Touché! created integrated placements appearing throughout Canada’s Got Talent to promote Uber Eats “Get almost almost* anything” campaign in a uniquely Canadian way.
Touché! has carved out a distinct space in Canadian media by blending data-driven creativity with deep cultural awareness. With strong roots in both English and French markets, the agency consistently pushes the boundaries of traditional media strategy — proving that smart media is about knowing culture at a micro level to resonate meaningfully with consumers. The agency, led by CEO Samantha Kelley, emphasizes the power of local media, strategic collaboration and non-traditional thinking. “You can’t just show up anymore,” says Kelley, “You have to create experiences that resonate to drive true business results.”
With robust teams in both Montréal and Toronto, Touché! stands out as the only Omnicom Media Group agency operating exclusively in Canada – something Kelley believes drives its uniquely Canadian approach. “We’ve been educating our clients for years on the value Canadian media brings.”
Touché! connected the Quebec’s Milk Producers Board with young Quebecers in an authentic, unforced and more importantly, uncringed way. The goal was to make milk a part of their culture, not by pushing facts about milk, but by embedding it into the trends they were already shaping.
Touché! recently added a new executive role to its leadership team as part of its ongoing evolution: Chief client officer. Raphaël Metter Rothan joined the agency to help structure and accelerate internal transformation and strategic business growth for clients. Jenna Bendavid was also hired as VP, business lead for key accounts in Toronto. Kelley says the new client roles reflect Touché!’s commitment to adapting its model for the future and ensuring its clients benefit from more brilliant, faster and more forward-thinking media solutions.
At the core of the agency’s success is Omni, Omnicom’s proprietary, AI-enabled marketing orchestration platform. Powered by Canadian data, Omni connects audience insights, identity graphs and inventory planning tools. “It’s not just about speed,” says Kelley. “It’s about creative precision at scale. Omni helps us uncover meaningful trends, double-click into them and make them uniquely relevant to our clients.”
This approach to data and culture collided memorably in a recent campaign for Smirnoff, which aimed to re-engage younger Canadians during what the brand called a “joy recession.” Tapping into music as a unifying force, Touché! challenged emerging Canadian artists to create tracks using Smirnoff products as instruments, then remix each other’s work to create something new. Amplified across Spotify, Billboard Canada and social platforms, the campaign racked up over 35,000 Spotify streams and more than 15 million impressions. It contributed to an 8.1% sales bump – reaffirming Smirnoff’s place as Canada’s top vodka brand.
For Smirnoff, Touché! attempted to spark a movement meant to re-ignite social connections for Generation Z using the universal language of music by challenging emerging artists to create songs using Smirnoff bottles as instruments.
Uber Eats also tapped Touché!’s creativity to localize its global creative platform, which featured several international celebrities and the idea of forgetfulness. To bring the concept to Canada in a distinct way, Touché! partnered with Canada’s Got Talent to embrace the idea of forgetfulness – a nod to real human behaviour and memory science. The campaign turned live on-air flubs into strategic branding moments, including a judge forgetting which show he was on and a contestant leaving their shoes behind.
“We transformed the global campaign into a locally compelling live moment on the primetime stage of Canada’s Got Talent” says Kelley. The result: 15 million digital impressions, a 16x higher click-through rate and a 13% lift in brand favourability.
When Quebec’s Milk Producers Board needed to reconnect with Gen Z – a generation that has largely turned away from milk – Touché! crafted a campaign that didn’t talk about benefits, but vibes. Titled “Milkeye,” the campaign leveraged nostalgia for the 1990s and early 2000s with lo-fi aesthetics, influencer-led content and a one-night revival of Musique Plus, Quebec’s iconic music channel. An interactive photo booth, QR code-driven AR filters and social-first creative generated over 160 million impressions and a 10.3% increase in milk sales – half a million litres.
Touché!’s overarching philosophy – pushing beyond traditional paid media into playful, innovative and unexpected channels – runs through its campaigns. Whether tapping into memory science, social media aesthetics or music as a cultural connector, the agency is finding new ways to help clients matter more.
“We always see an opportunity to bring things to market in surprising ways,” says Kelley. “Every campaign is a chance to rethink where and how we show up – and to do it with a spark that resonates for our clients and their consumers.”
CONTACT:
Samantha Kelley
CEO, Touché! Canada
Samantha.kelley@touchemedia.com
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Agnostic: Rewriting narratives in service of the work
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VML: Creating something entirely new
Dentsu: Humanity in the age of algorithms
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