Cossette is a Canadian marketing communications company headquartered in Quebec City, Quebec.[1]
History
Cossette was initially launched as a graphic design firm by Claude Cossette in June 1964 under the name "Cossette et associés, graphiste-conseils." It was relaunched in May 1972 as "Cossette Communication Marketing" by six partners (Claude Cossette, Louis Larivière, Bernard Paquet, Fernand Simard, Paul Lefebvre and Claude Lessard) in Quebec City.[2] The company expanded to Montreal in 1974, Toronto in 1981 and, in 1985, it added its fourth Canadian office in Vancouver.[3] It has since also added a fifth Canadian office in Halifax.[4] In 1991, it was the largest agency in Canada in terms of revenue, and was named Marketing Magazine's "Agency of the Year" for the first time.[5]
Cossette went public in 1999, with its shares trading on the Montreal and Toronto stock exchanges.[6] In 2003, it acquired the London-based company Identica, and the public relations company Band and Brown Communications.[7]
In 2009, Cossette returned to private ownership when Connecticut-based private equity firm Mill Road Capital purchased all outstanding shares - the agreement saw Mill Road Capital as the majority owner, with agency management also owning a significant share.[8] The original Cossette organization was reorganized under a holding company structure in 2010, under holding company Vision7 International.[9]
In 2014, Cossette was purchased by BlueFocus Communications network.[10]
Clients
Cossette's client list includes McDonald's Canada,[11] SickKids,[12] General Motors[13] and General Mills.[14]
Awards
Cossette won "Newsmaker of the Year" in 1986 and "Agency of the Year" in 1991 and 1998, by Marketing Magazine.[15] In 2016, 2017 and 2018 Cossette was named "Agency of the Year" by Strategy Magazine.[16]
See also
- Claude Cossette
References
- ^ "Company Overview of Cossette Inc". Bloomberg. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ "Claude Lessard Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vision 7 International".
- ^ "Post & Partners of New York Joins Cossette Communication Group". Archived from the original on 2014-07-28.
- ^ "Creative Marketing and Communications Agency". Cossette. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
- ^ ""Cossette! Canadian-Owned Shop Vaults to the Top with Gross Revenues of $33 Million" - Marketing, December 9, 1991 | Online Research Library: Questia". www.questia.com. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
- ^ "Cossette Communication-Marketing".
- ^ "En bref - Cossette acquiert Identica".
- ^ "Vision7 International (formerly known as Cossette Inc.)".
- ^ "Cossette Vision7 (Canada)".
- ^ Investing (2014-12-15). "China's BlueFocus buys majority stake in Canadian ad agency Cossette's parent firm | Financial Post". Retrieved 2019-08-15.
- ^ "McDonald's Operators of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana Hire Cossette as New Lead Advertising".
- ^ May 28, Harmeet Singh; 2015 (2015-05-28). "Cossette wins SickKids account". strategy. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
- ^ "WHERE GM SITS IN CANADA'S MEDIA LANDSCAPE".
- ^ "GENERAL MILLS CONSOLIDATES DIGITAL WITH COSSETTE".
- ^ ""Cossette! Canadian-Owned Shop Vaults to the Top with Gross Revenues of $33 Million" - Marketing, December 9, 1991 | Online Research Library: Questia". www.questia.com. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
- ^ Dallaire, Justin (2018-11-08). "AOY Gold and Design AOY Silver: Cossette VS. everyone". Strategy. Retrieved 2020-01-03.