2020 Agency of the Year
2020 AOY Gold, Design Gold, Digital Silver: Rethink’s secret sauce
The agency’s tendency to treat everything as experiential paid off when the world became void of physical interactions.
2020 AOY Silver: NFA stays fixed on growth
The creative agency sticks to its growth plans, with new senior hires and new offices in Montreal and the U.S.
2020 AOY Bronze: BBDO’s flare for fast work that works
Under new leadership, the agency moves to be more results-driven and further develops its in-house production unit.
2020 Small AOY Gold: 123w kicks into crisis mode
The Vancouver-based shop’s commitment to talent helped it rally during the early days of the pandemic.
2020 Small AOY Silver: Juliet walks like a giant
With new hires and a growing research arm, the Toronto-based agency is gearing up to help clients move further into digital and ecommerce.
2020 Small AOY Bronze: Two-man Wunder gets scrappy
The Halifax duo aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, whether the work calls for strategic and creative thinking or a clever PR hack.
2020 Media AOY Gold: Touche! is still all about creativity
The agency’s focus has given clients innovative solutions to specific problems.
2020 Media AOY Silver: PHD taps into the art of science
Under a new global vision, the agency encourages clients to go beyond incremental jumps and aim for “disproportionate returns.”
2020 Digital AOY Gold: FCB puts creativity above capabilities
The five-time Gold winner believes without effective ideas, everything else is irrelevant.
2020 Design AOY Silver, Digital AOY Bronze: Sid Lee was born this way
A pioneer in digital that later moved into brand-building, the agency has built partnerships to take its offering to the next level.
2020 PR AOY Gold: As the world changes, so too does The Colony Project
By being nimble and scrappy, the Vision7 agency adapted to the shifting tides of 2020.
2020 Design AOY Bronze: OneMethod leaves no stone unturned
CCO Amin Todai’s entrepreneurial spirit helped lay the groundwork for the Bensimon Byrne agency’s “experimental” mindset.
2020 PR AOY Bronze: Pomp & Circumstance marches to its own drum
The PR shop has picked up a bevy of clients (and some hardware) thanks to a renewed focus on creativity.
2020 PR AOY Silver: Craft digs its toes in CPG stories
The PR shop works against the grain with a focus on less PR-friendly categories that still have interesting stories to tell.
2020 Media AOY Bronze: UM proves its worth
To help clients address COVID challenges, the shop expanded its consulting service and developed new forecasting tools.
2020 Brand of the Year
2020 Brand of the Year: The making of Maple Leaf 2.0
How and why the company adopted CSV, instead of CSR, as part of its sustainability mission.
2020 Brand of the Year: Sobeys’ grocery delivery mic drop
This year the company showed up in the ecomm space, while spending big on marketing for its banners.
2020 Brand of the Year: Lululemon keeps calm as shoppers carry on
How years of community building gave the retailer a running start on 2020′s disruptions.
2020 Brand of the Year: Knix finds its voice
The intimate apparel brand’s inclusive approach is a byproduct of putting its customers at the centre of everything it does.
2020 Brand of the Year: The rise of Collective Arts
The Hamilton craft brewery is scaling and finding success in a formula it spent seven years mastering.
Tribute
Long live Telus and its critters
How standing by its brand for two decades paid off in ROI and built a future-friendly foundation for the company’s evolution.
Editorial
The great acceleration
Strategy Editor Jennifer Horn on the need to adapt to a world moving at warp speed.
Upfront
Ghost concepts suddenly appear
Businesses from Mad Radish to Kraft Heinz to Whole Foods are using customer-free spaces to support online delivery.
Back Page
Back Page: FUSE Create puts a positive spin on a year we’d rather forget
The Toronto-based agency invites readers to recite lines bound to make them feel at least a little better about 2020.
Associate Publisher's Note
Short-term pivots, meet long-term brand-building
The desire for big ideas to be shared and celebrated has outlived the ups-and-downs of 2020, writes associate publisher Lisa Faktor.
