The power of one.

Who we are

Citizen Optimum is the Canadian Division of international PR group Citizen Relations.

An award-winning PR agency, Citizen Optimum offers strategic PR advice and counsel to industry leading brands, corporations, governments and not-for-profit organizations, designed to contribute to the business success of our clients through effective and innovative communications.

Citizen Optimum has more than 50 team members across four Canadian offices. As former journalists, clients, political staff, civil servants and consultants, our team is committed to delivering exceptional client service, infusing programs with creativity, insight, passion and energy.

Citizen is the amalgamation of Optimum PR in Canada with offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec City, Band & Brown and Brando in the UK with offices in London, and Paine PR in the USA with offices in Los Angeles, Orange Country and New York.

Citizen Optimum is a wholly-owned member of the EDC communications group – which also includes agency partners Dare, Elvis and Jungle Media. As such, Citizen Optimum is able to provide clients with an integrated communications offering extending beyond PR alone – to also include branding and design, advertising, media planning, direct and interactive marketing.

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Our story

Over the past 30 years, Citizen Optimum has grown to become one of Canada's leading full-service public relations agencies, servicing both national and international clients.

Since 2007, Citizen Optimum has undergone a period of significant growth, building our client base by more than 450% in the last 4 years. Throughout this period of substantial growth, Citizen Optimum's offices have strengthened the size and depth of team members. Driven by a collaborative, sincere and entrepreneurial spirit, our team is not only skilled but passionate - about the work they do and the clients they serve and are dedicated to fostering long-lasting partnerships with clients.

As an agency, stability and growth of our client base forms the basis of our partnership philosophy. By building strong partnerships with our clients, Optimum is able to help them meet their business goals. By exploring the foundations of the communications challenges and opportunities, audiences and the best channels to connect with those audiences, we develop engaging and thought-provoking strategies, provide ongoing advice and counsel and always ensure accessibility to a dynamic and qualified senior team.

Quite simply, Citizen Optimum puts our clients first, generates value and is relentless in getting results.

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Our services

Citizen Optimum offers a truly full service model, specializing in integrated communications programs. We offer our clients a full range of services including:

Corporate Communications

Citizen Optimum balances the business and legal imperatives of an organization in order to facilitate effective corporate and financial communication on behalf of clients. Citizen Optimum’s expertise and value-added services help clients better understand and communicate with media, shareholders, stakeholders, analysts, and the broader financial community.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is commonly defined as an alignment of a company’s activities with the social, economic and environmental expectations of its stakeholders. In short – it’s about giving something back to the community in which you operate, be that local or global. Citizen Optimum helps organizations develop CSR platforms in line with the company vision and values, embody the platforms internally, and communicate such messages to the wider public.

Consumer Connections

Citizen Optimum collaborates with clients to develop and deliver brand strategies that stand out in the competitive environment, emotionally engage with consumers, generate positive discussion and position companies for business success.  Consumer Connections helps to drive traffic, encourge trial and ultimately contribute to sales.

Media Relations

Citizen Optimum builds strong and lasting relationships with key media in order to develop and execute successful media relations programs on behalf of clients, earning editorial coverage, building consumer awareness and corporate reputation. Citizen Optimum then supports its clients prior to every media interview to offer comprehensive preparation to ensure a successful outcome.

Social Media,  blogger and online outreach programs

Citizen Optimum has designed and executed a number of community-based social marketing programs to raise awareness, educate, and influence change. From research, creative design, website design and media strategy, Citizen Optimum has helped clients achieve their objectives and reach new audiences.

Experiential Events

Special events are often the cornerstone of consumer marketing, internal communications and sponsorship activation . From international conferences to industry trade shows, Citizen Optimum has expertise in conceptual development and execution of both small and large-scale events with tangible, quantifiable results.

Stakeholder and Community Relations

Many of Citizen Optimum’s clients operate in the public sphere, where the issues, concerns and priorities of local communities, industry groups and non-governmental organizations can impact business success. Citizen Optimum helps, manage relationships between these organizations and find solutions that support both sides. The firm has significant experience engaging community relations programs to align a client’s corporate citizenship and contribute to communities at large, while creating a wealth of PR opportunities in the process. Citizen Optimum helps organizations develop and implement programs that increase goodwill, and support an organization’s image as a trusted leader.

Issues Management and Crisis Communications

Citizen Optimum helps clients address their corporate affairs requirements, through issues management services and the design and execution of dedicated communications programs. Issues may include downsizing or corporate reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, consumer and investor crises, labor disputes or technology infrastructure deployments, among others. Optimum helps clients protect their reputations by planning and preparing for both real-time and simulated emergency operations in both the corporate and government sectors. Our expertise ranges from plant closures and layoffs to natural disaster response exercises, to ensure the preservation of public trust.

Internal and Employee Communications

To give a consistent and accurate corporate picture to all employees, internal communications programs must be streamlined to integrate and unite the workforce, and to ensure that all employees understand corporate objectives, visions and values. Disseminating news and information quickly is critically important, and can help strengthen a company’s brand by providing a unified voice from all channels.

Executive and Spokesperson Training (including Media Training)

Effective communication is vital in today’s business environment. And with media’s unparalleled capacity to influence opinions, building strong public speaking and media interview skills has become a key priority. Citizen Optimum has trained C-Suite executives, business administrators, politicians, Olympic athletes, government officials and medical professionals to communicate effectively with internal and external audiences alike.

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Our awards

Our awards

ACE Awards 2011


New Product or Service Launch - Future Shop 3DTV (bronze/silver)


Best Use of Media Relations Under 50K - Toys R Us Black Friday


Best Use of Media Relations Budget Over 50K - Retire Your Ride, Act Now! (bronze/silver)


Best Use of Special Events, Retire Your Ride, Last Call Event (silver)


Brand Development Campaign of the Year, Future Shop Holiday 2010 (Gold) Campaign.



IABC Ovation Awards 2011-07-11


Award of Excellence, Media Relations 100K and up, Toys”R”Us Holiday 20111


Award of Merit, Media Relations up to 50K, Future Shop Back to School Campaign


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Our expertise

Citizen Optimum works in multidisciplinary teams. We work collaboratively across teams to ensure the cross-pollination of ideas and to ensure that clients are getting the right mix of talent from across the country. This also means that we have built in the flexibility to pull in specific expertise from our team as required.

• Clean Technology
• Consumer Packaged Goods
• Travel and Tourism
• Real Estate
• Not for profit
• Retail Response
• Financial Services
• Telecommunications
• Government
• Food and Nutrition

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Our network

Citizen operates in domestic markets as Citizen Optimum, Citizen Paine and Citizen Brando. Internationally, Citizen has offices in eight cities, Toronto, London, New York, Los Angeles, Orange County, Montreal, Vancouver, and Quebec City.

We partner with The Jeffrey Group in South America, SPRG in China, Creative Crest in India, PR Technologies in Russia and 20 other agencies in Europe.