As we begin the new year, Media in Canada is reaching out to media leaders to take stock of the trends that will shape the year and the opportunities that media will offer advertisers. Today, we feature Epitaph’s Scott Stewart. Check out New Year Predictions from Initiative’s Helen Galanis, Publicis’ Derek Bhopalsingh, Dentsu’s Christine Saunders, and PHD Canada head of digital Sean Dixon.

What’s one thing you hope the industry plans to start doing, one thing it needs to stop, and one thing you hope it changes in 2025?

Either start supporting Canadian media companies wherever possible in your business model to effect the changes that need to happen, or please stop talking about it. I really do hope that the future of the Canadian media economy continues to be a priority for all who operate within it, agency and marketers alike. But on behalf of the many Canadian-owned and operated companies and people in this industry that we all love and admire, and who are committed to producing great content and product every day – if it’s not a business imperative for you, your organization, or your clients, don’t be part of the narrative if you don’t have any intention to do anything about it. 

What do you think was the most seismic change of 2024?

I think the biggest shift I saw in 2024 was around increasing pressure on accountability to media investment and providing a more clear and visible picture between that investment and delivering measurable business results. There has been a very pronounced shift in clients looking to the agency and asking more questions about more accountable media opportunities, which, in turn, has really pushed agencies to focus on trying to prove value via effectiveness (not just efficiencies) at the channel level, and to be able to show how media is impacting the business bottom line.

And what is exciting to me is that not only has this put more emphasis on the need for better strategic thinking from the agency and more next-gen measurement infrastructure to validate, but it also brings to light a sensitive subject in the business, which is the need for full transparency throughout the media buying process if we are truly going to model on outcomes. 

With the pressure that’s being placed on ROAS-based campaign performance, these new requirements will also affect agencies’ commercial agreements. Media companies on the sell side who are also investing in better measurement that’s linked to driving some sort of measurable transaction will ultimately win out. We can see the transformation already taken place, especially in offline and above-the-line channels to keep up with changing client requirements. It’s certainly no coincidence that outside of digital media, we started to see other offline channels like OOH start to leverage data to demonstrate campaign impact on retail footfall and audio beta-ing in attribution, bringing the accountability that clients are looking for. 

What is your New Year’s resolution to adapt to that change in 2025?

Keep driving the market to get more depth in terms of campaign measurement and increase the importance in producing verifiable accountability to leverage media and have an impact on sales – not just media measurement to validate the currency we used to buy it. 

Personally, I want to keep pushing media as far up the value chain as possible in our clients’ minds, and that requires us going even deeper on building business-driven strategies. Based on the tools and infrastructure we have in place, we can now build better measurement plans and hold ourselves accountable to even higher standards as it pertains to using media to create verified transactions for our clients. Based on where the industry is, we simply have no reason not to be thinking this way or not focusing on producing strategy and delivery that achieve that end.