“We see a world where customers no longer consider experiences as online or offline, but focus on the quality of interactions they have with brands. Online behavior has fragmented into nearly infinite touchpoints — yet each one can be incredibly important in the total customer experience.”
–Dianne Wilkins, CEO
Critical Mass may be a “purely digital” agency, but that doesn’t mean their approach is simplistic. The agency has created multiple special divisions to keep up with major trends in the industry: one to track distribution of campaigns across multiple digital touchpoints, another focused on consumers’ feedback and a third concentrating on analytics.
Year founded: 1995
Holding company: 53% owned by Omnicom
Headquarters: Calgary, Alberta
Number of offices: 7
Web site: www.criticalmass.com
Major disciplines: Strategy, research, multichannel measurement, analytics, user experience / interaction design, social media activation, video syndication & aggregation, blogging, reviews, community, display and behavioral planning, search, mobile, e-mail and digital campaign management, applications and web development, e-commerce, technology services
Key accounts: Rolex, Global Hyatt, P&G, Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, Moen, NASA
Current agency challenges: “Firstly, the economic situation is putting pressure and uncertainty on marketing budgets. Secondly, all types of agencies are now jostling for what used to be the digital agency’s domain,” says Wilkins. “We think the former is certainly accelerating the latter – digital budgets are being impacted significantly less than some other marketing channels, so everybody wants to be there.”
