NOW IN THEATRES & EVERYWHERE ELSE BRANDS OF THE YEAR Starring Cineplex President’s Choice Simons Lilly Singh The Drake Hellmann’s ALSO PLAYING IKEA’S FORTY CANDLES THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FUTURE OF PRINT PG GENERAL OCT 2016 • $6.95 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. ThisAd ThisMagazine YourBrand YourClient ST.28230.VOXad.indd 2 2016-09-09 9:12 AM In June 2015, the governing body of the internet, ICANN, made the top-level domain .SUCKS available, which means anyone can buy anything – any name, any person, any company, any brand, any product – with the extension .SUCKS on the end of it. This new reality has created quite a bit of fuss. Now on the one hand you have some people saying that selling .SUCKS domains XbX]RaTSXQ[h^çT]bXeTfWXRWbTT\bPQXcTgcaT\T0]S^]cWT^cWTaWP]Sh^dWPeT some people saying that owning .SUCKS domains is the key to unlocking the healthy debate and discussion required to make things better and create progress. Which might be a bit ambitious. No matter where your POV falls on that spectrum, we think one thing is for sure: It shouldn’t be ignored. So GetYour.SUCKS domain today. (and maybe give your clients and your brands a heads-up to do the same). ST.28230.VOXad.indd 3 2016-09-09 9:11 AM DIRECT MAIL PRE-ROLL DISPLAY EMAIL WHAT GETS PEOPLE TO BUY WHAT THEY BUY? To answer this question, Canada Post has recently completed extensive neuroscientific research. The results suggest an integrated marketing campaign that includes direct mail Ct is more effective in driving consumer action. In fact, campaigns including direct mail Connectivity can drive greater consumer attention, more emotional intensity, and higher brand recall Ph Da than single-media digital campaigns. Read the research that confirms, what we call, the Physicality Data connectivity effect. Download our whitepaper Connecting for Action at canadapost.ca/getconnected TM Trademarks of Canada Post Corporation. ST.27707.Canada Post.indd 4 2016-09-09 9:14 AM OCTOBER 2016 • VOLUME 27, ISSUE 6 Cineplex's "Lily & the Snowman" video was the emotional anchor of its new positioning and helped make it one of our Brands of the Year. 11 14 19 Want kale with that? The New BluePrint Brands of the Year Startups find a meal ticket in food delivery – Pubs tackle declining print (and growing From a mayo maven to a creative comic, here’s how subscription boxes are impacting digital) revenue by sharpening their targeting here are this year's top movers and shakers grocery retail and engagement tools 6 Pub note It’s time to dial up the attitude and conviction • 8 Upfront Rethink Breast Cancer ditches the pink for products, while Project Consent sweeps the Promo! Awards • 38 Keep your eye on Reigning Champ and Beau’s, our Brands to Watch • 40 How Media Director of the Year Harvey Carroll changed IPG Mediabrands' tune • 42 Does this come with instructions? Ikea's 40 years of brand assembly in Canada • 48 Forum CASSIES editor John Bradley and ad guru Ian Mirlin offer lessons on how today’s agencies can learn from yesterday’s brands • 50 Back page FCB/Six predicts what 2017's Brand of the Year will look like NOW IN THEATRES & EVERYWHERE ELSE ON THE COVER: This year we decided to admit six companies into the Brand of the Year box. One of those BRANDS OF THE YEAR brands is Cineplex, the inspiration behind our movie ticket cover, created with the help of its agency, Zulu Alpha Kilo, ILLUSTRATION: GRACIA LAM GRACIA ILLUSTRATION: Starring Cineplex President’s Choice and featuring A-list stars (our other top brands). Heck, if Cineplex can dress beach towels up as tickets, who says we Simons Lilly Singh The Drake Hellmann’s can't create our own (not redeemable for anything) stubs? ALSO PLAYING IKEA’S FORTY CANDLES THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FUTURE OF PRINT GENERAL PG OCT 2016 • $6.95 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 2016 5 october 2016 volume 27, issue 6 If you're not careful, you can lose the mojo strategyonline.ca vp, publisher | mary maddever | [email protected] art director | tim davin | [email protected] an Mirlin says soul has left the building. He worries, in his Forum acting editor | jennifer horn | [email protected] column (p. 49), that the intangible spark that triggers emotion – like I special reports editor & copy chief | mark burgess | [email protected] Apple’s 1984 launch ad – is being dimmed by all the shiny tech and news editor | harmeet singh | [email protected] science. reporter | josh kolm | [email protected] And if you do manage to forge a powerful connection, the true test of soul is contributors | john bradley | megan haynes | val maloney | ian mirlin backing it up and making sure the brand delivers on that promise for the long associate publisher | lisa faktor | [email protected] haul – while constantly innovating and expanding. Our Brands of the Year backed it up. advertising sales supervisor | neil ewen | [email protected] A boutique hotel with a trendy restaurant opens a gift shop that turns into a account manager | jane tesar | [email protected] retail brand with a wider footprint than its hospitality origins. Its merch is hosted marketing co-ordinator | alex khotsiphom | [email protected] restaurants launch. And they have to be cutting edge at Canada’s flagship departmentarty cool store, in every e-com channel, kicks everyin and day. more That’s buzzy the hotels Drake’s and CORPORATE ongoing challenge as they vie with the likes of Vice as a president & ceo | russell goldstein | [email protected] curatorial lifestyle brand. vp & editorial director | mary maddever | [email protected] vp & publisher, realscreen | claire macdonald | [email protected] housebrandness to become the premium products and vp & publisher, kidscreen | jocelyn christie | [email protected] PC is a store brand that defied all laws of segue from cookies to banking. They put a bow on it with vp administration & finance | linda lovegrove | [email protected] the PC loyalty program, asking people to load coupons – production & distribution manager | andrew mahony | [email protected] customer support supervisor | christine mcnalley | [email protected] genius from a data POV. EXTRAOur Ikea STEPS! retrospective – which sounds sifts through crazy but 40 is years actually of quirk crazy how to reach us Strategy, 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 managed to become iconic and move further upscale Tel: (416) 408-2300 or 1-888-BRUNICO (1-888-278-6426) Fax: (416) 408-0870 to see how a design-for-the-masses furniture retailer www.strategyonline.ca customer care What’s in common? Attitude. And conviction. To order a subscription, visit strategyonline.ca/subscribe. To make a change to an existing than its cheap-as-chips origins, despite a lot of barriers. Back when strategy relaunched in 2004, the same subscription, please contact us by email: [email protected]. Tel: (416) 408-2448 Fax: (416) 408-0249. PO BOX 369 Beeton ON L0G 1A0. subscription rates Attitude. The Attitude list included agencies like Taxi and STRATEGY is published eight times per year by Brunico Communications Ltd. Rethink and brands like Westyear the Jet andDrake ING. reopened, All had somethingthe first issue inherently was on quirkyBrand In Canada: One year CA$80.00 Two years CA $144.00 (HST included. Registration #856051396 RT) and gutsy at the core. Single copy price in Canada is CA$6.95. Please allow four weeks for new subscriptions Loblaws was on the list “because it dares to be more than a supermarket" and address changes. and "embraces new ideas with the suppleness of a youngster.” The PC success copyright and trademark STRATEGY and the tagline “Bold vision brand new ideas” are trademarks of Brunico story kept adding chapters and now that retail is more complicated (in a word: Communications Ltd. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced from STRATEGY in whole omnichannel), the investment in developing kickass products and building or in part without written permission. Reprint requests should be sent to [email protected]. © 2015 Brunico Communications Ltd. desire for them in the bold style of ’s J. Peterman, spinning foodie tales of Seinfeld postmaster notification discovery in exotic lands, is even more rewarding than was likely envisioned. Canadian Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Strategy, PO BOX 369, Beeton ON L0G 1A0 [email protected] U.S. Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Strategy PO BOX 1103 Guenette called the “force of conviction.” Singled out in the feature as a rare Niagara Falls NY 14304 Printed in Canada. Canada Post Agreement No. 40050265. The key to building a brand that stands out is what then-Taxi president Rob ISSN: 1187-4309. advice was this: you need “an unwavering belief in the idea and make sure it Member of doesn’tspecimen, get a chipped client-turned-agency away or denigrated.” boss with passion for gutsy marketing, his At their core, these brands have a spunky ethos that opens the door to new platforms, partnerships and even categories of business. As Mirlin puts it: We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through “Brands still return ROI when we’re courageous, meaningful and patient.” But on the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.