Left to right: Guillaume Brunet, founder and president of Substance; Natalie Larivière, VP of operations and partner with Substance; Robin Whalen, president and CEO of Church+State; and Ron Tite, founder of Church+State.
Church+State and Substance deepen their relationships
Canadian indies, Church+State and Substance, have joined forces to officially launch Group 2019, a year after the latter bought a “strong minority” stake in the former.
Group 219 is a holding company of independent Canadian agencies, which it says combines Substance’s reputation for delivering media and content and campaigns in Quebec and beyond with Church+State’s strategic and creative strength in English markets.
“We really wanted better knowledge of Quebec, better collaboration with French talent, and we wanted in-house media and traditional PR, too,” says Ron Tite, founder of Church+State. “Substance wanted to better serve their clients in the rest of Canada.”
Tite tells strategy that in terms of its dual official language capabilities, many independent agencies say, “We have a partner in Montreal” but it usually means a freelancer who translates or completely separate organization that adds over-head and complexity. “Over the past year, we discovered just how well we work together,” Tite notes. “We thought we should formalize it further.”
In the past year, both agencies have collaborated to serve national clients including PPG’s Dulux and Sico paint brands, Google, Innovative Medicines Canada, Re/Max, RONA, and others.
While consolidation of international conglomerates has made news, according to Tite, Group 219 isn’t about competing with these, but rather, “creating a stronger, more integrated offering for brands that want both deep local expertise and national impact.”
The name Group 219 is inspired by the 219 degrees Fahrenheit needed to turn sap into maple syrup, a metaphor it says is timely, given threats to Canadian sovereignty.
Klick Health buys Singaporean agency
The world’s largest independent healthcare marketing agency Klick Health has acquired Ward6 Singapore’s operations.
Through the acquisition, Klick is expanding Singapore’s largest independent life sciences agency, known for healthcare professional (HCP) marketing and medical communications.
The move also strengthens Klick’s leadership and client portfolio in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and underscores the global agency’s ongoing expansion and growth.
According to Klick Health president, Ari Schaefer, Ward6 Singapore has “deep expertise in HCP marketing in the region” and that the move helps to further scale the team and answer the growing demand it’s seeing from clients.”
