Canadians, Ketchup Wars and Ad Tech
Consumer behaviour matters.
Voting happens once every few years. Consumer behaviour shapes the economy every single day.
More Canadians intend to change their buying behaviour this year than voted in the last Federal election. We're not talking about casual do good-feel good shifts. We are convicted. We’re not just buying Canadian - we’ll do everything possible to avoid American products.
A February 2025 Strategy survey show 63% of Canadians will avoid US goods.
An Angus Reid survey from February 2025 shows 85% of Canadians are replacing or planning to replace US products, with many favouring Canadian groceries.
A survey by Abacus Data found 42% of Canadians will "ABSOLUTELY DO EVERYTHING" to avoid buying US products.
Let’s talk about Heinz…
Heinz opened its plant in Leamington, Ontario, in 1908. Then, in 2014, they packed up and left, gutting local jobs and production. For six years, they shipped American ketchup to Canada, expecting business as usual.
Enter French’s. They took over the plant immediately, using Canadian tomatoes to make Canadian ketchup. Canadians noticed. We switched. And Heinz bled enough market share that, by 2020, they had to come crawling back—opening a Montreal facility and using Canadian tomatoes again.
But let’s be clear: they didn’t choose to come back. They had to. We mattered to their bottom line. And now, history repeats itself. In response to today’s Made in Canada movement, Heinz is losing ground to French’s—again. Their latest move? A statement trying to “clarify” misleading labels and deflect accusations of continued U.S. sourcing. In other words, a weak attempt at damage control. Meanwhile, French’s has built an army of loyalists by understanding and respecting its market.
Now, let’s talk about ads…
This isn’t just about ketchup or Canadians. Consumer behaviour matters in every industry—including ours.
The problem? In ad tech, it’s not always clear who the “consumer” even is.
Is it advertisers—because they hold the purse strings?
Is it users—because no users, no ads?
Is it publishers—who, let’s be honest, are often treated like we should be grateful to be part of a media plan at all
I can tell you who isn’t the consumer: agencies, SSPs, DSPs, and data companies—the ad techs. These middlemen exist to serve advertisers, much like grocery stores serve shoppers. Most people don’t worry about how ketchup gets to the shelf—it’s there, we buy it, and sometimes we feel even better if we pick it up on sale. Similarly, advertisers don’t need to focus on the complexities of ad delivery because there are plenty of solutions and services that tell a great story about how the marketing magically happens.
Change starts with awareness.
Canadians and publishers face a similar philosophical dilemma! The global economy does care about Canadians, as seen through the great 10 year (and counting) ketchup war. When our spending shifts, corporations notice. When we pull our dollars, they adapt.
The same is true for publishing. The ad economy will miss us if we’re gone. It will look back to the golden days when marketing diversity rained from the heavens and choices weren’t locked in to tightly walled gardens. The buy side can’t recognize our relevance without hearing our voice. Our value won’t be championed by the companies powering the supply chain. They aren’t working for us. They are working for each other, often at the expense of both the brands and publishers they are supposed to enrich.
The only thing we can do is make smarter choices. We can change how we consume! We can set up floors, reduce the number of partners in our stack, cut back reselling and turn off proprietary placements. It might feel uncomfortable at first—just like switching ketchup brands. Down the road, you won’t remember a difference and may even grow to love the change.
Most importantly, we must ruthlessly scrutinize programs collecting and leveraging our signals. Make sure the bottle is worth the squeeze and price-control the hell out of our assets!