Spotlight

Calgary Marketing Association
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Spotlight – the Calgary Marketing Association's podcast – shines a light on the creative pulse of Calgary’s marketing scene. Each episode dives into candid conversations with industry leaders, uncovering the bold ideas, trailblazing campaigns, and insider strategies shaping the future of marketing. From dissecting brilliant case studies to revealing the stories behind the success, Spotlight blends celebration and education, delivering actionable insights and fresh inspiration.

  1. 2d ago

    Faster Horses and the AI Leadership Gap

    Most teams use AI to do the same old work faster. Dan Temby calls that building faster horses when what you need is a motorcar.In this episode, Derek and Marc speak with Dan Temby, SVP of Technology and Analytics at DAC. They cover what separates AI experimenters from leaders. Dan has spent 19 years at DAC, a media agency that started in the yellow pages 55 years ago. He shares what the company has learned from adopting AI early.What we cover:- How DAC pivoted from yellow pages ads to full-stack media, and why it still matters- Building AI reporting tools, from ChatGPT's code interpreter to agentic workflows- Why "faster horses" thinking is the biggest barrier to AI adoption- "Slop cannons" and "meat proxies": why dense AI output often fails with human audiences- Keeping humans in the loop with accountability, governance and limited agent permissions- Why DAC built AI out of its tools instead of into them- Agentic harnesses and how teams share knowledge across AI users- Why the experimentation phase is over

  2. Oct 14

    How Listening got Candidly AI to Product-Market Fit

    Candidly AI co-founders Jackson and Noah McDonough share how they turned a voice AI platform into a hands-on service that helps organizations gather better feedback. They discuss finding product-market fit, reaching hard-to-hear communities, and building trust with enterprise and municipal customers.

  3. Sep 30

    Making Sh*t at the Speed of Light: AI, Creative, and the Velocity Trap

    AI can generate 50 ad variations in an hour. But is it producing better work, or just more of it?On this episode of CMA Spotlight, Derek Hovinga and Marc Binkley sit down with Pradeep Balasubramanian, who works in Gen AI and performance automation at ATB Financial. Pradeep works where creative judgment, AI-enabled workflows, and full-funnel measurement meet, and he makes the case for slowing down so AI builds quality instead of volume.We get into why "accuracy before speed" should be every team's first gate, what platforms like Meta Andromeda can and can't see about your business outcomes, and why the creative brief may matter more now than ever. Pradeep also shares how he gets AI to "interview him like a reporter" before generating anything, why compliance is a feature rather than the final boss, and why the same creative should never run on every platform.Follow Pradeep's newsletter: No Easy Answers https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/no-easy-answers-7463297449139331072/

  4. Sep 15

    The Video ROI Nobody's Tracking

    Is video actually worth the investment... or is it just another line item that's hard to justify? In this episode of Spotlight, we sit down with Adam Mercier from Studio Spero to break down what real, measurable ROI on video looks like.We dig into:- How brands should actually be measuring video performance- Common mistakes companies make when budgeting for video- What separates video that converts from video that just looks nice- Practical advice for marketers trying to make the case for video internally

  5. Aug 18

    Plugging Fractional Marketing into Your Business

    Here's a podcast description for the episode: Fractional vs. Full-Time: Rethinking How You Hire Marketing Talent, with Rosalind Toews Hiring for marketing is rarely as simple as "post the job and wait." Do you bring on a full-time employee? Sign an agency retainer? Hire a freelancer? Or go fractional? In this episode, Derek Hovinga and Marc Binkley speak with Rosalind Toews from Outspoke about how to actually make that call and why the fractional model is reshaping how growing businesses think about marketing leadership. They dig into where full-time hires can leave companies stretched too thin, why agency retainers sometimes miss the mark on strategy, the limits of hiring freelancers for one-off tasks, and what it really looks like to have a fractional expert embedded in your business week to week. Rosalind shares a grounded, practical take on the signals that tell you which model is right for where your business is right now. Whether you're a founder facing a hiring decision or a marketer curious about the fractional path, this conversation offers a clear-eyed framework for making that choice.

  6. Aug 5

    Proving Marketing's Financial DNA

    B2B marketers love to talk about impressions and clicks. Partners love to talk about revenue. This episode is about closing that gap. Morgan Melnyk from MNP joins CMA Spotlight to unpack how a firm known for relationships, not funnels, builds a research-backed marketing strategy that doesn't just look good on a dashboard. We cover the MarTech spend nobody questions until it's too late, why "vanity metrics" and "leading indicators" get confused constantly, and how the Consumer Debt Index turned proprietary research into real commercial traction. Plus: what to do tomorrow if you're stuck proving marketing's worth to people who only speak P&L. A conversation for anyone trying to earn credibility in the boardroom, not just clicks in the dashboard.

  7. Jul 21

    The CMA Goes to The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

    Marc just got back from Cannes Lions (by way of the Stampede, because apparently that's a normal transition) and he's bringing back more than just a hangover. On this episode of the CMA Spotlight podcast, Derek sits down with Marc to unpack what actually happens at advertising's biggest stage — beyond the beach clubs and the free Rosé. In this episode: Why "going to see the work" in the Palais basement is the real Cannes experience — and what those case study boards reveal that award reels never showColumbia Sportswear's flat-earther stunt and why it had the room laughingKitKat's "Take a Break" brief — the same idea for 70 years, and why that's a feature, not a bugThe research behind it: the average campaign lasts just 38 days, and what that says about why so much advertising doesn't stickRethink's big win on the world stage and what makes their creative process repeatableThe CRAFTS framework for building a genuinely good creative ideaA packed house for Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp — mental availability, the "rule of two," and why B2B buyers already have their shortlist before you show upMercado Libre's Grand Prix-winning stunt that turned a soccer field into a barcode (and generated €1.5M in sales)If you're in marketing, brand, or just curious what $10K+ in flights and hotel rooms buys you in the south of France, this one's worth the watch. Thanks to System1 for sponsoring Marc's trip to Cannes this year. Have insights or work you want to share on a future episode? The CMA Spotlight podcast records live every Tuesday at 10:30am — reach out if you're a Calgary Marketing Association member interested in joining.

  8. Jul 7

    AI Can Make the Ad. It Can't Make the Strategy

    Every platform has AI creative tools now — Meta, Google, TikTok, all built-in, all free, all one click away. You can generate a video ad from a text prompt, animate a product shot in seconds, spin up 50 headline variations without touching a keyboard. And most brands are still producing ads that don't work. That's not a tool problem. That's a strategy problem, and no AI is going to fix it for you. In this video, we break down why access to AI creative tools stopped being a competitive advantage the moment everyone got the same access — and why production volume isn't the scarce resource anymore. Strategic thinking is. Motion's 2025 research across 380+ DTC marketers found a clear divide: a small group of super performers use AI with deliberate strategic intent, while everyone else is just generating volume without direction. What you'll learn:→ Why AI can generate but can't strategize — it won't define your creative angle, find the right message for your audience, or tell you why an ad actually worked→ Why the brands pulling ahead build creative strategy first, then use AI to execute it→ Why creative strategy is becoming the highest-leverage function in paid media as production and targeting get automated→ Why you should be auditing your briefs before your output — if the strategy isn't clear upstream, no tool fixes it downstream If your team has access to every AI tool on the market and your ads still aren't converting, this video explains why. Sanjeays from Vovia talks about this blog he wrote: https://vovia.com/blog/ai-can-make-the-ad-it-cant-make-the-strategy/

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About

Spotlight – the Calgary Marketing Association's podcast – shines a light on the creative pulse of Calgary’s marketing scene. Each episode dives into candid conversations with industry leaders, uncovering the bold ideas, trailblazing campaigns, and insider strategies shaping the future of marketing. From dissecting brilliant case studies to revealing the stories behind the success, Spotlight blends celebration and education, delivering actionable insights and fresh inspiration.

Information

  • Creator
    Calgary Marketing Association
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Calgary Marketing Association
  • Show Website
    Spotlight