Whistler-based creative agency, Origin, which has, over the years, helped shape and share the story of the resort to a national and international audience, has been acquired by one of the world’s leading integrated travel and hospitality marketing firms.
Kansas City-based MMGY Global announced the deal last month, part of its ongoing strategy to grow its global footprint and ability to service existing and prospective clients worldwide, as well as moving further into the realms of outdoor sport, lifestyle and recreation that Origin has been known for since its founding close to 30 years ago.
“It’s really about talent, geography and the expansion of our service offerings,” said Katie Briscoe, MMGY Global’s president and incoming CEO. “We have been looking at creatively centred businesses for many years and wanted to find that right partner in the niche we specialize in, which is travel and hospitality. We’ve seen some businesses we’ve been excited about, but we love Origin and we love their focus on the outdoors and their portfolio.”
Founded by Danielle Kristmanson in 1995, the story of Origin’s success in many ways mirrors the growth of Whistler as a resort. One of the firm’s first clients out of the gate was Whistler Mountain, and then, Whistler Blackcomb (WB), when both namesake mountain operations merged in 1997, giving Kristmanson and her small team the tall order of selling the burgeoning ski resort—and by extension, Whistler itself—to the wider world.
“It built from there. We were very small back then, but we became very tied to Whistler Blackcomb’s growth and to [former WB owner] Intrawest’s growth and a lot of those players back then,” Kristmanson said. “We rode those coattails and they took us out of Whistler. They were really responsible for exporting our expertise and talent outside of Whistler.”
Another big break for Origin came in the early 2000s, when the firm landed the entire account for both WB and Tourism Whistler.
It was not long after that Origin added Marie-Josée Legault as a partner, and expanded its presence into Montreal and Vermont. But Whistler would always remain at the core of the agency’s award-winning work, which gave it both a leg up on other firms in the outdoor recreation space and an enticing carrot to dangle in front of its employees.
“In retrospect, I think for the longest time we saw Whistler as a bit of a disadvantage to our competitiveness. We thought it felt kind of small-time. In actuality, there are a lot of really smart and talented creative strategists that want to live the lifestyle we can in Whistler and don’t want to sacrifice their career growth at the same time,” explained Kristmanson. “A really unique working environment and really unique creative opportunities specific to the outdoors meant that we got the best of the best. There are not many agencies like us where you can live an outdoor lifestyle and work on brands that align with your passions. It really worked in our advantage. I would say it was almost accidental.”
Known for its knack for visual storytelling, Origin has worked with some of the biggest outdoor brands and organizations in the world, including L.L. Bean, MEC, Vail Resorts, lululemon, and Smartwool.
But for Kristmanson’s money, it’s two memorable campaigns for WB closer to home that exemplify Origin’s storytelling acumen: one, called Embedded, saw filmmaker and freestyle skiing pioneer Mike Douglas shack up in the patrol hut at the top of Peak Chair for several chilly days leading up to opening day, documenting all the last-minute preparations to get the lifts up and running. The other, called Magnetic, was launched in 2017 to mark WB’s 50th anniversary and resulted in Origin’s first feature-length documentary, of the same name, that brought back some of the most notable figures from the ski resort’s half-century of operations.
“The work we did with that was really groundbreaking for the industry. Never before or since has there been a ski film filmed and produced entirely within the ski area,” Kristmanson said. “That night in the conference centre when we premiered that film … was just such an amazing moment where we felt like we really gave something back to the community.”
Under MMGY’s umbrella, Origin will become known as MMGY Origin and will continue to operate as its own independent brand, with all 35 employees retained. Legault will now serve as partner and managing director and Kristmanson as partner and creative director, and both will work with MMGY Global’s senior management team to grow the agency’s capabilities and extend its services across other areas of the company.
As an agency exclusively focused on creative, Kristmanson said in the past Origin would sometimes miss out on bids, because they don’t offer marketing and media-buying services.
“This will change that for us,” Kristmanson said. “I don’t think [our clients] will see much difference except an enhanced roster of services we can bring to the table.”
