Our Story

Whitehead Agency Group

Whitehead Agency Group is a boutique, full-service digital marketing agency. Based in Toronto for over 30 years, we excel at building brands that help people live healthier, happier lives; and have a unique understanding of healthcare, travel, and financial services.

At the intersection of big data and human creativity, we ignite innovative ideas by carefully analyzing vast and diverse datasets to inform and inspire artistic expression, thoughtful design, and accelerated problem-solving.

Patterns once hidden within numbers become sources of colour, form, narrative, and function. These insights help us experiment with unconventional aesthetics, enable our designers to tailor user experiences with empathy, and empower our wordsmiths to craft solutions grounded in evidence yet elevated by vision.

Data ceases to be cold statistics and becomes a generative partner that amplifies human agency. The result is work that is both meaningfully informed and emotionally resonant, solving real challenges.

Agency Team and Resources

We are master communicators; engaging people is at the heart of what we do. And while our DNA is hard to explain, our results become evident very quickly.

Some of us know technology inside and out. Some of us are wordsmiths and unique storytellers and some of us have unique scientific and healthcare backgrounds. Collectively, we are a highly experienced team capable of developing innovative marketing strategies that deliver big ideas and big results.

Bill Whitehead, MSc, MAP

President & Creative Director

Bill has 40+ years of progressive experience in the advertising and marketing communications industry and has led Whitehead Agency Group for over two decades. His focus is branding, strategic planning, and creative development. Bill has a rich educational background in health sciences earned at McMaster University and the University of Toronto, and extensive experience working with a worldwide portfolio of clients in healthcare, medical tourism, and related fields.

In addition, Bill is Past President of the Society of Ontario Advertising Agencies (SOAA), Managing Director of the Canadian Agency Network (tCAN) and a regular guest speaker/contributing writer on marketing, technology, and a range of brand communications topics that relate to healthcare. Bill has a particular interest and focus on the application of AI to healthcare; and building brands that help people live healthier, happier lives.

Outside of work, Bill, is heavily involved in animal rescue and rehabilitation and the founder of WagPets.org.

Medical Advisory

We might be the only agency in Canada with a medical advisory. Currently, 35 healthcare professionals comprised of doctors, dentists, nurses, scientific researchers, and academia sit on our advisory board and offer sage advice covering a vast array of healthcare areas. This perspective contributes greatly to our understanding of market trends and insights and helps guide us to the high-impact healthcare marketing communications strategies the Agency develops.

Process - How We Do What We Do

It is difficult to thoroughly detail what exactly we do as marketing communications, because we never do the same thing twice. Your brand and the challenges it faces are not exactly like anyone else’s, so we avoid cookie-cutter approaches.

Just as importantly, marketing technology is changing rapidly and quickly transforming digital marketing. Some of the accepted ways of motivating and reaching consumers were unheard of even a few years ago. Progress isn’t about to stand still, and neither can we.

Instead, we’ll focus on the Agency’s process, which has guided our success for over 30 years. We apply this methodology to every new project we tackle. In short, we evaluate, recommend, implement, evaluate, and fine-tune.

Evaluate

We start with a high-level analysis of your website. Using best-in-class tools, we examine: how well-constructed your website is, its key technologies, and any potential technical issues including page load speeds and mobile optimization (all of which may hinder search engines). During this discovery phase, we also review your keyword rankings, and all available search and traffic data. This initial phase helps identify any immediate challenges or deficiencies.

As we dig deeper into evaluating your brand concept, positioning, and current communications tactics, we rely on our proprietary situation analysis and brand audit, which we have fine-tuned over three decades. We ask lots of questions and challenge preconceived ideas and notions. Through this process, we create an accurate portrait of your prospects, growth potential, challenges, and communication requirements.

Recommend

We then put our collective expertise to work analyzing the situation, identifying opportunities, and developing the appropriate strategy. This includes user personas and the overall User Journey.

With the newfound wisdom and insights, we develop an integrated online (and often offline) strategy that reflects what makes you unique and your value proposition to reach the right audience at the right time. The strategy also serves as the roadmap for the creative process, with messaging developed for all channels to reflect your brand promise.

Implement

We then initiate the communications plan, often in stages of low-cost tests prior to full implementation.

Re-Evaluate

We leverage the most advanced data analytics available to continuously monitor the communications effort and evaluate effectiveness and ROI.

Fine-Tune

With an advanced understanding of how the communications effort is performing, specific tactics can be fine-tuned to maximize results and drive budget efficiencies.

Big Data

We use cutting-edge real-time data to make informed decisions about your marketing strategies. This eliminates guesswork and helps uncover hidden opportunities to improve your web traffic, conversion, and maximize overall ROI. Beyond counting just clicks, up to 500 crucial key performance indicators are tracked in real time – all in a single marketing dashboard.

These analytics provide advanced metrics including:

Website exit (drop-off) points
Time spent on the site
Clickstream path and the direction a visitor takes as they travel through a web page
Keyword tracking
Identification of top-performing content

Philosophy ... How We Work with Clients

In an industry that is filled with many large egos, we believe in teamwork. We view the client as a vital part of the creative process. And while we respect each client’s point of view, we know there is one opinion that is even more important — the client’s customer. In the end, there are two things we must always bring to the table: our objectivity and your customer’s perspective.

Additionally,

We don’t believe that good is ever good enough.
We don’t believe that big is better. Better is better!
We believe in outsmarting, not outspending, the competition.
We believe that big ideas are limited only by our imagination and not by the size of your budget.
We will never take ourselves too seriously or let our own egos get in the way of the work … or having fun.
We choose to work for clients who respect the creative process and the contribution we can make to their brand and bottom line.
We believe in teamwork and see the client as a vital component of the team. We will fight for what we believe in. But we won’t be jerks about it.
We never forget it is YOUR money.