With two major acquisitions, the experiential powerhouse put more clients on the books
Mosaic CEO Aidan Tracey has long claimed his agency was built for the future of the industry. Well, the future is now.
In an era when marketers are looking beyond traditional advertising to make one-on-one connections with consumers, Mosaic is building a reputation for its compelling and interactive campaigns that deliver results.
The agency has become a strategic partner for massive brands like Labatt, Rogers, Diageo, Coke and Microsoft, and in 2012 carved for itself a more permanent place at the brand building and planning stages for new clients like Target, NFL Canada, Motorola and WestJet, as well as Walmart, Samsung and Macy’s in the U.S.
Tracey says Mosaic is “absolutely now a true agency strategy and ideation partner for many clients in Canada and the proof is our growth.” Indeed.
Over the last 12 months the agency saw a 58% increase in revenue and a 28% increase in headcount, moving from 490 to 628 full-time Canadian employees. In January, the agency opened an office in Toronto’s Liberty Village to house around 60 members from its digital, PR, social media and creative services teams.
A key contributor to this growth, says Tracey, was last year’s acquisition of Consumer Impact Marketing (CIM), a sales and marketing solutions company (and once one of Mosaic’s biggest competitors) that counted Dairy Farmers of Canada and PepsiCo Beverages Canada among its clients.
As a result of the acquisition, Mosaic added 130 full-time staff. Nine months later Mosaic purchased Hunter Straker, a Toronto shop that specialized in strategic planning, retail and promo marketing.
The agency’s strategic approach to experiential marketing and the social/digital space helped it retain big name clients like Kraft, Microsoft, Rogers and Labatt. In all, Mosaic has landed 18 experiential marketing and 17 digital, PR and social media accounts since August 2011.
A notable addition to Mosaic’s client roster is Target. Though its arrival next year is the most highly anticipated Canadian retail launch since Walmart in 1994, Target Canada was looking to connect with future consumers.
“As they evaluated their [agency] partners that are part of the mix, I think what they realized is that they needed a partner that had true scale and size… So they brought us to the table,” says Jeff Rogers, senior vice-president at Mosaic. The agency developed and executed memorable programs that engaged consumers and gave them a taste of what to expect when Target opens its doors.
One of the most talked-about events was the one-day pop-up store in Toronto with famed fashion designer Jason Wu. In August, Target held beach party events in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta that offered visitors the chance to participate in summer activities like volleyball and sandcastle competitions. Those wanting to take it easy could relax in Target’s shaded lounge or beach shop.
Mosaic was once known as a staffing agency for retail programs, says Tracey. But today Mosaic has a big seat at the “strategy table.”
“The staffing part is something we’re proud of… but before we get to the stage where we’re actually hiring and training people, we’re often engaged eight months or a year in advance to help them start thinking about the brand and planning concepts.” Concepts like Loblaw’s PC BBQTown, a summer-long initiative that positioned President’s Choice as Canadians’ destination for all of their barbecue needs.
Canadians could nominate and vote for their community to win one of nine PC barbecue parties. While Mosaic has worked with Loblaw on experiential marketing efforts for many years, the agency has now won the digital portion of the account.
For long-time client TD, Mosaic showed its digital chops by giving Canadians the chance to take a seat in TD Bank’s iconic green chair as part of a branded take over in Toronto’s Yonge Dundas Square. Consumers shared their reasons for banking with TD and had their picture taken in the chair, which appeared on three surrounding digital billboards. They were also able to share the image with their social networks. In all, 600 custom billboards were created and over 25,000 social media impressions garnered.
Tracey says the industry is finally starting to accept “that integrated marketing and communications planning includes direct engagement with the consumer and it’s really moved from being an afterthought to often being the centre of a campaign.” Because experiential is playing a bigger and more important role in the overall marketing mix, Tracey says many of Mosaic’s clients now have directors dedicated to the marketing tool.
“Going out and engaging consumers face-to-face, in one-to-one dialogue and then amplifying that on social media has proven to be as effective or more effective in certain categories than traditional media,” says Tracey. Cynics used to argue that “there wasn’t an effective ROI or that there wasn’t an effective way to build your brand using experiential marketing,” says Tracey. But one look at Mosaic’s accomplishments over the past year should help prove the naysayers wrong.
