[Top Agency Series] Creating Organic Word of Mouth With Yanik Deschenes of YPR Canada

Yanik Deschenes, APR, LL.B. is the Founder and President of YPR Canada, a public relations agency with expertise in sparking organic word of mouth within relevant communities. He is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in communications and public relations. With a background in advertising and a focus on creating conversations, Yanik has helped elevate the brand equity of major organizations like Walmart, National Bank, Morgan Stanley, and MUJI. He’s also Co-founder of C2 Montreal, a globally recognized conference on commerce and creativity, and a passionate tennis player who attributes much of his personal development to the sport.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:59] Yanik Deschenes shares the unique approach of YPR to generate word of mouth for clients
• [05:14] The Press Test tool for evaluating pitch effectiveness in PR
• [10:31] How vulnerability and tension can be leveraged to engage audiences
• [18:55] Yanik discusses the thought process behind creating the Green Media Summit platform
• [22:32] How to align company goals with broader industry platforms for mutual growth
• [24:32] Highlights from C2 Montreal conferences and speakers
• [28:39] Books and resources that have influenced Yanik’s professional journey
• [35:25] The evolving values of work and fostering excellence in the new generation
• [39:26] YPR’s customer success stories

In this episode…

Are you tired of the same old advertising strategies that don’t make a difference? Have you ever wondered how a brand can organically generate buzz without the need for traditional advertising? What is the key to sparking genuine interest and conversation around a product or service?

Yanik Deschenes, APR, LL.B., a seasoned communications and public relations professional, delves into successful media pitching and generating organic word of mouth. He reveals the insightful strategies behind YPR’s successes and shares how they’ve helped elevate global brands without direct advertising. Yanik shows how brands can become central in the conversations that matter most to their industry.

In this episode of Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Yanik Deschenes, Founder and President of YPR Canada, about strategies for brand storytelling and fostering word of mouth. Yanik shares the unique approach of YPR to generate word of mouth for clients, the three critical aspects of a successful story pitch in PR, and highlights from the Green Media Summit platform and C2 Montreal conferences.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Yanik Deschenes, APR, LL.B. on LinkedIn
• YPR Canada
• C2 Montreal
• Sid Lee

Special Mention(s):

• The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts by Rhiannon Beaubien and Shane Parrish
• Rafael Nadal
• Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results by Shane Parrish
• Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy
• The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers’ Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz
• Sharethrough Headline Analyzer

Related episode(s):

• “[Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Sweet Process Series] How to Save Hundreds of Hours a Month Using Top Productivity Tools with Adi Klevit of Business Success Consulting Group” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Continuous Development & Growth-Driven Design With Travis McAshan, GLIDE Design” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “The 4 Day Week : How the Flexible Work Revolution Can Increase Productivity, Profitability And Well-Being With Andrew Barnes Of 4DayWeek.com” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable Moments:

• “Advertising without doing advertising is the essence of creating organic word of mouth.”
• “You need to bring context, tension, and value to your story — that’s what makes a pitch convert.”
• “Generosity in business is not just a nice-to-have, it’s a strategic move that drives growth.”
• “Reading regularly helps me stay sharp, re-invent my perspective, and maintain relevance in a rapidly evolving society.”
• “The concept of unique ability changed the way I think about work within my team.”

Action Steps:

1. Use contextual relevance in your PR efforts to connect your story to current events and societal concerns: Ensure your messaging is timely and resonates with the audience’s current interests.
2. Introduce strategic tension in your brand narratives to engage and provoke thought: The controversy and differing viewpoints foster deeper engagement and discussion among the target audience.
3. Make generosity a core aspect of your brand’s community involvement: Bolster brand image and foster positive associations with social responsibility and industry advancements.
4. Adopt the concept of unique abilities for team development: Focusing on individual strengths enhances overall productivity and job satisfaction.
5. Prioritize building relationships, being singular in the market, and delivering results in business: These practices lead to sustainable success and client retention.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:01

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22

Dr Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today, is no different of Yanik Deschenes of YPR, you can find them at yprcanada.com and Yanik, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. Since this is part of the top agency series, one of my favorites is Kevin Hourigan, who runs Spinutech. He had an agency since 1995 so it’s very interesting to see the landscape of the internet, of business, of the agency space, and have him talk through all the ups and also the downs. So that was really interesting.

Another one was Todd Taskey. Todd Taskey actually is a Second Bite Podcast. He helps pair agency owners with private equity and helps sell agencies. And he calls it the second bite, because sometimes when those agencies sell to private equity and private equity sells again, they make more in the second bite than they do in the first sometimes. So he has some great agency owners talking through kind of the exit process, which I find very interesting. And Adi Klevit has a very interesting business, and like, where she is a done-for-you service for SOPs. So, all the non-sexy stuff, like the operational stuff that no one likes to do, she will help go into companies and help actually map out their SOPs for them. So helps with onboarding of staff, members of clients and everything else. So that was a good one. We geeked out on our favorite productivity tools and softwares. That was a fun one.

This episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect their dream relationships and partnerships. And how do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast. We’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. So we do the accountability, the strategy and the full execution. So we call ourselves kind of the magic elves that run in the background and make it look easy for the host and the company so they can create great content and great relationships. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships, and I’ve found no better way, over the past decade, to pro them, profiling the people and companies I most admire on this planet and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you thought about podcasting, you should, if you have questions, go to rise25.com or email us at [email protected].
I am honored to have Yanik Deschenes on. He’s the founder and president of YPR. YPR is an agency that pursues the goal of helping brands and organizations create organic word of mouth within the relevant communities. I love the distinction there of relevant communities, because sometimes it just makes sense to be in certain communities and not in everywhere, right? Yanik actually helps, they’ve helped elevate the brand equity of a lot of even global organizations, including Walmart, National Bank, Morgan Stanley and MUJI, and they have offices in Canada and the US and Montreal, Toronto, New York. And what YPR really does is creates conversations that spark curiosity and generates brand value for these companies. And Yanik is also the co-founder of C2 Montreal, a global conference on commerce and creativity. Yanik, thanks for joining me.

Yanik Deschenes 3:46

It’s a real pleasure. Jeremy, thank you so much for inviting me.

Jeremy Weisz 3:49

Talk a little bit about YPR and what you do. And while you’re doing that, there is a video portion I’m gonna pull up YPR and people can check it out.

Yanik Deschenes 3:59

Oh, you’re so nice. Listen, as you mentioned in the introduction, we are an agency that generates word of mouth for clients within a defined community. So basically it’s advertising without doing advertising. The end game for us is basically having credible third parties sharing the brand story to their audience, organically, without being paid, without being asked. It comes from the art, and they want to share the brand story to their audience. So it’s organic word of mouth that we are doing, whether it’s in the kind of a B2B environment or B2C environment.

Jeremy Weisz 4:50

Talk about, and we’re looking at the site here, and I know you have a proprietary process. I believe you even have a tool that people can use to rate their pitches. So I would love to hear some of the examples of mistakes you’ve seen people make with pitching or reaching out to these companies.

Yanik Deschenes 5:14

No, for sure, I just want to, you’re talking about the press tests. It’s about pitching a story to a media, because most of my clients want to be in the press. Okay? They want to have positive articles about them, about what they’re doing, how great they are in the press without having to pay them. So as you may imagine, reporters from all around the world, they get swamped by people from the industry, pitching them some stories. And what we realized is that I’ve been in the business for a while, and I’ve developed, like over the years, with my team, some criteria, over 30 criteria that makes a pitch a story to a media that is going to maximize your chance to get a return from the reporter and then an article.
So we were doing this manually for many years, and with the apiary, the rise of AI, we decided to launch a tool that is called the Press Test that allows people to put their pitch. So, example, you want to pitch Rise25 to The Wall Street Journal. You say, I am Jeremy. I launched this and please write an article. So, The Wall Street Journal, they probably going to say, oh, it’s Jeremy. I’m going to write a story.

Jeremy Weisz 6:38

I would lead with, I know Yanik and okay, no problem.

Yanik Deschenes 6:43

No. So basically, what the tool will do at the end of the day, will say, listen, Jeremy, your chance to converting an article is about 2% okay, you don’t have like based on all the criteria, but in order to maximize your chance, here’s what we recommend you to cover. So the tool will help PR professionals to build a story that is more relevant with the target reporter, whether it’s in Canada, whether it’s in the US, the tool is applicable to 45 countries around the world. So we’re very proud. And we’ve tested that tool for years, manually, and now the tool is open to public and it’s working.

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