Courage finds success by taking big swings

When three top executives from Rethink opened Courage in May 2022, they said the agency's name exemplified the type of work it aimed to do. More than two years later, the independent Toronto-based shop is making good on its promise. See all of the 2024 Small Agency award winners here Perhaps the best example is an effort for KFC Canada in which Courage helped the brand lean into the disdain of its old french fries by creating an outlandish funeral procession, complete with a real hearse and online memorial service. The initiative came as KFC introduced its new “seasoned fries,” billed as “crispy and seasoned enough to satisfy our toughest critics.” The campaign had more than 16 million organic views and resulted in an 8.6% sales lift, according to Courage’s entry. “When we heard KFC Canada reference the old box as ‘The Fry Coffin,’ we saw an opportunity to really send the not-so-beloved spuds off in a big way,” Dhaval Bhatt, co-founder and chief creative officer of Courage, told Ad Age in July 2023. “And what’s bigger than a public funeral procession throughout the streets of Toronto?” The two-year-old agency—which had revenue of $7.7 million in 2023—also found a savvy way for KitKat to enter the AI conversation—creating a spot explaining how instructing an AI machine to take a break before performing a task produces more accurate responses. See all of the 2024 Small Agency award winners here The campaign, based on research from Google’s AI research lab DeepMind, leveraged KitKat’s “Have a break” tagline in a bid to create an association between the candy brand and AI prompting. It drove a 14% increase in purchase intent and an 850% gain in brand sentiment. And Courage’s agility isn’t relegated only to its work. The shop, which is part of the No Fixed Address collective, has grown to more than 60 staffers since its inception, making it “the fastest-growing indie agency in Canadian history,” according to its entry.

Courage finds success by taking big swings

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