Marketing matters to a growing number of Calgary companies. Cidnee Stephen, president of the Calgary Marketing Association (CMA), reports the association posted more positions this past November and December than throughout the rest of 2019.
CMA is also looking after a growing number of members, some 2,000 employed in corporate marketing plus suppliers, individuals and marketing students of post-secondary institutions. Stephen believes that makes CMA the second-largest marketing association in the country next to Toronto.
Within CMA there is a peer group of directors and senior managers who try to meet regularly and participate in a CMO’s Forum. A second group of agencies not afraid to collaborate with each other, bond together with the Agency Forum.
Stephen and her vice president, Jan Wood, organized a public event and two closed-door sessions in December – attended by more than 300 people – featuring Bret Sanford-Chung of U.S.-based Forrester Research who shared her company’s advertising and marketing predictions for 2020.
CMA has become a busy and influential organization and is hiring two additional staff to help with events and communications.
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Following several years in digital and social media with North American and international companies such as Nestlé, Hewlett Packard and the World Economic Forum, Coty Walker has been with Sandbox Brand Marketing for almost four years. Joining as digital director, she now takes care of day-to-day running of the company as vice president operations and client services.
And she has started the year upbeat and busy with major client Sobeys. Sandbox worked with Safeway across Western Canada for many years and has been retained by Sobeys – which runs its Canadian wholesale division out of Calgary – to help direct its brand marketing arm.
A newer account is Brunel Commercial Interiors, a Calgary leader in retail manufacturing and fixtures across Western Canada with a 50-year history that is moving to more than double its plant size.
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Karen Pearce, president of McCann West, reports the agency has defended its Bayer Crop Science business and added three more portfolios to its roster: Traits, DEKALB seed business and the digital farming software platform Climate FieldView.
Although this is a McCann national account most of the business will be handled out of the Calgary office.
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Lana Rogers has picked up a couple of interesting new accounts to add to her PR and media consulting portfolio.
Kidoodle.TV is a Calgary-based tech company getting global recognition for its safe streaming for kids, now available in 140 countries with millions of app installs. And The51 is a new company founded by three Calgary female business professionals who are raising capital and investing in female entrepreneurs to help women throughout the province start new businesses.
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Parker’s Pick: The choice of a Calgary artist – Rhys Douglas Farrell – to create a mural for AVLI on Atlantic.
