Canadian Tire has handed its public relations account to Toronto-based High Road Communications, an Omnicom-owned agency.
WPP’s Cohn & Wolfe Canada was incumbent, and defended in the review against High Road and three other unnamed agencies in a January review.
The assignment gives High Road agency-of-record status for each of Canadian Tire’s component brands, including the 470-location consumer retail chain, Canadian Tire Financial Services, its corporate and gas bar operations and PartSource, its separately run auto parts retail chain.
"We were looking for a partner that could increase our external editorial coverage and share-of-voice," said Amy Cole, Canadian Tire’s associate vice-president of corporate communications.
"They came with solid examples of events they had executed across the country. Because we have a story that we think resonates coast-to-coast, we wanted somebody who had the capabilities to execute events [nationwide]."
Canadian Tire has recently bolstered its external communications team, growing from three to 10 staff, to further drive measured media impressions.
To match his new client’s national earned media focus, High Road president Justin Creally said he’ll use his agency’s four Canadian offices in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa to take a very local approach to the business.
"This account is about every Canadian," Creally said. "It will be run from Toronto, but Canadian Tire is about small communities as well. Yes, the urban markets are massive but you can’t run a brand like this from the big city, not paying attention to smaller communities. A lot of what we’re going to be doing is tapping into their dealer network and trying to leverage it from a local earned media perspective–community radio and newspapers."
High Road is also PR agency of record for Microsoft Canada and Telus.
