2023 Winner
Media Leader of the Year
Kevin Johnson
GroupM
GroupM
GroupM is closing in on the second year of its four-year plan to become the largest
media organization in Canada.
“Ultimately, the focus is to continue to grow and get to that final destination after three years,” says CEO Kevin Johnson, pointing to the strength of its agency brands EssenceMediacom,
Mindshare and Wavemaker.
“There’s been a lot of growth within our agency but we’ve also had to think about how we can be more effective and more efficient in what we do. Some of that is building out and launching new products for our clients. Part of that has been merging brands like Essence and Mediacom,
bringing them together in Canada.”
New and expanding business are contributing to GroupM’s growth, but it’s also coming from new partnerships and new product launches, adds Johnson. One of these is the creation of a sports division, GroupM Sports & Live.
Johnson says he is very passionate about supporting Canadian media, with the agency entering agreements with publishers like the Toronto Star to commit some of its ad buying power to the company’s news outlets. GroupM is also on the forefront of sustainability initiatives such as the GroupM Carbon Calculator that provides omnichannel carbon measurement.
Earlier this year, the agency group expanded its initiative to support diverse media, asking clients to pledge 5% of their total annual media budgets to publishers and media companies owned by or serving diverse audiences. In addition to the Black-owned media that the initiative originally supported, the pledge has also been expanded to include Hispanic, AAPI and LGBTQ+ owned or focused media.
Another important initiative for Johnson has been the push for diversity across the agency
group and its leadership team.
“We believe that if we are responsible for our clients, building plans for our clients and reaching out to all Canadians, then then our workforce and our people should be representative of what the Canadian population looks like, across many backgrounds and across many spaces,” he says. “[It’s about] having women in leadership roles as well, and we have a very strong balance when it comes to that. We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to do as we look at diversity across our business.”
Johnson adds, “When we think about the initiatives that we have established, we’ve actually built out and are pursuing a Reconciliation Action Plan around the Indigenous community, and how we can help educate not only our teams internally, but our clients around this important area.”
One project that’s been really important to Johnson personally and that has given him a great deal of satisfaction is Launchpad, a program that pays for training for people with diverse backgrounds, providing them with a job right out of the gate. Providing more opportunities is part of the agency’s mission statement of making advertising better for all.
“Typically, we’ve gone to the same well in terms of university and colleges to bring people into the industry. We think that this is a really great opportunity to bring some new thinking, cultures, backgrounds and faces to this industry that has been sorely missed and needed. We have people who are being trained in programmatic in finance, in planning and buying and in sports sponsorship – it’s across the entirety of our business.”
Johnson says Launchpad was even offered to an Uber driver that he once used. “He was a new Canadian with a great education back in his home country but unable to find an opportunity here in Canada. We got him into the Launchpad program and he graduated just recently. Now he has a full-time job and more importantly, a new opportunity for a new career. And that’s just one of many stories that we can share about the type of the individuals we’re meeting and the success we’re finding.”
media organization in Canada.
“Ultimately, the focus is to continue to grow and get to that final destination after three years,” says CEO Kevin Johnson, pointing to the strength of its agency brands EssenceMediacom,
Mindshare and Wavemaker.
“There’s been a lot of growth within our agency but we’ve also had to think about how we can be more effective and more efficient in what we do. Some of that is building out and launching new products for our clients. Part of that has been merging brands like Essence and Mediacom,
bringing them together in Canada.”
New and expanding business are contributing to GroupM’s growth, but it’s also coming from new partnerships and new product launches, adds Johnson. One of these is the creation of a sports division, GroupM Sports & Live.
Johnson says he is very passionate about supporting Canadian media, with the agency entering agreements with publishers like the Toronto Star to commit some of its ad buying power to the company’s news outlets. GroupM is also on the forefront of sustainability initiatives such as the GroupM Carbon Calculator that provides omnichannel carbon measurement.
Earlier this year, the agency group expanded its initiative to support diverse media, asking clients to pledge 5% of their total annual media budgets to publishers and media companies owned by or serving diverse audiences. In addition to the Black-owned media that the initiative originally supported, the pledge has also been expanded to include Hispanic, AAPI and LGBTQ+ owned or focused media.
Another important initiative for Johnson has been the push for diversity across the agency
group and its leadership team.
“We believe that if we are responsible for our clients, building plans for our clients and reaching out to all Canadians, then then our workforce and our people should be representative of what the Canadian population looks like, across many backgrounds and across many spaces,” he says. “[It’s about] having women in leadership roles as well, and we have a very strong balance when it comes to that. We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to do as we look at diversity across our business.”
Johnson adds, “When we think about the initiatives that we have established, we’ve actually built out and are pursuing a Reconciliation Action Plan around the Indigenous community, and how we can help educate not only our teams internally, but our clients around this important area.”
One project that’s been really important to Johnson personally and that has given him a great deal of satisfaction is Launchpad, a program that pays for training for people with diverse backgrounds, providing them with a job right out of the gate. Providing more opportunities is part of the agency’s mission statement of making advertising better for all.
“Typically, we’ve gone to the same well in terms of university and colleges to bring people into the industry. We think that this is a really great opportunity to bring some new thinking, cultures, backgrounds and faces to this industry that has been sorely missed and needed. We have people who are being trained in programmatic in finance, in planning and buying and in sports sponsorship – it’s across the entirety of our business.”
Johnson says Launchpad was even offered to an Uber driver that he once used. “He was a new Canadian with a great education back in his home country but unable to find an opportunity here in Canada. We got him into the Launchpad program and he graduated just recently. Now he has a full-time job and more importantly, a new opportunity for a new career. And that’s just one of many stories that we can share about the type of the individuals we’re meeting and the success we’re finding.”