How Breakthrough Media Agency Canvas Worldwide Boldly Grew Beyond the Automotive Category

Over the years, the agency picked up several new brands and, in 2019, really hit its stride, snapping up Heineken (from Publicis) as U.S. media agency of record and being recognized as the fastest-growing media services agency in the U.S. by COMvergence. With those gains came a 14.5% increase in billings and a 23% rise in revenue. And it has yet to lose a client.

That combination of business performance, strong strategic moves and a culture of inclusion has earned Canvas the title of Adweek’s Breakthrough Media Agency of the Year.

Growing from the seeds of Hyundai

With a ready-made, massive client in the form of Hyundai—whose three accounts represent about half of the agency’s billings—Canvas could have very well cruised along without looking beyond the automaker. Instead, it used this foundation to build the agency.

Having won the U.S. account of luxury home-appliance maker Breville in 2017, Canvas became the brand’s global media agency of record the next year, helping Breville expand to Asia and Europe in 2019. It also worked with small but well-respected entertainment studio Annapurna (responsible for films like Vice and If Beale Street Could Talk), an account it has held onto even though the studio started a joint venture with MGM, creating United Artists Releasing. All told, Canvas helped impact over $250 million at the box office.

The Addams Family | Canvas leveraged Halloween-timed partnerships with General Mills, Hershey's and IHOP—and launched a TikTok song challenge—for the franchise reboot (the last film was in 1998). The movie reached more than a billion media impressions and $200 million at the box office in less than two months. A 2021 sequel is now in production.

Canvas also recently nabbed a piece of the lucrative McDonald’s co-op business.

Canvas works to “deliver the numbers and drive the impressions and exposures that we expect as part of the plan,” says Jonnie Cahill, CMO of Heineken USA. “But at the same time, they are engaged and entrepreneurial. We moved [to Canvas] from a massive international partner, and the concern was that they were smaller. But a year into it, that was ill-founded. They give us the best of both worlds.”

The agency’s growing roster is good for all involved, says Angela Zepeda, CMO of Hyundai Motor America.

“We love that they’re getting new clients. That makes any agency even better,” she says. “It provides an opportunity for their people to work on other brands and get another fresh perspective.”

A ‘scaled entrepreneurial company’

By behaving like a challenger brand, despite having started with a blue-chip client like Hyundai, Canvas set the tone internally for a culture of nimble problem-solving.

“Clients want inventive thinking,” says Paul Woolmington, Canvas Worldwide’s CEO, who joined the agency at its founding. “I would say that we’re more of a ‘scaled entrepreneurial company’ than a challenger brand, but we’re always thinking of how we can make things better and faster for clients.”

Hyundai | Location data is the holy grail metric for automotive marketing. Partnering with data company PlaceIQ, Canvas built a predictive model that accurately forecasts foot traffic associated with car shopping, focusing on those most likely to buy a Hyundai. Media was tied to the data, resulting in a 10% increase in showroom foot traffic.

Canvas was set up with a flat structure, for example, so employees can make decisions that can cross over into other areas of the agency.

“There’s stability that holding companies can offer,” says Kristi Lind, Canvas’ chief client officer, who joined two years ago and previously ran global accounts at OMD. “But there are a lot of silos. Canvas was truly different. It wasn’t about redefining and redeploying [an existing business model]. This was built from the ground up.”

The agency also believes strongly in prioritizing the client.

“I’m not pointing anyone out, but I think that a lot of the time, holding companies make decisions that are the best thing for the company and not the best thing for the client,” says Amy Ginsberg, Canvas’ chief investment officer, who previously worked with larger media agencies. “The decisions that I make are in the best interest of the client first.”

Diversity was part of the agency’s values from the start: Canvas has more than 400 people on staff, 42% of whom come from multicultural backgrounds. The agency also understood early on that being close to key U.S. markets—Canvas opened offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and, most recently, Denver—would give it an edge. 

“The lazy thinking is that this country is homogenous,” says Woolmington. “But having these six offices spread across the U.S., with local insight, is most definitely a strategic advantage.”

Lind also notes that, based on RFIs, brands want a media partner that’s outside of the incumbents.

Continue Reading