On June 5th, 2013 thousands of professionals from across Canada will gather at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to discover the ideas and trends shaping the future of marketing. Building on the success of last year’s national tour, this one day conference features five bestselling authors & leaders, who will share an exciting blend of cutting edge thinking and real world experience on today’s most critical marketing issues.

The Marketing Hall of Legends was founded with the clear goal of enshrining the profession of marketing as a key pillar in the success of Canadian businesses, through recognition of the achievements of its “Legends”. This will elevate the status in the business community of marketing as a critical success factor in gaining market share. The MHOL Mentor Exchange is a forum for marketing experts and business leaders to form mentoring relationships with the next generation of talent, building the capacity of our future Canadian business executives to lead with the discipline of marketing as a key component of every strategic business system.

The Marketing Awards turn 91 this year, but remain Canada’s most coveted and respected industry honour. In 2012, we made some big changes to the show and, unsurprisingly, the show was a sell-out. We merged the Digital Marketing Awards into the show and partnered with the Association of Canadian Advertisers to bring back the prestigious Gold Medal Award. This year, to recognize an increasingly important and vibrant part of the Canadian communications industry, Marketing is introducing Design categories to the program. The design work will be judged by a special jury comprised of some of the best design talent in the country.

 

It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of mobile marketing. New technologies, consumer behaviours and expectations mean the modern marketer has to know a lot about an ever-growing pool of information. If your eyes are glued to your phone, you might miss the big picture — or the obstacles in your path. Don't get caught with your head down. Let Marketing and the Canadian Marketing Association show you what's ahead and how to best position your brand among the most empowered consumers in history.

 

Through industry-leading speakers and hands-on activities, you will learn and apply the latest social, digital and mobile media practices. Join us on Thursday May 2nd, 2013 at the Appel Salon (The Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street) for the BrandSpark Innovation Event: Marketing in a Brave New World Conference and Workshop, then afterwards celebrate the 2013 winners at The Best New Product Awards Show!

 

The importance of social activity to brands and customers is growing at a frightening pace. New tools to assess, slice, dice, and interpret social networking are appearing daily. So how are successful marketers finding meaning in the deluge of data that social produces? Join the AMA on April 23 for a unique evening of networking and up-to-the-minute insight into the world of social search.

 

On April 18^th AMA Toronto will lead a breakfast roundtable discussion that explores the ever growing need for customer experience management. The challenges of delivering a consistent customer experience across all touch points is increasing. Are you able to carry on a conversation that spans multiple channels, rather than having a similar conversation in any single channel? How are companies consistently managing so many touch points, and what kind of results are they seeing from investing in the technologies and tools that measure and manage all of these experiences?

 

Market Intelligence uses your existing information sources to gain a better understanding of what’s taking place in your market. It enables you, the marketer, to conduct your own research without having to outsource. With 25 years’ experience and over 800 market intelligence studies completed, David Lithwick, Principal, Market Alert Ltd., delivers a new CMA workshop loaded with real examples, easy-to-follow concepts and straight-forward tools that will help you maintain your competitive edge, assess new market opportunities and obtain feedback from your customers without spending on market research or management consulting. With mini-cases, class discussions and quizzes used to demonstrate how these concepts and techniques can easily be applied to your company, you can begin using marketing intelligence the day after you finish the workshop.

The Canadian Positive Psychology Association (CPPA) is a registered not-for-profit organization that focuses on improving the psychological health of all Canadians through the research and application of positive psychology across Canada. We represent scholars and academics who are engaged in rigorous academic research in the field of positive psychology and we also work with practitioners to ensure a higher standard in the application of positive psychology. Our marketing philosophy revolves around the idea of building a community of professionals and researchers across Canada that are interested in learning more about the research and application of positive psychology to improve psychological well-being and happiness in Canada.

 

Marketing and research professionals have long established their role in understanding consumer needs and desires, then translating those into a compelling and differentiated value proposition. Their pursuit has been one of getting and keeping customers, and building life-long loyalty and advocacy that drives business results. This meant ensuring alignment along the entire path to purchase so every queue conceived and communicated consistently reinforced the brand’s promise.

 

Join IABC/Toronto on the evening of April 10th for "The Winds of Change," featuring a presentation by Organizational Change Expert Annette Martell, and learn more about how you play a role in this emerging discipline. Successful leaders feast on a steady diet of change – mergers, financial restructurings, market expansions, new technologies, launching products, reassigning roles. Hear how top business leaders dish into change and relish transformations. Learn what’s expected of communicators who need to slice through chaos & competing messages. See how top organizations digest their constant menu of change. Dig into how you can prepare, provision and be an executive’s best dinner partner at the banquet of change.

 

It is clear, that by 2015 tablet computers will be leading the charge and your target audiences will have firm expectations of your organization and mobility. Further, in less than five years, the mobile generation could have more buying power than all other demographics - and now is the time to jump on board this amazing opportunity! Mobile is a distinctive channel with unique technical and design obstacles and opportunities. To have a truly effective (and ideally best-in-class) mobile experience you need a strategy that is timely, customizable, extensible, and trackable to support long-term marketing, customer service, and brand engagements rather than short-term implementations that are costly.

 

Who made Santa's nice and naughty list this year in the highly competitive retail landscape? In a push to sell the most toys, who played it safe and sweet and who took the new road less traveled? Join two partners in planning as they take a look at the various approaches taken by International and Canadian advertisers this past holiday season.

 

When the final numbers from the 2011 Census were released in October, they revealed just how multicultural this nation has become: one-fifth of the population — or 6.6 million people — reported speaking a foreign tongue at least some of the time in the home. With a million-plus speakers, Mandarin and Cantonese were most common followed by Punjabi at 460,000. The Census also saw huge upticks in speakers of Tagalog, Arabic, Hindi and Creole compared to the 2006 Census. 

 

 

Did you know that 20% of Canada’s population was born outside of the country? Or that 281,000 new immigrants settled in Canada in 2010 (… 42% settled in Toronto!). In a matter of years, Canada’s visible minorities will no longer be that, minorities. Multicultural marketing isn't niche anymore, it’s mass. Today’s multicultural consumers are truly global consumers, mobilized across different parts of the world, tech savvy, connected, and heavy users of mobile devices. Faced with this paradigm shift and changed media habits, how are today’s marketers building meaningful connections with this fast-evolving segment?

Internet users surround themselves with content. But how do you connect to the content you want? Whether it is TV or newspaper, radio, magazines or online, quality content plays a huge role in our daily lives. While the internet allows consumers to explore everything under the sun, content remains of greatest importance to them, from news to sports analysis, finance reports to lifestyle sections. Join Yahoo! Canada's Nick Drew, Research Manager, who will discuss how Canadian consumers look for quality content online, how they engage with it across devices, and why this is important to marketers.

 

Loyalty programs are exploding across the globe. From firmly established legacy systems through to the newest, “virtual” rewards offers, loyalty programs are trying to find ways to build awareness and connections with increasingly sophisticated and educated audiences. The 2013 CMA Loyalty Conference will look at emerging trends here at home and internationally, examining the impact these trends have in different geographies and regions and how they affect the success of each program.

 

Coming up with "The Big Idea" is never easy.

There's insights to catch. Guts to follow. Give yourself an edge. Be in cahoots with the brightest guys and gals in the business. Learn from them. Find out how they strategize their genius. You gotta stay sharp if you want to snatch the gold.

 

 

With that in mind I will be hosting a networking event on February 6th at The Spoke Club on behalf of AMA Toronto.  The event is designed to be all about networking, but I will also be speaking about the the key marketing themes from 2012 that are changing the existing role of the marketer and creating the next generation of marketing careers. I will be referencing a number of the big 2012 CMO studies conducted by IBM,AMA & Duke University as well as our own business insights. Come join me for a toast!

 

Ad Lounge presents CONVERSUASION, a fireside chat which features stories and insights from some of the advertising and marketing’s best. Shawn King, Susan Kim-Kirkland and Paul Regan will share their stories and anecdotes from the industry’s trenches, providing attendees with unprecedented insights from leaders in the field. Following the fireside chat, you’ll have the opportunity for some rare face time with industry peers and leaders.

 

If you’ve thinking about registering for The Globe’s Young Marketers competition, we hope you’ll join us February 1, 2013 for a special Young Marketers networking session. Gain valuable competition insight from last year’s Cannes winning Young Marketers. Learn industry secrets from seasoned marketing veterans. Swap stories of challenges and solutions with your peers. You must be registered for The Globe and Mail’s Young Marketers competition or a qualified Facebook group member (facebook.com/groups/canadayounglionsmarketers/).

 

Net Gain celebrates innovation and transformation. This Jan 31, 2013 marks the 7th annual Net Gain conference. The theme is Little, Big Data. Little Data refers to the traditional analytics of relatively small samples, be it a sample of 1,000 respondents or interviews with 10 key informants. Big Data refers to the firehouse of information that is produced at warp-like speed emanating from not only people but a multitude of high technology sources such as mobile phones or asset connected devices. The various data points are expanding and Big Data gets larger every second. It contains both structured and unstructured data. Big Data may be in the form of tweets, blogs, voice, video, pictures, real time transactions and structured customer opinion surveys. 

 

On January 29th, 2013 thousands of sales professionals from across Canada will gather in Toronto to discover the ideas and trends shaping the future of sales. This one day conference features 6 Internationally renowned bestselling authors and business icons, who will share an exciting blend of cutting edge thinking and real world experience on today's most critical sales issues. Read more for MTI Promo Code!

At the heart of all successful marketing is a strong brand message. Great brands clearly demonstrate the relationship between their business and their customer. They are clear about what they have to offer, why people choose a particular product or service and how it makes them feel. When applied with focus and purpose, branding is the quickest way to build trust, grow customer loyalty and make a positive contribution to society.

 

Digital ad spend is set to overtake TV ad spend, but many marketers still treat their TV plans & digital plans as separate entities.The proliferation of screens, along with TV programming available on smartphones and tablets, has allowed consumers to change their viewing habits and behaviour- they watch their favourite shows when they want, where they want. New media have caused an evolution of the traditional Marketing Funnel into a Purchase Decision Journey, and the role played by traditional and emerging channels is in a constant state of flux. Media providers like Rogers have introduced innovations such as ‘Anyplace TV’, traditional programming available anytime, anyplace as long as you have a screen.

 image: http://www.theindietrendy.com/2012/04/youth-in-revolt-bershkas-ultimate.html

The American Marketing Association is hosting an exclusive marketing event that brings together youth thought leaders and experts. A 90-minute moderated session will explore:

• Subtle yet Constant: Youth Culture on the Move
  
• New Youth Challenges and the ‘American Dream’
  
• How Brands Can Successfully Engage Youth
  

Do we really know what our customers think? Do we really know what works? Join this seminar and learn about measuring campaigns and marketing tactics online and off. We'll provide a unique view and comparison to metrics across different mediums and methodologies and explore how we should translate these in a true consumer impact context.

This talk will explore the use of digital as a marketing tool and how to fully understand true consumer impact on a brand at different stages of development by offering a look at different testing methodologies, as well as the danger of under or over-evaluating a campaign's performance.

Financial institutions are somewhat ahead of many other industries in their ability to generate and use customer segmentation, analysis, and predictive modeling in order to engage and retain their customers. However, there is one caveat – channel explosion! With consumers no longer using just traditional channels, financial institutions are tasked with the additional mandate of understanding, engaging with and yes, selling to their customers in as many channels as the customer demands – websites, smart phones and tablets, social media and SMS, to name a few.

 

 

Making payment transactions via mobile devices is quickly shifting from a point of infancy to the inevitable state of ubiquity.

Canada is following suit with brands such as Starbucks, Sears, LCBO, BMO and others leading the charge as first-to-market players who provide this type of mobile solution for their customers.

Your #EPICtale could WIN* you 1 of 5 $1,000 prizes

ATTENTION all new advertising moguls. Share your epic fail or epic success story with us for your chance to win 1 of 5 prizes at $1,000 each!

 

Marketing's "It's All Social" Conference

In a world where traditional media models have crumbled, audiences have fragmented and fragmented again, and marketers are obsessed with proving the value of their investments, media innovation has become not just important but essential.

How to build a creative brief that inspires

Great creative is born out of insight, imagination, exploration and discovery. The creative brief is the heart and sole of great work. It is the blueprint from which great work is created. Without a well-written and objective brief, the chance of creating work that delivers the desired outcome is greatly reduced.

The beauty of a great creative brief is that it clearly outlines the framework in which the teams are to build. And there are many hands that go into its completion. From strategy to insights to data and creative. Each team plays a critical role in building great work.

There's no question, as B2B marketing practitioners today we are being asked to think differently – to anticipate, react to, and exploit new channels and new business opportunities at lightning speed.

Considering the pace and competitive nature of the current market, we can't afford to leave marketing successes to chance.

 

Trends 2013: Get insights into what’s coming. Get ahead of your competitors and boost your career. Get your toolkit ready.

Keynotes, panels, workshops and breakout sessions will present business, consumer, public sector, non-profit and employee communication fundamentals, with new insights and in context to emerging trends and technologies.

It is clear, that by 2015 tablet computers will be leading the charge and your target audiences will have firm expectations of your organization and mobility. Further, in less than five years, the mobile generation could have more buying power than all other demographics - and now is the time to jump on board this amazing opportunity!

This is a gathering like no other. A cross-discipline thinkcamp. Hands-on and designed to inspire tangible learning that will amplify your creativity and help you unleash it in others.

Email is a highly changeable medium with potential for high ROI. This seminar will explain how the industry’s greatest practitioners use email to achieve their marketing objectives, and how you can execute successful campaigns with measurable results. Find out about the latest email best practices and emerging trends and learn how to integrate mobile and social media into your existing email program. This seminar will lead you through how to assemble the building blocks of successful digital marketing campaigns.

Major topics covered in this course include

• Learn all about the explosive new area of Gamification.
• Understand the difference between games, gaming and Gamification.
• Find out how Gamification may replace boring, grid, non-responsive surveys.
• Explore the elements of games that can be applied in marketing research.
• Understand the best motivators for participating in Gamification.
• Find out what new emerging areas of MR can best utilize Gamification.
• Determine how Gamification success is measured.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Emerging technologies, new platforms and evolving digital tools are changing the way audiences consume media, connect with brands and ultimately make purchase decisions. With the rise of smartphones, tablets and social media, today's empowered consumers are seeking out information, interacting with brands and sharing their experiences.

 

Consumers continue to deal with uncertain and uninspiring economic conditions.  They continued to redefine value, and what resonated with them prior to the recession is very different from today. Reaching the value driven consumer is key to growth in a static market.

The dynamic retail landscape has challenged many manufacturers and retailers to re-examine and reinforce their value proposition. The role of the store flyer is changing – it’s no longer about just promoting what’s on sale. The retail store flyer is becoming a key vehicle in reaching today’s consumer both in paper and online.

The Leaders in Retail Breakfast Series is designed specifically to connect retailers and non-retail suppliers, vendors and consultants with some of the most successful and forward thinking leaders in Canadian retail.

How to successfully integrate Diversity Marketing in your organization
to engage with 6.2 million Canadians?

You may be missing a massive marketing opportunity!

Diversity Facts:

• 52% of immigrants purchased a home within three years of arrival in Canada#
• The spending power of Chinese and South Asian consumers in Canada now exceeds $40 billion#
• South Asians are the largest visible minority group in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area accounting for 31.2 % of the total visible minority population*

*Statistics Canada, 2006 Census # Source: RSI Research Solutions Inc.

The 2012 Cannes Lion Film reel includes 2 hours of the world’s best commercials, including Canada's 4 winners:

• LG2 Québec took home Bronze for their KRISPY KERNELS - Mixed Nuts ad
• TAXI CANADA, Toronto won Bronze for their HOCKEY HALL OF FAME - Hockey Museum campaign
• BBDO, Toronto won Bronze for their Canadian Paralympics campaign
• JWT, Toronto won a Bronze Film Craft Lion for their CANADIAN FILM FESTIVAL ad.

The Advertising Club of Toronto presents Out of Home Showdown, the first annual competition of out of home campaigns executed in Canada over the past year, set to the legendary style of an elegant Vegas boxing event.

Key Take-Aways

• The Principles of Behavioral Economics
• The Concepts that explain how we think
• Understanding the simplicity of how simple changes can make a big difference
• A Deeper Look through interesting case studies
• Hands-On: Discussing a Choice Architecture Framework for your business
• Challenges

The American Marketing Association (AMA) of Toronto invites you to join its members (AMA Toronto Community members) to come together for an evening of networking on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012. Come out for our first event of the year to celebrate our accomplishments and learn about the programming events we have scheduled for this upcoming year. We have lots of exciting news to share with you!

As one of the most dynamic volunteer organizations in Toronto, we will also be recruiting new members and volunteers.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to join us! You may find your future business partner(s) or land your next big opportunity.

Mentor Exchange responds to the need for external mentoring; taking it outside of the corporate doors. The program matches over 50 top Canadian marketing executives and business leaders who have committed to form mentoring relationships that will enable the exchange of knowledge with the next generation of talent.

The intention is to help create future Legends in an organized, systematic approach. Mentors participating in this program are from companies such as: Indigo Chapters, RBC Financial Group, Loblaw Companies Limited, CTV and Sick Kids Foundation.

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Social Media represents a transformational shift in how brands communicate and connect in today's online world. This full-day session is structured to provide marketers, communicators and advertisers with a deep dive into the Social Media space, uncovering the power and potential to engage consumers in new ways.

Join us to learn about what is commonly referred to as "Web 2.0" and build a detailed knowledge-base regarding the collaborative platforms and participatory tools being used with audiences in the digital space.

Not sure how to create an outstanding holistic user experience across digital mediums while engaging consumer and surpassing business objectives?

Innovation, agile development, and user-centric design are not enemies - they can work together to do deliver outstanding ROI even in the tightest economy. If you want to learn how to stop spinning your wheels, and launch exceptional digital experiences faster and smarter - set that alarm clock a bit early and join us for breakfast!

 

 

 

Today's consumers are more empowered than ever. They have access to more information and options when making purchase decisions. Companies have responded by embracing technology and actively shifting their marketing approach and budgets. How can we as marketers embrace these new mediums and not lose touch with direct response marketing fundamentals. Have the "3 Pillars of Marketing" (target, offer and creative) become 4 (target, offer, creative and channel)?

The Direct Marketing Conference showcases current and emerging trends in the direct marketing space including what's new, what's hot and what's next.

This year's conference will provide a comprehensive look into the role that technology, channel, data and creative play in the delivery of successful direct marketing programs.

Mobile Marketing Conference

What’s your strategy for reaching them when they’re in the store, in front of your product, scanning your labels and connecting with other consumers? Find the path to monetization with the latest technologies and strategies from the leading experts in the field.

Join us at the Mobile Marketing Conference, a full-day event for marketers who understand the new consumer.

How to Build Customer Loyalty and Front Line Staff Commitment Early in the Relationship...

Successful onboarding programs have proven to be an important component in generating customers and employees who are “raving fans”.

This hands-on seminar provides tips and tools to help you set up onboarding programs, for your customers as well as employees.

The Event: Sept 18 2012 @ 6:30pm

Ad Lounge presents CONVERSUASION, a fireside chat which features stories and insights from some of the advertising and marketing’s best.

Franke Rodriguez, Robin Whalen, and Walter Levitt will share their stories and anecdotes from the industry’s trenches, providing attendees with unprecedented insights from leaders in the field.

Following the fireside chat, you’ll have the opportunity for some rare face time with industry peers and leaders.

 

 

 

 

MARKETING’S BRANDED CONTENT CONFERENCE

Content is useless without purpose, context and utility.

Unfortunately, marketers have been running blindly into the content game, blowing budgets and resources not on quality, but quantity that clutters more than connects.

Marketing magazine’s inaugural Branded Content Conference distills the powerful potential of storytelling with a lineup of some of today’s top brand storytellers, effective content case studies and exclusive Canadian custom content research.

With a sharp focus on how to develop brand narrative that is clear, authentic and useful to audiences, Content in Context will cut through the recent storytelling froth and supercharge your content strategy and its resonance with audiences.

Industry leaders with expertise in sustainability, who also authored a recent CMA leadership paper on this subject, come together to further discuss how organizations should align themselves to deliver against a sustainability agenda. Areas such as communication strategies, supply chain implications, and employee education and training are the focus of this webinar.

Moving from Cost Centres to Profit Centres

The Call Centre is fast becoming one of the main avenues for increasing the bottom line as pressure for marketing executives to reduce churn and drive profits – intensifies.

In fact, a recent study conducted in the US and the UK found that 69% of large B2C organizations now view their call centres as business-critical revenue generators.

Social media is likely to be a huge consideration for your organization, and a future area for investment. Producing content and getting followers is one step, but how do you maximize the value of your interactions? And keep the experience consistent across all channels? Customers interacting with you through social media will still require customized communications, which are timely, relevant and through their preferred channel.

AMA Toronto & Interbrand Canada Event on June 7 - Discover How Great Canadian Brands Deliver Their Brand Promise

This short video is a recap of the event with guest interviews and more!

eat:Strategy is a hand crafted conference designed from the ground up for practitioners. Sharing knowledge and raising the brain trust in our community, made up of diverse backgrounds, is our focus. Buy tickets and network with some awesome people from the agencies.

Ad Club's Summer Party brings over 600+ of Canada's advertising professionals together for an evening of fun, networking and celebration.

This year's theme will be "I'm on a Boat!". So get excited, cause we're on a boat. Don't know what that is? Google it up and get ready to party!

Behavioral interviewing can be a powerful tool for finding the right talent and fit.  How do you know when a potential employee is telling you the truth...or what they think you want to hear?

Marketing Recruiting Specialist Deanna MacDougal will show you how to:

1. Save Time & Money or Reduce Hiring Managers Time

2. Improve Hiring Decisions or Eliminate Risk

3. Define the Right Competencies

A must-attend forum on authentic conversation with one of Canada’s most affluent and influential communities, featuring some of the world’s leading LG BT marketers and campaigns. Canadian companies and their brands and services are truly leaders when it comes to understanding the importance of marketing to diverse communities.

Without a doubt, customer retention and cross selling are top priorities for marketers. In the quest for customer loyalty and market share, it's about looking forward, not back.

This roundtable will discuss how organizations can take a forward-looking approach by applying advanced customer analytics to optimize retention programs, all while spending less money and using fewer resources.

Join us for an interactive morning with Dr. Patrick Surry, Global Solutions Owner for Customer Analytics from Pitney Bowes Business Insight.

This short video was filmed during the fantastic event hosted by AMA Toronto regarding "The New Face of the CMO".

Check it out to see what you missed!

Stay well informed about your customers' satisfaction level, competitors' initiatives, changes in the market and other important dynamics without spending more on market research and consulting support?

Market Intelligence uses your existing information sources to gain a better understanding of what’s taking place in your market. It enables you, the marketer, to conduct your own research without having to outsource. With 25 years’ experience and over 800 market intelligence studies completed, David Lithwick, Principal, Market Alert Ltd., delivers a new CMA workshop loaded with real examples, easy-to-follow concepts and straight-forward tools that will help you maintain your competitive edge, assess new market opportunities and obtain feedback from your customers without spending on market research or management consulting.

This presentation will explore:

It’s almost summer – and you know what that means: the final IABC/Toronto Munch ‘n’ Mingle of the season is about to take place! Join in the festivities on June 13! Meet us on the patio at Czehoski, located at 678 Queen Street West, for a memorable night of networking.

Great brands do more than make promises, they deliver value across a broad range of touch points every day. Join AMA Toronto and Interbrand on June 7 to learn from a panel of senior executives how brand delivery can help a brand meet its business goals.

Speaker Rhonda Page presents branding strategies that focus on what makes you stand out from the rest of the pack so clients will want to work with you.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012, 6 to 9 p.m., Metro Hall, Room 314, 55 John Street, Toronto

You're invited to join Microsoft and trusted partners to learn how your organization can drive the Ultimate Customer Experience. Sales and Marketing teams are responsible for finding opportunities, communicating value, closing the deal, and keeping the customer loyal. It's about time your tools stop standing in your way. We plan on giving you great insights as to how your business can deliver the Ultimate Customer Experience so you can see what's possible. It's inspiring.

With traditional media companies struggling to hold onto audience share, and marketers under pressure to build their brands and ROI, sports marketing holds enormous opportunity. Sports content continues to draw huge audiences for big-budget mass marketing. But it can also deliver countless opportunities for one-to-one connections with fans—from the biggest stadiums and arenas across the country to the local playing field around the corner.

Whether you’re engaging corporate head office, frontline staff, strategic partners, the consumer, the latest technologies or the communities you serve… consistent engagement is critical to the growth and success of any retail operation.

At STORE 2012 – Canada’s Retail Conference, learn just how powerful a business tool engagement can be in helping to recruit and retain top talent, enhance the customer experience through unified messaging across all channels, improve your environmental impact and understand just what your employees and customers expect from you… and how to begin harnessing the power of engagement today.

With all the changes that have happened – marketing departments today look very different to how they did three years ago.

Today’s CMO is faced with an explosion of new channels and technologies, budgets squeeze and smaller head counts, and questions about who owns customer service, pricing & revenue management, and internal communications.

Join our president Craig Lund has he leads the discussion with a panel of CMO's from Starbucks, Moen, Y&R, Maverick, and RBC.  

On March 5th, 2012 thousands of marketing professionals from across Canada will gather in Toronto to discover the ideas and trends that are shaping the future of Marketing. Join them and hear from the world’s most renowned experts, leaders and bestselling authors.

We have negotiated special pricing for our fans and readers. Find out what you need to do to take advantage of the savings!

As Canada’s official Cannes Lions representative, The Globe is pleased to announce that beginning in 2012, we will be hosting a Cannes Young Marketers, pre-qualifying competition, which is designed to prepare the winning team to compete in Cannes.

Deadline is March 4th read on for more details

Calling all Creative, Marketing and Advertising Students.  Finally a networking opportunity designed specifically for you.  Unlike many campus recruiting initiatives, you only get to chat with HR.  That is where this event is different, you will be exposed to actual industry big wigs!

This is a FREE event brought to you by AdLounge 

Did you know that 94% of Canadians belong to some type of loyalty program? Globally, Canadians have the second highest participation rate after the British. That said, nearly 70% have lost interest in participating in at least one of their reward programs. With 60% of reward program members feeling that loyalty programs could do a better job communicating.

Unless you have been sleeping under a rock, you will have noticed the world has changed in the past 5 years (let alone the past 10, 20 or 50). So why are many marketers looking for insights in the same old ways, to plug into the same old models, and making the same old assumptions?

Mark your calendar and come celebrate Ad Week and the world's best commercials from the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Entertaining and provocative - it's worth seeing what Canada was up against and what it takes to win!

Canada’s multicultural policy bolsters a blended mosaic of cultures, traditions and people. According to the 2006 Census, ethnic groups accounted for 16.2% of the country’s total population.

So who are the leaders in this space, and how our they building winning marketing initiatives within this segmented segment?

Customer Experience is increasingly being used as the marketing tool of choice in Financial Services Marketing. But, how do you quantify customer experience improvement efforts and their impact on the brand? How do successful organizations marshal resources across organizational silos to drive a Customer Experience Strategy?

These questions and many more to be answered by experts from BMO, AMEX and JD Powers & Associates. The perfect breakfast networking session for the Financial Services Marketer

Hear the latest thinking from two of the industry's most respected andcreative leaders, Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin as they consider, "What's the future of an industry without leaders?".

The Notable Awards driven by Lexus, are Canada's First-ever Awards for Young Professionals (YPs). Care to join in the celebration on November 10, 2011? If you're a savvy YP, you should be there.

meshmarketing is a one-day event focused on providing attendees with insight, perspective and information to more effectively embrace and capitalize on the fast-growing digital market. A morning of thought-provoking keynote conversations will be followed by an afternoon of interactive and engaging panels and workshops.

Did you know over 50% of 18 to 24 year old Canadians have a smart phone, belong to a virtual social group and spend more time online than any other medium? Further, although over 76% of young adults are concerned with online privacy they are receptive to seeing ads targeted to their interests and are more likely to notice ads that are relevant.

Marketing professionals are learning that to take advantage of the rapid growth and change in social media they must successfully collaborate with other business groups like never before.

Social media has immediate implications for legal, finance, IT, R&D, the C-Suite and even HR.