Author: citizen

In a world where narratives can move from a whisper to a headline in hours, managing a brand’s reputation on gut instinct alone is a liability. When crises take shape in real time, reacting after the fact is simply too late.

To stay ahead, modern reputation management demands a new playbook: blending old-school intuition with new-school data intelligence. Reading the room isn’t enough anymore. We have to catch the quiet signals before they get loud, and use actual data to make the call.

Two Citizen leaders, Suran Ravi, SVP Applied Intelligence & Studio, and Aly Sturm, SVP and Reputation+ lead, discuss how Citizen and clients are navigating this shift.

How are you seeing clients leverage (or not leverage) proactive reputation management right now?

SURAN: Too often, clients wait until an issue becomes a full-blown crisis before investing in their communications strategy. It’s the equivalent of buying rain boots only after the storm hits. As an industry, we need to do a better job demonstrating that proactive reputation management is actually a form of risk mitigation. By quantifying how early preparation protects enterprise value and prevents revenue degradation, we can shift the conversation from communications being a reactive expense to a critical, proactive investment.

ALY: Clients increasingly realize the next crisis is a matter of when, not if. Yet, many still lack formal rapid-response frameworks and would be forced to scramble in real time. The most resilient companies take a proactive approach, combining stakeholder input with data-driven risk assessments. Often, what internal teams perceive as the biggest threat differs completely from what the data reveals. The strongest programs bridge this gap by pairing signals with strategy – using data to identify actual vulnerabilities, and governance to manage them before they escalate.

In your experience working with leaders client side, what have you found has kept them from addressing intelligence gaps or investing in gathering the right signals to bolster their strategies?

SURAN: Almost every comms team today is sitting on a wealth of data. The challenge isn’t getting the data – it’s unlocking its value. Too often, teams miss out on opportunities simply because the organization’s Data & Analytics talent is siloed in other departments. True intelligence requires outfitting comms teams with embedded analytical talent who actually understand the nuances of our industry. When you put them in the mix rather than parking them elsewhere, everything changes. That’s exactly how we operate at Citizen; our pod structure allows our strategists and comms consultants to work side-by-side with our applied intelligence team in a flywheel motion where the work and counsel is constantly being shaped by relevant strategic insights that can only be unlocked through this level of thoughtful integration.

Are we optimizing for control when we should be optimizing for response?

ALY: Absolutely. In our industry, we often confuse collecting data with having control. We build dashboards and assume that seeing the landscape means we are ready for a crisis. But data only gives you the proof – it tells you what is happening. Without the process – the governance, the clear escalation paths, and the rapid-response frameworks – you aren’t actually prepared to do anything about it. You can have perfect visibility into what the market is doing, but if you don’t have the internal process to act on it, you’re just watching it happen. Optimizing for response means pairing your intelligence with a system that can actually turn insights into immediate action.

Are we relying too heavily on dashboards and missing what actually matters? Have we confused monitoring with actual strategy?

SURAN: I am not sure how this came about but comms teams love nothing more than having a dashboard that was built for them. How important is it to have one? Very. What value does it provide? Marginal. Seeing what’s happening seems to be a prerequisite for “being prepared” which I understand to a degree – but comms dashboards are optimized for the wrong signals. If you can’t look at a dashboard and make a decision in a few minutes, it’s not serving its purpose. Having the KPIs or building the right ones to make decisions is valuable, but that’s not about a dashboard. You do that work outside of the dashboard, and should you need that KPI accessible on-demand you can embed it into your dashboard with the appropriate data freshness set to ensure the KPI is relevant when you need to make decisions using it.

How do you use specific data points to convince leadership that “doing nothing” is actually the right move sometimes?

ALY: To convince leadership that strategic silence is the right move, you have to prove that reacting will actually create the crisis they are trying to avoid. Executives naturally have a bias for action, but when you use data to prove an issue is isolated to a vocal minority or a closed echo chamber, you reframe ‘doing nothing’ as ‘refusing to give the issue oxygen.’ You show them that an official corporate response won’t kill the story – it will only legitimize the criticism and introduce the threat to a broader audience that otherwise never would have seen it.

We are officially in the post social media era. What was once a set of channels connecting you with your friends has been fully replaced by a world of strangers and AI slop. And you don’t need a crystal ball to see how the internet itself will soon be nearly all machine-made content. Meanwhile, brands are still out here playing the same game where content is king. 

It’s not hard to see why this is not a winning formula anymore. We’ve gone from connection to consumption. What was once about keeping people engaged and connected has turned into something even simpler… keep people scrolling. 

For the platforms the benefit of your time online is the creation of endless data points, with every view, swipe, or tap being sold to the highest bidder. 

But for brands? What’s the value in the endless content we make?

A quick observation: A completed 15-second view of your video equates to an average of 0.08% of a person’s daily phone time.

While the practice of advertising through reach and frequency, engineering breakthrough creative, and relevant messaging against owned audiences is still an incredible value, many brands lack the platform to maximize the value of the creative firehose they’ve built. Afterall, this is a trillion dollar war we’re in for a fraction of a percent of a person’s attention.

So, how do brands actually win?

We must move beyond content for content sake. I believe brands that shift from Content as King, to The Utility King are the ones that will endure in this next era of marketing. Brands that stop making things to watch and start building things to use will win the time and valuable attention from their audiences. The shift to make is to move from someone giving your brand 0.05% of their daily phone time, to instead giving people a reason to keep coming back to you. By taking time to solve a nuanced, annoying little problem at no added cost, the brand can forge new relationships and show up for consumers in more impactful ways. 

Three ways to start doing this today:

1. Give the people what they’re searching for: By tapping into user-intent research, brands can categorize and prioritize critical areas of consumer needs in their category, or within the product lifecycle. Pin-pointing these needs unlocks opportunities for the brand to be of service to their customers by helping them overcome their biggest challenges and questions. Content creation can be meaningful, by feeding a channel like YouTube, a massively underused option where long-term utility content has durability to continue to show up years after publishing (unlike the daily churn for attention in feeds). 
2. Go beyond content: By making a simple solution that answers specific consumer needs, at no added costs, brands can infuse themselves in new ways to a consumer’s daily routine. For example, the other day I noticed that the Golf Now app didn’t have the courses closest to my house (there were about nine of them just missing). So in 30 minutes (and with zero coding skill) I built a functioning app to serve up those tee times. Brands that are able to prototyping a consumer-ready solution will yield more than just watch-time, it will put your brand into their daily habits.
3. If you must do content, coordinate it: We call this flooding-the-zone. Your PR team chasing Gen-Z, while your social team partners with mom-fluencers, and your DR campaigns segmenting your audiences based on behaviors alone will leave your brand fragmented in the market-place. By atomizing consistent content themes across all those channels will deliver outsized impact from brand consistency (and positively impact your brand’s discoverability with the LLMs)

When the internet is 99% AI slop, the only way to survive is to be the 1% that actually works. If I’m working brand side, I’m on a mission to stop trying to win the Attention War and start winning the Reliability War. “How does this help the customer?” is my guiding question going forward. Because building trust through value is a much better look than begging for 0.05% of scroll time. 

What do you think will be mission critical for branded content in the future?

If you enjoyed this and want to chat more sometime, I’d love to hear from you. 

For twenty years, the marketing industry worshiped at the altar of accessibility.

We optimized for a frictionless customer experience. We added “buy now” buttons. We built algorithms to follow people into every corner of their lives. We succeeded in making every service available 24/7. In doing so, we accidentally turned brands into commodities.

As we move through 2026, the market is shifting and offline brand strategies are taking hold. There’s a new standard of status in major urban centers like London, New York, and Toronto. It’s not about who’s seen the most. It’s about who has the power to disappear.

The ability to opt out of the digital noise is now a sign of financial and emotional freedom. This is a fundamental change in how the next generation of high-value consumers interacts with the world.

Digital detox is a luxury indicator. If you look at the most influential pockets of Soho, Brooklyn, or downtown Toronto, you will see a return to analog life. In London, this is manifesting through the resurgence of exclusive social clubs that ban devices entirely to protect the presence of their members.

Young professionals now swap smartphones for “dumb phones”. They attend events where phones are locked in bags at the door. They buy physical books, vinyl records, and film cameras. They’re not driven by nostalgia. They’re reclaiming their attention.

The traditional tools for a CMO were designed to win a war of attention on a screen. But the most desirable customers are actively trying to put their screens away.

If your entire strategy relies on being everywhere on a social feed, you’re invisible to the people who matter most. You’re shouting into a room that the leaders of the pack have already left.

How to Adapt to Digital Detox

The solution is to embrace what we call the labor of discovery. We need to stop making brands so easy to find and start making them worth finding.

In the past, friction was a failure of design. Today, friction is a filter for quality. When a consumer works to find your brand, you’ve created a psychological bond. The effort of discovery creates a sense of ownership and loyalty that an algorithmic suggestion can’t match.

Increasingly, events prohibiting phones in the UK and North America have no official social media coverage and no live streams. Because the attendees can’t document the experience for their followers, they are forced to actually live it. The word of mouth that follows these events is more powerful than any paid influencer post and leads to concrete brand resonance.

We’re also seeing a shift in how we measure success. Impressions have proved to be a shallow metric with no relationship to real interest or material business results. In 2026, we should be measuring interaction depth. If a person spends three hours waiting in line for an unannounced gallery opening in Los Angeles or completing an offline application to secure a seat at a device-free dinner in East London, that is worth more than a million scrolls. It represents a conscious choice to give you their most valuable asset which is their time.

Marketing to the unreachable requires a change in mindset. You have to move from a push strategy to a pull strategy. Rather than chase the consumer, build a world that is so compelling that they want to seek you out. That could entail mean keeping exclusive products off the website or hosting events announced through physical mail. Value the silence as much as the noise.

Three Steps to Reclaiming Prestige

If you’re concerned that your brand has become too accessible, focus on these immediate priorities.

1. Audit your digital saturation. Review your current channels and determine if your constant presence is diluting your brand value. Identify which platforms are driving true discovery and which are just creating noise.

2. Implement strategic friction. Look for ways to slow down the customer journey in a way that adds value. This could include exclusive offline events or limited windows of digital availability that reward high-intent customers.

3. Shift your metrics to depth. Stop prioritizing reach and start measuring how long a customer engages with your brand in a meaningful way. Focus on the quality of the interaction rather than the quantity of the eyes on the screen.

Navigating the New Customer Journey

If you want to move from a strategy of noise to a strategy of resonance, use physical experiences to engage your customers in ways that digital platforms cannot replicate. To learn how we pinpoint exactly what your audience needs when they are not scrolling through a feed, reach out today.

Citizen Relations recognizes that its greatest asset is its people. As the agency continues to deliver innovative campaigns and client successes, it is celebrating the dedication, creativity, and strategic brilliance of its global team.

The agency has announced a series of well-deserved promotions across its offices in the UK, US, and Canada. These individuals consistently demonstrate a commitment to the agency’s values and standard of excellence—not just in delivering exceptional work for brand partners, but in driving brand reputation, and building a forward-thinking agency culture.

Rising Leaders

This wave of promotions highlights Citizen’s incredible momentum as we scale our teams to better service our clients. Our rising leaders are driving impactful results through flawless execution, trend-setting creativity, sharp strategic judgment, and consistent elevation of our brand reputation.

Innovators like Lizzy Beecher, Morgan Andrade, and Cian Murray are stepping into senior roles to provide the solutions-driven leadership and trusted counsel our global clients rely on. Their leadership is complemented by Jordana Schiralli, whose intelligence expertise is now emphasized by a manager title.

Creatives like Jon Dick and Heather Macdonald are progressing into associate roles that reflect their innovative thinking, while Molly Kinahan’s new role on the XM team showcases her ability to deliver on client ideas and execute groundbreaking brand activations.

A Global Culture of Growth

These advancements represent Citizen Relations’ ongoing commitment to creating an environment where industry-leading talent can thrive, innovate, and grow their careers. The agency extends its sincere congratulations to all promoted Citizens across their global network.

The full list of Citizen Relations promotions includes: 

Momentum, Wins, and Strategic Insight

Citizen Relations’ continued growth is anchored in a continuous investment in world-class talent, with this recent wave of strategic new hires driving the agency’s momentum and fuelling a constant flow of industry recognition.

This powerhouse team has dominated the 2026 circuit, capturing five Gold and one Silver at The Drum Awards for their SickKids and Kidde campaigns, and winning Best Pop-Up Experience at the Canadian Event Awards for Shoppers Drug Mart.

Citizen’s industry leadership has also been marked by standout individual achievements, including Kevin Wagman’s prestigious Founders ICON Award, Joe Cariati being named SABRE’s Agency Innovator of the Year, and next-gen creators George Hobby and Grace Zhou securing Silver at Cannes Young Lions. Capping off this exceptional momentum, Citizen is shortlisted for Campaign’s Global PR Agency of the Year (winners announced mid-June in London) – solidifying the agency’s position as a global force.

Citizen Relations dominated the stage at The Drum Awards for Marketing America 2026, taking home an impressive haul of five Gold awards and one Silver across multiple categories. The Drum Awards recognize the most impactful and innovative marketing campaigns from around the world, and are judged by a panel of industry leaders.

The agency’s standout success of the night was SickKids’ “Balloonspotting” campaign – taking home four Gold wins (the most of any 2026 campaign) in Charity/Not for Profit & Government/Public Sector, OOH, PR, and Social Purpose. Built to celebrate the hospital’s milestone 150th birthday, the campaign scattered balloon sculptures across 86,500km and launched a giant hot air balloon at the biggest birthday party ever in downtown Toronto, alongside Ryan Reynolds.

“To see ‘Balloonspotting’ sweep the night with four Gold wins is an incredibly proud moment for us,” said Josie Haynes, Managing Director of Citizen Relations. “SickKids has been a pillar of hope for 150 years, and our goal was to create a moment of joy and unity that matched that legacy.”

SickKids’ “Balloonspotting” was not the only Citizen campaign to shine. The agency also struck gold with the Kidde “Prepare. Plan. Practice” AR Tool campaign, an innovative augmented reality fire drill simulator designed to help families with home fire safety planning. The project won Gold in Digital Experience and Silver in Technology Innovation.

“Our Kidde campaign represents exactly what we strive for at Citizen Relations – blending cutting-edge ideas with real-world impact,” said Aly Pecoskie, Senior Vice President at Citizen Relations. “We didn’t just capture the judges’ attention; we gave families a vital tool to stay safe.”

This honor highlights an incredible run of success for Citizen – taking home Best Pop-Up and the Founders ICON Award at the 2026 Canadian Event Awards, and being named a finalist for Campaign’s 2026 Global PR Agency of the Year (winners announced June 2026).

PRovoke Media’s Innovation & North American SABRE Awards 2026 were held in New York City last week. They served as a critical benchmark for the PR industry, highlighting the shift toward more purposeful, tech-integrated communications.

Citizen secured two major wins, two certificates of excellence, & a nomination during the ceremony: 

• Innovator of the Year – Agency for Senior Vice President Joe Cariati
• Best Brand Event & Immersive Experience for the SickKids 150 “Balloonspotting” campaign 
• Certificate of Excellence – The Tomorrow-First Engine
• Certificate of Excellence – Cause For Alarm: The Living Jingle – Kidde
• Shortlisted – PR Agency Marketing 

The PRovoke North American Summit, which includes the IN2 and North American SABRE Awards, was spread over two days and aimed to enhance the understanding and appreciation of PR’s true value in today’s complex reputational landscape. Along with a celebration of industry campaigns and individuals, the marketing industry walked away with key insights on today’s PR landscape and its shift to purposeful, tech-integrated communications. Here’s what we learned:

Adopt AI, But Don’t Overthink It

In PR, the most successful campaigns often leverage existing behaviours rather than inventing new ones. “AI campaigns don’t need to be overly complicated,” noted Citizen’s Creative Director, Jess Richards. “It’s about finding a hack or behaviour that already exists and amplifying it through multiple channels.”

The Allegra #DrowsyPrompts campaign presented at the summit was a clear example of this. When an LLM generated responses that favoured Allegra over traditional antihistamines, the creatives discovered a high-impact visual narrative that capitalized on a familiar use of AI. The key is to not overthink AI and the ways people are using it. 

“Sometimes the best idea is the simplest and most obvious one,” added Citizen’s Senior Director of Growth Performance, Patrick Bobilin. 

Citizen’s Vice President, Katie Skinner, emphasized that the agency’s goal is now seamless integration. She says, “We are finding ways to make LLMs a fundamental part of our workflow, both for efficiency and creativity.” 

The Return to Intentionality

As digital cycles accelerate, there is a growing need for brand discipline, and that speed should never come at the expense of strategic alignment.

Skinner noted that direct feedback and intelligence remain the industry’s most valuable assets. Tools such as focus groups are essential for maintaining an authentic pulse on target audiences.

Richards argued that brands need to be intentional about the role they play and position they take.

“It’s not always about being the quickest to react, but being thoughtful and purposeful in the response.”

True Innovation Challenges Assumptions

In 2026, innovation is defined by the ability to thoughtfully leverage new technology while maintaining a grounded, stakeholder-first approach. For PR agencies, there’s no time to wait. As Agency Innovator of the Year, Joe Cariati, put it, “Innovation isn’t a fire extinguisher. If you care about it only during a crisis, you’ve already lost.” 

Staying up to date on AI strategy isn’t the only consideration for an innovative campaign. Too often, innovation is confused with iteration: applying a new tool to an old way of thinking. To truly innovate, agencies need to begin challenging assumptions, retiring old habits, and embracing new workflows that complement the lived experience of their target demographic. 

In a complex world, Citizen believes that reputation is a brand’s most essential strategic asset and the shift to more purposeful, tech-integrated communications is a necessity for ambitious brands to succeed. Read more about reputation practice here. 

 

In the prestigious arena of Cannes Young Lions, Citizen Relations’ Copywriter George Hobby and Art Director Grace Zhou secured a remarkable silver medal finish in the PR category. Their campaign, Pharma Seeds, reimagines the intersection of mental health and environmental action by replacing traditional pills with native plant seeds in biodegradable prescription bottles.

Citizen Chief Creative Officer, Josh Budd, weighed in on the big win: “I couldn’t be happier for George and Grace. Young Lions is hard just to complete, let alone shortlist, let alone podium. And silver! That they’ve done so only 18 months into their careers is a testament to the drive, talent, and teamwork that we’re fortunate to see every day.”

We sat down with George and Grace to chat about their journey to the podium.

Q&A with George Hobby and Grace Zhou

Securing a silver medal at Cannes is a massive milestone. How has this experience validated your journey as creatives?

George: As young creatives, imposter syndrome can creep in, and it’s sometimes hard to know if you’re doing work “right.” This competition provided the validation that our thinking is worth pursuing and that we were hired for a reason.

Grace: Having competed in Young Lions twice, I’ve been able to see the progression of our work. Seeing that improvement really makes you start to believe in yourself.

What did this high-pressure environment teach you about each other?

George: I learned that Grace works best when most of us are asleep—definitely outside of the 9-to-5 window! Once she puts her head down, it’s best to give her space to lock in.

Grace: George is incredibly structured and organized. He loves his routine and he’s very competitive. He also keeps the mood light—he loves a good “would you rather” question to break the tension.

Looking back at the process, is there anything you would have done differently?

George: Win gold?! (Laughs). Honestly, we are very proud of the work. The only thing to do moving forward is to take the industry experience and apply it to our daily work at Citizen.

Grace: Started earlier! Having more of a plan with strict deadlines could have saved us from staying up until 3:00 AM! But having that time to go over multiple ideas together before moving forward was incredibly valuable.

What was the highlight of your Young Lions experience?

George: The final ceremony, and the opportunity to meet other junior creatives and see what the future of advertising and PR holds. It’s an inspiring community to be a part of.

Grace: For me, it was the validation of making it further and further in the competition. Receiving those emails announcing we had made it to the next round was such a thrill.

For the creatives looking to compete next year, what is your best “insider” advice?

Grace: Practice blue-sky thinking—take on the competition with an “anything is possible” mentality without constraints like budget or timing.

George: Have strong opinions but hold them loosely. What makes creatives stand out isn’t just their thinking, but their ability to decide where that thinking should be allocated.

Finally, you both represent Citizen Relations. What is it about the agency culture that helped prepare you for this win?

George: It’s the work ethic and the collaborative spirit. There is a real willingness at Citizen to share insights and information across every department, from XM to PR.

Grace: That integrated thinking is exactly what you need to succeed at a global level like Cannes. It’s this cooperation amongst departments that allows the best ideas to flourish.

In 2026, we have to look at corporate reputation as a fundamental driver of financial success.

This shift requires treating reputation as a core business lever rather than a vague sentiment, navigating the constant intersection of financial value and brand risk. Right now, reputation accounts for roughly 30% of total market capitalization across major indices like the S&P 500. ¹

The reality is that we are operating in an era where disinformation travels six times faster than the truth where the financial penalty for a response failure to a corporate reputation risk is catastrophic.

The Real Cost of a Response Failure

News of Meta’s legal battles focused on the $375M in direct damages for safety failures but the real story should be centered on the reputation damage that triggered a $119B drop in market value. That valuation remains $100B below its peak months later as investors wait for trust to be rebuilt. ²

The legal precedent sends liability shockwaves far beyond the tech sector. The market now expects immediate and total accountability from major brands. The expectation is greatest in high-frequency sectors like fast food and online retail, where a single point of friction leads to a permanent shift in spending. According to PwC’s 2025 Customer Experience Survey, 52% of consumers stop buying from a brand after a single bad experience. ³

Trust as Your Bottom Line Advantage

Trust acts as a powerful buffer to market volatility. During economic downturns, people gravitate toward the brands they believe in.

We see this in essential categories like grocery and beverage. According to 2024 Gartner research, nearly 70% of consumers stay loyal to a trusted brand even when cheaper alternatives are available or the economy becomes unpredictable. ⁴

In our experience, building trust equity requires an internal culture that matches your external voice.

A strong reputation protects your stock price and lowers daily operating costs. We see that organizations with high trust scores enjoy a 50% reduction in cost-per-hire and nearly a 30% decrease in employee turnover. ⁵

The New Playbook: Intelligence-Led Response

The most significant vulnerability for brands is the gap between the emergence of an issue and the final approval to act. When internal processes require days of committee review and legal vetting, the narrative grows beyond your control. This is where precision intelligence becomes your most critical defensive asset.

Success in 2026 depends on listening for emerging issues on niche platforms before they reach a tipping point. An early warning system allows you to implement previously approved authority frameworks, empowering your team to act in under four hours.

This same intelligence protects customer loyalty. By identifying points of friction in real-time, you can pivot messaging or operations before a single bad experience leads to a permanent loss of a customer. It is the difference between simply reacting to a crisis and actively positioning your brand to stay ahead of it.

Three Steps to Secure Against Corporate Reputation Risks

If you are concerned about your current response gap, we recommend focusing on these immediate priorities:

1. Audit your internal response time. Review your approval cycle to see if your team can move from a validated signal to a public response in under four hours.
2. Integrate Advanced Intelligence. Move beyond basic monitoring by using media analysis engines for competitive whitespace, and intent tracking to pinpoint what your audience needs based on social and search data.
3. Establish Pre-Cleared Frameworks. Create authority structures that allow your communication leaders to act on data immediately, ensuring you lead the narrative rather than simply defending it.

If you want to discuss how you can proactively equip your team for any corporate reputation challenges, reach out here.

 

1. Echo Research
2. The Guardian
3. Qualtrics
4. Gartner
5. LinkedIn

Being named PRovoke Media’s Agency Innovator of the Year forced me to be honest about what innovation looks like in practice, not just how our industry talks about it.

Because in most agencies, what passes for innovation is really iteration: a new tool applied to an old way of thinking, or a familiar framework with a fresh coat of paint.

The pressure is coming from every direction. Everyone wants proof, relevance and results they can feel.

The problem isn’t effort. PR teams are working harder than ever, with more pitches, creators, channels and content. But volume is not impact. Brands still optimizing a playbook that stopped working five years ago aren’t falling behind slowly; they’re accelerating toward irrelevance.

 Here are four ways I am unlearning to move forward:

1. Unlearn the Brand as Protagonist

The brands earning real attention today create the conditions for a story worth telling. That means stepping back and letting a community, a creator or a cultural moment lead. It means creating stories journalists want to cover, not just ones the brand wants placed.

When Duolingo announced the “death” of its owl mascot Duo in February 2025, it lit the match and got out of the way. Other brands posted mock condolences. Celebrities joined in. National news covered it. The brand didn’t control how the narrative took form; they just created the opening and let the internet take it from there. The result? 1.7 billion impressions.

2. Unlearn the Habit of Crisis-Only Reputation Thinking

Most brands treat reputation management like insurance, something to scramble for when things go sideways. That model is broken, and it usually becomes the communications team’s problem at the worst possible moment.

Trust isn’t built in a crisis response. It’s revealed by one. What looks like a communications problem in year three is often a credibility deficit from years one and two.

When public anxiety about AI was at its peak, O2 didn’t wait to be put on the defensive. It built “Daisy the AI Granny,” an AI character designed to protect elderly people from phone scammers and deployed it publicly. The campaign wasn’t just clever. It was a values statement made before the question was asked. When the AI ethics conversation intensified, O2 already had an answer that didn’t need to be defensive.

3. Unlearn the Big-Platform Monoculture

If your entire earned media approach is built around chasing major placements, that’s not strategic, that’s a (bad) habit. And you’re overpaying for reach that may not convert or drive business impact.

Skincare brand Jaxon Lane didn’t launch with a national media campaign. It seeded its hero product, a men’s sheet mask, among micro-influencers with just a few thousand followers who specialized in sheet mask reviews. Magazine editors followed those creators to spot trends and reached out directly. Within a year, the Wall Street Journal was interviewing Jaxon Lane about men’s grooming habits. The niche voice didn’t just reach the right consumer; it reached the right journalist.

One deeply trusted niche voice did what no broad-reach campaign could have manufactured. Precision beats presence, and it’s a much easier story to tell when someone asks you to justify the budget.

4. Unlearn PR as a Downstream Function

The most expensive habit in modern marketing is bringing communications in after the product is built, the campaign is locked, and the decisions are made. The ask is amplification. That’s useful. It’s only a fraction of the value on the table.

PR isn’t just a megaphone. At its best, it builds the credibility and cultural relevance that make people care what a brand does next, not defensively, but proactively. The goal isn’t to avoid bad press. It’s to build a reputation strong enough that when you have something to say, people are already leaning in.

That case has never been more urgent. In the era of generative AI search, earned credibility is infrastructure. The brands appearing in AI-generated answers aren’t there because they paid for placement; they’re there because they built a body of credible, earned coverage that AI engines recognize as authoritative. Treat PR as an afterthought, and you won’t just lose share of voice. You’ll disappear from the conversation entirely.

Brought in early, great PR sharpens positioning, finds the angles most likely to resonate and pushes ideas from adequate to compelling. Brought in late, it can only dress up what’s already been built. The brands that get this right build with PR from the start.

The only advantage that compounds

Reach can be bought. A byline can be placed. But the credibility that makes either of those things land with audiences who actually influence purchase decisions, shape perceptions, and determine cultural staying power comes from a reputation that must be earned.

Innovation isn’t always an addition. Sometimes it’s a subtraction: a habit retired, an assumption challenged, a model you stop defending because the market stopped rewarding it.

That’s the unlearning. For any brand serious about what comes next, it isn’t optional.

Earlier this week, the Canadian events industry gathered at the Canadian Event Awards to celebrate the visionaries and creators shaping the country’s experiential marketing landscape. It was a milestone night for Citizen Relations as they took home two prestigious wins: Best Pop-Up and the Founders ICON Award – the industry’s highest individual honour. 

In a definitive ‘Hall of Fame’ moment for the industry, Kevin Wagman, Managing Director, Experiential at Citizen, received the ICON Award. This prestigious accolade is the Canadian events industry’s equivalent of a lifetime achievement award, marking the pinnacle of professional recognition.

Unlike category-specific awards, the ICON Award is peer-nominated and merit-based. Reserved for individuals with over 20 years of leadership, the award celebrates those who have shaped the profession through mentorship, innovation, and industry advancement. 

Over a career spanning 20+ years, Kevin has cemented himself as an industry leader by designing and implementing marketing campaigns & experiential events for tier-one clients throughout North America and Europe. Last year, Kevin was included on Canadian Special Events’ list of 2024’s Top 25 Most Fascinating People. 

“Having Kevin recognized with the ICON Award is an incredible moment for all of us at Citizen,” said Stephanie Hurst, Citizen’s newly appointed President, Canada. “While this honour celebrates his incredible personal legacy, the true magic lies in how he has mentored and shaped our Experiential team into the powerhouse it is today.”

An annual winner at the Canadian Event Awards, the celebration continued as the Citizen took the stage again, winning Best Pop-Up Experience for their work on the Santa’s Workshop, brought to you by Shoppers Drug Mart.

To establish Shoppers Drug Mart as the ultimate holiday gifting destination, Citizen transformed The Well in Toronto into the North Pole. This wasn’t a traditional retail space; it was a fully immersive Santa’s Workshop that featured a stunning Beauty Gift Gallery, a Self-Care Chalet, and a complimentary photo experience with Santa Claus himself.

This recognition comes at a time of increased momentum for Citizen. Earlier in the year, the agency was shortlisted at both Campaign’s Global and Canadian Agency of Year Awards and last year, they took the podium for a consecutive third time at Strategy’s AOY Awards.