ISSUE 16
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Every time a new creative tool enters the scene, there’s a familiar question: “Will this replace us?”
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From drawing by hand to stock photography to Photoshop, from writing to typing to ChatGPT-ing; each leap forward has been met with both excitement and skepticism. Today, AI is the latest headline.
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But here’s the thing, tools don’t replace creativity. They amplify it.
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AI isn’t about handing over the keys to the machine. It’s about using it to explore ideas that might otherwise be out of reach. To see a visual concept in minutes that would take hours to mock up. To draft options and jumpstart thinking when the blank page feels overwhelming. To push past the obvious and spark something unexpected.
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AI can also take on some of the tasks that feel more like chores than craft. The repetitive retouching. The endless alt options. Grunt work that eats into the time better spent ideating, experimenting, and building the parts of the work that really light us up.
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Future-proofing creativity isn’t about knowing every shortcut or mastering every new platform. It’s about staying curious, willing to experiment, and open to letting new tools help us do less of what we don’t love and more of what we do.
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Because at the end of the day, the tools will keep changing. But the human instinct to imagine, connect, and tell a story? That’s the part that never goes out of style.
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Hailey Appel,
Senior Copywriter
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Victoria Moffatt,
Senior Art Director
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At the end of September, we gathered for our Q3 Townhall to catch up on everything INNOCEAN’s been buzzing about these past six months.
Taewoo set the stage with leadership updates, Bill walked us through our CMA Awards entries for Hyundai and Kia (seven trophies already locked for November), and each Business Group shared highlights from their latest work.
John also unveiled something brand new—INNOCEAN Canada’s first-ever Creative Competition. The finalists pitched their concepts live, and the whole agency jumped in to vote on our first champs.
We closed with Shawna’s People & Culture updates, including one of the best parts of every Townhall: celebrating our Legendary Explorers Hall of Fame winners.
This quarter’s inductees:
| • The Trailblazer |
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Jenny Mao (Manager, Performance Digital) |
| • The Deep Diver |
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Riki Jain (Manager, Performance Digital) |
| • The Wavemaker |
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Pooja Patel (Director, SEO) |
| • The North Star |
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Vince Cosentino (Director, Project Management) & Trisha Campos (Senior Account Executive) |
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Big congrats—you’re raising the bar for what it means to be an Explorer.
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11 teams. 3 finalists. 1 winner.
For the first time ever, INNOCEAN opened the floor to everyone—not just the Creative department—to put big ideas to the test.
The challenge: dream up a campaign that gets affluent boaters thinking Rossiter before their next big purchase. With its 50-year legacy of timeless design and big-water performance, Rossiter set the perfect stage for bold thinking.
Over one week, 11 teams brought their A-game, blending skills across strategy, media, and creative. After rounds of judging, three finalists made it to the big stage, presenting live to the whole agency. A split vote—half audience, half ELT—kept the suspense high until the final reveal.
The very first winners of INNOCEAN’s Creative Competition are… Team 10
| • Bill Newbery |
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VP, Creative Director |
| • Brian Kangethe |
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Programmatic Trader |
| • Jonathan Lugos |
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Programmatic Manager |
| • Karolina Sasko |
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Senior Programmatic Manager |
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Big congrats to our inaugural champs. You didn’t just win—you set a new tradition in motion.
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| 03 |
GOOGLE SEARCH HONOURS AWARDS |
We’ve officially made the shortlist for the Google Search Honours Awards for the third consecutive year. In 2023, we made the shortlist but didn’t bring home any metal. In 2024, we struck gold in Performance Marketing Excellence. And in 2025, we’re back in the top five, this time for Measurement & Analytics Leadership.
Check out the full announcement HERE.
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Before saying goodbye to summer, and bracing for the snow to come, INNOCEAN teams squeezed in some solid bonding time. The Creative team hit the Blue Jays game for a “Work from Dome” day; while the media team got hands-on at STACKT Market, making candles at Let’s Make It. Golf lovers across ICA paired up for a friendly two-person scramble to show off their summer skills. And BG3 went big, traveling north to Alaska to spend time with ACS clients while exploring the market, culture, and wild landscape.
Work + play = balanced.
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