Acart Marks 50 Years with National Growth, Expanded Capabilities, and a Focus on What Comes Next

Ottawa-founded independent agency enters its next era with 39 employees across Ottawa and Toronto, sustained growth, and significant new client mandates

OTTAWA, ON and TORONTO, Sept. 21, 2026 /CNW/ -- Acart is marking its 50th anniversary with significant momentum, celebrating five decades in Canadian advertising while continuing to build an independent agency platform designed for its next era of growth.

Founded in Ottawa in 1976 by Al Albania, Acart has evolved from a local art studio to an independent Canadian agency group bringing together strategy, creative, digital, media, data, and customer experience capabilities across Canada and the United States.

For President and CEO Andrew McWiggan, the milestone represents both an opportunity to recognize the generations of people and clients who have shaped Acart and a defining moment for where the organization goes next.

"Fifty years is an extraordinary milestone, particularly in an industry that has changed as dramatically as ours has," says McWiggan. "We have enormous respect for the people who built Acart, the clients who trusted us, and the generations of talent who contributed to the agency along the way. Today I am inspired by what we are building now: a modern independent agency model that combines strong strategic thinking, ambitious creative, sophisticated media capabilities, and digital expertise under one platform."

In 2024, Acart acquired award-winning Toronto agency Giants & Gentlemen. The acquisition brought G&G co-founders Natalie Armata and Alanna Nathanson into Acart's senior leadership team as Co-Chief Creative Officers, while significantly expanding Acart's presence in the Greater Toronto Area and strengthening its consumer strategy, brand, and creative capabilities.

Acart has also continued to invest in The Masons Media, led by industry veteran Kevin Scannell. This specialized media operation provides strategy, planning, buying, data, and performance expertise to direct clients as well as independent agencies seeking sophisticated media capabilities without maintaining them in-house.

Together with Acart's core client leadership, digital, and customer experience capabilities, G&G and The Masons give clients access to specialized expertise across the organization while maintaining the responsiveness, senior involvement, and entrepreneurial approach of an independent agency.

And it's working. Acart now employs 39 full-time team members across Ottawa and Toronto and has delivered sustained growth since 2022, including back-to-back years of more than 24% revenue growth. Revenue for 2026 is currently projected to be approximately 16% above the agency's most recent completed fiscal year, extending a multi-year trajectory of growth that has consistently outpaced broader agency industry benchmarks.

"We believe there is an increasingly important role for strong independent agencies in Canada," says McWiggan. "Clients are dealing with greater complexity across their businesses and marketing ecosystems. They need partners who understand their commercial objectives, can connect strategy to execution, and can bring the right specialists to the table without unnecessary layers."

National Momentum
In 2026, the agency was selected for major assignments including an Agency of Record relationship with Canadian fintech company KOHO Financial, a three-year National Platform Agency of Record mandate with Ingenium, Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation, and Creative and Media Agency of Record for the Ottawa Senators.

As Creative and Media Agency of Record for the Ottawa Senators, Acart is expanding a relationship between the agency and the organization that spans more than 20 years. The mandate brings together Acart's integrated creative, strategy, and media capabilities to support the Senators across brand, campaign development, media planning and buying as the organization enters its next chapter.

These new mandates are part of a broader growth strategy focused on building deeper relationships with national organizations, consumer brands, institutions, and businesses navigating growth and transformation.

"What stood out to us about Acart was the combination of strategic thinking, senior-level partnership, and the ability to connect brand, creative, media, and performance around our business objectives. They bring the ambition and sophistication we need as KOHO continues to grow, while maintaining the responsiveness and accountability we value in an independent agency partner."
          -      Rachel Cohen, Director, Marketing, KOHO.

"In selecting a partner for our national Masterbrand platform, we were looking for an agency that could understand the dynamics of our organization while helping us create meaningful connections with audiences across Canada. Acart demonstrated a strong combination of strategic insight, integrated capabilities and an understanding of how to translate ambitious objectives into effective work."
          -      Olivier Carré-Delisle, Vice-President, Digital, Public Affairs and Commercial Operations, Ingenium, Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

"As a former 25-year owner/operator of an independent Canadian ad agency, I have a pretty good idea of how complex and demanding client businesses can be. The people at Acart know what they're doing. They're smart without pretence, they're thorough, they collaborate, they listen, they go above and beyond, and in a world where everything is needed yesterday, they're responsive. The Senators have been with Acart for over 20 years which speaks to the trust we have in what they do. They are true partners in every sense of the word."
          -      Peter Shier, Vice-President, Marketing, Ottawa Senators Hockey Club

Building the Next 50 Years

As Acart enters its next chapter, the agency intends to continue investing in its Ottawa and Toronto operations, specialized talent, strategy and creative capabilities, media and data expertise, digital innovation, and AI-enabled tools and workflows.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being integrated across Acart's strategy, media, data, creative workflows, and internal operations, with the objective of augmenting its teams, automating lower-value tasks, and creating more capacity for strategic thinking, creative judgment, and client partnership.

Our objective is not simply to become larger, but to continue building an independent Canadian agency capable of competing for increasingly sophisticated national mandates while maintaining the entrepreneurial culture, accessibility, and senior client involvement traditionally associated with an independent firm.

"AI is fundamentally changing our industry, and pretending otherwise would be a mistake," maintains McWiggan. "We see it as an enormous opportunity to make talented people even better at what they do. Our investment is focused on putting better technology, intelligence, and automation into the hands of our teams so they can move faster, think deeper, and spend more time on the work where human judgment, creativity, and experience matter most. That also means being deliberate about where AI should and shouldn't be used, protecting client information and intellectual property, and ensuring human accountability remains at the centre of the work."

"For us, the 50th is as much about looking forward as it is looking back," continues McWiggan. "Longevity on its own isn't the accomplishment. The accomplishment is continuing to evolve, attracting great people, investing in the technologies and capabilities that will shape our industry, doing ambitious work, and earning the trust of clients who are asking us to solve bigger problems. We are building a very different organization, and our intention is to keep evolving so Acart is even stronger for the next 50."

Acart's 50th anniversary will be celebrated on September 24 at The Westin Ottawa, bringing together clients, employees, alumni, industry partners, and friends of the agency from across Canada. The evening will recognize the generations of people who have contributed to Acart's history while celebrating the organization it has become and the chapter ahead.

About Acart
Acart is an independent Canadian agency group based in Ottawa and Toronto, bringing together complementary capabilities across client leadership, strategy, creative, digital, customer experience, media, data, and performance. The organization includes Acart's integrated agency operation, Toronto-based Giants & Gentlemen, focused on brand strategy and creative, and The Masons Media, its specialized media strategy, planning, buying, data, and performance operation.

For 50 years, Acart has taken the unconventional path in pursuit of outperforming the competition. Today, the organization combines the entrepreneurial spirit of an independent agency with specialized capabilities designed to help clients navigate complexity, build distinctive brands, and drive measurable growth.

SOURCE Acart Communications Inc.

Media contact: Andrew McWiggan, President and CEO, Acart Agency Group, [email protected]