It’s Lazy to Hire a “Multicultural” Agency.

Hiring a multicultural or ethnic marketing agency as your inclusion strategy is lazy.

It feels productive.
It looks progressive.
It photographs well in a deck.

But most of the time?

It protects the system instead of changing it.

The Comfortable Shortcut

Here’s what usually happens.

A brand realizes Canada is changing.
Demographics shift.
The board asks about growth.
Black History Month approaches.
Someone says, “We need to reach multicultural audiences.”

So they outsource it.

They hire a “multicultural shop.”
They brief them on a campaign.
They translate some assets.
Maybe shoot new photography.
Add cricket to the sports montage.
Run the work for a few weeks.

AKA 2020…remember? Let’s throw in 

The Commitments

• We commit to hiring x BIPOC leaders

• We commit to building mentorship programs for underrepresented groups

• We commit to listening, learning and actioning

• We commit …. To really mean it this time

And everyone feels accomplished.

However.

The core brand strategy? Untouched.
The media mix? Untouched.
The product pipeline? Untouched.
The leadership team? Untouched.
The procurement process? Untouched.

The system remains intact.

That is not inclusion.

That is insulation.

Campaigns Don’t Fix Systems

Inclusion does not live in a campaign.

It lives in:

• who writes the brief
• who defines the focus audience
• how insights are gathered
• what assumptions are challenged
• who approves the work
• how success is measured
• how budgets are allocated
• who gets to say no

If your internal team is not equipped to think inclusively, a specialized agency becomes a patch.

And patches wear off.

I have seen brands pour money into “multicultural campaigns” while their core messaging continues to alienate the very audiences they are trying to attract.

That is not growth.
That is fragmentation.

Vanity Metrics Are the Distraction

The industry loves a spike.

Views.
Impressions.
Engagement during heritage months.
Short term sales lift in one postal code.

However:

Did your inclusion work change how decisions are made inside the organization?

Did it influence product development?
Did it alter your distribution model?
Did it change how you recruit agencies?
Did it impact who gets promoted?
Did it show up in your annual planning cycle?

If the answer is no, then it was marketing theatre.

Inclusion is not a content strategy.
It is an operating model.

Outsourcing Inclusion Is a Risk

When inclusion is externalized, accountability is externalized.

The internal team stays comfortable.
They defer cultural nuance to “the experts.”
They never build the muscle themselves.

That is dangerous.

Because inclusion is not a specialty vertical. It is a strategic lens.

And if your internal marketers cannot apply that lens across every audience, every brief, every channel, you are structurally behind.

No brand wanting to exist positively in the next 10 years can afford that.

Canada is not becoming diverse. It already is.

What Sustainable Inclusion Actually Requires

Systemic inclusion is less glamorous than a campaign.

It looks like:

• rewriting briefing templates
• embedding inclusive checkpoints into SOPs
• diversifying insight sources beyond one focus group
• changing how media proximity is evaluated
• updating photography libraries permanently
• adjusting creative review processes
• tying leadership compensation to inclusion metrics
• scoring brand work against equity and alignment, not just reach

It requires friction.

It requires rework.

It requires humility.

It requires leadership that is willing to hear, “We have been missing people.”

This is not more work.

It is the work.

Multicultural Agencies Are Not the Villain

There are brilliant multicultural agencies doing essential work.

The issue is not their existence.

The issue is when organizations use them as a shield.

If you hire a multicultural agency without examining your internal systems, it may buy you a temporary lift but not sustained growth.

If you partner with one while simultaneously changing your internal processes, building capability, and integrating inclusion into how strategy is formed, that is progress.

The difference is intent.

One is transactional.
One is transformational.

Growth Lives in Integration

If you want sustainable growth in Canada from 2026 to 2036, you do not need a separate inclusion campaign.

You need:

Integrated insight
Integrated strategy
Integrated process
Integrated accountability

Inclusion should shape the core brand platform.
It should inform distribution decisions.
It should influence product pipelines.
It should sit inside the annual and long-term strategic planning process.

Not beside it.

Not after it.

Inside it.

The Hard Truth

Hiring a multicultural agency can feel like progress.

But if your internal culture, structures, and incentives stay the same, you have simply moved inclusion to the margins.

And inclusion at the margins does not scale.

If inclusion is not embedded in how you work, it will always show up as extra.

And when budgets tighten?

“Extra” is the first thing to go.

So yes.

It is lazy to think outsourcing inclusion solves inclusion.

Inclusion is not a campaign line item.

It is a systems decision.

And it is not more work.

It is the work.