Bob Froese
Bob Froese is the creative catalyst behind Bob’s Your Uncle and one of the creative forces behind some of Canada’s most influential brands. A former fundamentalist Mennonite kid with no TV, radio, or movies in his house growing up, he somehow went on to reshape categories and help build some of the most iconic food & beverage brands of the last 25 years. Go figure.
Bob co-founded the agency in 1995, left the “big dumb agency” world behind, and spent the next three decades proving that creativity — when fueled by honesty, insight, and a little mischief — can be a company’s greatest competitive advantage. He helped architect the Health Canada anti-smoking campaign that dropped national smoking rates from over 75% to under 20% — a case study later cited in Philip Kotler’s book on social marketing.
He then went on to launch Mike’s Hard Lemonade across North America, selling the counter-intuitive (and now legendary) creative platform, “Lemons were hurt real bad in the making of this product”, to a skeptical wine magnate… and turning Mike’s into the category leader it is today. He has led transformations for Calvin Klein, Canon, Popeyes, Beef Farmers of Ontario, Greens+, Second Harvest’s world-changing “Been A Slice” beer, and countless F&B challengers.
Bob now focuses entirely on the work he was always meant to do — setting creative direction, shaping brand strategy, and helping ambitious challenger brands rise to category leadership.
He believes in blue-collar weirdness, strategic simplicity, and asking the only question that matters: Who cares?
Also: he’s a proud father of a blended family including a daughter born 34 years after his first. Life has range.
Posts
How to Choose a Branding Agency for Your Company (Especially if You’re a Challenger Brand in Canada)
If you’re reading this, you’re probably staring down a big decision. You might be about to launch into a brutally crowded category. You might be rebra...
Building Long-Term Brand Platforms: How Challenger Brands Escape the Campaign Treadmill
What is the "Campaign Treadmill"? For many challenger brands in the food, beverage, and CPG sectors, marketing feels like an endless sprint. You launc...
End-to-End Brand Strategy & Creative: What Challenger CPG Brands Should Expect from an Agency
In 2026, the concept of "end-to-end" brand strategy has shifted from a luxury for global giants to a survival requirement for challenger brands. As con...
What QSR proof really looks like (less “we love chicken,” more numbers)
What QSR proof really looks like (less “we love chicken,” more numbers) Every agency says they “get QSR.” Fewer can point to the kinds of numbers that...
CPG Brand Launch Case Studies: How Food & Beverage Brands Go from Shelf to Culture
CPG Brand Launch Case Studies: How Food & Beverage Brands Go from Shelf to Culture In the high-stakes world of Canadian Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG),...
How to Spot a Truly Strategic Branding Agency in Canada (Beyond the Rankings Lists)
What Defines a Strategic Branding Agency in 2026? In the shifting landscape of 2026, a strategic branding agency is defined not by its ability to exec...
What Challenger Brands Really Need from a Branding Agency (and What They Don’t)
The Rules of Engagement Have Changed for 2026 In the current 2026 landscape, the balance of power in the consumer sector has shifted decisively. The e...
How to Choose a Brand Strategy Agency for a High-Stakes Rebrand
Introduction A high-stakes rebrand is more than a visual refresh; it is a fundamental reset of how a company exists in the market. For CMOs and founde...
Boutique vs Big Branding Agencies: A Challenger Brand’s Guide to Choosing the Right Fit
For a challenger brand, choosing a creative partner isn't just a procurement box to check—it’s a survival decision. You don’t have the luxury of outspe...
From Challenger Brands to Category Leaders: The 3 Strategic Moves
Challenger brands don’t become category leaders simply by being louder, scrappier, or more creative than the incumbents. They do it by making a small n...
Visibility Isn’t About Noise. It’s About Conviction.
Visibility Isn’t About Noise. It’s About Conviction. Most brands don’t lose because their competitors are better. They lose because they disappear. ...
Restaurant Social Menu Architecture
Restaurant Social Menu Architecture & Content Engineering If your menu is the product, your social should act like a menu discovery machine. Most res...
How Brands Respond to Cultural Backlash & Reputation Risk
In today's hyper-connected world, cultural backlash is a significant threat to brand stability. Cultural backlash occurs when a brand's messaging, acti...
Category Storytelling and Strategic Narrative Design
Most brands “tell stories.” Very few tell stories that reshape the category. That takes narrative design—built on tension, cultural truth, and a spine ...
Influencer and Creator Strategy
Influencer & Creator Strategy for Food, Beverage and Lifestyle Brands Creators are not media placements. They’re trust vehicles. And trust is the mo...
Economic Empathy
Economic empathy is a marketing approach where brands acknowledge and respect the financial realities of their consumers without exploiting their hards...
Behavioral Strategy for CPG Launches
Awareness doesn’t build brands. Repeat usage does. A behavioral strategy for CPG launches focuses on designing specific consumer habits rather than ju...
Social Strategy for Food and Beverage Brands
Social Strategy for Food & Beverage Brands Most food brand social fails because it’s treated like “posting.” The winners treat it like a content syst...
The Constraint to Creativity Framework: 6 Steps to Turn Limitations into Leverage
Constraints don’t kill creativity. They force it to get sharp. Budgets. Regulations. Naming rules. Category sameness. These aren’t roadblocks—they’re ...
The Brand Relevance Playbook
Relevance isn’t just about chasing trends. It is the disciplined practice of maintaining emotional significance in a changing world. To achieve this, ...
The Restaurant and Food Creator Operating System
The Restaurant + Food Creator Operating System Most restaurant influencer programs fail for one reason: They’re one-offs. A free meal. A post. A hop...
How Food Brands Create Cultural Moments That People Join
Food is one of the last truly shared cultures left. Not "content." Not "community." Culture. The brands that win don't just advertise into it. They de...
Frameworks That Turn Heroes Into Kings
Bob’s Your Uncle Frameworks are strategic operating systems designed for food, beverage, and CPG challenger brands. They solve the critical challenge...
Who Cares!!?
Ads. News. Social media posts. More ads. Emails. Notifications. Even more ads. Every day, we’re bombarded with a constant cacophony of information. In...
Influencer Marketing Awards — “Best Use of a Small Budget (Gold Winner)”
Bob’s Your Uncle Wins Gold at the Global Influencer Marketing Awards The Ontario Beef Burger Battle began as a province-wide road trip. Then COVID gro...
How Popeyes Kept the Buzz Alive for Its Chicken Sandwich
How Popeyes Kept the Buzz Alive for Its Chicken Sandwich The most anticipated chicken sandwich in North America arrived in Canada with a strategy buil...
Gardein: “Start a Healthy Relationship” Goes Mainstream
Gardein: “Start a Healthy Relationship” Goes Mainstream Before plant-based dominated grocery aisles, Gardein and Bob’s Your Uncle were already shaping...
Platinum Naturals: A New Look for a Premium Wellness Brand
Platinum Naturals: A New Look for a Premium Wellness Brand How do you transform a fragmented supplement shelf into a premium, unified brand experience...
Avril Lavigne Helps Canon Cut Through the Clutter
Avril Lavigne Helps Canon Cut Through the Clutter Before Bob’s Your Uncle became the agency it is today, its early incarnation — The BrainStorm Group ...
Raptors x Popeyes: “3 for Free”
Raptors x Popeyes: “3 for Free” A data insight, a fan truth, and a digital activation that exceeded every expectation. Years before the Toronto Raptor...
Been A Slice: Brewing Beer From Bread to Fight Food Waste
Been A Slice: Brewing Beer From Bread to Fight Food Waste What if Canada’s most wasted food could become a source of nourishment instead of landfill? ...
“Coal for Ford”: The Holiday Stunt Heard Across Canada
POST 16 — “Coal for Ford”: The Holiday Stunt Heard Across Canada Sometimes the best way to spread holiday cheer… is with a truckload of coal. In 2013...
Olivieri: “As Easy to Make as It Is to Love”
Olivieri: “As Easy to Make as It Is to Love” When a heritage pasta brand needed a modern refresh, Olivieri turned to Bob’s Your Uncle to help reclaim ...
Bosch: “Nothing [Cleans/Broils/Bakes] Like a Bosch”
Bosch: “Nothing [Cleans/Broils/Bakes] Like a Bosch” Bosch already owned the dishwasher. Our job was to help it own the whole kitchen. Bob’s Your Uncl...
Zero dB: “Noise-Cancelling for Your Mind”
Zero dB: “Noise-Cancelling for Your Mind” A calming beverage that isn’t cannabis — but still uses cannabinoids. Zero dB is a pioneer in a new categor...
Rival House: “The Same Ritual. Just Alcohol-Free.”
Rival House: “The Same Ritual. Just Alcohol-Free.” Mindful drinking doesn’t have to feel like a compromise — and Rival House proves it. Rival House l...
Ontario Beef “Ask Your Butcher Anything”
Ontario Beef “Ask Your Butcher Anything” What happens when a butcher becomes your life coach, trivia expert and therapist — all before he sells you a ...
Chicken Farmers of Canada: “Raised by a Canadian Farmer
Chicken Farmers of Canada: “Raised by a Canadian Farmer” Canada’s chicken farmers have one of the strongest reputations in the grocery aisle — but rep...
Second Harvest Rebrand: “No Waste. No Hunger.”
Second Harvest Rebrand: “No Waste. No Hunger.” From GTA charity to national leader – and a brand to match. Second Harvest has grown into Canada’s lar...
Walmart’s “RomCommerce” and the Future of Shoppable Stories
Walmart’s “RomCommerce” and the Future of Shoppable Stories When your holiday rom-com is really a Walmart cart. Walmart’s 23-episode shoppable series...
Osmow’s “Hooked on the Sauce”
Osmow’s “Hooked on the Sauce” When your garlic sauce is so good it becomes the main character. For Osmow’s Shawarma, the most powerful brand asset is...
Canadian Brands Beyond the Label
Why “Made in Canada” isn’t a story – it’s a starting point. In the middle of a Leafs–Panthers game, Bob Froese noticed something: every rink board was...
Canadian Redline: Turning Idle RVs into Wildfire Housing
A national housing idea born on the highway between Kenora and Edmonton. As wildfires displace thousands of Canadians, new non-profit Canadian Redline...
The Loneliness Era - Why Human Brands Win
We’re living through the loneliest moment in human history. Record levels of isolation. Record levels of disconnection. And what are people turning to...
From the Barn to the Ballroom
Last night we traded our jeans for jackets at the Canadian Agri-Marketing Awards — cheering on our client Beef Farmers of Ontario. There’s something sp...
When The Going Gets Bitter...We Get Sweeter
🍁🥞Trade policies can divide nations. Pancakes bring people together.H ere’s a novel approach to a trade dispute: Instead of fighting tariffs, let’s...
When Brands Miss the Mark
When Brands Miss the Mark: A Reflection on Consumer Disconnect We’ve witnessed some startling examples of brands seemingly losing touch with consumer ...
We Can't Call it Bourbon...But You Can
Creativity Trumps Tariffs: 'We Can't Call it Bourbon, But You Can' In the world of international trade agreements, labels matter. Under the United ...
The Power of Three in Creativity: Where Snoop's Campaign Missed the Mark
The Power of Three in Creativity: Where Snoop's Campaign Missed the Mark When it comes to crafting a successful creative campaign, there's a trifecta ...
The Power of Storytelling in Advertising: A Tale of Two Ads
The Power of Storytelling in Advertising: A Tale of Two Ads In the fast-paced world of digital advertising, where six-second ads and data metrics rei...
The Not-So-Obvious (but Lasting) Impact COVID Made on Canadian Food Consumption
There’s a reason you’re reading and hearing about COVID 19 at every turn; simply put, it currently affects almost every decision we make, and that incl...
The Lion Sleeps Tonight: A Branding Conundrum with the World's Oldest Unchanged Logo
The Lion Sleeps Tonight: A Branding Conundrum with the World's Oldest Unchanged Logo Well, folks, it's official: convincing clients to update their br...
The Icy Plunge to Brand Clarity: Lessons from Lake Michigan
The Icy Plunge to Brand Clarity: Lessons from Lake Michigan In the world of branding, we often talk about the big, thebold, the innovative. But someti...
The Generation Gap
Some early inspiration to start the year - this ad completely nails the 'big three' things that will make people care about your brand - emotion, relev...
The Butcher's Wisdom
The Butcher's Wisdom In a world where convenience often overshadows quality, I recently had an enlightening encounter with a self-taught butcher that ...
Tariffs Are Coming—So What Are You Going to Do About It?
Tariffs Are Coming—So What Are You Going to Do About It? The proposed 25% tariffs on Canadian imports, set to take effect on February 1, are about to ...
Taco Bell's 'Ambitious Goal...Is to Be a Brand Bully?'
Taco Bell's 'Ambitious Goal...Is to Be a Brand Bully?' Taco Bell, in its quest to "free Taco Tuesday," has successfully pressured the last holdout, Gr...
Snoop Dogg's 'Quitting Smoke' Stunt: A Leap Off the Pedestal of Trust
Snoop Dogg's 'Quitting Smoke' Stunt: A Leap Off the Pedestal of Trust Is it just me, or does Snoop Dogg's recent announcement feel like a practical jo...
Seeking Truth in a World of Manufactured Beliefs
Seeking Truth in a World of Manufactured Beliefs In a world increasingly shaped by the ambiguous nature oftruth, where facts are as malleable as clay ...
Putting Your Brand to the Ultimate Authenticity Test: Talia Pizza's Bold Move
Putting Your Brand to the Ultimate Authenticity Test: Talia Pizza's Bold Move Imagine the audacity of serving a frozen pizza at the premier pizza chef...
Miracles in a Bottle: The Divine Alchemy of Vodkow
Miracles in a Bottle: The Divine Alchemy of VodkowI In the quiet corners of my childhood, where the Mennonite ethos whispered of simplicity and miracl...
Intergenerational Ingenuity: The New Creative Frontier
Intergenerational Ingenuity: The New Creative Frontier Recently, I found myself reflecting on a question posed during a podcast: "Why did you start yo...
"I'd Like to Buy the World a...GenerativeAI Ad"
"I'd Like to Buy the World a...GenerativeAI Ad" Coca-Cola, a brand synonymous with timeless advertising, is once again at the forefront of change. Fro...
Getting Personal in the Kitchen
It’s an age-old truth in marketing that consumers gravitate towards the elements that save them time, money or stress. Combine those needs with new dev...
From Playgrounds to Pixels – A Dad’s Quest for Connection
From Playgrounds to Pixels – A Dad’s Quest for Connection In a world where the ping of notifications often drowns out the sound of laughter, I find my...
From $10 Million to Half a Billion: The Art of Masterful Brand Building with Meiky Tollman
From $10 Million to Half a Billion: The Art of Masterful Brand Building with Meiky Tollman When I connected with Meiky Tollman, the genius behind tran...
Don't Just Show Up in Culture - Shape It!
Don’t just show up in culture. Shape it. Loved this insight by Jen Costello, TBWA’s new Global CSO, and her call for brands to stop mimicking culture...
Creativity Trumps Tariffs
When tariffs go up, creativity goes on sale. When U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods hit 25%, most brands braced for impact. Bob’s Your Uncle decided to t...
Brand Disconnect: A Lesson from Wendy's and Kellogg's Missteps
Brand Disconnect: A Lesson from Wendy's and Kellogg's Missteps Recent events have spotlighted a growing issue: brands losing touch with consumer reali...
"Be the Show, Not the Commercial": Wisdom from Shawn P. Walchef of Cali BBQ
"Be the Show, Not the Commercial": Wisdom from Shawn P. Walchef of Cali BBQ When I reached out to Shawn P. Walchef, I expected insights into his thriv...
A Tale of Two Bags
Key Takeaway: Knockoff products can actually strengthen a strong brand by reinforcing its status as the aspirational original. The Hermès Birkin vs. W...
A Love Letter to Second Harvest: Champions in the Fight Against Food Waste
A Love Letter to Second Harvest: Champions in the Fight Against Food Waste Last night, as I sat in the annual general meeting of Second Harvest, I cou...
A Culture of Caring: Redefining Agency Life
Last week, as I delved into the criteria for the Ad Age Small Agency Awards, I was struck by the diversity of accolades—from the best campaign creati...
Time to Welcome a New Hero!
We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Sandbagger, the ready-to-drink spirit-based beverage that’s poised to shake up the beverage aisle and d...
