In the face of disruptions like artificial intelligence, some of Ottawa’s long-established advertising firms are leaning into strategy and human judgment to reassert their value to clients.
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In the face of disruptions like artificial intelligence, some of Ottawa’s long-established advertising firms are leaning into strategy and human judgment to reassert their value to clients.
Challenges in the sector have already contributed to the closure of local agencies recently. McMillan, an Ottawa-based company, filed for bankruptcy in July, two years after it was acquired by New Jersey-based firm The S3 Agency in 2024. Longstanding Ottawa ad agency Blackiron also filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
AI is part of the challenge. At Ottawa marketing and advertising agency Mediaplus Advertising, president and creative director Don Masters said the technology has started making its way into processes, but only in the very early stages.
“We are using AI in early-stage concept development for clients,” he said. “Doing things like putting together storyboards for video ads, developing a visual approach for static creatives for presentations of content to clients. We are not using it in the finished product. We still go out and shoot video and take pictures to use in the work we’re doing.”
According to Masters, AI has applied pressure on agencies by creating a new kind of competitor. He said the technology has the potential to be a risk to agencies if companies start using it to create their own ads and messaging, instead of hiring third-party firms.
At the same time, he said, long-term clients are sticking with their advertising partners and putting more value in their expertise and originality.
“You understand their business, their audiences,” he said. “You understand the media and how it works and how it’s changing. You have the creative talent to come up with original ideas that, so far, AI has not proven to be good at developing.”
For Ottawa agencies in particular, the client pool remains strong. Masters said most local agencies, including Mediaplus, work extensively with non-profit and public-sector clients.
“Fortunately, the federal government has really streamlined the process and made it less onerous on agencies,” he said. “The government still relies on agencies, whether it's through one-time contracts or standing offer agreements.”
Paired with economic uncertainty, Tony Lyons said the introduction of AI in the past few years has meant challenges for his company and the industry at large.
“So it's been a tough go,” said Lyons, who is owner, president and chief creative officer at Ottawa firm Alphabet Creative.
“I mean, if I'm being honest, I think it's been a tough go for all businesses, but particularly in the marketing and advertising space it's been difficult. There's a lot more options for people. They can self-serve their ad platforms on social media if you have somebody who's at all technically inclined. You can do a lot of things yourself, but that's just the reality.”
In response to the changing climate, Lyons said the way agencies work is being flipped upside-down. But it’s a change that he said has its advantages.
“The way the industry needs to think about it is that we used to create a big idea and then we'd get paid to replicate that big idea over and over and over again and assemble those campaigns in a million different little ad concepts,” he said. “Those days are gone. Our value is in creating the idea and having taste and judgment to keep our clients' brand safe and keep them empathetic and resonant with the people we want them to engage with.”
Lyons added that the shift to AI is more unsettling for people than previous technological revolutions.
“(AI is) not trying to change labour, it’s trying to replace labour; it’s trying to replace thinking and I think that is very deeply disturbing to people and I understand why,” he said.
Still, he said agencies like his are finding ways to employ AI without compromising their values.
“What we’ve created is our AI platform where we input all the stories and all the humanity and now the robot is able to replicate the things we’ve done,” he said. “It’s not creating net new things and it’s not going off onto the internet and inventing things. It’s working in a walled garden of what that certain brand is supposed to be about and it can do it quite well.”
He added that his company, and most other agencies, are unlikely to fully adopt AI the way other sectors have because the technology isn’t capable of doing what humans can do.
“The creators are going to win,” he said. “Creative people will win in this environment because the machine is not creative. It’s a word-guessing machine and it is a replicator. It is not a creator.”
