As we near the end of a year that will be forever remembered for passionate patriotism and promises to “buy Canadian,” WPP has unveiled new plans to keep that spirit going through 2026 by investing more ad spend in Canadian media.
On Wednesday, WPP Media said it has built a “new operational framework” to help clients see and understand the value of buying ads with Canadian media, and set a new goal of 50% of total client media spend with Canadian properties by the end of 2026, up from 45% by the end of this year.
WPP Media said it is testing a system to evaluate the performance of a campaign across the media ecosystem on a like-for-like basis, moving beyond price and efficiency to include value based on outcomes. “That’s a new layer we haven’t had before,” said Kevin Johnson, CEO of WPP Media Canada and president of WPP in Canada.
Concerns about the survival of Canadian media and ad-supported journalism have increased significantly in recent years, as digital platforms like Meta and Google—with massive reach and advanced ad tech—have grabbed growing percentages of ad spend away from traditional outlets.
The recent report “Canadian Media Means Business” concluded that $7.46 billion in Canadian digital ad spend went to non-Canadian platforms between 2017 and 2022, and that 92% of all Canadian digital ad spend goes to non-Canadian properties.
But there has also been growing questions about the value of the platforms and claims that fixating on reach overlooks real problems about fraud, waste and brand safety. At the same time, marketing budgets have been funding mis- and disinformation on the platforms while starving Canadian journalism of the ad revenue needed to survive.
In a release announcing its plans, WPP Media Canada said it believes “supporting Canadian journalism and local stories is more crucial than ever.” The changes, it said, demonstrates WPP’s “dedication to the industry, solidifying its leadership in ensuring Canadian stories continue to thrive.”
But talking to Campaign Wednesday, Johnson stressed WPP wants to prove the business case for spending with Canadian media outlets. “It's more than our moral obligations. I think we have to change the narrative from moral obligations to straight performance and value,” he said. “The future of sustainability for these Canadian publishers is really centred around being able to identify and quantify the value that they bring, within the ecosystem, for our brands.”
WPP describes the new framework as focusing on “privacy-safe data collaboration and robust measurability,” and said the intent is to emphasize “that strategically allocating media within Canada is as important as the audiences reached.”
The testing is a clean room, like-for-like evaluation of performance across media outlets, publishers and platforms across the ecosystem, said Johnson.
“We'll be able to identify the value that Canadian publishers bring to the table,” said Johnson.”Once we're able to do that, it moves the conversation around efficiency and price to efficiency, price and value.”
Media agency execs with the shared belief that a strong and vibrant Canadian media is necessary for a strong and vibrant country, have worked together through the CMDC to raise awareness of the problem and called for brands to spend more with Canadian outlets.
The WPP commitment is in keeping with the spirit of the CMDC’s “Media Manifesto,” which set a target of 25% of all spend with Canadian media.
“WPP Media Canada’s leadership and tangible investment in Canadian media is a powerful example of the CMDC Canadian Media Manifesto in action,” said CMDC president Shannon Lewis. “When we launched the Manifesto in 2021, our goal was to galvanize the industry to support Canadian media.The Manifesto has always been about more than hitting a number, it’s about strengthening Canada’s economy, culture, and civic trust.”
