Clutch - Canada’s leading online car retailer - had already flipped the script on car advertising by showing how it saves people from the serious weirdness of doing business online.

Now for its second brand campaign, it was time to upend celebrity endorsements - while doubling down on another key benefit of Clutch: Speed.

Partnering again with the NBA, we introduced the aptly named Immanuel Quickley - Toronto Raptors’ superstar - to the Clutch universe. 

When Clutch launches its new tagline “Sell your car quickly with Clutch,” confusion ensues, landing Clutch a surprisingly begrudging spokesperson. 

Art Direction: Nicole Nyholt

Shine Foundation is an organization that makes dreams come true for youth living with disabilities. For 14 year old Scarlette who was born blind, that dream was to have a makeover so the whole world could see her rock’n roll personality. 

But while this firecracker got her makeover, something else was brought to light: A severe lack of accessible beauty products for the blind and low vision community.  For Scarlette to do her own make up and to express herself on her own terms, something would have to change.

So we partnered with Cheekbone Beauty, an indigenous, woman-owned beauty brand to create the first ever tactile makeup palette designed specifically for the blind and low vision community.. We called it Scarlette’s Palette. 

Accessibility informed every aspect of the design, incorporating tactile navigation, raised ridges, touch-based product identification and a QR code audio guide. Not only could Scarlette now do her make up independently, her original dream impacted her whole community and the beauty industry. 

ECD Patrice Pollack

ACD Art Nicole Nyholt

ACD Copy Aidan Johnston

As it turns out, Canadians are not into the idea of strangers picking their bananas. Hence the slower adoption rate of grocery delivery services in Canada than in other markets. Call us discerning. Or controlling. Or obsessive. Whatever it is - we’re very specific about exactly what we want and are reluctant to take our hand off the proverbial cart.

So for it’s first national campaign in Canada, Instacart had to show Canadians that we could deliver the goods. While every other delivery service trumpeted speed, convenience and all the extra time you’ll have to take a bubble bath - Instacart set out to show that we get Canadian’s grocery particularities, literally, figuratively, the whole shebang. And so a 360 campaign was born: Groceries that Overdeliver. 

Linear TV, OLV, social, OOH, radio, with NHL sponsorship and a creator program, Groceries that Overdeliver launched in both English Canada and Quebec.

Within it’s first month, marketplace activations were up +12% YOY, marketplace traffic by +14% YOY and brand awareness +10%.

ACD Copy Aidan Johnston

ACD Art Nicole Nyholt

Art Director Marta Pietryga

Copywriter Jeff McQuarrie

Designer Garthi Gobinathan

For round 2 of Pinterest Presents - Pinterests annual Global Ad Summit -  we knew we had to double-down on what made our first year so effective in the first place: The fiercely funny mash-up of education and entertainment for a B2B audience.

This year, our brief was all about performance. We needed to show marketers that Pinterest was a best-in-class performance platform that could deliver exceptional business results. There was not better way to do it than make marketers themselves the hero of our story.

Taking a liberal riff on beloved, nostalgic sports movies, we created the fictitious Pinterest Performance Centre where marketers come to face their fears and take their marketing game to the next level. With our celebrity cast bringing the funny, we showcased exec keynotes, product demos and client testimonials in an intensely entertaining 50 minute show. The vibe was bright, bold, positive and pure Pinterest. 

With 50,000+ registrations, 40, 000+ total viewership and 82% watch-through rate (huge for a virtual show), round 2 of Pinterest Presents was a knockout.

Creative Directors: Moi & Anna Cumyn

ACD Copy: Aidan Johnston

ACD Art: Nicole Nyholt

Everyone loves an idea - especially one that works for you on the regular. RBC wanted to solidify it’s positioning as the ideas bank in a way that felt grounded and beyond the abstract. So we created an everyday couple to be the ongoing walking, talking and joshing example of how your ideas and RBC ideas work together. Because the other challenge? How do you talk about bank stuff in a way that’s not dead boring. For us - it was charm, banter and some light dissing.

Art Direction: Sherry Tang

Clutch is one of Canada’s fastest, innovative tech companies - and the only actual way to buy or sell a car 100% online. But while awareness for the brand itself was growing, comprehension of how Clutch worked was still kind of nebulous.

So we launched a campaign to showcase in no uncertain terms that Clutch is so easy and effective you don’t have to get up and leave your house. In fact, you don’t have to get up at all.

Featuring Clutch’s dry humour and a dramatic entrance for Clutch’s iconic red flatbed right, our spots drove home Clutch’s simplicity and differentiation from it’s so called competitors. 

Art Direction: Nicole Nyholt

We all know the internet can be sketchy. So while 90% of Canadians research cars online, when it comes to buying or selling, people still default to dealerships. Why meet a strange person in a strange place if you don't have to? 

But Clutch is a new way to make a deal: Fast, simple, 100% online and weirdos not included.  So we partnered with the NBA and Toronto Raptor Kelly Olynyk and ran our spots during the playoffs. All to drive credibility and awareness that there is indeed a non-sketchy - and effective - way to buy and sell cars online. 

With over 1.2M views on Youtube alone and a 35% increase of cars sold on Clutch, the campaign drove home results. 

That’s Clutch.

Art Direction: Anna Cumyn

Global advertiser summits are annual events where big tech companies try to convince marketers to increase ad spends on their platforms. Rife with keynotes and product launches, they’ve become a trope unto themselves. So when Pinterest was looking for a fresh take on their annual ad summit -  Pinterest Presents - we took a groundbreaking approach to this B2B event.

We knew our audience of marketers were people first, and people love to be entertained. So we took two beloved formats - the mockumentary and the making of - and made an epic mashup: Pinterest Presents, a show within a show, that’s the show. 

With a comedic ensemble starring SNL’s Heidi Gardner, Rashida ‘Sheedz’ Olayiwola (Jury Duty), Harvey Guillén (What We Do In The Shadows) and Aisling Bea (This Way Up), we used humour and creative storytelling to house the hardest of hard working B2B content. The approach drove awareness of why Pinterest was a must-buy for advertisers - all by entertaining them in a way they already loved. 

It was a first-of-its-kind global virtual event that clocked in at 50 minutes and not only drove a 100% watch-through rate (almost inconceivable for this kind of content), but was one of Adweek’s 20 Campaigns That Made Creatives Jealous. Watch the full show here.

Art Direction: Anna Cumyn

For decades, the ‘her’ and ‘she’ pronouns on the Hershey wrapper have been hiding in plain sight - similar to how women’s achievements often go unrecognized. In 2020, Hershey launched the #HerForShe campaign in Brazil, using the wrappers to bring visibility to notable women and their accomplishments.

We launched the campaign in Canada in 2022, using the narrative lens of Street Culture to kick the visibility messaging into high gear - after all, the street is where you go to undeniably be seen and take up space.

Historically, street culture as been dominated by men. But by spotlighting 5 women changing the street scene across the country, we not only showcased their impact - but shifted the idea of what street culture actually is. Yes, it’s kicks and fits, but also grassroots activism, outreach and advocacy. Fundamentally, street culture is what glues a community together.

With limited edition #HerForShe bar designs created by noted street artist Gosia Komarinski, and 5 mini-films directed docu-style by Bruna Arbex, we brought more visibility to women transforming their communities and inspiring the next generation to do the same.

The results exceeded our benchmarks and KPIs, with 350+ pieces of coverage across various media and influencer platforms, 22,382,528 total MR impressions, 6,343,345 impressions from earned media and 8,012,461 impressions on social media.

Art Direction: Veronika Radeva
Design: Marta Pietryga

For the first time in forever, super-fast decongestant Drixoral was launching net-new creative in Canada. So to get ourselves noticed, we tackled the life-long taboo of putting stuff up your nose. With Drixoral being the uber effective exception of course.

Art Direction: Sherry Tang

The launch of Rogers Ignite TV was a game changer for entertainment fanatics. So we recruited some pros to try out the features - and then let the cameras roll. We captured these athletes at their most authentic and spontaneous, all while showcasing the capabilities of the product. We were set to make 3 online videos. Instead we made 5, and clients where so pleased - the SportsApp spot aired on TV during baseball season.

3 independent, uncompromising and innovative individuals, 3 different forms of creative expression. We put the HP Pavilion x360 in their hands to push past convention to do what they love. These are our Rule Benders.