Sid Lee has undergone a years-long journey to tear down barriers between its North American offices. And it all came to a head this year when the agency decided to combine the teams across its Toronto, Montreal and U.S. offices and create one cohesive unit that would help reinforce the creative-led values of an agency that has impacted the advertising world for decades.

Founded in Montreal as Diesel by Philippe Meunier and Jean-François Bouchard, before renaming to Sid Lee – an anagram of its original moniker – the agency now also operates offices in Toronto, New York, London, Los Angeles and Seattle. This year, especially, brought major changes to the agency’s leadership as it looked to elevate its creative output and promote better teamwork across its offices.

Geneviève Boulanger has been at the centre of much of this reshuffling, having been promoted to president of the agency’s Montreal office in March as part of a stated effort to foster a new generation of leadership in Sid Lee’s Canadian offices. Later in October, agency co-founder Philippe Meunier transitioned away from his role as CEO to executive and creative chair, a position that will give him a tighter focus on the agency’s creative output – while Boulanger was also promoted into her current role as COO, where she works to connect all of Sid Lee’s offices across the continent.

The purpose of all this is to benefit clients. Take sportswear brand FILA, which introduced its “Bellisimo” campaign from Sid Lee this year. The work was designed to celebrate the brand’s heritage while launching a refreshed look for the brand globally, and is the result of collaboration across all of Sid Lee’s offices.

In Canada, that’s especially crucial between Sid Lee’s Toronto and Montreal offices. Clients like salad chain Mandy’s, insurer Belairdirect and grocery delivery service Voila are looking to reach more customers across the country, and creative minds embedded in Canada’s major markets are needed to better understand how these brands can expand their reach.

“There’s no one better than someone that lives in the GTA to generate ideas for a brand that’s actually core to the GTA market,” Boulanger says. “I’d like to believe I can come up with those ideas living in Montreal, but it has to be locally relevant.”