Canadian Ad Insider

Why did you launch the agency? 

Our background is in media, and in the early 2010’s we could clearly see that consumer time was shifting online. Advertising was also moving online, but at a much slower pace. We knew that as consumer time online continued to increase, marketing dollars would follow.

In looking across the Canadian landscape at the time we found that many mid-sized companies were unprepared for the transition to online marketing and shopping. The mid-sized agencies these companies were working with were still largely focused on traditional media and lacked the skills and knowledge to aid them in the transition to digital. We saw an opportunity to help these companies and their agencies in developing digital marketing and ecommerce strategies to help them grow their businesses.

Wasn't it scary - competitors, first time launching an agency?

For sure it was scary. We were opening a new business with zero clients and a fixed amount of financial backing to get us off the ground. But we had a solid business plan and most importantly, we were fortunate to have four amazingly talented digital professionals join our team:

• Jen McDonnell is our VP of Content and Social Media. Jen started her career as a journalist and quickly became the “go to” in the newsroom for all things social media. She brings deep knowledge and experience in both social media content creation and advertising, making her an extremely well-rounded digital marketer.
• Mahmoud Ghali is our Chief Technology Officer. He leads our website, mobile app, software and integration teams. His deep knowledge on a wide variety of technologies allows him to develop creative solutions to complex technical challenges. He is an invaluable member of the team.
• Dalia Morad is our Creative Director. She is unique in that she is able to lead the creative process for website design, information architecture, dashboard interface design, digital display ads, social media ads, and a variety of other digital creative activities. Where other designers are skilled at one or two things, Dalia is able to provide leadership across a range of creative projects.
• Brad Abbott is our VP of Search. Brad leads our search team, which includes both organic search (SEO) and paid search (SEM). Search is a big piece of our business, so having a leader who is able to make the connection between paid and organic search is critical.

What did you do before launching the agency?

Steve and I worked together for a number of years in media – specifically Canwest and its eventual transition to Postmedia. Kirk was the EVP of Advertising Sales and Steve was SVP Digital. Through these roles, we were able to see the shift of consumer time and advertising dollars towards online first-hand.

What made you launch your own agency?

Having worked in media for a number of years and watching its slow decline, we wanted to “go on offence”. We saw the opportunity in digital marketing and knew it was a major area of growth. Kirk had a number of industry contacts and amazing business development skills, while Steve knew digital. We had complementary skills and could see the market opportunity, so we decided to go for it.

Who was the toughest client you had to win, and how did you win them over?

The first few customers were probably the toughest. They’d ask if we could show them examples of our work and of course we didn't have examples as we had just opened our doors. The clients we brought in in those early days believed in us from the onset and remain customers of ours to this day.

When did you know you had a solid business?

In month #7 we hit break-even, which was right about when we had expected to do so in our business plan. We had managed to land some clients and were getting good momentum.

What can the industry expect next from you?

We expect 2023 will be our biggest year yet. We have big plans for growth both in Canada and internationally. We will continue our focus on multi-location companies (like franchises, retailers, food services, etc.) and continue to build products and services to meet their unique needs.

We also have some major plans in the works to make major improvements to our Social Brand Amplifier and Brand Amplifier platforms, which is very exciting.

What are a few things the business launched this year?

From a Reshift-specific perspective, we have been busy:

• We re-launched our website (reshiftmedia.com). It had been 10 years since we launched our site and it was severely outdated. As often happens, we have been busy on client projects so our own work kept taking a back seat. We are very happy with our new site – it reflects our brand, is technically strong and completely accessibility compliant.
• We re-launched our Social Brand Amplifier (SBA) platform with new features. The SBA is our platform that enable brands to cascade organic posts at scale to their local Facebook pages. We’ve added in features like dynamic text, best time to post and time zone posting.
• The other platform that we have continued to build on is our Brand Amplifier software, which allows franchise systems to run localized Facebook, Instagram and Google ads in their local markets. This has been huge for us, as the movement to “Shop Local” during the pandemic has been a growing trend. This enables franchisees to run localized ads in their local markets.
  
• From a client perspective we have been very busy – working on a variety of websites, apps and marketing campaigns. We recently launched a new custom website for The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) (see: https://www.bildgta.ca/).

Was 2020/ COVID-19 the biggest impact you have seen on the business landscape? 

When COVID hit in March 2020, at least half of our customers said to put everything on hold. It was a time of extreme uncertainty for everyone. By the summer of 2020, we were back up to normal levels of activity, but there was definitely a shift towards ecommerce support – companies looking to add ecomm to their website and/or launch marketing campaigns aimed at growing online sales. The pandemic had forced companies to address their online presence as customers changed how they preferred to do business and the speed in which they expected these transactions to occur.

As of August 2022, we’ve had 24 months of consecutive growth.

If so, what is 2nd, and how did you overcome it/ learn from the experience?

The last year has seen major changes around data privacy, which has had a major impact on the digital marketing industry. Apple’s iOS 14 launch had major ramifications for how campaigns are tracked, particularly for Meta. Agencies who relied heavily on pixel-based tracking and audience building have seen their results affected, as Facebook’s ability to attribute conversions and identify individuals for targeting has been diminished.

We have long had a strong focus on first-party data, which has been a strength for us during this period. We of course use pixel-based strategies, but we also ensure we collect direct contacts (with appropriate privacy compliance) to allow brands to build up their own first-party data in order to compete better in market.

What advice do you have for brands to go the distance and be thriving and growing for 10 years?

Listen to your customers. Listen to your team. Listen to the market. Be flexible in your approach and pursue opportunities when you see them.

The average business does not survive 5 years, how did you make it to 10?

We have an amazing team. It’s impossible to grow a business of this size on your own. To scale, you need a great team who are all working together towards a common goal. We have had the same senior management team for most of our 10 years, with two of our team members (not counting Kirk & Steve) being founding members of the company. Our team is not just colleagues – we are friends. The level of trust, respect and camaraderie we have is amazing.

We are humbled that these talented people choose to work at Reshift.

What are some of the biggest ways the digital industry has changed in the last 5 years?

There are many things that have changed over 10 years. If we had to pick a few of the “biggies”, we would say:

• The sophistication of digital advertising has increased substantially. The level of targeting and measurement today is significantly more faceted than when we launched the agency.
• Mobile use by consumers continues to increase. For most of our customers, they see significantly more traffic via mobile than desktop/laptop. This means all of our digital strategies need to think first about what that consumer experience looks like on a cellphone.
• The shift from “free” to “pay to play” for brands on social media – particularly for Facebook.
• Acceptance and adoption of digital marketing. When we started the agency, we spent a lot of time “convincing” companies and agencies that digital marketing should be a part of their media plan. Now, for many companies digital encompasses the majority of the plan.

So after 10 years, what is next?

We plan to continue our international growth. We have over 200 customers in 20 countries around the world today. We’re the top franchise digital agency in Canada and believe we can become one of the leading agencies to serve U.S. based franchise systems.

We also plan to continue to add to our breadth of serves and software. We have some big plans for our Social Brand Amplifier and Brand Amplifier software platforms over then next 12 months.

What do you attribute to your agency's longevity? 

The main reason for our success is that we focus on delivering results for our customers. Without results, our customers wouldn’t be around for long.

The way we deliver results is by staying on top of changes in the industry. We are quick to adopt new technologies and techniques to keep our customers “ahead of the curve”. Our senior team is amazing at what they do, which makes a massive difference.

What principles/practices have led to your continued success?

We don’t do cookie-cutter strategies. We listen to our customers to understand their challenges and objectives in order to develop an approach aimed at achieving those objectives.

We also believe that if we get a bunch of smart people around a table to brainstorm a solution, you will always walk out with a better idea than you walked in with. What that means is that everyone on our team has an equal voice at the table, regardless of their title or level of experience. Great ideas can come from anywhere.

How has your agency changed/adapted over the years? 

As the digital landscape has changed, so have our services. As an example, when we started the agency, we had a strong emphasis on SEO and organic social media, but as the importance (and necessity) of advertising increased, we incorporated more paid strategies into our marketing mix.

We also make sure we stay on the latest trends – so when a new social platform launches or when one of the “big platforms” like Meta or Google launches a new product, we ensure we see how these can be applied for our clients’ benefit.

Probably the biggest change is that through COVID people became very accustomed to doing business via online discussions (i.e. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams). This meant that being geographically close to our clients to enable in-person meetings was not necessary. This has allowed us to expand our client base more rapidly than ever.

What services did you provide when you first opened? What services do you now provide?

When we first started the agency, we only offered services (i.e. website design/development, social media, search, display). But as part of our business plan, we explicitly said that we would look for opportunities to build software products to create market differentiation.

As a result, while working with multi-location companies (like franchises, retailers, restaurant chains, etc.) we saw that they had a real challenge creating locally-relevant content for their dozen, hundreds or thousands of local Facebook pages. This led to the invention of the Social Brand Amplifier, which allows companies to post content across their Facebook pages from a centralized dashboard with programmatic localization.

With the success of the Social Brand Amplifier, we then saw an opportunity to do something similar with social media and search advertising, which led to the invention of the Brand Amplifier. This platform allows multi-location businesses to create Facebook, Instagram and Google advertising at scale, again incorporating programmatic localization and local billing.

The software products have been an incredible addition to our suite of services, as it allows our team to cost-effectively deploy local campaigns for our multi-location customers.

What is your all-time favourite campaign or project?

This is a difficult one, as there are so many projects we have enjoyed over the years.  Every initiative is unique, with its own opportunities and challenges, so our days are always very interesting.

If we had to pick one, it would be our longstanding relationship with Dogtopia. When we started working with them about 7 years ago, they had less than 40 locations and no digital strategy whatsoever. Their website was very weak and they had engaged in no meaningful digital advertising.

Over the years, we have redesigned/redeveloped their website twice, launched a mobile app and put in place an incredibly sophisticated digital marketing program that includes social media, search and other digital strategies. Our development team has also created a custom lead management platform that is integral to the company’s day-to-day operations. This year they expect to have more than 200 locations open across Canada and the US. That is incredible growth, and we like to think that we played a big role in that growth.

Interview Series

Reshift Media photo gallery, the first 10 years ....

Reshift Media video montage, the first 10 years ....

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