our story

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Maritz Canada in detail

Every company has a story, but ours is a really good one – even if we do say so ourselves. You’ve probably heard of the infamous "gold watch" given to retirees for service anniversaries. It’s practically a metaphor for work done well. Did you know that James Maritz invented the concept?

The E. Maritz Jewelry Manufacturing Company
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. This story begins over a century ago in 1894. That’s when Edward Maritz formed the E. Maritz Jewelry Manufacturing Company, selling jewellery and engraved watches wholesale. Over the next 20 years, he introduced a catalogue for his merchandise, and expanded to include silverware and diamond jewellery. Things were really good…until 1929 rolled around and with it the Great Depression.

Everything changed all over the world. Hundreds of businesses closed down, including, of course, jewellery stores who no longer had customers with money to spare for food and lodging, let alone gems. Things looked grim for the E. Maritz Jewelry Manufacturing Company, now managed by James A. Maritz, Edward’s son.

But, this is where the tide turned for all of Maritz as we know it. James knew that the company could not continue as it had. Instead, he looked to an entirely new market: the corporate world. He offered companies a catalogue of wholesale watches and jewellery to recognize employees and reward sales people.

And so was born the incentives market and a turning point for Maritz. The company grew from the seed of incentives planted at that moment, but expanded over the years to businesses that could further motivate people to their best performance. This was the dawn of the science and art of people and potential, combining strategy, process and expertise to inspire greatness in individuals. In the 1950s, Maritz acquired a travel company and began offering group travel incentives. In 1961, the company changed its name to Maritz Inc.

The next few decades were filled with global expansion and steps into the marketing research, marketing communications, learning and meeting businesses, and in 1980 Maritz Canada was born.

Maritz Canada
Maritz set up operations in Mississauga, Ontario to support business with Ford. In 1991, we needed to expand into a second office in Markham, to manage work with the IBM account. Four years later, we acquired a company known as Active Impressions in Marketing (AIM) and officially formed Maritz Canada Inc.

Back then, we had a small office in Streetsville and hosted internal meetings in the backyard pool. Humble beginnings, but a time of intense growth and great work, setting the foundation for what the company would eventually become. In 1995, we introduced Canada to the first incentive points card to work on debit technology. This was huge and foreshadowed the enormous future popularity of the gift card industry and our growing focus on delivering great brand experiences to consumers. We also became the Canadian representative for Wilson Learning.

In 1998 we acquired Thompson Lightstone, which became the basis of Maritz Research Canada, connected to the worldwide Maritz Research organization and focused on understanding customers better. We also joined forces with Partners in Performance to build up our growing incentive group travel work.

A big year in Maritz' history
2001 was a big year. Not only did Steve Maritz become the 4th generation of Maritz to run the overall company, but we also moved to our beautiful building on the cleverly named Maritz Drive in Mississauga. If you haven’t seen it, please come visit.

Over the next few years, our numbers grew significantly, as did our rosters of great talent and successful clients. Our effort to remain true to our core values was formally acknowledged in 2002 when we earned a spot on the list of Canada’s Top 50 Best Companies.

In 2003, we sought – and won – ISO 9001:2000 quality management certification. To earn this certification means we employ a Quality Management System that adheres to formalized and documented processes and policies, allowing us to bring a consistently excellent quality of work to our clients. And to retain this certification, we are audited and recertified annually. No other agency we know of has this certification; it is the standard we uphold that speaks to the caliber of our work and we are very proud of it.

In 2004, we launched our consumer loyalty business, a logical evolution from what started as incentives and eventually shaped Sales and Employee engagement and loyalty programs.

In 2005, we acquired Atlantis Creative Group, strengthening our marketing communications abilities and expanding further into the Healthcare sector. To support our growing number of consumer-facing programs, as well as our channel-based initiatives, we also launch our customer care call centre in this year. The call centre establishes a reputation for providing high-touch, personalized customer service for loyalty, incentive and learning programs.

We would like to say that from 2006 to 2008 we rested – but we certainly didn't. We worked with a lot of diverse clients on some groundbreaking programs, and got significantly closer to their consumers, employees and sales channels. These pivotal years reinforced our commitment to focusing on the human dimension. We learned a lot about different industries, different audiences, and the impact individuals have on the speed and breadth of success for a company. Recognizing changes in how people communicate and the need for increased sophistication and efficiency, we also elevated the role technology has played throughout our organization.

In 2009, we formalized mobile marketing and social media as part of our digital offering. These mediums are perfect to reinforce our client’s brand to their audiences and to enable real-time dialogue with consumers wherever they are, whenever they want.

So, here we are
In 2010, we made the decision to focus on helping our clients with their #1 issue: consistently delivering an outstanding brand experience to their consumers. We do this through three solution sets that guide their key audiences through the consumer experience lifecycle: engagement marketing, consumer loyalty and sales channel enablement. Our offerings now include research, learning, loyalty, incentives, digital, marketing communications and events. And while the roots of each of these have been sewn over the past 25 years, our commitment to them is renewed daily. Our organization is 400+ strong now. We have some of the leading minds in Canada creating solutions for our clients' most pressing business challenges (check out some of our thought leaders), and we continue to hone our own expertise and insight into key industries, especially automotive, financial services, healthcare, technology and telecommunications, and retail and packaged goods.

James Maritz probably didn’t envision this path for his jewellery business. But, we’re not so far off: we are still focusing on the science and art of people and potential. Striving always to understand, enable and motivate by focusing on what makes them tick.

And to think, it all began with a watch…