Ottawa’s Ascribe Marketing Inc. has been acquired by full-service agency WebMarketers in a strategic move to tap into a broader client base.
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Ottawa’s Ascribe Marketing Inc. has been acquired by full-service agency WebMarketers in a strategic move to tap into a broader client base.
“There’s still a market for Ascribe’s work, it’s just not as much of a market for just Ascribe’s work,” Alex Dorward, CEO and co-owner of Ascribe, told OBJ this week. “Ascribe’s a specialist and it was clear that it needed to be part of a larger agency that had numerous specialists (to compete).”
Since 2007, Ascribe has offered professional content writing services and produced annual reports, blogs, white papers and other types of written copy for government departments, Crown corporations and private-sector organizations. Its clients have included Nokia, Bell Canada, Enercare and the National Research Council of Canada.
In 2021, the firm was acquired by a new ownership group that included Dorward and majority owner Michael Aiello.
Now, the firm has been acquired again, this time by WebMarketers, an Ottawa-based full-service agency offering digital marketing services, web design and development, video and animation production, and AI consulting. Both Dorward and Aiello will have shareholder positions with the company.
In a press release, WebMarketers’s CEO and co-founder Kyle Smendziuk said that the demand for strategic content and key messaging services is growing, even in the face of AI.
"There's no shortage of content being produced right now — but there is a growing shortage of content worth reading," he said. "AI can generate copy from a database, but it can't sit across from a client, ask the right questions and pull out the messaging that actually differentiates their business. That requires real expertise and it's exactly what Ascribe has been doing for nearly two decades."
According to Dorward — who began working with WebMarketers in a fractional capacity as chief operating officer a year ago — the partnership is the right fit for both companies and the timing is ideal.
“The trend I’ve been seeing over the last couple of years is that, because AI can do stuff, but not necessarily do it amazingly or do everything, companies are more so looking for a one‑stop shop, but not of generalists. They want a one‑stop shop with specialists,” he said.
“Now WebMarketers has those capabilities to offer specialists across pretty well all marketing channels. So (clients) know they can just go to one agency and get pretty well everything they need.”
In the past, Dorward said clients turned to an “agency of record” as a one-stop shop for all their marketing needs. But as marketing became more technical, hiring multiple smaller firms for different channels became the standard.
Now, with marketing budgets shrinking, he said clients want a more economical option.
“Depending on the breadth and scope of what their needs are, it actually is more affordable to hire a full‑service agency,” said Dorward. “For small and medium‑sized businesses, it is objectively cheaper to go with an agency for broad‑scoped marketing endeavours.”
For a small firm like Ascribe, which specializes in producing written content, Dorward said it’s increasingly easy for potential clients to turn to AI. But as part of a larger company, Dorward said the firm is more likely to gain new clients by funnelling them through other services.
“With WebMarketers, there are people to sell new business for Ascribe, but really where the growth is is through cross-selling,” he said. “If they say (to a client), ‘We’re going to do a website for you. Do you want to write your own web copy?’ the answer is probably no. So they say, ‘Okay, Ascribe will do the web copy for you.’ Selling something additionally is that much easier. If you’re doing the designs and the build, it makes sense that you do the copy as well.”
Though Ascribe will retain the same branding and team, on the leadership side, Dorward said WebMarketers’s CEO and co-founder Kyle Smendziuk will be the most senior executive.
In addition to providing new growth opportunities for Ascribe, Dorward said it’s an opportunity for him to focus more on his own strengths.
“I’m a self‑described non‑salesperson. I’m a business operator, not a business scaler, and that is obviously a bit of a challenge when running a business,” he said. “My mindset’s not a growth mindset, so Kyle brings that growth mindset. Now there’s a sales team that’s going to help push sales for Ascribe. For me, I get to focus more on what I actually am most confident at, which is operating the business.”
