Backstory

Founded eight years ago by industry veteran Lisa Pasquin, who had spent almost two decades working for some of Canada’s most notable agencies, building award-winning strategies and campaigns for clients like Microsoft, Dove, McDonald’s and CBC, Craft Public Relations has quickly become one of Canada’s most-admired agencies, recognized for the quality of its work and its culture. Pasquin’s vision was to build an agency with a deep focus on its people, that could out-think, out-create and outperform bigger and better-funded competitors, and she and the team have lived up to that: sespite the agency’s relatively small size, it consistently punches well above its weight, with a client list that ranges from leading Canadian brands to global household names.

Locations

Craft’s team of 35 is based in Toronto and works across Canada. 

Performance

Craft’s fee income grew by more than 18% to just over $11 million. New briefs came from the likes of Hershey (Reese’s, Twizzlers, Jolly Rancher, Skor, Hershey chocolate), Reitmans, Atypique, Warner Bros, Firehouse Subs, Jack Daniel’s and TVO, who joined an enviable client roster including Nintendo of Canada, Restaurant Brands International (Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes), Keurig Dr Pepper (Crush, Dr Pepper, Clamato), Moosehead Breweries, GE Appliances, Canadian Tire, Maple Lodge Farms, Penguin Random House, HelloFresh and Baycrest Foundation. 

People & Culture

Craft is renowned for its dedication to nurturing top talent. The agency boasts remarkably low staff turnover rates, with only three voluntary departures in eight years—a rarity in Toronto’s agency scene. Guided by values such as empathy and collaboration, Craft's highest priority is ‘care’, which shapies its employee culture and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. DEI goals are integrated into broader business plans, reflecting Craft’s core identity. Three objectives drive their culture planning: attract and retain talent, support collective growth, and ensure sustainable value. Initiatives include equitable recruitment processes, a ‘Curiosity Fund’ for personal development, and flexible work policies like unlimited vacation and remote work options.  

Thought Leadership & Work

Craft garnered attention in 2023 by disclosing salary bands, promoting pay equity dialogue; the positive reaction boosted job applications by 30% and Pasquin's insights on salary transparency earned her recognition as a thought leader in Canadian media. Standout work last year included the Tim Hortons Boat-Thru to drive excitement around the national coffee shop chain’s line-up of new cold beverages, which drove a 10% increase in cold beverage sales at restaurants across the country. The agency also supported GE Appliances’ sponsorship of Canada Soccer in the run-up to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, amid controversy over equal pay and access to resources for the women’s team. Extra financial support was backed up with a new grassroots program to keep girls and gender-diverse players in the game. And to introduce Nintendo’s blockbuster new game ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’ to a mainstream audience, Craft engaged Zelda superfan and Netflix star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who in 24 hours rang in the game’s first sales in Toronto at a blockbuster photo op, conducted dozens of mainstream media interviews and hosted 40 of Canada’s top content creators for a hands-on experience. The partnership generated almost 120 million media impressions and helped propel the game into the record books: it became not only the fastest-selling game in the Legend of Zelda franchise, but also the fastest-selling Nintendo game in history. 

— Maja Pawinska Sims

Backstory

Moving into its 10th year, Day One has established itself as a go-to agency for major brands that need to move at the ‘speed of culture’, as they put it. That is reflected in an offering that focuses largely on consumer brands, helping them drive business impact through campaigns of micromoments across channels. That approach is supported by a youth insights arm, a thriving creative studio, and a writer’s room — all of which adds up to a formidable understanding of Gen Z and consumer audiences. 

Locations

Day One’s 174 staffers span offices in New York (HQ), Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon. 

Performance

Day One has grown by 29% over the past three years, with fee income up 5% in 2023 to $45m. Notably, Day One has become the lead creative agency for many of its clients, and has quadrupled revenue that relates to ‘always on’ social, for clients Nike, Lyft and Beam Suntory. Other long-term partnerships include American Express, Nike, Meta, Chipotle, Ferrara, Converse and Soundly — while there was new business in 2023 from Calm, e.l.fl Beauty, Lyft and Hot Pockets.

People & Culture

Co-founder Josh Rosenberg leads the firm as CEO, working alongside his fellow co-founders, agency president Brad Laney and managing partner Rob Longert. Other key leaders include chief creative officer Jamie Falkowski and people/culture/diversity EVP Fiza Gujaran, while the agency hired Britta Larson as GM of its West Coast presence last year. SVP Randi White was named DEI lead in early 2023, since when there have been new ERGs, internal programming, and DEI training. 95% of staff currently participate in at least one of the firm’s six ERGs, covering Latin, female, LGBTQ+, AAPI, Black/African and parents/caregiver communities. Day One has also focused on growing its DEI staff proportion, which now stands at 39%, including 23% of executive leadership. Day One partners with the One Club Creator Lab to mentor high-potential creators, and its workin the DEIB space also extends to influencer casting on behalf of clients — helping to identify, promote and cast 700+ diverse storytellers since 2018. 

Thought Leadership & Work

The firm’s focus on Gen Z includes a youth insights arm that provides answers within 24 hours, along with a new research studio that examined media consumption habits. Campaign highlights reflect this kind of innovation, including a SABRE-nominated effort for Chipotle, and further initiatives for  e.l.f Beauty and Converse.

— Arun Sudhaman

Backstory

Unlike many French PR firms, Hopscotch’s focus has always been resolutely global, bolstered by an increasingly broad mix of digital, events, influence, PR, and marketing services. The firm’s 800 employees operate across the Hopscotch brand (events, PR, travel, Décideurs, Congrès, luxury,  sport), and a number of specialized agencies, including Ad Crew, Alizeum, Heaven, Human To Human, Interface Tourism, Le Public Système Cinéma, Le Public Système PR, Sagarmatha, Sopexa, Sport&Co, and UniTeam. 

Locations

Based in Paris, Hopscotch now operates almost 40 offices across five continents. The agency is well-established in Continental Europe, with operations in countries like France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. It is also active in the Middle East and Africa, specifically in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. 

Performance

Hopscotch reported significant financial performance in 2023, with total PR fee income rising to €93m, a 10% increase from 2022's €86m. This was partly driven by the acquisition of influencer talent agency AD Crew, and tourism shop Interface Tourism, which expended headcount to 685 focused on PR. The agency added numerous high-profile clients in 2023, including Google, Ingenico, Valrhona, and Guerlain, joining an existing roster that features Renault, Dacia, Samsung, Accor, Relais & Châteaux, Sanofi, Danone, META, Netflix and Orange.

People & Culture

Hopscotch Groupe is highly committed to diversity and inclusion, particularly in supporting individuals with disabilities. They have committed to hiring or supporting 12 employees with disabilities in France by the end of 2024. In addition, they initiated a solidarity day in 2023, demonstrating their commitment to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment. Key leaders include Hopscotch Decideurs MD Patricia Chapelotte, Middle East director Pierrick Moizan, Sopexa EMEA MD Anne-Sophie Hottiaux, and Interface Tourism Spain MD Maria Sanchez. 

Thought Leadership & Work

Hopscotch and its agencies have created impactful campaigns for clients like LATAM Airlines and European Mushrooms, managed complex campaigns for CNIEL, a French dairy association, and generated buzz and engagement for Shiseido WASO, a skincare brand, and Les Etoiles du Sport, a sports event. The firm’s collaboration with GIFAS, an aerospace industries group, showcased its expertise in handling high-stakes, industry-specific PR challenges. In terms of thought leadership, Hopscotch has stepped up investment in three core areas: tourism and F&B (bolsted by the earlier acquisition of Sopexa); sport (three acquisitions in 2022); and AI.

— Arun Sudhaman

Backstory

Describing itself as ‘the most effective agency on the planet’, Manifest has been ambitiously purpose-driven since its inception 13 years ago, when CEO Alex Myers founded the firm with a mission to develop a creative communications agency that would “build brands that change the world”. In recent years, Manifest has evolved its offer to reflect not only an obsession with marketing analytics, but also a willingness to test and build new technology on behalf of its clients, helping to deliver sustained growth for several eye-catching brands. 

Locations

Headquartered in the UK, where it has offices in London and Manchester, Manifest’s EMEA presence also includes Stockholm, while there are offices further afield in the USA and Australia. 

Performance

Manifest’s income for 2023 was £5.9m, an impressive 13% increase over 2022, despite a challenging economic environment for consumer players. The agency also expanded its workforce to 60 from 47, adding 17 new clients including Daiya Foods, Beam Suntory (Ardray), SC Johnson (method), Reckitt Benckiser (Air Wick), Clarks, Arizona Hard, Skin Proud, Hair Proud and Crossfire Hurricane Rum. The firm’s long-term global agency of record roster also features Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, Babyganics, method, Daiya and Lysol — with several clients appointing Manifest to deliver across multiple service offerings. 

People & Culture

Manifest's culture starts with its leadership team, which, in addition to Myers, also features COO Helen Kenny and managing partner Jessica Becker, while DEI industry pioneer Julian Obubo was elevated to group brand strategist. The firm focuses considerable investment on helping team members create ‘dream careers for life’, supported by a bespoke diploma programme to upskill its employees. Manifest’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is rooted in the concept of ‘cultural competence’, developing an environment where staffers can bring their full selves to the work they produce. Manifest also achieved B-Corp certification earlier this year. 

Thought Leadership & Work

Manifest's focus on innovation includes a number of tools that aim to drive client and agency growth. The Loop reports business audience and impact across channels, while there are also proprietary platforms aimed at enhancing influencer management and thought leadership. Notable client campaigns include Buillet’s ‘Pioneer Project’, Daiya’s ‘Pizza Pyramid Scheme’, Hair Proud’s ‘A Cut Above’, and Tommee Tippee's The Social Feed initiative.

— Maja Pawinska Sims

Backstory

Kiri Sinclair founded her eponymous firm in 2009 to deliver integrated communications, including PR, digital, experiential and social media marketing, to B2B and consumer clients from an office in Hong Kong. The female-owned and operated firm has expanded to mainland China and Singapore and still operates with a core tenet of impacting business through compelling narratives, through local and regional expertise. In its 14th year, the firm continues to progress around its ‘team first’ philosophy: that putting its 36 staffers across Asia Pacific above all else leads to business success. The agency worked with clients across the property, financial services, consumer goods and services, retail, professional services, technology, travel and tourism, arts and culture, hospitality and events sectors.

Locations

Sinclair operates across APAC, with hubs in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore.

Performance

Like many firms impacted by the pandemic, Sinclair is now in the second year of its comeback, with a robust 26% increase in fee income—three-quarters of that growth organic as clients began to raise their spending again. There were 32 new clients among the 90 or so new contracts signed during the year, with new business from Asahi, Association of Pacific Rim Universities, Booking.com, DFS, Gold Coast Motor Festival 2023, Hong Kong - ASEAN Foundation, Hysan Corporation, MTR Corporation, The Londoner Macao, and W Macau – Studio City. Among the long tenured clients sticking around were Franke Coffee systems, FWD, Henderson Land, Hong Kong Baptist University, IWG, McDonald’s Hong Kong, MTR Lab, Sino Group, Sotheby's, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

People & Culture

As a female-owned and operated agency with a team that is 89% female – including a 75% female senior management team –  gender equality is in Sinclair’s DNA and the agency has a strong focus on developing the careers of female leaders and young professionals. Its supportive culture is based on a non- hierarchical structure, flexible workplace policies, a focus on diversity and inclusion, engaging learning programmes, which led to a 72%  staff retention rate in 2022, up 12% from the previous year. New senior hires included Anusuya Mitra, who joined in early 2023 as director of corporate communications from FedEx, where she led corporate comms and marketing for APAC. Carbo Yu, regional executive director, was chairperson for PRHK in 2023, championing the Hong Kong communications sector’s growth.

Thought Leadership & Work

Thought leadership has been a commitment from the start, and in 2023, Sinclair released volume five of its proprietary #ConversationsThatMatter content series that has addressed diverse themes such as content marketing, DEI communications, influencer marketing in Asia, and AI's role in the industry. In terms of client work, Sinclair introduced the Asahi Super Dry 2.0 brand  across selected APAC audiences, creating consumer touchpoints to ensure local relevancy within each market, with particular success on Instagram. For the W Macau – Studio City, meanwhile, the firm set out to win hearts and minds in the competitive hospitality market  with a strong narrative and talkable moments. Finally, for MTR Lab the firm was charged with building a sustainable and innovative brand identity as a solution provider and investor.

— Diana Marszalek