Creativity is becoming one of the few competitive advantages that media agencies can still call their own. As technology makes sophisticated planning and execution tools increasingly accessible, Initiative Canada is betting that the people and culture behind those tools will matter more than ever.

That philosophy helped the agency earn Bronze in Media Agency of the Year in 2026, following a period of new-business momentum that included 11 consecutive pitch wins over 18 months, eight of them entirely local.

CEO Helen Galanis attributes much of that success to a deliberate investment in talent and creative craft. She remains personally involved in every hire, while the agency emphasizes training, inspiration and recognition to encourage employees to produce the strongest work of their careers.

That commitment has also shaped Initiative's capabilities. Its Creative Partnerships team, led by VP Chris Gairdner, focuses on finding unconventional ways for brands to connect with audiences, often blurring the traditional boundaries between media and creative.

“We’ve been told before by clients that we kind of blur the lines between creative and media, and for us that’s quite intentional,” says Gairdner. “We don’t see such a distinction, and certainly consumers don’t see a distinction either.”

The approach is evident in Initiative's work. For Destination Canada, “Canada, Naturally” challenged conventional tourism imagery by celebrating everyday Canadian experiences, helping generate more than 85,000 incremental visitors and an estimated $101M in tourism revenue. For Hellmann's, the agency turned Toronto's hot dog carts into a branded media network during the FIFA World Cup. And for Destination Toronto, it helped transform salvaged city materials and sounds into a robotic percussion instrument, culminating in a live performance with rapper Shad.

Each project demonstrates how the choice of medium can become as important as the message itself.

As Initiative adjusts to becoming part of Omnicom following its merger with IPG, Galanis wants to preserve the culture that has driven its recent success while taking advantage of the network's expanded capabilities.

“We know that with AI and tech, that is going to allow our industry to get to average faster. So, differentiation to us is going to come from what’s harder to replicate: people, culture and the behaviours that we actively condition.”