BRANDS OF THE YEAR DESJARDINS DRIVES CROSS-COUNTRY GROWTH CADILLAC FAIRVIEW’S NEW (LESS SECRET) IDENTITY + EPIC MEAL TIME SPORT CHEK SMOKE’S OCTOBER 2015 • $6.95 AND MORE DISRUPTORS CANADA POST AGREEMENT NUMBER 40050265 PRINTED IN CANADA USPS AFSM 100 Approved Polywrap CANADA POST AGREEMENT NUMBER 40050265 PRINTED IN USPS AFSM 100 Approved A PUBLICATION OF BRUNICO COMMUNICATIONS LTD. ST.cover_OCT15B.indd 1 2015-09-28 4:09 PM A powerful human reaction happens when you combine three important elements. ST.26952.CanadaPost.DPS.indd 1 2015-09-24 3:36 PM Introducing Smartmail MarketingTM. Canada Post Smartmail MarketingTM is a more intelligent approach to direct mail that gets a brand directly into a customer’s hands by bringing three key elements together to drive action. Physicality Data Connectivity The tactile nature of Smartmail Marketing To increase the success direct mail generates utilizes consumer of your marketing mix, a 20% higher and business data, add the connective motivation response whether it’s ours or qualities of Smartmail than digital media. yours, and combines Marketing. It completes Because it stimulates it with predictive the multi-channel the senses, it makes analytics. This enables experience because it more of an impression. you to target and integrates seamlessly. And it’s a unique tailor your message This is the single element in the to the right customers element that can overall power of based on geography, amplify a brand’s Smartmail Marketing. demographics overall message. and more. canadapost.ca/smartmailmarketing TM Trademarks of Canada Post Corporation. The Envelope and Circle Design is a trademark of Canada Post Corporation. ST.26952.CanadaPost.DPS.indd 2 2015-09-24 3:36 PM Who will pocket the gold this year? Tickets to the show of the year Last year’s winner on sale Leo Burnett now! November 4, 2015 Group rates contact Joel Pinto + MEDIA, DIGITAL & PR [email protected] or 416-408-2300 ext. 650 aoy.strategyonline.ca PRESENTING SPONSOR SILVER SPONSOR DIRECT MAIL PARTNER BEER SPONSOR ST.26981.AOY_HA.indd 2 2015-09-24 3:40 PM OCTOBER 2015 • VOLUME 26, ISSUE 8 Smoke's Poutinerie founder Ryan Smolkin is taking his wacky brand to new heights (p. 34). 17 21 36 Cadillac Fairview’s Brands of the Year Also trending master plan From an epic YouTube star to a purveyor They may not have taken the grand title, A former Microsoft marketer is helping to of poutine, see who topped our list but these brands sure know how to give the company's malls a new identity this year build buzz 6 Editorial Let’s hear it for the (big) little guys • 10 Upfront Election gaffes, drone invaders and pumpkin everything • 14 Turning the camera on employees comes with its own set of risks and rewards • 43 Forum Taxi’s Thomas Kenny on how to write a brief that actually gets results • 44 The PROMO! Awards were quite the celebration, and here are the photos to prove it • 46 Back page Political cartoonist Anthony Jenkins re-imagines Canada’s leaders as iconic brands BRANDS OF THE YEAR ONO THE COVER: Desjardins is making quite the splash across the country, which is why it was named one of DESJARDINS DRIVES CROSS-COUNTRY GROWTH our Brands of the Year. Already ubiquitous in its home province of Quebec, the fi nancial co launched several new CADILLAC FAIRVIEW’S NEW (LESS SECRET) IDENTITY initiatives this year. One of those launches was the Ajusto app, which measures your driving behaviour through your phone, making each user feel like a competitive race-car driver (or so its campaign suggests). Vroom! + EPIC MEAL TIME SPORT CHEK OCTOBER 2015 t $6.95 SMOKE’S AND MORE DISRUPTORS CANADA POST AGREEMENT NUMBER 40050265 PRINTED IN CANADA USPS AFSM 100 Approved Polywrap Approved 100 AFSM USPS CANADA IN PRINTED 40050265 NUMBER AGREEMENT POST CANADA A PUBLICATION OF BRUNICO COMMUNICATIONS LTD. October 2015 5 Contents.Oct15.indd 5 2015-09-28 4:01 PM october 2015 volume 26, issue 8 The new brand royalty strategyonline.ca vp, publisher | mary maddever | [email protected] editor | emily wexler | [email protected] ach year, the strategy team sits in a boardroom with research notes art director | tim davin | [email protected] E ranging from sales to campaign results, plus suggestions from industry executives, and we write down the names of companies and people on special projects editor | jennifer horn | [email protected] a white board who we believe are deserving of the Brand of the Year or Marketer copy chief & writer | tanya kostiw | [email protected] of the Year titles (stay tuned for the latter in our December/January issue). We news editor | harmeet singh | [email protected] compile a list of dozens of names, and then, one by one, delete them from the reporter | josh kolm | [email protected] board until only a short list remains. contributors | megan haynes | thomas kenny A few years ago, when I looked across the brand and retail landscape, it associate publisher | lisa faktor | [email protected] seemed almost impossible for the little guy to compete. Big brands were advertising sales supervisor | neil ewen | [email protected] increasingly taking over retail space, with giant box stores creeping their way account manager | jane tesar | [email protected] into city centres and smaller shops closing their doors. For a while, it looked like marketing co-ordinator | alex khotsiphom | [email protected] we were headed in a very homogenous direction. CORPORATE Then the winds slightly shifted. Sure, big box stores president & ceo | russell goldstein | [email protected] were still, well, big. But people started to seek out more vp & editorial director | mary maddever | [email protected] unique experiences. Online retailers like Frank & Oak vp & publisher, realscreen | claire macdonald | [email protected] and Etsy (one of our “trending” brands this year, see vp & publisher, kidscreen | jocelyn christie | [email protected] p. 37) started to take light, and a big box behemoth from vp administration & finance | linda lovegrove | [email protected] the U.S. couldn’t ind its footing here. chief information officer | omri tintpulver | [email protected] It’s no surprise, then, that smaller challenger brands are positioning themselves for growth. Our cover brand production & distribution manager | robert lines | [email protected] Desjardins (p. 31) isn’t exactly small or new in its home customer support supervisor | christine mcnalley | [email protected] province of Quebec, but its growth in the rest of the country really took off this year. It even launched a new banking option – the mobile-only Zag Bank – for a how to reach us generation that’s looking for an easy alternative to the Strategy, 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 Tel: (416) 408-2300 or 1-888-BRUNICO (1-888-278-6426) Fax: (416) 408-0870 “Big Five.” www.strategyonline.ca And Smoke’s has evolved beyond poutine to launch customer care To order a subscription, visit strategyonline.ca/subscribe. To make a change to an existing Weineries and Burritories this year, and has set its sights subscription, please contact us by email: [email protected]. on major expansion (p. 34). Will it be long before Smoke’s Tel: (416) 408-2448 Fax: (416) 408-0249. PO BOX 369 Beeton ON L0G 1A0. is as ubiquitous as McDonald’s or Tim Hortons? In a QSR market that is already subscription rates STRATEGY is published eight times per year by Brunico Communications Ltd. crowded with huge players, Smoke’s doesn’t seem fazed by the competition. In Canada: One year CA$80.00 Two years CA $144.00 Each year when we sit in that boardroom, we consider brands across different (HST included. Registration #856051396 RT) Single copy price in Canada is CA$6.95. Please allow four weeks for new subscriptions categories, including entertainment. Never has our choice felt so niche as and address changes. with YouTube sensation Epic Meal Time (p. 22), and yet its fan numbers are copyright and trademark staggering, and many of the brands it works with are mainstream. Epic Meal STRATEGY and the tagline “Bold vision brand new ideas” are trademarks of Brunico Communications Ltd. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced from STRATEGY in whole Time redeines what it means to be a celebrity brand in the internet age. or in part without written permission. Reprint requests should be sent to With their scrappy attitudes, clever use of small marketing budgets and less [email protected]. © 2015 Brunico Communications Ltd. bureaucracy to deal with, these challenger brands can no longer be ignored. So postmaster notification Canadian Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Strategy, PO BOX 369, if you are a bigger brand from a larger company, you have to adopt that scrappy Beeton ON L0G 1A0 [email protected] attitude and stay innovative to compete. That’s exactly what Sport Chek has done U.S. Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Strategy PO BOX 1103 Niagara Falls NY 14304 Printed in Canada. Canada Post Agreement No. 40050265. (p. 25). For an athletic apparel retailer to embrace technology and dive headirst ISSN: 1187-4309. into often untested waters the way that it has deserves recognition. Member of The world is full of clever concepts and you no longer need a million-dollar budget to bring them to life. All you need is a website, or a camera to shoot a video, or a single retail location, and it could take off into something huge. We acknowledge the fi nancial support of the Government of Canada through Epic Meal Time could have been nothing more than a bunch of funny guys the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.