2023 Winner
Media Leader of the Year
Cathy Collier
OMD
OMD
OMD Canada has landed at the top of the RECMA and COMvergece rankings for more than 12 years – not-so-coincidentally the same amount of time Cathy Collier has been its CEO.
“Everyone is always gunning for the number one spot. It really is what our business is about. Staying as the top agency takes significant innovation, bold decisions, and vision which obviously leads naturally to our clients,” says Collier. “Our clients’ average tenure is close to nine years. That is also market leading, and a testament to the desire baked into OMD Canada, for us to be continually evolving.”
The agency’s client roster is a balance between half local and half global business. This includes significant new business wins this past year, such as the Clorox, Best Buy and Under Armour
(led globally) accounts.
Collier says success really starts with a pride in what the agency is doing, in addition to the depth and commitment of highly skilled, unique thinkers. This year she added to the team with the hire of Meredith Menkes as managing director, and Jessica Dick, business director.
The strategy to attract and build stronger teams started about a year-and-a-half ago when OMD Canada decided to create efficiencies through automation and a distributed workforce. Some tasks, such as billing, were moved offshore. The agency has been investing the savings from that move into its people. Salary bands were raised and changes were made to improve work-life balance. Friday afternoons are now meeting-free so people can finish projects before the weekend and sick days have been redefined, allowing employees to take unlimited “wellness days” to ensure they are
well in mind and body.
“I think, for me, one of the biggest changes I’ve made, and our company has made, is to communicate much better,” says Collier. “We have so much transparent communication, including Ask Me Anything sessions in our town hall. I write an every-two-week, all-staff email talking about everything we’re doing. We have what we call a reverse board of 20 people nominated across the company that meet once a month. I get their feedback on how we can make coming back to the office more attractive.”
Some of the results can be seen in its recent annual employee survey that came back with
engagement scores up 10%.
In order to continue leading the industry, Collier has been driving constant change. Over the last couple of years, OMD Canada has invested in research around attention as a measurement metric. The research was done with Amplified Intelligence using eye tracking to measure attention
while people view advertising.
“We have a marketing, or considered marketing orchestration platform called Omni and we’ve actually built attention as a measure for media channel selection into Omni,” says Collier. “We’ve taken all of that learning and put it into [the platform], which allows us to continue leading within this theory in a challenging marketplace where we’re seeing more and more fragmentation.
We need to do things differently.”
In addition to building out a stronger team and leading new measurement initiatives, Collier has also continued to evolve the media agency’s capabilities, notably in the areas of branded content, influencer marketing and ecommerce. “When you think of OMD, I want them to think fast forward, that we are continuing to move very, very quickly into the future, and that we have a great base and framework. We’re looking forward to having new talent, new skills, new processes that will continue to
lead our clients with success.”
“Everyone is always gunning for the number one spot. It really is what our business is about. Staying as the top agency takes significant innovation, bold decisions, and vision which obviously leads naturally to our clients,” says Collier. “Our clients’ average tenure is close to nine years. That is also market leading, and a testament to the desire baked into OMD Canada, for us to be continually evolving.”
The agency’s client roster is a balance between half local and half global business. This includes significant new business wins this past year, such as the Clorox, Best Buy and Under Armour
(led globally) accounts.
Collier says success really starts with a pride in what the agency is doing, in addition to the depth and commitment of highly skilled, unique thinkers. This year she added to the team with the hire of Meredith Menkes as managing director, and Jessica Dick, business director.
The strategy to attract and build stronger teams started about a year-and-a-half ago when OMD Canada decided to create efficiencies through automation and a distributed workforce. Some tasks, such as billing, were moved offshore. The agency has been investing the savings from that move into its people. Salary bands were raised and changes were made to improve work-life balance. Friday afternoons are now meeting-free so people can finish projects before the weekend and sick days have been redefined, allowing employees to take unlimited “wellness days” to ensure they are
well in mind and body.
“I think, for me, one of the biggest changes I’ve made, and our company has made, is to communicate much better,” says Collier. “We have so much transparent communication, including Ask Me Anything sessions in our town hall. I write an every-two-week, all-staff email talking about everything we’re doing. We have what we call a reverse board of 20 people nominated across the company that meet once a month. I get their feedback on how we can make coming back to the office more attractive.”
Some of the results can be seen in its recent annual employee survey that came back with
engagement scores up 10%.
In order to continue leading the industry, Collier has been driving constant change. Over the last couple of years, OMD Canada has invested in research around attention as a measurement metric. The research was done with Amplified Intelligence using eye tracking to measure attention
while people view advertising.
“We have a marketing, or considered marketing orchestration platform called Omni and we’ve actually built attention as a measure for media channel selection into Omni,” says Collier. “We’ve taken all of that learning and put it into [the platform], which allows us to continue leading within this theory in a challenging marketplace where we’re seeing more and more fragmentation.
We need to do things differently.”
In addition to building out a stronger team and leading new measurement initiatives, Collier has also continued to evolve the media agency’s capabilities, notably in the areas of branded content, influencer marketing and ecommerce. “When you think of OMD, I want them to think fast forward, that we are continuing to move very, very quickly into the future, and that we have a great base and framework. We’re looking forward to having new talent, new skills, new processes that will continue to
lead our clients with success.”