For independent agencies, growth presents a particular challenge. Expanding into new markets, adding capabilities and attracting larger clients can create opportunities, but it also risks changing the culture and creative instincts that made an agency successful in the first place.

For Courage, that tension has become increasingly relevant. This year’s Agency of the Year Gold winner has grown to 106 employees across Toronto, Montreal and New York, while adding clients including Nespresso, Sephora, Air Transat and Disney+.

But the agency’s ambitions extend beyond geographic expansion. Courage is responding to a shift in what marketers expect from their agency partners, particularly as client-side marketing departments become leaner and increasingly depend on outside expertise.

“I think this is partly a function of the way marketing teams are made up now,” says Bhatt. “They’re a lot leaner, so they need agency partners that can step up and act as thought leaders and as people who have a broader point of view on the business versus just being their creative agency partners.”

That means helping clients champion and implement ideas across their organizations, rather than simply delivering creative work. It also means building the senior leadership needed to support that broader role. When Courage opened its New York office, it spent almost a year finding the right people rather than rushing into the market.

The agency’s work demonstrates the creative instincts it wants to preserve. For KitKat, Courage turned the theft of 12 tons of chocolate in Italy into “KitKat Security Detail,” staging a presidential-style convoy in Toronto that generated 5.1B earned impressions. For KFC, it connected the Colonel’s white suit to the Winnipeg Jets’ playoff Whiteout, helping drive a 22% sales increase. And for Air Transat, it entered the World Cup conversation without sponsorship rights by comparing match ticket prices with airfares, generating more than 500M earned impressions.

The challenge now is to keep that creative instinct intact as Courage evolves into a broader business partner. Bhatt sees adaptability, rather than rigid adherence to established ways of working, as essential.

“Leading with fear won’t take you to great places,” he says. “There’s always something to be afraid of.”