Though most agency president s may feel this is a year best forgotten, Aidan Tracey calls it the best year Mosaic has ever had.
Tracey balks, however, at the suggestion the good fortune of Mosaic–a Toronto-based agency specializing in experiential marketing–is actually a product of the 2008 economic collapse. The fundamentals of marketing were changing before the economy collapsed, and Mosaic was perfectly positioned to help marketers respond. “I think the recession threw gas on a fi re that was already burning, which was the massive shift in consumer habits,” he says.
For six years Mosaic has been ready and waiting for a time when companies would embrace consumers, establish two-way dialogue and communicate one-on-one with people to build brands, says Tracey.
“[We saw that] traditional mass media would fragment and you would need other ways to reach consumers. We bet the farm, so to speak, that was what would matter.” Smart bet.
Revenues will hit about $88 million this year, up 17% from 2008, and the agency has grown to 259 from 239 full-time employees , thanks mainly to new work for world-class brands won in tough pitches. “I think Microsoft would be right at the top of that list,” says Tracey, of this year’s new business.
Early in the year, Mosaic responded to a global RFP to help promote Microsoft’s Windows phone. “We were up against two or three of the largest experiential marketing agencies in the world,” says Tracey. “We won.”
That was followed by a multi-month review for all the Xbox event marketing and consumer intercept work. Most of the major promotion agencies in Toronto went after it, but Mosaic won the business .
Other big U.S. wins in the past 12 months include the Dell account, for which Mosaic is now handling a number of campus initiatives, and most recently the agency won a big piece of the experiential work for GlaxoSmith- Kline’s consumer products group.
Back here in Canada, Johnson & Johnson hired Mosaic for its “wound care” business , and the agency won Nike Golf, another competitive review for an assignment to build awareness with golf pros at leading courses across Canada. Tracey’s team will also handle experiential elements for advertisers signed on with the Olympic Broadcast Consortium.
Mosaic does all experiential work for long-time client Labatt Brewing Company. Rob McCarthy, the brewer’s director, innovation and marketing services, says this year the agency improved upon existing campaigns, such as Bud Camp, Alexander Keith’s Brewery’s birthday celebrations, the Stella Artois “Draught Masters” campaign, and helped launch Bud Light Lime in Canada with “fl ash mob” events that attracted big crowds and, along with them, plenty of free media.
Mosaic is a vital part of all Labatt’s brand-building efforts today, right alongside traditional agencies Grip and Publicis, says McCarthy. “When it comes time to really do some thinking on our brands, Mosaic is at the table.”
“The ability to reach consumers through television only, or traditional media only is diminishing,” says Tim Penner, president of Procter & Gamble Canada. “And so we have to use new and innovative ways to reach out and catch people. Mosaic brings us that in spades.”
Mosaic handles experiential efforts for P&G’s entire household-needs portfolio, as well some individual programs for health and beauty products.
And far from simply sending out street teams to activate existing global campaigns, Mosaic is coming up with original brand-building programs for the Canadian market.
“For the most part it is not executing existing insights. It is when we don’t have anything that we go to them,” says Penner. “Any time you can get in the face of our consumers and talk about the specifi c benefi ts that our brand offers in a way that engages them, that is a brand relevant message and that is a quality contact .”
And, recognizing that the best event and experiential marketing campaigns are being extended online, Mosaic also upgraded its digital expertise with the March acquisition of web design agency Patrick Paradisi Inc. Digital industry veteran Sean Patrick now leads a team of 10, and Mosaic rolled out SmallWorldNet, a dashboard tool to monitor social media conversations about their clients’ brands.
“We are not an interactive agency per se,” says Tracey. Maybe so, but General Mills still chose Mosaic over pure-play digital shops to build GeneralMillsAthletes.ca as part of its Olympic sponsorship.
The power of experiential marketing has grown exponentially in the digital age, says Tracey.
Putting a cold Coke Zero in the hands of a thirsty person on a hot day was always a good move, he says. But it means even more today when so many people are willing, eager even, to tell other people about it on Facebook and Twitter. That is how the marketing game goes these days and Mosaic is not only ready to play, but to win. They proved it in 2009.
