Oh Canada

image via

Today is Canada Day.  Happy birthday, Canada.

It's an interesting time to be a marketer in Canada. Many divisions of global companies have seen their decision-making power lessen over the past decade. Often we see strategy, and even creative ideas, get decided in head offices and mandated, giving little room (and lots of shackles) for original thinking and work. And of the Canadian-based companies that are left, most simply don't do marketing that earns fame outside of these borders.

The always thoughtful and prolific Grant McCracken recently wrote a few pieces called "Oh Canada, Poor Canada" (he's Canadian) including the observation that Canada has a "present obscurity on the world stage." He also pointed to a Conference Board of Canada report that concluded:

"[T]oo often we trail the pack.  The failure to innovate is a large part of the explanation for our mediocrity -- a mediocrity that is hampering what we can do and what we can be."

Is it really all that bad? I do think there's some truth to these points, especially over the past decade. But today, looking at the marketing world, there are some Canadians that are fighting the tide to do world-class work.

One need only look as far as the Dove "Evolution" spot from Unilever Canada and Ogilvy Toronto which won an unprecendented two grand prix at Cannes last week and has been picked up around the world (congrats to Tim, Mike, Janet, Nancy, and everyone else at Ogilvy, plus Stephanie & Mark at Unilever). These days Taxi is frequently mentioned as one of the most creative agencies in the world. Calgary-born Critical Mass is one of the most well-regarded interactive agencies in the world. And here at Leo Toronto, we won the first D&AD Black Pencil ever given to a website, on the way to making us the most awarded interactive agency in the world last year. We now also run several P&G brands for all of North America, export campaigns on Kellogg's and Wrigley around the world, and lead some Samsung work globally. 

But also, the Canadian marketing scene has really stepped up with some fantastic contributions to the marketing blogscape. So in honour of Canada Day, here are a few great Canadian blogs to add to your reading:

Chroma
My name is kate
The client side blog
Canuck Flack
Experience Planner
Craphammer
Buzz Canuck
Teehan+Lax (one of the only other Canadian agencies with a blog)

These are just some of my favourites - but for a more comprehensive list of Canadian marketing blogs check out Sean's helpful compilation here, or Kate's blogroll.

So is Canada hampered by mediocrity? Not by this evidence. On the contrary, it looks like we might just be on the cusp of a Canadian rennaisance. Oh Canada, indeed.

Comments

[Kate]

Hi, Jason! Thanks so much for the kudos! I totally agree - there is something very interesting going on here in Canada; we are really starting to make an impact on the global advertising scene. Am so glad that Leo Burnett is making such a great contribution!

[Michael Seaton]

Thanks for the shout out Jason.

Happy Canada Day!

[Geoff Teehan]

Having judged the Cyber Lions this year (which I'm only now recovering from) I saw a ton of great work coming out of Canada. Some of it brought home awards but there were quite a few in the shortlist as well. More interestingly though, were conversations with fellow jury members from around the world who also recognized the great Canadian work, sometimes not realizing it was, in fact, Canadian. It wasn't so much that great work wasn't coming out of Canada, it was that many were unaware that the work was Canadian. I can't say I was all that surprised that people didn't recognize the origin of all great work - I certainly couldn't.

[Sean Moffitt]

Jason,

Thanks for the plaudits, we still do have to grab that chat about our role of commanding the future brand world operating out of Toronto (were you going to be take on Asia or was that me) :).

I agree that we're starting to see a mini-Can-Con revival in our part of the world Canada - the rules of the new conversation economy play well to our strengths of seeking out world viewpoints, collaboration and squeezing productivity and impact out of less.

Now if we could only get a few more Jim Balsilies to broadcast our triumphs and stop wanted to be norther versiosn of NY, LA, Sillicon valley or Chicago we'd be set.

Belatedly, Happy Canada Day back...
Sean "Buzz Canuck" Moffitt

[Harsh]

I also think of flickr, istockphoto, freshbooks etc..