2021 Winner
Media Leader of the Year
Shelley Smit
UM
UM
With an eye to building long-term business success, Shelley Smit, CEO, UM Canada, was championing UM’s strategic journey to drive greater efficiency and agility into its structure and processes well before the pandemic. Reimagining a media business and mobilizing change through the relentless pace of digital transformation is challenging at the best of times, but add the uncertainty of the pandemic and it turns into mission improbable, unless an unstoppable force like Shelley is at the helm.
Shelley has cultivated UM’s forward momentum to not only navigate uncertain times but emerge as a leader on the global stage, the top Canadian agency on the 2020 WARC Effectiveness Rankings, and part of the world’s elite top 10. In the last year, Shelley has brought the agency to historical highs through new business wins and industry awards by focusing on Futureproofing UM’s people, community, and clients.
Channelling her focus on people, Shelley has inspired the agency’s development and investment in their talent. Last year, Shelley performed a company-wide transformational process as part of her vision to reimagine the way UM goes to market. Her goal: to empower people to deliver on business outcomes rather than outdated media metrics and processes. The significant undertaking saw UM change every job description and re-engineer how it hires and retains great talent. Planning teams refocused on strategy, innovation, creativity and full-funnel planning, and UM’s Decision Sciences team expanded to ensure maximum cross-platform performance, data integration and eCommerce capabilities. Shelley also invested in an ambitious training program that transforms buyers into integrated investment professionals who are better equipped to solve their clients’ strategic business challenges. She continues to promote the “BETTER U” development program which encourages UM team members to strengthen their professional and personal career development.
Shelley believes that creating a workplace culture with well-rounded and fulfilled employees makes for better thinkers and leaders and, ultimately, a stronger, happier agency team. Along with the pandemic came the test of building and maintaining an inspiring and supportive remote work culture. Shelley’s solution has been a multipronged approach that includes daily/weekly “Just Checking-In” communications, a bi-weekly Curiosity Café, which celebrates personal achievements and great work, a Curiosity Connects program which books 30-minute sessions between random people across the company, as well as a peer-to-peer recognition initiative called “BETTER THANK U.”
Championing volunteerism also plays a vital role in fostering this culture. Shelley and the UM team contribute their time to local communities through UM’s annual corporate social responsibility initiative “Impact Day” and regularly perform pro bono work, including career speaking engagements at local school boards. In 2020 and 2021, they partnered with BIPOC-owned businesses offering free media consulting to help them optimize their media spend while sourcing over $100,000 worth of media to support Canadian BIPOC-owned small businesses. With an unwavering commitment to diversity, equity, and belonging, Shelley also plays an active role in the Mediabrands’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy as chair of the Community Pillar on the network-wide DEI Committee.
Her success in building a strong, happy work culture is directly reflected in UM’s retention rates. Over 43% of UM’s employees have been at the agency for over five years and their turnover rate is under 10%, well below the industry average of 30%.
Shelley believes that there is a rich growth opportunity for UM’s clients and key stakeholders to build enduring brands that stand the test of time. In the course of redesigning a new model for the “media agency of the future,” she has developed innovative planning tools and operating approaches to deliver on that promise. Known as Growth Accelerator, Consumer Demand Forecaster, 3C Flow, Remix Culture, and Media Futurecaster, these resources help clients manoeuvre through critical business intel from identifying growth opportunities and anticipating changes in consumer demand to informing investment decisions in media and content planning.
The numbers speak volumes about Shelley’s ability to position her clients to lead into the future and UM’s ability to understand and consistently exceed client expectations. In the last 2 years, client sentiment for UM has consistently increased. UM earned an 8.8 referral score in the last quarterly tracking, outperforming the Canadian industry norm of 7.8.
Shelley’s efforts have resulted in continuous and resounding industry accolades and recognition. UM Canada dominated the RECMA rankings in 2020 scoring #1 in Vitality and a “Dominant” classification. As well, they emerged among RECMA’s top media agencies globally, ranking 16th among the world’s most competitive agencies to face in a pitch and the #1 media agency in Canada to make this list. The WARC Effectiveness Rankings for 2020 listed UM at #8 Globally for media effectiveness, the only Canadian shop to make it into the top 50. Forrester listed UM as their 2020 Top Digital & Tech leader and Strategy’s Creative Report Card rated UM Canada the highest-ranking media agency on the report. UM has racked up 150 industry awards on the local and international stage since 2019, most notably Strategy’s Media Agency of the Year and Media Innovation Awards, Cannes Lions, CLIO Awards, and the Festival of Media Awards Global.
At a time when many clients were re-evaluating their agency relationships, UM was able to attract new business based on the agency’s unique “Futureproof” approach. UM’s win rate in new business in 2021 alone is an impressive 75% with eight significant new business wins including clients such as Nestlé, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Enterprise, and HelloFresh.
Shelley has cultivated UM’s forward momentum to not only navigate uncertain times but emerge as a leader on the global stage, the top Canadian agency on the 2020 WARC Effectiveness Rankings, and part of the world’s elite top 10. In the last year, Shelley has brought the agency to historical highs through new business wins and industry awards by focusing on Futureproofing UM’s people, community, and clients.
Channelling her focus on people, Shelley has inspired the agency’s development and investment in their talent. Last year, Shelley performed a company-wide transformational process as part of her vision to reimagine the way UM goes to market. Her goal: to empower people to deliver on business outcomes rather than outdated media metrics and processes. The significant undertaking saw UM change every job description and re-engineer how it hires and retains great talent. Planning teams refocused on strategy, innovation, creativity and full-funnel planning, and UM’s Decision Sciences team expanded to ensure maximum cross-platform performance, data integration and eCommerce capabilities. Shelley also invested in an ambitious training program that transforms buyers into integrated investment professionals who are better equipped to solve their clients’ strategic business challenges. She continues to promote the “BETTER U” development program which encourages UM team members to strengthen their professional and personal career development.
Shelley believes that creating a workplace culture with well-rounded and fulfilled employees makes for better thinkers and leaders and, ultimately, a stronger, happier agency team. Along with the pandemic came the test of building and maintaining an inspiring and supportive remote work culture. Shelley’s solution has been a multipronged approach that includes daily/weekly “Just Checking-In” communications, a bi-weekly Curiosity Café, which celebrates personal achievements and great work, a Curiosity Connects program which books 30-minute sessions between random people across the company, as well as a peer-to-peer recognition initiative called “BETTER THANK U.”
Championing volunteerism also plays a vital role in fostering this culture. Shelley and the UM team contribute their time to local communities through UM’s annual corporate social responsibility initiative “Impact Day” and regularly perform pro bono work, including career speaking engagements at local school boards. In 2020 and 2021, they partnered with BIPOC-owned businesses offering free media consulting to help them optimize their media spend while sourcing over $100,000 worth of media to support Canadian BIPOC-owned small businesses. With an unwavering commitment to diversity, equity, and belonging, Shelley also plays an active role in the Mediabrands’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy as chair of the Community Pillar on the network-wide DEI Committee.
Her success in building a strong, happy work culture is directly reflected in UM’s retention rates. Over 43% of UM’s employees have been at the agency for over five years and their turnover rate is under 10%, well below the industry average of 30%.
Shelley believes that there is a rich growth opportunity for UM’s clients and key stakeholders to build enduring brands that stand the test of time. In the course of redesigning a new model for the “media agency of the future,” she has developed innovative planning tools and operating approaches to deliver on that promise. Known as Growth Accelerator, Consumer Demand Forecaster, 3C Flow, Remix Culture, and Media Futurecaster, these resources help clients manoeuvre through critical business intel from identifying growth opportunities and anticipating changes in consumer demand to informing investment decisions in media and content planning.
The numbers speak volumes about Shelley’s ability to position her clients to lead into the future and UM’s ability to understand and consistently exceed client expectations. In the last 2 years, client sentiment for UM has consistently increased. UM earned an 8.8 referral score in the last quarterly tracking, outperforming the Canadian industry norm of 7.8.
Shelley’s efforts have resulted in continuous and resounding industry accolades and recognition. UM Canada dominated the RECMA rankings in 2020 scoring #1 in Vitality and a “Dominant” classification. As well, they emerged among RECMA’s top media agencies globally, ranking 16th among the world’s most competitive agencies to face in a pitch and the #1 media agency in Canada to make this list. The WARC Effectiveness Rankings for 2020 listed UM at #8 Globally for media effectiveness, the only Canadian shop to make it into the top 50. Forrester listed UM as their 2020 Top Digital & Tech leader and Strategy’s Creative Report Card rated UM Canada the highest-ranking media agency on the report. UM has racked up 150 industry awards on the local and international stage since 2019, most notably Strategy’s Media Agency of the Year and Media Innovation Awards, Cannes Lions, CLIO Awards, and the Festival of Media Awards Global.
At a time when many clients were re-evaluating their agency relationships, UM was able to attract new business based on the agency’s unique “Futureproof” approach. UM’s win rate in new business in 2021 alone is an impressive 75% with eight significant new business wins including clients such as Nestlé, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Enterprise, and HelloFresh.