Most Read of 2023: Canada

Can IKEA really make anywhere feel like home? Well, according to this heartfelt spot by Rethink, the answer is a resounding yes. Telling the story of a brooding troll who operates a dark, lonely toll bridge (which, naturally he lives underneath), the empathy and kindheartedness of one little boy sees that space quickly fill up with IKEA furniture, creating a joyous troll, far happier villagers, and a poignant reminder that the way we furnish our homes, truly, can enable strong emotional connection. 

Understandably, if you were a gas station worker running the late night shift, and you saw a man randomly doing robot-like movement through the store, only to then hop into a car filled with friends also doing the exact same thing, you might be a bit weirded out. However, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, as TAXI showed in its Super Bowl spot for Volkswagen. Serving to hype up the brand’s all-electric reimagining of the legendary Microbus, the campaign embraced the fun factor - reminding viewers that they too would probably have a hard time resisting robotic dance moves if they were jamming out to the Styx classic, ‘Mr. Roboto’, while driving such an epic machine.

While the ‘Big Mac’ is a burger so iconic it needs no introduction, that doesn’t mean everyone takes it seriously. Specifically, as it turned out, in Canada gen z was barely giving it the attention McDonald’s believed it deserved. So, to remedy the issue, the brand worked with longtime partner Cossette to properly reintroduce the classic to a new generation. From Big Mac-inspired cowboy boots to a bejewelled set of Big Mac grills, the brand partnered with gen z makers to illustrate the burger’s unique ability to inspire culture, even for a generation that might otherwise be a tad sceptical. 

The second Super Bowl entry on the list (who said Canada doesn’t take the big game seriously?!), here, Ogilvy Canada and TD Bank created two brilliant spots emphasising the importance of good financial decision making. While the first literally plays on the statistic that 64% of Canadians would rather talk about sex, religion, or politics over finances, and the second spotlights the absurd places people turn to for financial advice, both are equally clever, using truth to highlight the absurdity of our financial thought processes and behaviours. 

When earlier this year, Canada’s oldest brewery, Molson, sought to reinvent itself for national audiences, partner creative agency Rethink was waiting and ready for the challenge. By embracing the social implications of the brand, and all the locations where citizens can find the beer - from family-run pubs and pho restaurants to salsa clubs and drag brunches - the work emphasised the brand’s place in the country’s cultural fabric… something only further reinforced by the decision to score the work to Drake’s 'One Dance'.

Of course, Rethink wasn’t done there. In another monumental campaign, this time for Philadelphia Cream Cheese, on Friday the 13th of January, the brand embraced the ominous date by unleashing the blazing spiciness of hell. Debuting a whopping 1,041,427 scoville heat unit cream cheese (208 times hotter than jalapeños, by the way), the agency worked with Uber Eats to distribute the limited-time kits across Toronto, leading to coughing, cussing, gagging, sweating, shaking and crying across the city.

Earlier this year, Nespresso launched the Vertuo Pop, its smallest Vertuo ever. But that didn’t mean it couldn’t be marketed in an absolutely massive way. Case in point, McCann Canada literally grabbed the country’s biggest OOH placement - Dundas Square, Toronto - to bring the machine to life in 3D glory, showcasing its sleek shape, style, and bright array of colours. Talk about brew-tiful advertising! 

Considering Rethink’s placements on this list, it’s no surprise that there’s a great creative mind behind the agency. Aaron Starkman, the agency’s global CCO, has been a pivotal figure in driving the indie’s success, seeing it win Campaign Magazine's 2022 global independent agency of the year; and the Effies' independent agency of the year for North America. So, to learn a bit more about what enables the success, and where the journey is taking the team, earlier this year, he sat down with LBB’s very own Addison Capper for a chat. 

In other indie agency news, Courage spent a good part of the past year making splash after splash, landing new business and debuting exciting creative. So, when the shop announced the strengthening of its production arm with six key hires - producers Katie Fowler, Dan Rankin, Sarah Moen, Rachel D’Ercole, Sunaina Arora, and editor Marcus Barrie - LBB viewers were excited to hear all about it! 

At the end of 2022, fans of cult-hit Netflix TV series ‘Warrior Nun’ were left devastated with the show’s cancellation. However, all ends are beginnings, and this freed up the team at Vancouver-based visual effects studio The Embassy to discuss exactly what it took to bring the show’s incredible VFX to life. Speaking to LBB’s Adam Bennett, this opportunity led to one hell of a Behind the Work feature, which, hopefully, gave the fans a slight reprieve from the post cancellation announcement feels. 

When you’re used to good internet, anything less becomes a scary prospect. Unable to stream videos effectively? Horrible. Lagging in a video game? Terrifying. They have cable internet? Well… as Bell and Leo Burnett Toronto demonstrated in their hilarious, horror-trope loaded Super Bowl spot, so shocking, abhorrent and appalling that it justifies fleeing a swanky vacation home in abject terror, all in order to return to the safety of ‘pure fibre Internet’. 

Advertising a career in the Canadian Armed Forces is no small task. Should the creative focus be on the idea of glory and serving one’s country? Should it highlight the benefits of joining? Or perhaps it needs to emphasise what life is like when in the military. As it turned out, the answer absolutely lay in the latter option, something which quickly became apparent in this interview with Feast chief strategy officer Lucia Mariani, and creative directors Rob Vena and Ante Kovac. Going over everything from directorial decisions to the creative writing process, this Behind the Work absolutely earned its rank on the list with a pretty hefty end of year viewership count. 

If you’re wondering who the ‘this’ in the title refers to, look no further than Angry Butterfly which, just ahead of its trip to this year’s Cannes Lions, sat down to chat with LBB about the factors fuelling its incredible growth. Erin Kawalecki (chief creative officer), Graham Candy (chief strategy officer), and Brent Choi (chief executive officer) all shared their respective insights on what drives the shop’s success, as they talked about the agency’s ‘Three A’s’, the ‘Bill it to Bezos’ campaign, and how they look at business problems from a different angle.