Growth Begets Growth: How Proof Experiences Is Powering Up for the Future

In late September, experiential marketing agency Proof Experiences received a major accolade when it was ranked amongst Canada’s Top Growing Companies of 2025. An annual list assembled by the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine, according to president and CEO Lisa Barrans, the shop’s placement was testament to its impressive revenue growth across the past few years, driven by an internal emphasis on innovation, commitment to excellence, and client growth.

“It’s an incredible honour to be named to the list – a who’s who of Canada’s most successful and growing companies,” she says proudly. “As it’s a culmination of three strong years, it also sends an important message to our team and our clients: we are consistently working to improve our offering and deliver results to clients. When you combine this award with our industry-low turnover rates and high employee engagement scores, we’re pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished together. Every single employee is sharing in this success.”

While Lisa’s description makes Proof’s journey sound like a linear affair, the agency’s work during this time period has been nothing short of measured, meticulous and precise. Since 2022, the company has focused its investments into “growth and innovation drivers”, including a new business effort focused on key client wins, and the hiring of senior team members to expand bench strength and expertise. Testament to the business’ motto, ‘Investing for growth begets growth’, the decision to consistently reinvest is the key factor at play.

“Our continued success has allowed for reinvestments across the organisation,” she continues. “This is enabling us to respond more quickly and efficiently to specific needs, and ultimately drive results for our clients.”

The proof truly has been in the pudding. This year alone, the agency has won several new business pitches, including Ontario Cannabis Store, RBC Commercial Business, RBC Insurance, expanded mandates with Dell and Intuit, and significant growth with the Government of Canada. Wins which will grant the organisation further investment opportunities, it all serves to highlight that going forward, things are only intended to accelerate.

Curating a Strong Blend

When it comes to capitalising on momentum, Proof is planning for future growth by diversifying offerings, and will be looking to expand reach going forward.

This will start with the addition of a US team to the agency’s dedicated Growth and Innovation roster, with the goal of bringing scalability to clients, and providing additional exposure to new partners beyond the agency’s native Canadian market.

Additionally, Proof is once again reinvesting into talent. Intended to expand the organisation’s areas of expertise, each new hire represents the belief that a “successful agency has a strong blend of generalists and specialists on its roster”.

First up is the managing director US, Jennifer Mason. A seasoned marketer with over 25 years of agency-side experience, for Lisa, this is a particularly exciting acquisition. As she puts it, “Jen will bring that same experience to our US clients with feet on the ground, strategic client leadership, and a North American/integrated lens.”

At the same time, the agency has improved its titular experiential offering with the arrival of 20-plus-year industry veteran Skye Brain. Someone who will bring a “measured and innovative lens” to the Experiential Education team, she’ll be looking to operationalise key learnings to help others grow in this space.

On the culture side of things, meanwhile, the company has brought in Rosana Fialho to oversee all initiatives. Most recently a professor of HR at Sheridan College, Lisa asserts this is a particularly important long-term move. “As technology plays an increasing role in business, Rosana will start to operationalise our People and Culture plans in order to streamline our recruiting and training needs,” she explains. “This will expedite our ability to scale our employee experience as we grow.”

Last but not least, the agency has bolstered its client and production teams, with the onboarding of Daniel Guarino (account director, client experience) and Tony Marino (senior director, production services). In the case of the former, Daniel will bring a new wealth of experience in the B2B space to both the Experiential Marketing and Conference and Events teams, seeking to help clients build their own strategic employee and customer experiences. On the other hand, Tony will utilise his over 25 years of integrated production and creative experience to scale Proof’s production capabilities and provide an elevated level of service to the shop’s broadening client base.

“We are already feeling the impact and presence of these new hires, who offer such breadth, expertise and specialisation,” Lisa reflects. “Because of them, we are able to spread ourselves across so many more client initiatives and various aspects of the business simultaneously, with everyone laser-focused on their core competency. This has poised us so well for further growth.”

The Foundation of Every Great Company

Despite Proof’s exciting new ventures, looking ahead to 2026, there’s a shared understanding internally that growth must not become a barrier to accessing what made the agency successful in the first place.

With that in mind, Lisa is keeping an eye on what’s already working, with the aim of building upon strong roots. “Clearly defining our brand and articulating this to our team was the beginning of a new growth chapter for us,” she says. “We’ve historically been financially successful, but overlaying this with our own brand house (including purpose, vision, mission, and values) that we can all be proud of, and that is differentiated and focused on what we deliver, has accelerated this growth exponentially.

“We also learned that the foundation of every great company is our people, so weaving our people's goals with our business goals has really solidified this success. Everyone is a part of it, and you can feel the energy when you walk into our agency or talk to anyone on our team.”

Proof’s ambition – to create meaningful experiences that have a positive impact on people’s lives – cannot succeed by compromising on these factors. An award affirms things are on the right path, but the next chapter will require a great deal more precise thought to ensure things continue to roll out smoothly.

However, there’ll be plenty of time to do that down the line. For now, the team is winding down October by taking a little time to enjoy the milestone, and revel in all that it represents.

“We absolutely celebrated this accomplishment at our annual company retreat,” Lisa concludes. “We also had some fun activities for everyone, including our first annual company-wide awards ceremony, called the ‘Expy Awards’, together with team-building and training exercises, and a night at a Raptors game together. Look out 2026, here we come!”