Ten years ago, Lindsay Mattick and Amanda Alvaro looked at the PR industry and saw a problem nobody was solving: Great ideas were getting slowed down by layers of bureaucracy and structures that rewarded specialization over collaboration. Pomp & Circumstance was their answer.
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the indie agency launched canned beverage Pomp as a nod to its first-ever client, Bacardi.
“Consumers experience brands as a single story,” says Mattick, who serves as chief creative officer. “[But] too often, agencies were organized into rigid silos: PR over here, social over there, creative somewhere else.”
Over the past decade, the Toronto-based independent agency has evolved from a boutique PR shop into a full-service creative agency with nearly 50 employees, offering expertise across earned media, influencer marketing, social strategy, content creation, experiential and creative production. Along the way, Pomp & Circumstance has amassed a roster of globally renowned brands, consecutively earning a spot on The Globe and Mail’s Top Growing Companies list for the past five years. Running alongside Pomp & Circumstance, sister agency Bonus Track focuses on content, social media and creator-led storytelling. Together, they provide an integrated offering built around one founding belief: Brands earn attention when they bring their own truth to a cultural moment.
For Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Pomp hired Canadian TV personality and food expert Antoni Porowski to bring a taste of Italy home.
“The channels have expanded, but the mission hasn’t: We help brands earn attention in meaningful ways,” Mattick says. “So many ideas that make it into our client presentations are a direct result of our team’s global experiences, observing what is shaping culture in real time.”
For Boursin, Pomp unlocked the cultural momentum of Emily in Paris by building a pop-up Parisian bistro that lets fans eat and drink inside the world of the show.
For Boursin, Pomp recently launched a ski-through tasting lounge, a Parisian pop-up dining experience set in the world of Emily in Paris, and a European-inspired cheese window in Montreal.
The brief for Asahi Super Dry called for something disruptive and hyper-local. Pomp’s answer was a speakeasy-style dry cleaner pop-up that brought a taste of Tokyo’s nightlife to Canadian neighbourhoods. Drawing inspiration from the speakeasy culture of some of the world’s best bars in New York City, Tokyo and beyond, this activation is an example of the kind of cross-pollination Pomp actively cultivates.
Asahi Super Dry’s speakeasy dry cleaner pop-up brought Tokyo nightlife to neighbourhoods across Canada.
“So many ideas that make it into our client presentations are a direct result of our team’s global experiences, observing what is shaping culture in real time,” Mattick says.
Another Boursin activation called “Little Window” – a large green wall with a small service opening offering complimentary cheese boards to be enjoyed al fresco – came from partner, SVP and creative director Rob Loschiavo’s trip to Florence, Italy, where wine is served through small “buchette del vino” windows in the walls of historic buildings. To encourage more of this kind of international trend spotting, the agency sends its Pomp Postcard Award employee of the year on a trip of their choice and asks them to bring ideas back to the shop.
Pomp’s “Skip to the Good Part” work with Skip included PR for a Seth Rogen creative spot.
While Pomp’s recent work with Skip ranges from an ad-supporting PR campaign to a Loblaw partnership and a Seth Rogen creative spot, these diverse executions share a singular concept, “Skip to the Good Part,” which acts as a north star across every touchpoint. By contrast, the General Motors portfolio – spanning Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC – demands another kind of discipline to keep the distinct brand identities from flattening into one generic story. Pomp’s approach is to invest heavilycin the upfront work for each brand. “Cadillac lives in the world of luxury; GMC is all about capability; Buick wants to connect with up-and-coming creatives,” Mattick says. “There are four fundamentally different strategies, even though they all sit under the same parent.”
Pomp’s work with the General Motors portfolio demands upfront attention to keep the four distinct brand identities from flattening into one generic storyline.
To mark its 10th anniversary, the agency launched a canned cherry vodka spritz beverage aptly named Pomp. The product represents a full-circle moment, as Bacardi was Pomp’s first anchor client. “It’s a nod to taking chances, dreaming big, and never forgetting the hustle that got us here,” Mattick says.
“Ten years in, what we’re most proud of is not simply that we’ve remained independent, but that we’ve used that independence to build something distinctive and alive. We’ve been able to evolve the business when we saw opportunities, invest in new capabilities when clients needed them, and take creative risks without waiting for permission from a head office.”
CONTACT:
Erika Ceddia
Partner and SVP, growth and client service
erika@pomppr.com
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