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Ottawa ad agency McMillan merges with New Jersey-based firm

June 26, 2024
3:37 PM
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High-profile ad agency McMillan has merged with a U.S. firm as the Ottawa-based company continues to rebuild its business after emerging from creditor protection in 2020. McMillan, which was once the city’s largest advertising firm, announced this week it has combined with The S3 Agency, a New Jersey-based organization whose clients include BMW of North America. Financial terms of the transaction, which was finalized on Monday, were not disclosed. Under the agreement, McMillan will remain headquartered in Ottawa as a standalone subsidiary of S3. Gordon McMillan, who founded the company that bears his name in 1996 and served as CEO for most of its existence, becomes chief creative officer of the combined entity. McMillan told OBJ the two companies have been working together since last July, when he and S3 co-founder Denise Blasevick were introduced to each other by a mutual acquaintance. “He just called me and said, ‘I think you and Denise share culture, values and ambition. And I really think you would want to talk to her,’” McMillan said in an interview on Wednesday. “We knew within five minutes that we were on the same page and made a decision very quickly to combine on business development.” The two firms have “grown very significantly” since they began sharing leads and tapping into each other’s expertise last summer, he added. McMillan, for example, landed a record seven new accounts in the second half of 2023. The firm’s new clients include heavy hitters such as global data security giant Entrust, Bermuda-based insurance provider BF&M and multibillion-dollar industrial manufacturing conglomerate Vontier. McMillan credits the firm’s partnership with S3 for helping accelerate its growth over the past 12 months. “We knew it was working,” he said. “Once we knew we were a good fit, it was just a matter of going through some share swaps and that sort of thing.” At about 18 employees each, the firms are similar in size. But McMillan said each brings its own specific attributes to the table – his agency has “a little bit deeper bench strength on the branding side,” he explained, while S3 is known more for its marketing campaigns. The owners will eventually unveil a new name for the united entity. But McMillan, who has cautioned more than one client that rushing the rebranding process can be a recipe for disaster, says they’re in no hurry to make a final decision. “We always say, ‘Take the time to do it right,’” he noted, adding the new name will likely be unveiled this fall. “So we’re taking on our advice on that front.”

Rebuilding effort

The merger comes nearly five years after McMillan laid off most of its workforce and filed for creditor protection in late 2019. The company eventually reached a settlement with its creditors and began rehiring in 2020. McMillan concedes it hasn’t always been a smooth upward trajectory, noting that revenues dipped in early 2023 as the economy softened following a couple of years of solid increases. “I’ve been in this business long enough to know that that doesn’t have anything to do with talent or effort,” he said. “There are waves. Since (last) August, we have hit an incredible wave of new business.” McMillan will continue to focus on working with clients in fields it knows best such as health care, insurance, finance, cybersecurity and the rapidly expanding green technology industry, he added. “Greentech is super important to where we’re going. You want to be able to feel good about the companies that you’re working with.” With the merger now a done deal, McMillan said his biggest challenge is figuring out how to harness the potential of artificial intelligence to make his business more efficient. While he doesn’t believe AI is a “game-changer” for his industry, the veteran ad executive says it’s already making tasks such as creating project briefs, summarizing client meetings and formulating marketing plans a little easier. “My prognostication is that a firm like ours will be doing twice the revenue with the same number of people in a couple of years,” he said. “It’s changing fundamentally how quickly we can do things.”