The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) has selected Cossette as its new agency of record.
Effective immediately, the agency will take the lead on the organization’s creative campaigns, including efforts for Team Canada during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto. Cossette will create campaigns that tell stories of the Canadian athletes competing.
Cossette replaces Proximity BBDO, which acted as AOR for the last three years. Proximity BBDO was the first agency the COC had ever formed an AOR relationship with.
There was not a formal review process. Instead, COC chief marketing officer Derek Kent said the organization had discussions with a “handful” of agencies after parting ways with Proximity BBDO in the summer, a decision he described as “mutual.”
Kent praised Proximity BBDO’s work on the account, which included “We Are Winter” and “Give your everything for London.”
He told Marketing a change in agency does not represent a major change in direction in the COC’s marketing.
Cossette’s history creating Olympic campaigns for brands such as McDonald’s, Proctor and Gamble and General Mills played a big role in the agency’s selection, Kent said. The agency’s bilingual capacities and national presence also contributed.
The new relationship is a combination of pro bono work, billable hours and production costs.
“It’s the perfect fit for our team,” he said. “With their creative horsepower, we’re confident the Cossette team will ignite the Olympic spirit in our country with breakthrough campaigns.”
In an interview with Marketing, David LaFond, president of Cossette, English Canada, said the agency has been immersed in the world of the Olympics through its client roster for years and is excited to apply what it’s learned to the COC’s marketing.
LaFond, who served as president of Proximity Canada when the agency handled the COC’s creative, added, “It’s a beloved and amazing Canadian brand – team Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee.”
“With Cossette being fully bilingual and having offices from the east coast to the west coast, we thought, ‘We’re Canada’s agency and they’re Canada’s team.’ It’s a really nice fit.”
Cossette and the COC have just begun the briefing process. According to Kent, timelines on the work are not yet firm, but he expects the agency’s first campaign for the COC to debut sometime late next spring or early summer.
OMD will continue to handle media for the COC, as it has done for the past three years. The organization has also maintained its relationship with its digital agency, Zync, and has been working with North Strategic in a public relations capacity for the past year.
