Consider All-Weather Marketing!

The Calgary Marketing Association (CMA) was joined by Diana Luu and Jeff Lancaster of LinkedIn as they shared data-based findings and advice that can help your brand move forward and become stronger during good times and more importantly, during bad times.

If you missed this webinar you missed a presentation full of statistics, solid examples and strong recommendations. Visit our CMA YouTube page and experience the full hour of background and facts plus Question and Answers.

In the meantime, consider the following three guiding principles that the data shows will work for you:Read More

This questioned was addressed and answers were put forth and discussed during a Calgary Marketing Association(CMA) Webinar on Tuesday, April 28.

The CMA has been offering timely, relevant and we believe applicable marketing content since March 31st, shortly after Social Distancing was put into place. Around the same time, Anstice Communications surveyed anglophone Canadians to understand how our current crisis has affected us and how it will change Canadians going forward. Dr. Mark Szabo, Director of Insights & Engagement at Anstice Communications presented his findings as a means to educate and better arm marketers on how to adjust the way we communicate with our clients, customers and markets during and after restrictions are lifted.Read More

Highlights from The Gathering 2020

This was my second year attending The Gathering conference and it was quite different than last year as I was now learning through the lens of not only a marketer but also an entrepreneur.  This time I left thinking more about the kind of Brand Leader I want to be and less about the kind of Brand I want to lead. Of the sessions I attended I found the speakers were noticeably transparent and eager to share not only where they had success, but also some of their biggest failures.Read More

As cities respond to an ever-changing political, environmental, and social climate, the accelerated pace of change, and increasing accountability, economic development agencies are having to reimagine how they do ‘strategy.

First published last November in Public Sector Digest, this article authored by Jason Ribeiro and Hubba Khatoon from Calgary Economic Development outlines how long-range planning can embrace adaptivity to meet both the challenges and opportunities posed by the new economy.

Let’s address the age-old content marketing conundrum once and for all: should you prioritize quality or quantity of content?

The answer is both. And it’s totally possible with the right mindset and approach.

The value of content marketing can’t be denied. From storytelling to selling, original content created and shared by brand and product marketing teams helps customers at every stage of decision making and repeat purchases.

As of 2018, The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) reported that 91% of B2B marketers use content to educate customers, and 86% of B2C marketers believe content is a key strategy to winning over the hearts of consumers. This is especially true in 2020, where the lines between b2b and b2c marketing begin to blur even more. It also means that the day to day operations of marketing departments should begin to follow the lead of modern media publishers and editorial teams – those who understand how to captivate their audiences daily. We do live in a 24/7 social media news cycle, after all.

According to Deloitte, we check our phone on average 52 times a day. Our craving for the latest updates, and posts from the people, personalities and brands we admire and trust most, means that our competition isn’t just who sells similar products. It’s everyone else competing for our audience’s attention. This includes every brand vying for a top spot in the search results and social feeds of our target audiences – those who at any given time are reading CNN breaking news updates on Facebook and aweing at mesmerizing photography shared by National Geographic’s Instagram.

Getting eyeballs and keeping them glued to your brand through scroll-stopping words and visuals, leads to some of the biggest challenges marketing departments face today. In the age of always-on digital media and smartphone addiction (not that we’re screen-time shaming anyone), marketers must master how to scale content production and maintain ambitious publishing schedules.

Clearly, we want great content, and we want it now.

So how do marketing teams ensure the consistent delivery of content, all while tying brand publishing initiatives to concrete marketing goals and results? Read More

“Creativity is like washing a pig. It’s messy. It has no rules. No clear beginning, middle or end. It’s kind of a pain in the ass, and when you’re done, you’re not sure if the pig is really clean or even why you were washing a pig in the first place.” – Luke Sullivan

Luke Sullivan’s quote on creativity makes me laugh every time I read it. In many ways, he captures what we all know about great creative and great creatives. The method to create greatness is rarely a straight line and, according to the panel, rarely achieved.

This was the focus of the Calgary Marketing Association’s last Panel & Power Hour – on the night of February 6th, four smart marketers came together on a panel to talk through a variety of methods to develop winning creative, along with methods to motivate your creative teams and agencies to produce winning creative. Read More