CMA Connect

Canadian Marketing Association
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Welcome to CMA Connect - the voice of the Canadian marketing community. Join us for empowering discussions with industry leaders about the rapidly changing world of marketing.

  1. Aug 4

    EP74 - Co-conspirators For A Half-decade With Adrian Fuoco And Mike Sutton

    The campaign that delivered a 20 per cent sales boost didn't start with a creative brief, it started with a casual comment. In Episode 74 of CMA Connect, Alison Simpson joins Pizza Pizza CMO Adrian Fuoco and Zulu Alpha Kilo President and CEO Mike Sutton to unpack the half-decade partnership behind "Bipartisan Wings." The collaboration drove a 40 per cent jump in wing sales, a 2025 CMA Best of the Best award and a CEO crediting marketing for brand growth on BNN Bloomberg. 00:00:00.920 — 00:00:19.680 · Presenter Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, newly retired CMA CEO, Alison Simpson. 00:00:23.840 — 00:02:32.250 · Alison Great marketing doesn't happen in boardrooms filled with endless PowerPoints and bloated processes. It happens when brilliant clients and creative partners trust each other enough to move fast, take risks and chase cultural moments that others often miss. My guests today are a perfect example. Adrian Fuoco, Chief Marketing Officer at Pizza Pizza Limited, and Mike Sutton, President and CEO of Zulu Alpha Kilo, helped build one of Canada's most successful client agency partnerships over the last five years. They've created campaigns like "Bipartisan Wings" and "Reverse Tariffs" that don't just win awards, they drive significant business results. Since joining as VP of Marketing in January 2020 and being promoted to CMO in June 2024, Pizza Pizza has really transformed under Adrian's leadership, from a traditional, value-focused QSR into one of Canada's most culturally relevant brands. The results really speak for themselves. Pizza Pizza was named Strategies magazine's Brand of the Year in 2023, won two gold CMA Awards in 2023 and 2025, and their "Bipartisan Wings" campaign closed the show, winning top honours as best of the best for 2025. Most impressively, Pizza Pizza's CEO cited on BNN Bloomberg that marketing initiatives drove growth. Words that every marketer and CMO aspires to hear. Mike Sutton has led Zulu Alpha Kilo as CEO since April 2021, steering the agency to become one of the world's most awarded independent shops. Under his leadership, the agency has expanded to Vancouver and New York, was named AD Age's A-list agency standout in March and achieved platinum status in Canada's Best Managed Companies in 2024. Together, they've proven that when you combine strategic agility, mutual trust and a willingness to say, hey, I'm not above going to jail for this idea, you can create marketing that cuts through in one of Canada's most competitive categories. Their "Bipartisan Wings" campaign drove a 40% jump in wing sales overall and a 47% spike on election night, while the "Reverse Tariffs" campaign delivered a 20% sales boost. Welcome, Adrian and Mike, I am thrilled to have you both here to pull back the curtain on how this partnership really works. 00:02:32.290 — 00:02:33.450 · Adrian Thanks for having us, Alison. 00:02:33.490 — 00:02:34.530 · Mike Thanks, Alison. 00:02:34.570 — 00:02:58.610 · Alison Adrian and Mike, I'm excited to have you here for a bunch of reasons. Getting into the significant business results you're driving is certainly high on the list. But the other part is, despite having hosted this podcast for a few years now, you're the first time that I've had a CMO and their agency CEO join me together. We're going to start with the basics. How did this partnership begin, and what made you both believe this could be something special> Adrian, why don't you kick things off? 00:02:58.650 — 00:04:38.700 · Adrian It was a really fun experience kicking off the partnership, and I think it was a long coming. So, you know, I'd say first, Alison, just in terms of what I thought could be special was I was excited to work on the Pizza Pizza brand. And that brand, you know, Mike and I both grew up in Ontario.  And if you grow up here, Pizza Pizza was around your entire life, basically in one way or another. And I always got a kick out of some of the marketing that Pizza Pizza had done over the years and some of the wild sports promotions. And I remember one time where you could, you know, they would send you a VHS tape along with your pizza at Christmas time or movies and all kinds of fun stuff. And so I was just generally excited to be able to take a look at that brand and sort of understand how had they achieved all of that. And when I got to Pizza Pizza, I realized that a lot of that had just been achieved, you know, in house with a small, scrappy group of people who had done really amazing stuff. But what intrigued me was, you know, wow, what would happen if you were able to hand, you know, partner with one of the top creative shops and strategic agencies in Canada? Where could you take it beyond where it had already gone? So that was that was the part for me that was exciting. And then in terms of how the partnership began, it was really just a phone call. I knew Mike and Zach over the years working in the industry, but we hadn't done too much together. And so I just thought, wow, this would be really fun. This is a top tier crew, and if they'd be at all interested in partnering with us, we could probably really do some amazing work. And also that we would probably see some great results, which of course was important as well. And we were able to achieve all of that, I must say. And here we are. 00:04:38.740 — 00:04:41.020 · Alison So, Mike, what would you add from an agency perspective? 00:04:41.060 — 00:05:36.460 · Mike From an agency perspective, one of the things I'd say, as I sort of reflect back on those early conversations with Adrian, was thinking about like, great partnerships are grounded in a shared ambition. And so the thing that was immediately clear is that the ambition that Adrian had, what he wanted to do with marketing, really lined up well with the type of work that we like to do. So that was certainly business impact, but also about sort of mutual belief in the type of work that we can do together. So there was just this shared ambition from the very beginning. It isn't about one side presenting and one side approving to real shared ambition in terms of the type of work that we wanted to do together. And I like to think of it as us being co-conspirators. Yes, it's a client agency relationship, but really we're co-conspirators in trying to do amazing work for this really iconic Canadian brand. 00:05:36.500 — 00:05:56.020 · Alison One of the things that really struck me about your partnership is that the core team on both sides has remained intact for five years. And maybe part of that is because you are co-conspirators. But in an industry known for turnover, that really is remarkable, so I'd love to share what's contributed to that stability, and why do you think it matters for the work that you produce? 00:05:56.060 — 00:06:58.670 · Mike Yeah. I mean, for those listening who may not know, you talk about turnover, the last stat I saw was around 25%. Like, just think about that for a minute. Where imagine a world where you have 25% of your staff turning over year over year. The last few years we've hovered around 10% ,kind of thing. So we're not up there. But you're right, the industry has a significant amount of turnover. So what do I attribute to, like, I think clarity and candour is a big part of what works in the partnership. And then yes to consistency on the team. So we absolutely have that over the duration of the five years we've been working together. But the other important piece is like adding fresh energy throughout the partnership as well. So to me, that's always the perfect balance, is that you want that consistent core team, but then you always want to have fresh energy coming in and bringing fresh ideas to interpret the brand platform as we have it. And I think that's how we keep things fresh. And that's a big part of my job in making sure that the right people are coming onto the business at the right time. 00:06:59.030 — 00:07:28.910 · Alison That's such an important balance. And if our listeners weren't enticed earlier, they're certainly going to be enticed by how to get from 25% turnover down to 10% turnover. Now, Adrian, you mentioned when you joined Pizza Pizza that there was a very well-established internal creative department handling 99% of the work, and then you brought in Zulu as an agency partner. Now, let's be honest, that could have been a disaster. Egos clashing, turf wars, a real mess. Instead, it's become a real model of collaboration. So how did you navigate that potentially explosive situation? 00:07:28.950 — 00:09:11.880 · Adrian Yes. Um, well, I think personally, I believe in the model where you could have both an internal group and an agency partner and that that could actually create a system versus sort of competition. And so there'd be some things that one group could do and some things the other group could do. And what I found was, you know, the internal team, yeah, someone new comes in, and you could be concerned. What are they going to do? What about my job security and all the things that we've built? And so first thing I found was just to give them confidence that, no, I think that, you know, the leadership believes in you, and the leadership thinks that what you're doing is of great value. But let's take a look at the entire needs of the brand and let's have an honest conversation about, you know, if we were to do more brand equity building marketing, do we truly have the skill set to do that kind of stuff in-house? And the truth is that somewhat. But the team's really focused on the day to day sales, keeping the restaurants looking good, you know, getting all of the materials versioned. And with all o

  2. Jul 21

    EP73 - When the Job Isn't Enough with Kirstin Beardsley and Neil Hetherington

    One in four Canadians lives in a food-insecure household -- and many have jobs, degrees and never imagined needing help. In the latest episode of CMA Connect, Alison Simpson sits down with Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada and Neil Hetherington, CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank, to unpack the scale of this crisis and why brands that go beyond writing a check make a meaningful difference for communities -- and their business. CMAConnect-Ep. 73-Kirstin & Neil w promo.txt English (UK) 00:00:00.920 — 00:00:19.680 · Presenter Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, newly retired CMA CEO Alison Simpson. 00:00:24.360 — 00:02:40.450 · Alison Food insecurity in Canada has reached levels we haven't seen in modern history. Let that sink in. Right now, 1 in 4 Canadians lives in a food insecure household. That's 10 million people and includes 2.5 million children. The demand on food banks keeps climbing. March last year alone, there were nearly 2.2 million visits to food banks across the country, the highest number in our history. Behind those statistics are real people, working Canadians who can't afford both rent and groceries. Families with university degrees who never imagined needing help. Newcomers trying to build a life here, and increasingly, people who are employed but still can't make ends meet. Today's conversation matters for all of us, but especially for marketers and brand leaders. While this is fundamentally a crisis that demands policy solutions, brands also have a critical role to play right now, and many are stepping up in innovative and important ways. I'm joined by two leaders on the frontlines of this crisis. Kirstin Beardsley is the CEO of Food Banks Canada, the national organization representing over 5500 food banks and community agencies across Canada. Kirstin has been with the organization since 2015, working her way from Director of Policy to Chief Network Services Officer, before taking on the CEO mantle in 2022. She holds a degree in Women's Studies from New York University, and has built her career at the intersection of policy, logistics and community impact. Neil Hetherington is the CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto, where 1 in 10 residents now rely on food bank support. Before joining Daily Bread, Neil led Dixon Hall and was the youngest ever CEO for Habitat for Humanity Toronto at just 25 years old. He brings a systems thinking approach to addressing food insecurity, balancing immediate relief with advocacy for long-term change. Both organizations, I'm proud to say are CMA members, and Neil and Kirstin understand that addressing this crisis requires collaboration between government, community organizations and the private sector. Today, we're going to explore what's really happening across Canada, how our landscape is changing and how brands can make meaningful contributions writing checks and beyond. Kirstin and Neil, thank you both so much for joining me. I know you're incredibly busy and I really appreciate you being here. 00:02:40.450 — 00:02:42.690 · Neil Really glad to be here.  Kirstin: Thanks for having us. 00:02:42.730 — 00:03:10.960 · Alison So let's start by grounding our listeners in what's actually happening right now. Some of those numbers are absolutely staggering, but I think it's important that we don't let people become numb to them. So, Neil, let's start with you. In Toronto specifically, you're seeing over 4.1 million food bank visits annually, a 340% increase since 2019. Can you help us understand what that actually looks like on the ground? And who are the people that are walking through your doors today compared to five years ago? 00:03:11.080 — 00:04:11.100 · Neil Yeah. You know, it took 38 years for Daily Bread to to get to 1 million client visits in a single year, and then only two years to get to 2 million. One year to get to 3 million, and then another year to get to 4 million. And so we have seen this rapid growth of individuals who have to rely on food charity. So there have been those who have always been with the food bank. Those would be people who are on income supports that are wholly inadequate. So you take somebody, for example, on disability. They receive about $1,400 per month. Nobody can survive on $1,400 a month. They have to rely on friends, family and charity. But the growth that we're seeing is primarily composed right now of individuals who have done everything right. It's individuals between 19 and 44. 60% of them have a university or college education, and 50% of them have full time employment. So you think about that. They've gone to school, they've got a job, they're working hard, yet they have to come to a food bank. And that's primarily because of a lack of affordable housing in our city. 00:04:11.180 — 00:04:55.860 · Kirstin Yeah. I mean, what we're seeing is, is really what Daily Bread and Neil are seeing in Toronto magnified and multiplied right across the country. We're seeing nationally the trend of working folks, folks with employment as their main source of income, as more reliant on food banks. That's not just a Toronto-based trend. We're seeing that right across the country. But there are some places that have growth, as has Quebec, in the number of folks relying on food banks. And we're also seeing in the north. So where food insecurity has always been at crisis levels in Canada, that that is right now with the high costs, extreme costs, as well as incomes that aren't keeping pace, that more and more folks in the North are also relying on organizations like food banks to get by. 00:04:56.020 — 00:05:18.930 · Alison So Kirstin, building on what you were saying, it's really surprising to me that 20% of your clients at food banks are employed. 57% of clients at the Daily Bread Food Bank have a university or post-secondary degree, yet they clearly still have a need. So, Neil, what is this telling us about structural economic challenges that are facing Canadians right now? And how does your profile of clients continue to shift? 00:05:18.970 — 00:06:15.150 · Neil It's telling us that the social contract is broken. It used to be that that you would be able to get by when all of those parameters were, were fulfilled. And that isn't the case. And here's the thing. We decided in the 90s as a country, to get out of building affordable housing. We stopped building cooperative housing. We stopped building social housing. Yet our population was increasing and we are paying for that two generations later. And I would argue it's going to take us two generations more. Despite Build Canada homes coming about, despite $13 billion coming to affordable housing through that that excellent program, it's going to take us a while to build out of that. So in the interim, we need to make sure that there are income supports that are appropriate for Canadians. Income supports like the Canada Disability Benefit, which came into force just this last July, where $6.1 billion is going to go to those that are the most vulnerable in our society, those that are relying on food banks all across the country. 00:06:15.310 — 00:06:26.270 · Alison And, Kirstin, on a national level, you're seeing 34% of food bank users are newcomers to Canada who have been here for ten years or less. So what's driving that and what does it mean for how we're thinking about supporting new Canadians? 00:06:26.310 — 00:07:22.540 · Kirstin Yeah, I think it's important to note that there isn't one single group that's driving the growth in food bank use that, as we've said, we've seen growth across the country in a number of demographics. But that said, we know that newcomers come to Canada and meet precarious situations. So those who are employed are often more likely to be in a precarious gig employment that doesn't give consistent hours. They're more likely to earn lower wages. And if they do lose their jobs, they're less likely to be eligible for the programs that we do have in place to support folks through those tough times, things like employment insurance or provincial social assistance, but because of immigration status, are less likely to be eligible for those programs. So, as Neil was saying, what this demonstrates is just a massive gap in our social safety net. The social safety net we have is broken. And it's not ensuring that folks who are the most in need are able to get by no matter what, no matter who they are across the country. 00:07:22.660 — 00:07:44.700 · Alison And with that being the reality today, you're both operating in environments where demand is exploding and resources simply aren't keeping pace. So over half of Canadian food banks have had to reduce services and give out less food because of the pressure, yet the demand increases. So, Neil, what does the operational reality look like when you can't meet the demand? What impossible choices are you having to make? 00:07:45.220 — 00:08:39.440 · Neil Well, that reality across the country is a tough one for anybody. Every single time there is a change, it means that there is one last meal provided by a food bank to that parent, to that child. And so as frustrating as that is, we're using that as our fuel to inspire us to advocate even louder. We are discontent with the status quo, where we say enough is enough, and we need to use the stats and the numbers and the stories that we have here of family after family, tens of thousands of them on a daily basis, and use those statistics to be able to say, here are the policy alternatives that all three levels of government have failed on, and give them the alternatives to be able to start to build a more hopeful society, to build a place where

  3. Jul 7

    EP72 - The Partnership that Drives Growth with Amanda McCusker and Jeff Sutton

    Is your CMO-CFO relationship building growth or breaking it? Host Alison Simpson is joined by Deloitte Digital's Jeff Sutton and Amanda McCusker to unpack insights from a landmark Canadian study co-authored with the Canadian Marketing Association and Financial Executives International Canada. They reveal why trust is a business outcome you can engineer rather than a personality trait, how healthy tension introduced early accelerates decisions and which of the four collaboration principles separating high-growth organizations from the rest most marketers are getting wrong. 00:00:00.920 — 00:00:19.680 · Presenter Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, newly retired CMA CEO, Alison Simpson. 00:00:24.600 — 00:03:27.040 · Alison The CMO and CFO relationship can be a challenging one. Marketing drives growth and takes a long term perspective. Finance protects costs and focuses more on quarterly performance. And when those two forces collide without the right process in place, tension shows up late as gatekeeping, rechecks and slower decisions. But here's what new research revealed. The best CMO and CFO partnerships don't avoid tension. They're actually designed for it. They surface challenge early when it sharpens assumptions and accelerates decision, rather than letting it fester until it stalls execution. This matters more than ever because the structural condition shaping these relationships have fundamentally shifted. CFOs now playing a leading role in enterprise strategy for 57% of organizations. 79% of CEOs say the CFO is the executive they listen to most. Meanwhile, 61% of marketing budgets are still set top down or based on prior spend, limiting flexibility even as expectations for proof intensify. Cost is immediate and visible. Yet value can be delayed and challenging to quantify. And in that gap, collaboration either compounds trust or creates avoidable drag. For today's episode, I'm excited to welcome the Deloitte Canada team who led important research on this critical relationship. It's work conducted in partnership with the Canadian Marketing Association and Financial Executives International Canada. The learning we're sharing today is Canadian focused with a global lens. So what we discussed will help our listeners understand what makes the relationship different in Canada. Jeff Sutton is Deloitte Digital's national leader for brand and growth strategy. He advises senior executives on how to unlock growth by aligning market differentiation, customer strategy and marketing execution, with a particular focus on marketing transformation and operating model effectiveness. This work brings a global perspective on how CMOs and CFOs can better align growth ambition, investment decisions, and measurable business outcomes. Amanda McCusker is a Manager in Customer Strategy at Deloitte Digital. She comes from a strategic design background and works with senior leaders across organizations to make sense of complex, cross-functional challenges. Amanda was the Research Lead on Deloitte's CMO and CFO collaboration and study with the CMA and FBI. She shaped the insights through a qualitative, design-led lens to surface how marketing and finance leaders align, where friction emerges, and what enables stronger partnerships in practice. Together, Jeff and Amanda led in-depth interviews in quantitative research with Canadian CMOs and CFOs to really understand not just where collaboration breaks down, but how leading   actually build it into their operating rhythms. They found that trust isn't a personality trait, it's an operating outcome. So welcome Jeff and Amanda. I am really excited to have you here today. This is such an important topic, and I'm looking forward to diving into the insights about how we can make the CMO and CFO partnership stronger. 00:03:27.240 — 00:03:37.040 · Jeff Well, thank you so much, Allison. We're thrilled to be here. We love the podcast. And of course, thank you for the relationship and the partnership leading up to this. So we're thrilled to share.  Amanda: So glad to be here today. 00:03:37.080 — 00:03:44.840 · Alison Thanks, Amanda. Thanks, Jeff. So, Jeff, let's start with why you wanted to do this research in the first place and why now was the time to do it in Canada. 00:03:45.080 — 00:05:24.430 · Jeff Yeah. So there are many. First of all, in today's economy, it is more difficult for Canadian businesses to grow than it ever has. And so growth is a top CEO agenda for many of our clients. And then as we think about marketing, marketing should be a growth engine within the business. It should lead and be the key function in which the business looks to enable growth. However, over a number of years, that hasn't necessarily been the case. Often the perception internally is that marketing is more of a cost centre than it is a growth engine. And in parallel, we're seeing the role of the CFO grow within the business. There now, as you mentioned, off the top, Alison, in your intro, one of the more strategic partners with the CEO and typically the right hand when it comes to business strategy. And so as we think of the importance of Canadian businesses needing to grow now more than ever, and we know the value of marketing and what marketing can do, it's critical that marketing and finance come together to figure out how they can collaborate better together to enable growth. Another reason why we thought this was so important is often the CFO-CMO relationship is misunderstood. We see and hear a lot of, well, we speak different language. We don't often collaborate. Well, we knew that that wasn't really the case, and we wanted to understand from organizations who are kind of leading and growing in Canadian marketplace, what are they doing differently from a CFO-CMO relationship that's enabling that growth? And so we were thrilled to partner, of course, with the CMA and FBI Canada to talk to leading marketers and leading CFOs to better understand where this collaboration was happening, what's the mindset behind it, and what are the tactical and practical actions that other marketers and finance leaders can take to enable growth in their organization? 00:05:24.470 — 00:05:44.310 · Alison Now, one of your core findings is that trust is a business capability, not a trait. And that really reframes trust as something that you build through operating discipline rather than interpersonal chemistry. So what did you hear in the interviews that led you to that conclusion? And what does it look like in practice when an organization treats trust as infrastructure? 00:05:44.510 — 00:06:48.620 · Jeff Yeah, this was so key, because when you hear the word trust, naturally you think it's based on a relationship, it's based on personalities, and that's really not what it is. It's not the case. What trust is and what we found through our research is trust actually equals reliability. Trust is earned or created through the ability of these two leaders to come together and make decisions and move quickly. And that happens over time and that happens through collaboration. It's not a you speak numbers and I speak emotion. That's not what it is. It's really about, you know, how do you create early, healthy tension when solving business problems versus showing up and collaborating late in the process, and to be turning into rechecks and slowdowns and challenging numbers versus collaborating around opportunities and challenges. And so for us, it was definitely not personalities that lead to trust and collaboration. It's the reliability of decision-making and reliability that leads to faster, more efficient decision-making. 00:06:48.660 — 00:06:58.900 · Alison Now, did you also find that that relationship side of it still has a role to play, especially when it's not about talking numbers or talking emotion when both groups are talking about the business? 00:06:59.100 — 00:07:31.540 · Jeff Yes, we certainly did find there was that, but it was less about personalities. We didn't hear much, aside from when we start to collaborate early and come together around some of the research findings we have around shared language, shared metrics, shared understanding, shared education, that led to deeper trust within the functions because they are solving things together and collaborating, versus using the functions as mechanisms to check against performance, which is a very, very different way of of looking at the two relationships. 00:07:31.580 — 00:07:45.260 · Alison Now Amanda, you quote a CFO in the research saying we hold pen on allocations, but we as an enterprise should all agree on the methodology that makes sense. Can you unpack what changes when marketing and finance agree on methodology upfront? 00:07:45.350 — 00:08:42.310 · Amanda Whether we call it methodology or strategy or just simply a plan of action, it is really critical that leaders across functions come together to align on understanding why is the organization doing what they're doing, and how are they going to do it when it comes to solving for problems or achieving business priorities? The outcome that we heard from doing this up front and aligning to whatever strategy you're taking, is really that you get a faster speed towards decision making, you get less rework in the end of the day. Finance doesn't need to know every single detail around execution of something like, for example, a campaign. But they need to know why that campaign is helping to solve a business priority, and they need to have some understanding of how their investments are going to help drive shared outcomes. So aligning to that up front can really save a lot of rework at the end of

  4. Jun 23

    EP71 - Young Lions Gold with Joanne Chen and Lydia Yoon

    How do you win gold in Canada's top marketing competition in 24 hours? Host Alison Simpson gets the story behind the win from Joanne Chen and Lydia Yoon, Google product marketing managers and Canada's 2026 Young Lions Marketing gold winners. Their winning idea – Google Maps Earth Mode – turns everyday walks into donations for the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada and now it's taking them to the Cannes Lions world stage. 00:00:00.920 — 00:00:19.680 · Presenter Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, newly retired CMA CEO, Alison Simpson. 00:00:24.040 — 00:03:43.430 · Alison The best ideas in marketing don't always come from the most experienced people in the room. Sometimes they come from two sharp, curious young marketers with 24 hours, a blank page and the creative conviction to trust a truly elegant idea. Before I introduce today's guests, I want to take a moment to talk about the competition that brought them to this microphone, because it's one that I am genuinely proud the CMA is part of. The Young Lions competition is run by The Globe and Mail as the Canadian chapter of the global Cannes Lions program, which is the most prestigious creative competition in the world. The Canadian competition runs across seven categories including marketing, media, PR, digital, design, print and film. Teams are given just 24 to 48 hours to develop a full campaign concept for a real charity client. There's no safety net, there's no extended timelines, just raw creative thinking under real and incredible pressure. The CMA is really proud to be a sponsor of the Young Lions Canada, because this program does something that we care deeply about. It creates a meaningful, high stakes stage for the next generation of Canadian marketing talent to prove what they're capable of. The Globe and Mail has built something genuinely special here, and we are really happy to support it. This year's Marketers Category Challenge asked teams to build a campaign that would drive awareness and action for the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada and specifically support their new Hike for Hope, which is a national fundraising initiative. The jury, which was co-chaired by CMA Board Directors Susan Irving of Kruger Products and Eva Salem of the Canadian Tire Corporation, included leaders from Sleep Country Canada, Scotiabank, Ipsos Canada, and Air Canada, all CMA member organizations. And the team that took the gold, well, they're today's guests. Joanne Chen and Lydia Yoon are product marketing managers at Google, and in just 24 hours, they created Google Maps Earth Mode. It's a concept that reimagined one of the world's most used products to become a bridge between the digital and physical worlds, and to do so in service of the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada's Hike for Hope initiative. Their idea was rooted in a really powerful human insight, which is often referred to as the connection paradox. While Gen Z is the most connected generation in history, they've never been more disconnected from the physical world that they care so deeply about protecting. So Earth Mode proposed a new Google Maps layer that reveals local biodiversity and nature-first routes that are hidden in plain sight, where every step taken can earn Hope Kilometres with Google Maps, then donating to the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada for every milestone reached. It's the kind of idea that makes a judging panel stop, listen, and be inspired. And that's exactly what it did. Joanne and Lydia walked away with a Canadian gold, and now they're heading to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to represent Canada on the world stage. I am genuinely thrilled to have both of them here with us today. This conversation is for every marketer, wherever you are in your career, who really wants to understand what creative excellence looks like when the clock is ticking. So a huge welcome to Joanne and Lydia.  Lydia - Thank you. We're excited to be here.  Alison - Now before we get into the campaign itself, I want to start at the beginning. Your decision to enter. So, Lydia, why did you and Joanne sign up for Young Lions? I'd love to hear what drew you to it.  00:03:43.430 — 00:04:51.280 · Lydia So I actually did a lot of case competitions back in undergrad, and when I started working, I missed doing them. At the same time, I also learned about the Cannes Festival of Creativity and wanted to figure out a way that I could go. And that's how I discovered the Young Lions competition. So while I was researching, I heard about this competition. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to not only get back into case comps, but also hopefully win a trip to the festival. So I looked into it, and then what I realized was that you actually submit in pairs, and that's a unique part of the competition, it's not a solo activity. And they call it Young Lions, because you have to be under the age of 30 in order to compete. So one day I was in the office and I bumped into Joanne and I asked if she was under 30. Joanne - And I was! Lydia - So yeah, we decided to give it a shot together. We were drawn to it, mainly because it was a way for us to challenge ourselves outside of work and push ourselves beyond our comfort zone, really test our creativity, our teamwork, our critical thinking. And I think what finally convinced her to join was that we also agreed to run our first half marathon together. So shortly after the competition, we did that too. 00:04:51.960 — 00:05:06.610 · Alison So, Lydia, you're clearly very persuasive and joining a great opportunity and really identifying a great opportunity when one's presented to you. Now, were the two of you working together at Google, or did you know each other beforehand or was it a random spontaneous meeting? 00:05:06.650 — 00:05:25.170 · Joanne We don't work directly together, but we had seen each other in the hallway and at the water coolers. I think this opportunity really brought us closer, not only as co-workers but also as friends. It was cool to work on a Google project outside of work, and I think that, yeah, just really pushed our creative boundaries and and tested us there. 00:05:25.250 — 00:05:34.850 · Alison Well it's amazing. So now that you've lived through the whole experience, there is a pressure of the submission, getting up and presenting, the win. Would you recommend it to other young marketers and why? 00:05:34.890 — 00:06:12.500 · Lydia I would say 100%. My only caveat is that the more work and effort you're willing to put into this competition, the more that you'll get out of it. And that's something Joanna and I witnessed firsthand. It's an incredible opportunity where you get to meet great people, make industry connections. It's a good practice of working under pressure and ultimately really broadens your marketing skill set. I actually competed two years ago with a different partner. We didn't place gold, but even throughout that process still learned a lot. And that motivated me to want to try again this year. And yeah, for us this year, the cherry on top was being able to now represent Canada in Cannes, so I would definitely recommend it to everyone. 00:06:12.620 — 00:06:51.420 · Alison That is a very big cherry on top. Your lesson that the more you put into it, the more you get out of it is certainly true of the Young Lions competition, but it's a great work and life lesson to learn at this stage in your life. The more you put into, whether it's training for a half marathon or the career that you're investing in, the effort will definitely be returned in spades. So kudos to you both for recognizing that. So let's talk about the competition format itself because it really is intense. You've got 24 hours, a charity brief, a complete campaign to develop. So Joanne, take us back to the start. What did that first hour actually look like and what did the two of you do first? 00:06:51.660 — 00:07:17.030 · Joanne We were really ntentional about not rushing into an idea that first came to us. What we did was we read the brief and we parted ways for a bit. We wanted to form our own unfiltered thoughts so we didn't groupthink into the first idea that came to us. We did our own research and try to look at the problems from all different angles. And by the time that we finally sat down together to align on what the key ask was and what the problem was, the first hour, it was over. 00:07:17.030 — 00:07:23.590 · Alison So when you came back together, did your ideas build off of each other? Had you come up with similar ideas? I'd love to hear a little bit more about that. 00:07:23.630 — 00:07:50.910 · Joanne We came back with different ideas on what products we should use, but I think we understood the key ask pretty similarly. We built on each other on a few topics. I think we saw problems from different angles in which I think for like some of the main insights that we had, there are parts that we had missed from each other, and I think we were able to build on top of each other's ideas. And together we kind of filtered out our thoughts for what made sense versus not and pressure tested. 00:07:51.080 — 00:08:07.600 · Alison Now, the insight that's at the heart of Earth Mode is the tension between Gen Z being hyper hyper connected digitally while becoming increasingly disconnected from the natural world. That is really the emotional engine of the whole campaign. So, Joanne, where did that come from?  00:08:07.600 — 00:08:35.560 · Joanne So we are both guilty of being too connected to the digital world ourselves. Personally, my average screen time per day is about eight hours, which I'm not super proud of. Um

  5. Jun 10

    EP70 - Follow Your Compass with Sandra Sanderson

    How do you build a career that spans CPG giants, Crown corporations, fashion retail and one of Canada's largest grocery empires? In this episode, host and former CMA President and CEO Alison Simpson sits down with Sandra Sanderson, CMO of Empire Company Limited and 2025 CMA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Sandra unpacks the career pivots, leadership lessons and the principle she calls confident humility that have defined one of Canadian marketing's most remarkable careers. 00:00:00.920 — 00:00:19.680 · Presenter Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, newly-retired CMA CEO, Alison Simpson.  00:00:24.200 — 00:02:58.890 · Alison A successful career in marketing requires embracing change, agility and reinvention. However, the most successful marketers go beyond this and really recognize emerging patterns, often before others even see them coming. My guest today is a terrific example. Sandra Sanderson has built her career on a deep understanding of consumers, very strong business acumen, strategic thinking and perhaps most importantly, the courage to act quickly and take measured risks. As the very deserving 2025 recipient of the Canadian Marketing Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, Sandra's career really demonstrates how marketing can transform organizations, and how measured risks can really open up amazing new career opportunities.  Early in her career, Sandra recognized the power that was shifting from CPG to retail and made quite an unconventional pivot to Canada Post, using it as a strategic investment to learn retail fundamentals through their retail network of 6000 post offices and B2B partnerships with major retailers. This is just one great example of many that led to tremendous success for the brands that Sandra has led. From starting her career with Procter and Gamble to transformational leadership roles at Shoppers Drug Mart, Walmart Canada, White House Black Market, which is a leading U.S. fashion retailer, and now the Empire Company Limited, Sandra has consistently led marketing that creates competitive advantage and delivers significant business results. Sandra joined Empire in November of 2018 as their Senior Vice President of marketing, and was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer in July of 2023. Empire is the second largest grocery retailer in Canada, with brands like Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Thrifty Foods, Foodland and Fresh Co. In her time with Empire, Sandra has orchestrated complex transformations, including relaunching their long-standing approach to loyalty. She received the CMA's Marketer of the Year award in 2020. She has been recognized as Strategy's Marketer of the year twice, and most recently, Sandra was honoured with the Retail Council of Canada's Grand Prix Lifetime Achievement Award this year. Sandra has also been great about giving back to our profession. She served on the CMA Board for four years, including as Vice Chair, and Sandra currently serves as a Board Director for Special Olympics Canada and Scene Plus. Perhaps most remarkably, despite an enviable career track record of success, Sandra really does embody confident humility, leading change and reinvention across diverse industries while nurturing and building many future CMOs and a well-deserved legion of fans. Welcome, Sandra, I am really looking forward to our conversation today. 00:02:58.970 — 00:03:03.690 · Sandra Thank you so much, Alison. It's great to be here with you on CMA connect. 00:03:03.930 — 00:03:28.210 · Alison Sandra, congratulations again on your CMA Lifetime Achievement Award. And you knew very early in life that marketing was a career for you. In fact, you wrote about the ambition in your high school yearbook. That's pretty rare in our profession. So to say that you achieved your goal is definitely an understatement, as your many amazing contributions and awards really demonstrate. But what was it that attracted you at such a young age to marketing? 00:03:28.250 — 00:04:24.140 · Sandra Well, thinking back to high school, it's a bit surreal to think that early ambition has turned into a decades-long career journey. What drew me to marketing was a unique intersection of art and science. I was intrigued by the idea of using data to decode human behaviour and using creativity to build emotional connections, and that curiosity led me to business school. Once I started taking marketing courses at Ivey, there was no turning back. I knew that's what I wanted to pursue, and after graduating, I was fortunate enough to land a role at Procter and Gamble. I started out as at brand assistant on Ivory, along with 26 other new graduates. P&G was a very big on-campus recruiter that year, and it was great to be able to work on such an iconic brand right out of the gate. Looking back, that high school ambition really did set the stage for everything that followed. 00:04:24.220 — 00:04:34.660 · Alison Now, you have recently announced your retirement for the summer, so you've definitely been in marketing for a few decades. What has kept you so engaged in our profession throughout your career? 00:04:34.900 — 00:06:12.740 · Sandra I think what has kept me engaged for so many years is that marketing as a profession keeps evolving. It's in a constant state of reinvention, which has given me a never ending stream of challenges and opportunities to learn and grow. I've always been drawn to business transformations, but the most significant one by far has been my journey with Empire. My role today has fundamentally changed from what it was when I first joined the company, which was in 2018. I was actually working in the U.S. when I got a call about Empire, and at the time the company was in deep crisis. The Safeway acquisition had not gone as planned. The company had lost $4 billion in market cap, and investor confidence was at an all time low. Michael Medline had been hired the previous year as President and CEO, coming from Canadian Tire to lead this massive transformation of the business. And so I was intrigued. I flew to Toronto to have lunch with Michael, and at that lunch he was very transparent. He shared with me all the challenges on the business and the changes that would be required in marketing to achieve his vision, and he didn't sugarcoat a thing. And so at the end of the meal, I remember he looked at me and he said, you're either going to be very energized by a challenge this big, or you're going to walk away and we won't see each other again. Well, Alison, I didn't walk away. I was all in because it was clear that marketing would have an instrumental role to play in the transformation, and I was genuinely excited. 00:06:13.300 — 00:06:34.300 · Alison I love Michael's candour with you in the interview process. He clearly understood how important it was for the CMO, choosing to step into the role to really understand the unvarnished reality. His partner needed to be energized by the rare career opportunity to help lead a massive transformation. And you clearly were. So I'd love you to share some highlights of the transformation and what's kept you engaged. 00:06:34.620 — 00:09:04.230 · Sandra Looking back, what has kept me so deeply engaged is the sheer scale of the marketing transformation within a broader business transformation. We moved from having separate Quebec and English Canada marketing teams started to a unified national organization. That gave us the scale we needed to stand up a Centre of excellence in marketing, technology and digital, which modernized our entire marketing engine. A big turning point was the transformation of our loyalty program. For over 20 years we had been part of a coalition program, so the stakes were really high when we decided to pivot, and I had the privilege of serving as the executive lead on the loyalty transformation. We made a bold decision to become the co-owners of Scene Plus, together with two other iconic Canadian companies, Scotiabank and Cineplex. And today, we scale that program from 10 million to over 15 million members. And the level of personalization we can offer today is just light years ahead of where we were. And, you know, the Scene First party data also became the bedrock for another venture, which was Empire Media Plus, our new retail media business. It's an example of how transforming one part of the business creates the fuel for the next. And it was super exciting to have the opportunity to launch a new media start-up within a $32 billion grocery retailer. It's a completely different business model, and honestly, I have learned so much over the past year, which has been energizing. We also launched an in-house agency called Atelier, and having that creative engine embedded directly in our business and our culture allows us to move at the speed of the market.  In retail today, as you know, there's simply no room to stand still. And lastly, within all of these changes, there's one that's particularly rewarding for me personally, and that's the reinvention of our community investment strategy. We shifted from having over 200 fragmented partnerships where our impact was diffused to one focused national strategy, where we could truly make an impact. And since making that pivot, we've been able to raise and donate more than $130 million for our communities. It's a powerful reminder that at the end of the day, we're not just selling groceries. We're serving a greater purpose. And because of all of these opportunities to learn and grow, it's not at all difficult to remain engaged, and energized every single day. 00:09:04.350 — 00:10:00.080 · Alison That is a very impressive transformation. And you've accomplished an incredible amount in seven and

  6. May 26

    EP69: Stop Thinking Small with Meghan Nameth

    Marketing isn't a cost centre – it's your greatest growth engine. Drawing on three decades at brands including P&G, Mars, TD Bank, Hudson's Bay and Loblaw, CMA Board Chair and President and Owner of Pattern and Path Consulting, Meghan Nameth joins CMA President and CEO Alison Simpson to make the case. Discover how to tie marketing directly to business outcomes, why most teams have the 80/20 planning rule backwards and the mindset shift Canadian marketers need to compete on a global stage. CMAConnect-Ep69-MeghanNameth_FINAL.txt English (UK) 00:00:01.720 — 00:00:20.280 · Presenter Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, CMA CEO, Alison Simpson. 00:00:23.640 — 00:03:03.100 · Alison In a world where marketing can be wrongly treated as a cost centre instead of a growth engine, transforming that perception requires more than great marketing. It absolutely demands strong business acumen, strategic vision, a deep understanding of consumers and the evolving market realities, and really knowing how to speak the language of business. For today's episode, I'm absolutely delighted to welcome Meghan Nameth, the newly appointed Chair of the Canadian Marketing Association's Board of Directors and President and Owner of Pattern and Path Consulting. Over three decades, Meghan has built a diverse and very impressive marketing career, working in both Canada and the U.S. She started at Procter and Gamble, where she learned brand building fundamentals that have served her well throughout her career. After spending almost 11 years with P&G in progressively senior roles in Canada and at their U.S. head office, Meghan moved to Mars. She then expanded beyond CPG with roles in financial services as VP Marketing at TD Bank and Managing Director at PWC Canada. She was also CMO at Hudson's Bay and the SVP of Marketing at Loblaw. This diverse industry experience further strengthened her marketing and business acumen. Meghan's work has been very well recognized at the Cannes Lion Cassie's, of course, the CMA awards, Cleos, Effies and the Media Innovation Awards. In May 2025, she was appointed Vice Chair of the CMA board, where she led the search for a new President and CEO following my announcement of my retirement, a responsibility that speaks to the trust and respect she commands in the marketing community. Meghan has now stepped into Board Chair role, and I'm really excited to see how she builds on the CMA's strong momentum during her two year term. What makes Meghan's perspective particularly valuable is her conviction that Canadian marketers have untapped potential. We both share a belief that marketers must think bigger, drive more innovation, and really position themselves not as service providers seeking approval, but as strategic partners co-creating growth. Throughout her career, the CMA has been an anchor, providing the network's learning resources and advocacy platform that have really enabled her to elevate marketing's role in every organization she served. Welcome, Meghan, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on CMA connect, and I'm really looking forward to your conversation today and celebrating your appointment as Board Chair.  02:41 - Meghan Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm happy to talk about marketing anytime actually.  Alison So our third annual CMA Marketing Week wrapped a bit earlier this month. And I know that you, along with thousands of marketers across the country, took full advantage and really engaged with a number of our events, thought leadership sessions as well as the training sessions. So I'd love to start by having you share your three big takeaways from this year's CMA Marketing Week. 00:03:03.100 — 00:05:59.800 · Meghan It was an amazing week. I feel that these events are in some ways a bit of a reunion. I get to see so many people that I haven't connected with in so long and catch up and learn. And so it's really an amazing opportunity for networking and reconnection. And I think that's probably one of my biggest takeaways is that when I attend these events, I really feel the full value of what the CMA brings in connecting people across industries. I see people from financial services, from when I worked in retail, CPGs, that I haven't connected with in a long time. So it really is that power of connection and learning what people are doing. So I think that's the biggest takeaway I have, because you can get really heads down in your own day to day job and forget to sort of look up and look around. And that was kind of one of the biggest values that it brings. Secondly, though, there was a keynote speaker, Tucker Bryant, who talks a lot about how creativity and actually the creative process of poetry can bring value into innovation cycles. And from that, his message was do different things differently. That really resonated for me because, you know, we talk a lot about AI, and AI was very present throughout the week of how we leverage AI, what AI can do for us. But there is a risk that we go so fast with AI that we forget to really interrogate the ideas, to really think about what's creative, what's different, what's really driving growth for an organization. And I think his message was really about, you know, we can't all be the same. We should be different. We should be thinking about things differently. And so really thinking about a process to sort of do that inside your organization, I thought was really valuable. And then I think the third takeaway is the impact of marketing. So there was a study that the CMA did with Signal 49 that really demonstrated or proved, I guess, the value of marketing to the Canadian economy. And so there was some sort of shocking statistics that, you know, $130 billion in GDP, really, 1 in 25 jobs are marketing jobs. This, for me, underscored, I think, what I've known for a long time, which is marketing, has tremendous value to drive growth for organizations, and that's really critical. It also is the unlock for our productivity challenge in Canada that we can really demonstrate that these companies that we work in, we can help them to grow beyond our borders. And lastly, with the number of people in Canada involved in marketing, how critical the CMA is and our role to sort of really upskill and future proof that sort of function and people involved in the discipline. So I think that was my takeaway, is the power of connection, doing different things differently and then the impact that marketing can have on productivity. 00:05:59.920 — 00:06:45.120 · Alison Those are such great takeaways and the impact that marketing have now that we've been able to quantify it and really demonstrate that it is foundational, regardless of what sector or industry you're in, marketing is a driver of our economy. To your point, it's a key way that Canada can overcome our productivity issue. And building on the keynote from Tucker, we are the best served around the executive table to really drive innovation and doing different things differently. Now Meghan, before we dive into your vision for the role as our new Board Chair, can you share a bit about your story? I know you started your career in supply chain at Procter and Gamble, which isn't the typical path into marketing. So what drew you to this profession and how has that background really influenced your approach to marketing? 00:06:45.240 — 00:08:39.610 · Meghan It definitely is not the typical path forward, but I'm so grateful, actually, that I got a chance to start in supply chain. And and after that, I actually did a really very brief moment in sales as well before moving into brand at P&G. But supply chain really helped me understand the mechanics of an organization. Like, how does the product actually move from R&D into production and then onto customer shelves and all the challenges that can exist within that system? You know, especially in packaged goods, you can generate demand, but if there's no product on the shelves, it's really it's really sort of like, does a tree fall in the forest? Will anyone know because they can't buy the product? And so I think really understanding that a strategy or a demand generation plan is only as good as what you can operationalize has sort of really continued on through my whole career. And now as I sit in a more service provider role, what we're working with clients on is not just how do you generate insight, but it's how do you actually take that to a business strategy? How do you take that into your execution? And so I think that actually has been foundational for me. And how I approach marketing is more as a system. So it's marketing  is part of an organization's system for growth. And it's not the only part of the system. And so we have to work across all these different functions to pull them together, to really realize that demand generation and benefit that we create. I feel really lucky that that's where I started, because I think that was a huge benefit. And I think the other thing was that very early in my career, because of how supply chain organizations are structured, I had very early people management experience and that, you know, has really benefited me in leading teams and helping to like, learn how to unlock the power of the talent on your team. And I think that was a really great benefit as well. 00:08:40.169 — 00:09:09.060 · Alison That sounds like a great starting point when you think of it. The best marketers have a very deep understanding of all aspects of the business and from a credibility perspective as well, the fact that you know and have worked in the operational side of the business, the fact that you've worked in the sales side of the business, those are such ke

  7. May 19

    EP68 - Out-Thinking the Giants with Rachel MacAdam

    When you can't outspend the competition, you have to out-think them. In one of her final episodes as CMA President and CEO, Alison Simpson sits down with Rachel McAdam, Vice President of Marketing at Skip, to explore what it takes to build a Canadian challenger brand against global giants. The conversation covers the "Skip to the good part" rebrand, a partnership ecosystem built on Canadian passion points and a three-sided marketplace strategy. The standout? The cultural agility that turned a rap beef into a campaign so effective it shut down competitor apps. CMAConnect-Ep68-Rachel MacAdam v2.txt English (UK) 00:00:01.720 — 00:00:20.280 · Presenter Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, CMA CEO, Alison Simpson. 00:00:23.040 — 00:02:26.210 · Alison In a market dominated by global giants, how does a Canadian founded challenger brand like Skip not just survive, but thrive? The answer lies in doubling down on authenticity, building strategic partnerships and really recognizing that marketing is about much more than reaching consumers. It's also about driving growth across every stakeholder in your ecosystem. For today's episode, I'm pleased to welcome Rachel McAdam, Vice President of Marketing at Skip. Rachel is leading a Canadian founded and built business and one of our country's most recognized food delivery brands through a significant transformation, from Skip the Dishes to simply Skip expanding their delivery service beyond restaurants to retail, and also navigating intense competition in a market where deep-pocketed competitors can easily outspend smaller players. Rachel brings deep expertise and loyalty marketing to this challenge. Having spent significant time at Loyalty One, she played a key role in building Air Miles into one of Canada's largest brands. She really understands how to create emotional engagement and build lasting customer relationships. This expertise has proven invaluable at Skip as she navigates the loyalty wars in food delivery. Under Rachel's leadership, Skip has distinguished itself through a uniquely Canadian approach to partnerships. They're going beyond sponsorship deals to becoming strategic pillars that can really help reinforce Skip's Canadian roots, while also expanding reach in ways that transcend traditional marketing spend. From priority concert access through Live Nation, wide-ranging partnerships with the Toronto Blue Jays, Disney Plus, CIBC, and WestJet, Rachel has built what she calls an ecosystem approach to loyalty, tapping into Canadian passion points rather than competing purely on price. What makes marketing at Skip compelling is how the team understands and approaches managing the needs across a three-sided marketplace. Rachel has some great examples to share in how her team is delivering on this. Rachel is part of a leadership team, transforming Skip from a functional utility into something broader and much more meaningful. Rachel, welcome to CMA connect. It's a real pleasure to have you on the podcast today, and I'm looking forward to a great conversation.  00:02:26.210 — 00:02:27.450 · Rachel Thanks. Looking forward to it. 00:02:27.530 — 00:02:42.250 · Alison Now, Rachel, as I mentioned, you spent a lot of time at Loyalty One and really helped build Air Miles into one of Canada's largest loyalty brands. So coming off of that experience, what was it that attracted you to the Vice President of Marketing role at Skip, and what were some of your early priorities? 00:02:42.490 — 00:03:25.270 · Speaker 3 Yeah, you know, what was great about Skip is that it had a lot of the similarities of Air Miles from its early days. So, you know, it's a great Canadian brand. Um, it was rooted in really a three way marketplace, which was very similar to Air Miles. You know, Air Miles is about connecting consumers to retailers through the loyalty program, and Skip really is about connecting Canadians to their favourite restaurant or retailers through the delivery ecosystem. And so I really loved that about it. And I love a good challenging opportunity. And so to your point, the delivery category is, um, it's it's very fast paced, it's very competitive. And I really felt like there was a huge opportunity for marketing to play a key role in the transformation of the business. 00:03:25.470 — 00:03:44.870 · Alison We're like-minded when it comes to being attracted to big, hairy, challenging goals, and you're doing an amazing job with Skip. So one of the big things you did was evolve the brand from Skip the Dishes to simply Skip. And clearly there's a lot of strategic thinking behind dropping the dishes, so I'd love to hear more about that. And also, how does it reflect where you're taking the business? 00:03:45.110 — 00:05:34.640 · Rachel Yeah. So when we were looking at the transformation of the business, you know, what's interesting is Skip was a scrappy start-up. Covid hit, you know, exponential growth in delivery. But it really created a new expectation for consumers that it wasn't now just about delivering my favourite pizza on a Friday night, but now I'm looking for convenience and delivery much broader than that, And we really felt that our brand positioning of Skip the Dishes wasn't really reflecting this broader services that we were offering to Canadians, and it was really keeping us limited in the minds of Canadians. We also felt that we weren't tapping into a key point of differentiation, that we were the Canadian brand, you know, created in the prairie provinces. We run on Canadian technology, but we weren't really leveraging that. And we did research. And, you know what Canadians said was, that if all things were created equal, you need to be price competitive. You need to have my favourite restaurant, but I will choose a Canadian brand. And this was sort of before the the upswell of Canadiana came in. Even before that, that really was very much part of what Canadians were looking to support Canadian brands. And so between those two things, we really said we are missing an opportunity to set ourselves apart from these big global organizations or brands in the market. And so we took that research. We worked with Courage as our agency to understand what's the consumer insight? What's happening culturally? And where's that white space opportunity for Skip to really own and differentiate? And that's where dropping the dishes, bringing the maple leaf into the logo so that when you quickly look at your phone, you probably have multiple delivery apps on your phone. Let's make sure that we're reminding you that you do have a Canadian option, an opportunity there. And then we dropped the dishes really as we were launching into retail. So that really was the first signal to the Canadian consumer that I can actually get much more than just food delivered by Skip. 00:05:34.960 — 00:05:52.680 · Alison Now you're doing a great job of reinforcing Skip's Canadian roots. Also through your new spokesperson, the new campaign, and partnerships with really iconic Canadian brands. So why is this Canadian positioning such a crucial differentiator, and how do the partnerships in particular work together as an ecosystem? 00:05:52.720 — 00:08:45.630 · Rachel Yeah, I think we are in a very competitive category with two very large brands in particular that come with deep pockets. And if you're not going to outspend on media or in vouchering, how do you make sure that you set yourselves apart? And we really felt that the Canadian element of our brand, of our technology, the fact that we are feet on the streets in Canada was a key part of differentiating, but we couldn't do it alone. And that's really where partnerships came in. So we we introduced the new brand positioning. We leveraged actually a previous spokesperson with Jon Hamm because he came with actually great affinity to the Skip brand. There was very positive association. And the original campaign had sort of positioned Jon as wanting to be Canadian. So it was, well, he's not Canadian, it was actually reinforcing that he wanted to be Canadian aspect of it. And so we used that sort of as a nod to our past. But also we then had Jon tell the new story that it was Skip at the grocery store and at the pet store and sort of all the ways that you could Skip. And then partnerships launched shortly after. So we introduced the new brand in October, and then we quickly launched Skip Plus subscription. And so we felt that the brand promise of "Skip to the good part." We help you skip the hassles of every day. That was always foundational to what Skip was a part of. But now it wasn't just helping you skip dinner, but it was helping you skip the trip to the pharmacy, skip the trip to the liquor store. But we wanted to make sure there was a proof point, that it wasn't just a tagline, that it actually was a brand promise of helping you Skip to the good part, which is where partnerships came in. And so we launched subscription about six weeks following the brand relaunch, and that really became the proof point that said, we talked about helping you skip to the good part. Here's another proof point to say we can help you skip to the things that matter most to you, which really tapped into passion points. You know, we were we were third to market on subscription. You know, you could look at that as a disadvantage that we were last to market. We actually looked at it as an advantage that we had the opportunity to see what's in market, what are we competing against, and then how do we create that ownable, authentic aspect to Skip. And that really became our partnerships, that we are going to help you skip to the good part, not just on delivery, but that Canadia

  8. May 12

    EP67 - Confessions of a CMO with Jon Crowley and Krisi Packer

    The CMO role isn't dying – it's evolving. Based on anonymous interviews with marketing leaders worldwide, Confessions of a CMO reveals five distinct archetypes built to thrive under today's pressures. Join outgoing CMA President and CEO Alison Simpson, SVP, Partner and Head of Strategy at FUSE Create Jon Crowley, and Associate Creative Director, Verbal at Monigle, Krisi Packer, as they unpack the research, apply a distinctly Canadian lens and help you discover which archetype you are. 00:00:00:12 - 00:00:14:18 Presenter Welcome to CMA Connect Live. Confessions of a CMO. With your host Alison Simpson and special guests Jon Crowley and Krisi Packer. 00:00:14:20 - 00:00:43:04 Alison I'm Alison Simpson, and welcome to our third ever live CMA connect podcast. We've had the pleasure of kicking off CMA marketing week since it was created, and it's wonderful to be back here again to do the same thing. Love sharing the energy in this room with all of you. And also a huge thank you to the hundreds of marketers who have joined us from across the country, especially our friends on the West Coast who are getting up extra early to be part of our CMA marketing week kick off. 00:00:43:06 - 00:01:11:11 Alison For years, we've been hearing that the CMO role is dying. We're seeing shorter tenures. We're seeing shifting titles. We're seeing shrinking budgets, fractured influence. The headlines right themselves. The death of the CMO has become far too common rallying cry on conference stages and in LinkedIn, thought pieces. But as Mark Twain very famously said, the reports of our death are greatly exaggerated. 00:01:11:13 - 00:01:45:05 Alison And that's exactly what our data shows. When CMO's lead customer centric growth company's see 1.4 times higher performance. When that leadership is fully integrated across the organization, growth doubles again. And here in Canada, our own Kantar research tells the same story. Top Canadian brands grew 10% last year, which is significantly outperforming Canada's GDP growth over the same period of 1.3%. 00:01:45:07 - 00:02:14:19 Alison So marketing leadership absolutely is not dying. It is evolving. The species survives because we adapt, and that's what we're here to explore today. Today's conversation is based on exclusive research that asks CMOs to confess what really happens behind closed doors. It's not the polished LinkedIn version of leadership. It's the unfiltered truth, the failure of forced adaptation, and the strategies that really helped ensure survival. 00:02:14:21 - 00:02:39:09 Alison What emerges from those candid conversations is a new taxonomy of marketing leadership. We have seven distinct species picking up on the evolutionary theme that dazzle shared with us, and each of the species has evolved to thrive under very different corporate pressures. Joining me today are two people uniquely positioned to unpack these insights. Krisi Packer is the co author of confessions of a CMO. 00:02:39:11 - 00:03:08:04 Alison She's also associate creative director of Verbal at Monocle. Monocle conducted dozens of anonymous interviews with CMOs around the world, from CPG to tech, from Europe to Asia Pacific, and of course, Canada. And they really captured the honest moments when leaders could finally speak freely about what it really takes to survive in the C-suite today. Jon Crowley is a partner, senior vice president and head of strategy at Fuze Create. 00:03:08:06 - 00:03:31:07 Alison Jon works directly with Canadian CMO and marketing leaders every day, and really helps them navigate the exact pressures that this research helped unveil. He's bringing the Canadian perspective to a global conversation. Well, Krisi and Jon are going to share what they discovered, including which CMO space that they identify with. And here's what makes the research really, really powerful. 00:03:31:09 - 00:03:53:22 Alison It isn't prescriptive. It doesn't tell you which species you should become. Instead, it helps us hold up a mirror and says, here's what's working. Here's how leaders like you are thriving and adapting today. So Krisi and Jon, please join me on stage. I'm looking forward to an insightful and very fun conversation. So, Krisi, let's start by giving our audience a quick field guide. 00:03:54:00 - 00:04:03:05 Alison Can you walk us through the five dominant species and their defining traits? And we'll treat this as a bit of a nature documentary. How do we spot each species out in the wild? 00:04:03:07 - 00:04:13:20 Krisi Fun fact that this field guide does have very nature documentary style intros for all these. Just great. I'm going to spare you my David Attenborough oppression though. Jon, I think you have him right? Yes. 00:04:13:22 - 00:04:14:15 Krisi So let's first 00:04:14:15 - 00:04:33:06 Krisi start with, our chief beauty officer. So I'm going to go through these really quickly. The report is incredibly in-depth. So just know that I'm going to just hit the high notes here. So that way we can you know what your appetite. So the chief Mutiny officer this is our strategic war breaker or our disruptive mutation of the chief marketing officer. 00:04:33:07 - 00:04:53:17 Krisi And really, their job is to kind of enter a place of organizations and release, you know, controlled doses of rebellion. That can look like a lot of different things. But one of the things I love to, give an example for is they will, do anything and, take action even before alignment exists. Right? And they'll use results as proof that they were right, that they should have watched it. 00:04:53:19 - 00:05:12:06 Krisi I know a lot of you might be thinking, hell, yeah, like mutiny. Burn it down. That sounds amazing. That is so reckless. But the truth is, mutiny officers are not reckless. They are highly calculated and precise about when and where to break the rules. And I think what I love about them the most is they, don't wait for that change. 00:05:12:06 - 00:05:16:00 Krisi They provoke it. And, Alison, I know your type is Mutiny Officer. 00:05:16:02 - 00:05:35:16 Alison Yeah. So thank you for describing us as not reckless. When I did the quiz, which everyone will have an opportunity to do as well, I did identify as a Chief Mutiny Officer. And what was interesting was when we've reached out to other Canadians to get a sense for the different profiles that are emerging. Chief Mutiny Officer was one of the lowest to emerge in Canada. 00:05:35:16 - 00:05:46:21 Alison So I know a little bit later Jon will talk about why that is. Is that just us polite, humble Canadians is a political pressure. But we will dig into a little bit more of how we don't have more Chief Mutiny Officers. 00:05:46:23 - 00:06:12:11 Krisi Absolutely. All right, so next we have our Chief Missing Officer. This is our invisible operator or a master of camouflage. And I think this one has the most misleading name. When you hear missing, you probably think I'm absent. Like, do they come to meetings like, what's actually going on? But they are far from absent. They're actually just stealth. I think if the apex, Chief Marketing Officer, if you will, was sort of a show boater. They're a credit share, right? 00:06:12:13 - 00:06:34:11 Krisi They are aligning leaders before a big meeting. They are embedding marketing priorities and other business functions. And, you know, they might not be in the meeting, but their fingerprints are on every single decision. And this is something that, I typed as, as well. Next, we have our Mood Officer. This is our stabilizer. They are the people that are always thinking about the tone in the room. 00:06:34:13 - 00:07:02:11 Krisi It's very vibes coded. It's very, you know, understanding that the decisions that are made are just as important as the environment that it's in. You might spot them in the wild when they're, you know, cutting well-timed jokes to cut the tension or, you know, they're absorbing all that negativity that's in the room just to move the idea forward. So very, very vibes coded. And, honestly, one of the people that really sets the tone for, the environment for ideas to be made in. 00:07:02:15 - 00:07:31:00 Krisi Next we have our Chief Meeting Officer. This is our translator. And I think this is most, closely aligned to a marketer's traditional skill set. They are really connecting the organization through narratives, right? They're bringing together, you know, finance, customer experience, all these different things and really understanding how to talk to them about marketing. And a lot of times in really convoluted situations, too, they're just stating the obvious, which I think is a very important tactic. And something beautiful about the narratives that they create. 00:07:31:00 - 00:07:37:15 Krisi They really bring people back to the human part of the organization and the mission.  And, Jon, I know you tie Disney off the right? 00:07:37:17 - 00:07:54:13 Jon Which is maybe the most stereotypical thing for an advertising strategist to type out as sort of the list of options. It's, the concept of, you know, Narrator's Translation, this idea of bringing everyone along on the story. It's kind of like when you read a horoscope and you're like, oh, yeah, I do do that a lot. Maybe I am stubborn as a Taurus. 00:07:54:15 - 00:08:14:18 Krisi All right. And finally we have our momentum officer. So this is our propeller. That's always driving progress. They were born, into the depths of red tape, and they've evolved to know how to cut through it, which I think is really interesting. They move too quickly to fall into those bureaucratic traps, and they really trade theory for action, right? 00:08:14:20 - 00:08:35:09 Krisi You won't catch them, you know, debating something. They're going to be, you know, launching not one campaign, but ten campaigns. They are, moving faster than the speed of debate, which I think is very interesting. And it's

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Welcome to CMA Connect - the voice of the Canadian marketing community. Join us for empowering discussions with industry leaders about the rapidly changing world of marketing.

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  • Creator
    Canadian Marketing Association
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    106
  • Rating
    Clean
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  • Show Website
    CMA Connect

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