – two words that harken back to 1999, when Rethink was first founded by Tom Shepansky, Chris Staples and Ian Grais, after finding themselves dissatisfied in their work and wanting to create a shop that was focused on creativity and people. Doesn’t seem like much has changed over the last quarter century.

“When this agency was started by Chris, Tom and Ian, they saw Rethink as a one-word business model,” says Starkman. “As a company, we’ve been ‘rethinking’ for 25 years. But, as long as the world and the industry continue to evolve, there will always be new things to look at and rethink.

New Business
Renaissance, Uber Eats, P’tit Québec (Lactalis), Enjoy! (Lactalis), Schneiders (Maple Leaf Foods), Maxwell House, Golf Town, Ruffles, COBS Bread, St. Paul’s Hospital, Peacock NBC, Post Mates, Target

New Hires
60, including 11 in Montreal, 22 in Toronto, 9 in Vancouver and 18 in New York

Offices
Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, New York

Staff
323

Cases – Agency

Campaign of the Year – Agency
Rethink leveraged a viral mishap for “Coors Light’s Out” after Shohei Ohtani shattered the brand’s stadium billboard with a foul ball during a live MLB game. Embracing the mayhem, the team created a campaign that included billboards and a special edition can featuring a blacked out pixel (which quickly sold out) – leading to the brand trending higher than the official beer of baseball.

For Uber Eats’ “Horror Codes,” the agency transformed Halloween promo codes into interactive puzzles. Fans solved brain teasers for candy discounts, driving engagement across digital platforms. In the end, the campaign brought in 44% new users to Uber Eats’ grocery and retail channel.

The Knix “Sport Your Period” campaign aimed at normalizing periods in sports by launching a visible period badge that could be worn by athletes during competitions. The initiative empowered women to stay active without fear of leakage.

Scotiabank’s “You’re Richer Than You Think” campaign redefined wealth beyond money – a message that resonated with financially stressed Canadians. Initiatives included a brand redesign and an interactive “Money Styles” quiz.

“Smack for Heinz” saw the agency place Heinz Ketchup-dispensing boards outside restaurants that weren’t serving the condiment. Fans could “smack” for Heinz digitally or in person, reigniting demand for the product in many areas.

Cases – Design

For the Boréal 60th Anniversary Collection, Rethink revived twelve classic novels with minimalist, elegant cover designs. Using refined illustrations and a modern serif typeface, the collection transformed familiar titles into fresh discoveries.

The “Heinz Tattoo Label” reinvented the brand’s iconic keystone label into a tattoo-friendly design. By redesigning the label with tattoo stencil ink and collaborating with artists, Heinz created a buzzworthy, collectible item, leading to 65 million earned impressions.

Rethink offered up a nostalgic design overhaul for A&W’s brand. By revisiting iconic elements – classic colours, food photography and illustrations – the campaign evoked familiarity and consistency.

Cases – Digital

Campaign of the Year – Digital
Rethink’s “QJar Codes” for Kraft Peanut Butter featured an AI-powered mobile tool that allowed Canadians to scan near-empty jars (and their swirls of peanut butter goo) so that they could get a new one instantly delivered to their home. The innovative approach drove a 120% sales boost and significantly increased engagement on social media.

“Living Stories” for Penguin Random House transformed bedtime reading into an interactive experience via a mobile app. By synchronizing voice recognition with smart home technology, it triggered lights and sounds to match the story being read.

“Worn by Drake” helped Molson Coors capitalize on Drake’s endorsement of the brand’s vintage jersey. The campaign used digital tools that consumers could use to track down the jerseys, which were re-released as limited-edition merchandise within Molson Coor beer cases.

Cases – PR

Campaign of the Year – PR
Rethink’s “See My Name” campaign for Molson elevated female hockey players by redesigning their jerseys for better visibility of their names, placing them at the bottom of the shirt and letting players’ hair cover Molson’s logo instead. Launched on International Women’s Day, the PR-driven campaign achieved 2.9 billion impressions and a 15.2% sales increase in Ontario. She shoots, she scores.

“Bill The Maple” for Quebec Maple Syrup Producers tackled U.S. market challenges by offering to cover the cost of pure maple syrup for consumers. American diners had gotten into the habit of charging customers for the syrup, so the Canadian association made it up to them, inviting people to submit their expense for reimbursement. The PR-focused strategy achieved 100 million impressions and boosted sales by 4.4%.

When Rethink noticed that South Asian customers were hacking A&W burgers to be more reflective of their tastes, the brand created the “Piri Piri Potato Buddy Burger” to capitalize on the hack. The team then let the South Asian community be the voices of the campaign and partnered with influencers to generate over 241 million earned impressions.