From launching a global platform that provides employees with access to cutting-edge AI tools, to working with Acxiom to target addressable audiences across media and creative, FCB takes future-proofing seriously.

But what is FCB? A digital shop? A CRM company? A shopper marketing firm? “We refer to ourselves as a creative agency,” says CEO Bryan Kane. “To be honest, I cringe when clients call us their advertising partner. It’s too limiting. It’s better to tell us what problem you’re trying to solve and let us come back with ways to solve it. That could be a product innovation or an experience, or something that doesn’t look like an ad at all.”

Semantics aside, FCB continues to do work that gets the attention of major brands, including SickKids Foundation, Scotties and Mazda, all of which began working with FCB in the last year. But it could also be a result of the agency’s knack for connecting with Gen Z and millennials via creative commerce.

For instance, take BMO’s much-celebrated “NXT NXT LVL” campaign, which won a Grand Prix at this year’s Strategy Awards. Gaming, for some, is replacing traditional advertising media as it becomes a significant entertainment channel for millennials and Gen Z. BMO’s approach was to use gaming as a portal to authentically connect with the young adult community.

So, in 2022, it set up a Twitch channel and found an employee who happened to be a skilled gamer to discuss financial topics with users.

This year, FCB expanded the campaign to introduce gamer handles, so that younger users – who have shown to be more hesitant when it comes to talking about money for fear of looking uninformed – could bank anonymously on the channel.

And for Lotto Max, FCB created “The Lotto Max Thrift Drop” (in partnership with Kevin Leonel who specializes in designing upcycled clothing) to encourage a more digitally native audience to engage with OLG. The designer helped create a selection of $200 hoodies, jackets and shirts, with each piece containing seven numbers that double as lottery numbers.

To generate ideas that bridge online and offline commerce, FCB borrows from practices normally associated with the tech world.