About North Strategic
At North Strategic we build ideas that travel across earned, digital and social media. We are storytellers, strategists, graphic designers, in-house creatives, and former journalists all in one savvy squad. Led by best-in-class strategic and creative thinking, our collaborative team offers expertise in analytics, influencer networks, brand management, PR and media relations, risk mitigation and crisis management, corporate communications and digital solutions. To help clients tell connected stories across channels, North founded Notch Video in 2012 as an extension of the North team (together called “N2”). Specializing in rich digital and social content, their nimble in-house, full-service production capabilities consistently deliver break-through creative. In 2022, North continued to expand their capabilities across creative, editorial, multicultural marketing and digital to bring to life new storytelling opportunities for their clients, and welcomed new clients on board such as Heineken, Turo, Farm Boy, World Vision, Bonterra and more.
2022 Highlights
In an industry built on change, the North team continued to invest and focus on a growth mindset, investing in one another, agency talent and new communication offerings to help existing and soon-to-be clients tell connected stories across all channels. Over the last year, North has expanded expertise and capabilities in four key areas: creative, editorial, multicultural marketing and digital.
Our in-house creative content hub Notch Video (together with North dubbed “N2”) expanded its mandate across the Publicis Groupe to bring more nimble content to life and delivered even more creative ideas and solutions to existing clients through a unique network of creators and producers. We grew our editorial strategy team to add fresh media-savvy writing and editing talent to refine messages, inform media pitching, and develop narratives that land well for clients. We added multi-lingual and diverse talent to the team to help North and our clients better understand and connect to current and emerging Canadian communities. And we never rested on learning how to evolve, adapt, learn and explore new digital channels and offerings piquing the interest of all consumers. From insight-driven social listening data to inform briefs and spot geopolitical brand risks, to full-service paid media offerings and strategic community management, this team has elevated the agency’s social and digital game to new levels.
We are also very proud of the company we keep and take pride in working with some of the most admired global and Canadian brands, including American Express, Samsung, Cadillac Fairview and Empire Company Limited. In 2022, that list continued to grow as the business welcomed new brands to its client roster, including World Vision, Heineken, Bonterra, Cherry Lane, and Farm Boy, to name a few. In 2022, we partnered with these clients on some of our biggest and most creative campaigns to date, including:
McCormick – French’s Ice Pops
North and French’s saw an opportunity to fuse French’s with the start of Canadian summer with the timely release of a limited-edition, ketchup-flavoured ice pop that ignited the conversation: Will you try this? French’s ice pops were given out for just one week in Vancouver, Toronto, and Leamington, ON. The launch saw unprecedented buzz and news pick up. Though the campaign only activated in three Canadian cities for one week, it sparked enough conversation to earn 662 stories and 113M earned impressions in Canada, more than 1B impressions in the US and global coverage in the UK, Asia, Europe earning 84.3M impressions and 126M social impressions globally.
Heineken – “The Closer”
North partnered with Heineken Canada to launch The Closer, an innovative bottle opener that shuts down your work applications when you open a bottle of Heineken with it. Together with entrepreneur and TV personality Michele Romanow, we hosted media and influencers at a private event to showcase The Closer and encourage an end to "hustle culture."
Sobeys – “Feed the Dream”
As Team Canada’s first-ever official grocer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Sobeys’ “Feed the Dream” campaign pledged $1M in grocery cards to athletes. The campaign set out to build a community of support for Team Canada and drive excitement for the Games through a multi-channel strategy of engaging teammates, driving launch coverage, digital and influencers, resulting in 924M+ total impressions.
Cadillac Fairview – “Merry Merry Music”
To kick off a holiday season of activities across Canada, Cadillac Fairview unveiled "Merry Merry Music,” a six-week holiday music program that includes daily performances from local and celebrity talent at CF Toronto Eaton Centre. Plus, each performance concludes with a magical indoor snowfall. From ideation and planning to execution, North promoted CF’s magical holiday experiences through digital storytelling and a mix of national and hyper-local media relations. North has also played a pivotal role in the on-site planning and coordination of the six weeks of musical programming.
American Express Canada – Mother & Daughter in Vegas
Amex Canada partnered with North to launch a new series of social video content focused on a mother-daughter birthday experience in Las Vegas. The series highlighted Amex’s unique travel benefits and was shot solely on mobile, a first for the brand and an execution that allowed us to bring the story to life naturally in-feed. Knowing the growing of audio content on social – especially with the explosion of channels like TikTok – we licensed a notable track for the series (“We Got The Beat” by the Go-Go’s) to further strengthen the narrative and make the content memorable and meaningful for viewers.
Website
Management Team
- Jessica Savage, CEO
- Sarah Stewart-Browne, President
- Wendie Godbout, Senior Vice President
- Danna Barak, Senior Vice President
- Nicole Grant, Senior Vice President
- Anne McGovern, Senior Vice President, Finance
- Stephanie Silver, Vice President, HR
- Lorena Cordoba, Vice President
- Valérie Dupuis, Vice-présidente
- Rob Hogan, Vice President
- Joanna Leong, Vice President
North Strategic Team Photos
North Strategic Campaign & Media Coverage Photo Gallery
Testimonials
Lauren Dineen-Duarte
Vice President & Head of Corporate Affairs & Communications, American Express Canada
“Our partners at North Strategic are a true extension of our team. Throughout our long-term partnership, we have launched some of Amex Canada's most creative and successful campaigns. From social creative and influencer to PR and corporate communications, we always trust North to bring strategic recommendations forward and execute with excellence.”
Kendra Ferguson
Sr. Manager, Public Relations, McCormick
"North Strategic has served as McCormick Canada’s partner since 2019 and continues to bring insights-driven counsel, creative thinking and best-in-class media relations. The North team is invested and embedded in our business and works as an extension of the McCormick team to drive results that breakthrough - most recently with our French's summer campaign that saw unprecedented buzz and sparked enough conversation to earn global social and news coverage with just three pop-ups in Canada.”
Alex Thomson
Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications, Canada Goose
“North Strategic has been Canada Goose’s agency of record in Canada for the last 7 years. Throughout that time, North has served as a trusted advisor, bringing forward creative strategy anchored in a genuine understanding of our brand and our communities. North has been with us and has played a critical role in our communications strategy in Canada for major brand moments from launching seasonal collections and collaborations to our first steps into China, bringing our first footwear offering to market and announcing our Sustainable Impact Strategy. The North team knows us and is a seamless extension of our own team.”
What’s Next?
North remains focused on supporting its team and clients, through shared goals and collaborative outcomes. By living our values of Focusing on Impact; Being Bold; Learning New Stuff; Growing and Evolving and; Supporting Each Other, we are confident that our client and team can partner to face any headwinds 2023 may bring. Our commitment to creating a great place to work with great people will continue to help us elevate the agency, and our talent while also delivering award-winning work and a sense of adventure on the journey.
