We had the privilege of interviewing Alison Simpson, President and CEO of the Canadian Marketing Association. She discussed her career as an award-winning marketer with expertise across a wide range of marketing disciplines, her thoughts on being chosen as the new President and CEO of the Canadian Marketing Association, the advantages her award-winning experience would bring to the Canadian Marketing Association, and the most important marketing strategies for the success of any business.
Alison is an accomplished executive leader and an award-winning marketer with extensive brand and agency experience. Prior to CMA, she was president of several agencies and has served as marketing lead for top-tier brands, including Holt Renfrew, Rogers Communications, and TMX Group. She is a director of the CNIB Foundation (Ontario + Quebec Regions) and serves on the Advisory Board for the Master of Management Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Program at the Smith School of Business
How will you describe your journey as an award-winning marketer with expertise across broad marketing disciplines, holding executive roles and leading brand, digital, loyalty, integrated marketing, and customer experience teams for top-tier brands?
It’s been an amazing journey. I’ve worked across diverse brands and industries, including Holt Renfrew, Tim Hortons, TMX Group, Apple, Cineplex, Ford, Scotiabank, and Rogers, to name a few.
I love our profession. Helping companies thrive in an increasingly challenging environment by ensuring their brand provides a differentiated competitive advantage that inspires employees, motivates consumers, and grows the business is highly rewarding work.
Being open to challenges and embracing change have given me a breadth of industry experience, and depth of brand, customer, and business strategy, along with Board experience. I attribute my success to my customer-centric and innovative approach, and the high-performance teams and strong relationships I develop.
What are your thoughts on being selected as the new president and CEO of the Canadian Marketing Association?
I’m thrilled to be leading the CMA at such a pivotal time. It’s a truly exceptional opportunity to make the marketing profession that I built my career in, and that I love, even better.
I’m excited by the caliber of the team, the Board and our many volunteers, and the opportunity to help the CMA grow.
The CMA’s impact on the marketing profession is inspiring. We raise the profile for the vital role that marketing plays in Canada. We drive regulatory change and advocate to make sure marketers’ and consumers’ needs are met. We help marketers at all levels increase their knowledge and learn new skills. We lead the profession in crucial areas like diversity, equity, and inclusion. We bring the profession together to discuss and debate, and to network and celebrate. I’m here because I want to be part of the CMA’s vision to make the marketing profession stronger and to meet the needs of every marketer in Canada.
I’m also here because of the potential that I see. The pace of change – and the breadth of what marketers are expected to understand and manage – continues to expand dramatically. This creates exciting new opportunities for how the CMA can innovate and support the profession.
We represent an incredibly dynamic, engaging, and diverse profession. The CMA has a very strong foundation. We also have an opportunity to embrace how marketing is evolving and to ensure the association is as dynamic, engaging, and diverse as the profession we represent.
What benefits would your award-winning experience bring to the Canadian Marketing Association after serving in senior marketing positions at several companies?
After being the President at several marketing agencies, holding executive marketing roles at leading Canadian brands, and entrepreneurial leadership roles in the start-up community, I have firsthand experience in the challenges and opportunities that our members are facing. This qualifies me to champion marketing’s strategic role as a key driver of business. I’m excited to help marketers develop professionally, contribute to marketing thought leadership, build strong networks, and strengthen the regulatory climate for business success.
The marketing profession is diverse, dynamic, and constantly changing, just like the customers it strives to reach. The CMA has a strong foundation to build on and I’m keen to apply my expertise to help the Association continue to evolve, support, and advocate for the vital industry that we represent.
I’m proud that our profession provides meaningful contributions to Canada’s economy. Canadian marketers punch well above their weight when it comes to developing award-winning marketing campaigns that deliver results. The CMA Award Gala last month was a great way to showcase this, with awards bestowed upon more than 50 brand teams, agencies, media companies, and content studios.
Which marketing tactics, in your opinion, are the most crucial to the success of any business?
Successful marketing starts with a strong understanding of what needs your product or service delivers for your customers and prospects, and what makes it unique in the marketplace.
Once you have clarity on your product-market fit and an understanding of your customer, you can determine where to reach your customers, and how best to customize the marketing tactics and message to differentiate your brand from the competition and motivate customers to buy.
What recommendation do you have for thriving businesses in the marketing industry?
The significant societal changes over the past few years have increased the importance of having the right technology, people, and processes in place to better understand consumer needs and provide more authentic and relevant customer experiences.
Continuing to evolve your approach and staying on top of the changes in how customers are engaging with brands is paramount. Meeting customers where they are (which is primarily on their phones) and embracing innovative technologies is one example. Conversational marketing and social media optimization are two ways this can be leveraged.
Now more than ever before, marketers need to deliver personalized messaging and excellent customer experiences in engaging and differentiated ways. We need to connect emotionally with consumers. The good news is that Canadian’s willingness to share their data is growing as they begin to better understand the value of data exchange. While the number is still small, it has doubled since last year. That is pretty dramatic.
With the increased comfort comes an increased expectation from customers that the businesses they share their data with will use it to provide personalization and benefits and ensure their privacy. Businesses need to build and maintain consumer trust by protecting their personal information, and by being transparent and having an open dialogue (especially if there’s an issue). Trust also requires consistency across channels and over time and ensuring alignment with the brand’s core values.
The value of agility and resilience, whether its platform reinvention, creative problem solving, greater reliance on real-time customer insights, or adaptive thinking, has also risen to the top of skills that businesses need to cultivate or hire.
