Tribal Worldwide’s Andrew McCartney and Marty Yaskowich are thinking nationally now after promotions that have both of them working across Canada.
McCartney, who’d been focused on Toronto as senior vice-president and managing director of Tribal Toronto, is now president of Tribal Worldwide Canada, while Yaskowich, formerly managing director of Tribal Vancouver, is now chief innovation and growth officer.
“Both Andrew and Marty have been instrumental in growing Tribal from a digital innovation agency, to one of Canada’s most progressive agencies whose ideas build modern brands to connect with today’s consumers,” said Lance Saunders, national president and chief operating officer of DDB Canada, in a release announcing the changes.
“The promotions are about helping grow our business and the value we offer to our clients across the country,” McCartney told Marketing. The new positions for both himself and Yaskowich will enable Tribal to put more focus on newer, more innovative approaches to marketing, said McCartney (pictured top right). “The tougher stuff that clients are looking to crack.”
Modern marketing is much more than just communications, said McCartney. It’s figuring out how brands should behave to build better connections with their consumers.
“Where there is a real hunger for clients today is how do we improve the experience [for consumers], how do we stay more relevant with them in social, how do we enable all these great ideas through technology, with our phones,” he said.
That means greater interest in still emerging practices like user experience, content marketing and analytics, social media and technology. While McCartney will oversee the business nationally, Yaskowich will be focused on building up those practice areas and making the offering available to clients across the country.
“To challenge industry’s norms, we must shift our approach in all facets of our business,” said Yaskowich in the release. “This requires processes that enable greater agility, speed and collaboration across all disciplines.”
McCartney cited Tribal’s recent “Salad Society” work for McDonald’s and the “How to Dad” effort for Cheerios as examples of the agency helping clients connect with their target in a modern way.
Most recently Tribal added a client in the insurance category, which McCartney couldn’t name, and Mars Petcare. “We are working with them to help them modernize their brands, help them evolve how they market to consumers and obviously looking at the user experience with the brand. Is their value proposition clear? Is it coming through? Do they have a meaningful presence in social and are they helping create value for their consumers?”
More of those kinds of successes for clients will translate into a healthier bottom line for Tribal, he said.
“Our expectation is that our value to our clients will increase and the growth will follow,” said McCartney.
“Attracting more new talent is part two of that… As we have attracted new brands to work with us, based on our work that they see out there, then you start to see a bit of a trend of people saying these guys are going about it differently.”
Tribal recently hired a new design director and a director of analytics and performance marketing. “We have added and have some plans to add a few new positions,” said McCartney.
