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The future of food in Canada

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Proprietary research by TBWA reveals the cultural forces that have the potential to revolutionize the future of food in Canada. Bill Chamness, VP strategic planning at Juniper Park\TBWA explores this further.

The new Future of Food report comes at a crucial time in Canada, we are no longer the country of yesterday, but still not the country of tomorrow.

Food is at the centre of this radical evolution – where we are re-evaluating topics ranging from climate change, supply chains to social justice.  The findings should pique the interest of anyone interested in understanding the powerful impact of culture on the way we are interacting with food, and vice versa. We explore topics including:

  • Food RX: Food and pharma intertwine, reshaping our plates and cravings.
  • Food Under Review: “Good” food now means ethical, sustainable, and inclusive nourishment.
  • Beyond Consumption: A redesigned food system turns passive consumers into active participants.
  • Tech’s Kitchen: Technology’s role in food ascends.

Tech’s kitchen has the power to disrupt our lives in Canada the most acutely. We enthusiastically embrace science and technology in most aspects of our lives, while remaining hesitant when it comes to food. We hold romanticized nostalgic narratives of food sourced as close to nature as possible, and any inclusion of technology in this formula taints this notion.

However, our futures depend on technology, the planet’s food systems are currently responsible for about 70% of biodiversity loss, and yet we’ll need to produce 56% more to feed the projected population of 10 billion people by 2050. The tension is real.

Welcome Lab Grown Meats to the chat. The Canadian government has committed millions in funding to two start-ups from Canada, in hopes of creating the next generation of vegan seafood. They aim to replicate the texture, taste, nutritional benefits, and cooking experience of traditional seafood.

One of these businesses is Toronto-based startup New School Foods, which has received funding from multiple government agencies, including Protein Industries Canada, to help develop its whole-cut vegan seafood products that aim to emulate the texture, taste, nutritional benefits, and cooking experience of conventional seafood.

The other is Vancouver’s Modern Plant Based Foods, which received a government grant from National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) for research and development costs towards its new vegan meat and seafood portfolio, Modern Meat, which includes products such as crab cakes.

Meanwhile, AI is solving one of the most taxing parts of being an adult…trying to figure out “what’s for dinner?”

According to a 2023 Morning Consult survey about consumer’s preferences around AI products,

AI-generated grocery lists and AI-generated menu recommendations at restaurants topped the list. In fact, 48% of people in the United States surveyed want AI-generated recipes.

More specifically, get ready for custom-crafted recipes delivered to your doorstep. Instacart’s ChatGPT plugin does just that. The attached image supplied by Kelvin Chong, strategist, TBWA\Sydney, shows this in action.

The future of food is here. It will be ground zero for some of our more contentious debates, our most impactful decisions, and hopefully our most delicious and fulfilling moments.

Food is at the centre of our lives and our lives are changing, fast.

Bill Chamness, is the VP strategic planning at Juniper Park\TBWA, the Toronto-based agency that is part of the wider TBWA Worldwide network of advertising agencies. For more information on its Future of Food report, visit here.

Juniper Park\TBWA is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

Close Canada’s Skills Gap By Tapping Into Future-Ready Educational Programs

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Practical training programs based on micro-credentials offer a “third way” forward in post-secondary education beyond universities and colleges. Darian Kovacs, the Indigenous founder of BC-based Jelly Digital Marketing & PR and Jelly Academy, describes how these programs can deliver a more diverse and dynamic talent pool.

Every post-secondary institution carries a stigma.

Many believe that university prioritizes theory and neglects specialities and job-ready skills. Another common critique is that if you’re not attending to become a doctor or lawyer, you’re taking on debt for a four-year degree only to graduate with general knowledge.

College suffers from a misconception of being “less” than university. It’s “easier to get into.” You don’t need to take academic courses in high school to apply to college. And it’s where our “future hairdressers and firefighters go.”

The third post-secondary option that suffers from a stigma is micro-credentialing. You might be surprised that this option is even being considered here as it’s not as popular as traditional routes, which is exactly the point.

The benefits of micro-credentialing

Up until the last couple of years, micro-credentialing has received minimal federal or provincial support. The benefits of upskilling and reskilling institutions remained unrecognized. And students continued to apply to colleges and universities because those were the two options they knew. But just like the false narrative that university is meant for doctors and lawyers and college is easy, micro-credentialing isn’t an option to glance over.

Canada is suffering from a critical skills gap. More than half (56.1%) of businesses reported having employees who weren’t fully proficient in the ability to perform their job at their required level, according to the Survey of Employers on Workers’ Skills 2021. And of those participants, more than half (57.5%) reported that the in-demand skills were technical, practical or job-specific, and problem-solving.

There is an increasing need for education and training providers to put effort towards future-ready training and education. And micro-credentialing is the poster child of offering job-ready skills. Upskilling institutions are actively fighting to diversify the nation’s talent pool—and many of these are also non-profits, fighting for funding to stay afloat. If micro-credentialing continues to get put on the back burner, Canada’s skills gap will only widen.

Leading programs in Canada

In light of this, it’s worth discovering a little more about Canada’s leading future-ready educational programs:

  • Lighthouse Labs: Tech education company that offers 12-week boot camps for web development and data science, as well as part-time up-skilling courses. All of its programs are online so they are accessible to all, and prepare students for the work-from-home culture that is growing in demand.
  • Palette Skills: Upskilling for quick career transitions in all industries. All programs include employer-led projects, 1:1 career coaching, and opportunities to network with companies. The organization offers both hybrid and online learning. The Automation & Digital Agriculture Specialist Program is hybrid while the B2B Sales & Tech Sales Training is a live online format.
  • Jelly Academy: Focused on helping students upskill, reskill, and gain the necessary micro-credentials to thrive in the world of digital marketing. Its core course is the Digital Marketing Bootcamp, which covers the fundamentals of Social Media, SEO, Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Google Analytics, Public Relations and Email Marketing. The company provides an online or in-person learning environment with both live and self-paced learning.
  • PLATO: The eight-month PLATO Software Tester Training program consists of five months of in-class training and a three-month paid internship. Successful graduates are offered a full-time apprentice position with full benefits and paid vacation. Upon completion, they join the team as junior software testers.
  • NPower: Offering digital and professional skills training, NPower Canada programs are fully funded and provided at no cost to participants. Classes are accessed via the learning management system Blackboard. Participants are expected to log on Monday to Friday, for a minimum of four hours daily.

So, it’s safe to say that stigmas around university and college are often misinformed. Many successful CEOs went to university and many incredibly intelligent nurses went to college. University isn’t just for lawyers and doctors. College isn’t easy.

As for the stigma that micro-credentialing isn’t as important as university or college, we think the nation’s skills gap speaks for itself. And without action, who knows how much wider this gap will get? The World Economic Forum has forecasted that by 2026, nine out of ten jobs will require digital literacy.

Canada has an impressive roster of future-ready education programs—those who don’t leverage these institutions run the risk of falling behind.

Jelly Digital Marketing & PR is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

Labour shortage: Are you tackling the issue from the right angle?

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It’s never been so easy for employees to find new jobs. An ongoing labour shortage coupled with a market still reeling from the pandemic have given applicants heightened negotiating powers.  Catherine Jolicoeur-Giunta, Strategy Director, Employer Branding at Cossette, asks how can we navigate this issue and manage to stand out from our competitors as a top employer?

 The pandemic and the subsequent period of adjustment have weakened employees’ attachment to their company. Engagement rates reached 73% at the beginning of 2020 but fell to 62% in the first quarter of 2022, according to a Kincentric report. In July 2022, McKinsey estimated that 30 to 40% of workers were thinking of quitting their job.

In a world where candidates are now shopping for jobs the way they would for a consumer product using comparison tools like Glassdoor, Indeed and Fishbowl, your employer brand has never been more important. While most companies do leverage theirs to attract potential employees to their teams, it’s key to remember that it should also be leveraged to boost engagement and the sense of affiliation amongst your current workforce.

With the costs of replacement of a qualified employee going from half to triple an employee’s yearly salary, it is crucial to put retention at the heart of your employer brand strategy. A strategic employer branding exercise gives an unprecedented perspective of your employees’ expectations of their work and allows you to measure their degree of appreciation of the experience you offer them as an employer. And to ensure you retain the best talent, providing a memorable and distinctive employee experience is key.

Mindfully crafting an employee experience has never been so crucial

For the first time ever, five different generations of professionals are working alongside each other in the labour market, each with their own perspective on work, their role within a company and the relationship they’d like to have with their employer. To adapt to their respective aspirations and engage with them every day, the challenge will be to assess their needs and expectations, and—above all—develop personalized strategies to live up to them.

What’s more, not everyone is looking for the same advantages or benefits when it comes to their work. It’s no surprise then that a personalized job experience is increasingly important for workers. By providing them with an experience that resonates with their own realities, you can create real connections with your employees and increase their levels of engagement.

How to achieve a personalized employee experience?

There are different ways you can go about personalizing the employee experience, whether you’re targeting internal communications procedures, benefits, wellness resources, career progression plans, development opportunities, or new approaches to management. Personalization also improves recognition at work, because recognizing and rewarding a worker’s personal contributions means understanding what they value beyond traditional monetary compensation.

The important thing is to have a solid understanding of your employees’ expectations and use this to create different profiles and build customizable experience journeys.

Among other benefits, this exercise will give managers the tools they need to guide and bolster their teams. They’ll be better equipped to adapt their support to each worker’s situation. Employees for their part will feel that their needs are considered and respected. This will have a ripple effect, resulting in stronger relationships within the team.

So, how do you see your employee experience in 2023?

Cossette is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

It’s Time to Loosen Google’s Grip in SEM

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Scott Cosgrove, media director at Peterborough-based agency Outpost379, puts forwards some solutions to solve issues with paid search results.

Let’s face it, our healthcare system is crumbling, while education and our public services are not far behind. Imagine if we could leverage our current online behaviour to offset the cost of the public services we are lacking.

It’s possible, walk with me…if you ran into an oil company boss and said you found a billion gallons of untapped oil in the middle of Manitoba on crown land, how much do you think they would pay? A rough estimate suggests one billion gallons delivers close to $24 million based on profits of $87.5 billion.

If you ran into an entrepreneurial computer scientist and said they could purchase access to  100 million thoughts a day, over 35 billion thoughts a year in Canada alone, how much do you think they would pay and how valuable would that data be for them?

We’ve reached a point where our Government needs to either start to monetize our data with big tech companies via fair but heavy taxation, or consumers will shift and do it themselves. Let’s be clear, Google should not be punished for building the best search platform. It deserves a fair and generous return on their investment.

The solutions I’d like to put forward would directly affect 80% of Google’s roughly $5 billion dollars in annual Canadian revenue which comes from Search Engine Marketing (SEM). (SEM refers to the ads one is served based on a Google search). To be clear, this doesn’t include the search results for organic non-sponsored ads known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). My focus is on the paid search results (SEM), which are becoming harder and harder for consumers to distinguish from SEO.

Solution 1 = Turn off SEM

There are many benefits to turning off SEM for the Canadian advertising industry, including Google itself.

Firstly, SEO would be more important. Companies would need to invest in building better, more valuable websites that address consumer search needs. Additionally, they would be more motivated to work with Canadian media vendors and agencies to develop search specific content.

The agencies working on SEM would need to pivot to understand more about SEO. For example, if you’re Nissan and you want to feature in the results for “Best SUV”, you would likely want to work with Canadian media vendors and agencies to develop content about what makes Nissan the best SUV.

 

Secondly, brand advertising would be more important. Companies would need to invest in emotionally-led brand building advertising in order to drive the specific search behaviour they want. This would mean that more money would be invested with Canadian media vendors in addition to boosting creative quality as brands think beyond a headline and ad copy. Let’s go back to Nissan again. If you’re in their shoes, you would want to promote more people to search the Nissan Rogue not “best SUV.”

Thirdly, there would be no more “Google Tax.” Companies would no longer need to spend money to bring traffic to their website nor worry about competitors exploiting their search behaviour. For example, Nissan spends a lot of money in non-digital channels to drive awareness that leads to search. With no SEM, it wouldn’t have to worry about competitors being the first thing that people see, and this would save a lot of money on running branded search ads.

To use another example, try searching for a specific local pharmacy for the flu shot and the first thing that you come up with is a callout to a paid extension from Google, while the second result is the pharmacy’s own website. Then you click the callout extension, which might have cost the local pharmacy between $1-$5 on something already available through an organic link.

In the non-SEM world, users should have a choice in the algorithm they want to use to see results. For example, do they value design versus legacy and domain authority, or location? That way it’s not one algorithm deciding the fate of an entire business, but instead brands will need to  pivot to meet the needs of their customers digitally. If someone searches “best pizza in town” one person might get a local shop while another might get Boston Pizza based on their preferences, and the way a brand’s website is optimized.

Finally, switching off SEM would be fair. Creating an equal playing field for all. We need to ask ourselves who is benefiting most from search ads? The answer is, simply, Google.

Solution 2 = Tax Google SEM at market share levels until a 60% market share is met

How would this work?

If Google maintains a 90%+ market share for a fiscal year in which it generated $4.2 billion in SEM revenue, it would be taxed at 90%. The resulting $3.8 billion could be used to generate 50,000+ jobs in the public sector. Keep in mind Google only employs 1,500 Canadians.

The rationale behind such steep taxation is that it would then be in Google’s best interest to give up an algorithm/IP to the competition, and even promote rivals by directing traffic to them in order to capture more revenue.

These arguments may seem drastic, and Google needs to generate revenue to deliver search to the masses. However, at the same time, we must do more to encourage the alternative services (DuckDuckGo and Bing for instance) that don’t have the big data benefits that are available to Google. An analogy that resonates with me–if Google was a coffee house it would have no incentive to make the best beverage in town because people are going to continue to visit regardless.

And the really big issue I have is Google’s isn’t paying for the equivalent of coffee beans in the shape of “our thoughts and data.” In my mind, that has to change. For the good of investment in our public services, and for the strength of Canada’s marketing industry. Fair is fair.

Outpost379 is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

Your B2B customer is a millennial and a digital native. Is that who you’re targeting?

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It’s time to harness data, navigate complexity, and deliver on the unification promise, says Kristin Gower, Global President, B2B Practice, EssenceMediacom.

B2B marketing has reached an inflection point. As business and sales models have changed, so have the customer profiles and the complexity of the audience’s journey. These shifting dynamics are redefining the role of CMOs as both growth-drivers and data stewards.

No longer responsible for only the bookends of “brand” and “demand,” CMOs and marketing leaders are taking over roles that historically belonged to sales teams – events, nurture, even the sale itself. This evolution to full-funnel customer management requires expertise across strategy, demand, automation, content, and advanced analytics — along with the ability to provide a seamless connection throughout.

Our buyer has evolved

Who comes to mind when you think of a B2B Buyer or marketer? Chances are it is a middle-aged man at a conference. The reality is very different; she’s more than likely a millennial, a “digital native” who researches products and solutions online, consumes vast amounts of content, and expects a consumer-grade experience at every touchpoint. These empowered B2B customers are also more likely to seek out the increasingly important purpose-driven companies.

A seismic shift in the market

These new buyers, coupled with digital disruption, have transformed the B2B landscape, creating an e-commerce market forecasted to reach $18.6 trillion by 2026, according to a recent study by Facts and Factors. In parallel, the explosion of everything-as-a-service (XaaS) has redefined not only what companies sell, but also how they acquire and retain customers.

The good news for marketers? A significant increase in their budgets (to nearly 10% of total company revenue in 2022), and a significant increase in the number of digital touchpoints with which to meet the customer.

But “owning” the customer, and having access to larger budgets demands greater accountability, the ability to drive quantifiable business growth.

The explosion of data and the acceleration of technology

The increased digitization and proliferation of touchpoints has resulted in data scaling faster than marketers can aggregate and analyze, with a corresponding increase in the range of tools and technology with which to understand, engage and measure customer value.

The ability to aggregate, analyze, and use this multiplicity is the holy grail of modern-day B2B marketing.

Marketers that can achieve outcome-defined integration and orchestration of tools and technology will gain a significant advantage, both in their organization and in ensuring their organization’s success.

How to take advantage of this evolved approach to B2B marketing

There are a few steps we can take as marketers to leverage this evolution. First, we must ensure a deep understanding and capability in data infrastructure, advanced analytics, and marketing-technology orchestration – on top of the marketing fundamentals of strategy and creativity. Furthermore, we must be the voice, and champion, for customers within the organization, uniting data, tech and content to facilitate a seamless buyer journey.

Next, to succeed, we’ll need strong, multi-disciplinary marketing teams with leadership that can connect vertical expertise behind a unified goal, growth-driven strategy, and a holistic measurement system. This means eliminating the silos and embracing holistic customer experience responsibility – whether it’s CRM/1P data connected to media, brand to demand, or Audience to Customer strategy.

Finally, we must bake agility into the ways of working; experimenting, testing and scaling as part of team mentality/ethos and process. And, of course, choose partners that can deliver the same breadth of services and deep expertise, fully integrated into a unified service offering, with the ability to scale quickly, and a shared accountability for business results.

EssenceMediacom is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

The productivity myth – are you procuring creativity or killing it?

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Marketing procurement professionals could make important changes in how they invest in the services of creative thinkers, says Leah Power, EVP, Strategic Operations Consultant, Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA).

On season outside, off season inside. Cycling is a constant in my life.

Cyclists ride what we call “eyeballs out” all the time. Go faster, lay down more watts, throw down the hammer, climb higher and steeper.  More miles, faster. There’s a saying that cycling never gets easier, you just get faster. Every cycling session has to be productive.

But, then, one off season a cycling friend of mine enrolled in a study with the University of Toronto that tested the theory “ride slower, to ride faster.” What? As I just explained, cyclists don’t tend to ride that way. I had to find out more about this, in my quest to ride faster I had to know if this was right.

So I did a little of my own research. Study after study proved that when 80% of a cyclist’s workout sessions were done at a slow pace – breathing a bit heavy but able to speak (we call this zone two) – the gains in speed and watts during the other 20% of the sessions were exponential. In fact, coaches all over the world – coaching way better athletes than me – structure their workouts around slow riding and rest. We have a term for these so-called unproductive sessions – “junk miles.”

Advertising’s productivity myth

This insight from the cycling world led me to think about what I’m calling “The Productivity Myth.” Cyclists hellbent on being productive were instead crashing down a path to burnout.

And guess what the advertising and marketing industry is dealing with right now? A lack of engagement and higher turnover of talent because of this thing called burnout. A recent survey found that 83% of marketing and communications professionals reported burnout, the highest of any job function surveyed.

Productivity is a measure of efficiency of a person completing a task. That is, how much can a person get done and how quickly. How many boxes can they tick in a day. Simply put, in the pursuit of productivity things must have obvious and immediate utility.

However, there’s a tension here when it comes to building cultures of innovation that are important in advertising and marketing. A culture that will not tolerate waste cannot innovate and is left vulnerable to younger, more chaotic, and innovative competition.

The philosophy of slow productivity

You might think that I am against productivity. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I look at the world through an operations mindset, we need to tick boxes and get things done. But if we’re not making the space to foster innovation and creativity, then we’re entering the land of diminishing returns, and burnout.

Enter Cal Newport’s philosophy of slow productivity. The idea that we need our knowledge workers to focus on fewer but more substantial tasks or projects – the outcomes and the outputs perhaps? Minimizing the time spent on actions that have no value.

In this scenario do we really need to promote a culture of extreme responsiveness? Do emails, for example, really require constant checking and responding? Consider instead how batching tasks can provide knowledge workers with the space to think and create.

For example, with email, set an auto reply stating that you respond to emails at a certain time each day, and that if someone has a time sensitive issue they should text or call. Meetings can also be batched, and should only be held to make decisions about a predefined situation, not to define the problem. Only meetings with a clear agenda, topics and questions that need to be addressed, should be attended.

Also consider how this mindset filters down from client to agency. If the client isn’t managing their time effectively then they will waste the resources of the agency, and ultimately affect its ability to provide effective outcomes.

What this means for marketing procurement

But why should procurement professionals, tasked with sourcing marketing services, care about how they buy creativity and innovation? Because research from McKinsey showed that 67 per cent of creative marketing leaders were responsible for above-average organic revenue growth, 70 per cent delivered higher total return to shareholders, and 74 per cent above-average net enterprise value.

Fostering creativity delivers great results, then. But how to do this within the marketing organization and agency? Creating a contract that applies the optimal levels of constraint and a clear order of where money should be invested is a great starting point.

Define appropriate levels of training for agency team members members and ask for details, not just the amount that’s been budgeted (review the agency’s training history as a predictor of future behaviour). Specify outputs and outcomes, and agree on KPIs that determine if these have been delivered. Identify what testing means and how much is to be done.

Build into the contract expectations of operation consistent with the brand’s values, and ensure that value creation (innovation and ideation) versus cost savings (commoditization)  has been defined and clearly communicated to the agency.

The contract should mitigate risk, for sure, but equally it should create an environment where the marketing and agency teams can forge a relationship based on trust and in turn produce better financial results. Many procurement and marketing teams often have opposable goals leading to an adversarial environment, with the agency stuck in the middle. A contract based on more than just rules and safeguards can be a tool that achieves alignment and a foundation for creating great work that works.

To achieve this, ask the innovators themselves about how to structure working agreements and scope to achieve the best ideas and innovation. Returning to the vital issue of productivity and burnout, identify with them a sustainable work level that will deliver creative thinking.

Above all, this requires a balanced approach. Ensure that there is space for the strategic, long-term, outcomes-based work, alongside the more tactical, short-term, and outputs-based activity. In short, ride slower to ride faster.

The Institute of Canadian Agencies aims to positively shape the business environment so that agencies can THRIVE. Working to Amplify, Protect and Transform our members, their people and our industry. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

Why marketing and tech have a talent retention problem

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It’s time to build better workplace cultures and hire with diversity in mind when it comes to digital roles, says Darian Kovacs, founder of Jelly Digital Marketing, and the PR and digital marketing school, Jelly Academy.

With a steep rise in the cost of living, looming and long-lasting job dissatisfaction, and changing safety standards, many Canadians are leaving their jobs for other opportunities. This period, beginning early in 2021, has been dubbed “The Great Resignation”.

To learn more about how companies have been affected and how they are pivoting to increase employee retention in digital marketing and tech roles, Jelly Academy ran a survey, sponsored by Innovate BC, to obtain data from 2,000-plus participants across Canada.

Jelly Academy is a digital marketing school that relies heavily on listening to HR managers and industry experts in order to shape its curriculum. As a school, we work hard to stay on top of industry trends to determine which skills and credentials are needed for people to land digital marketing roles. Conversely, as Jelly Digital Marketing, the agency, it is also important to us to know what it takes to retain people in digital marketing and tech roles.

The participants of this survey are from Canada’s main industries including Marketing, Financial Services, Transportation, Food and Beverage, and many others. They were asked about the retention of employees in digital roles, what they are actively doing to hire for digital roles, which tactics are being implemented to retain employees in these roles, and how remote or hybrid options are affecting team culture.

Declining talent retention

A main takeaway from our study is that the majority of Canadian companies, as represented within this sample size, are currently experiencing a downward trend in employee retention for digital-focused marketing and tech roles. While a high percentage of participants cited workplace morale and culture as a reason for employee departure, nearly half of respondents admitted that they do not work to emphasize these within their businesses.

Beyond workplace culture, the study also highlights the shortcomings of small and large organizations when it comes to proactively hiring and retaining diverse employees in digital roles. Management teams within businesses throughout Canada now have the opportunity to use these results to inform strategies that contribute to a more attractive working experience for employees from all backgrounds considering digital roles.

Most importantly. in order to retain employees in digital roles and attempt to offset the effects of “The Great Resignation”, there needs to be greater levels of resources available for employees to be able to continually progress their skills. Employers should also work to strengthen their methods of diverse employee hiring and retention, in order to promote a well-rounded workplace environment.

By encouraging employees in digital roles to always work toward a greater goal, employees are more likely to extend their time with an organization as they remain challenged and invested in their future.

To learn more about the key findings and recommendations by Jelly Academy, read the study here.

Darian Kovacs is the Indigenous founder of Vancouver based SEO company Jelly Digital Marketing & PR and digital marketing school, Jelly Academy. He is also the host of the podcast Marketing News Canada.

Jelly Marketing is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

Can coffee fix the talent crisis?

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The Fairtrade coffee movement offered a premium product that reset expectations, and now has people convinced that they can’t live without a $5 latte. Advertising could learn from this, says Des Jones, the Chief Strategy Officer at Juniper Park\TBWA.

In the many discussions about the talent crisis faced by creative agencies, there is lots of talk of how employee values have changed. But this issue isn’t just about the gap between what agencies offer and what employees want, it also relates to the growing gap between what employees want and what clients want. At the heart of the crisis, people are rejecting the poor training, talent management, and lack of purpose that the agency operating model often delivers.

This hasn’t always been the case. When I came into advertising, it was full of creative spirit, optimism, and opportunity – not words widely associated with it today. Since the abolition of media commission, advertising has been on a steady march toward commoditization. Pricing is presented in hours, rates are blended across roles and seniority, “fat” has been trimmed, and the relationship between price and quality has been lost. Today we are a commoditized industry, and current and future employees are rejecting the environment this has created.

With 77% of agencies claiming there is “some” or “high” scarcity of talent in their organizations, we need to do something constructive – and coffee could be the answer.

Breaking out of commoditization

Long before today’s $5 latte market, coffee was a commodity with low price elasticity of demand. This put price pressure into the supply chain from retailers to manufacturers and eventually, to farmers. The result: some farms scaled up and mechanized for cost efficiencies, while smaller, quality-conscious farmers worked harder to break even. Remind you of anything?

In a similar vein, to give some clients the cheaper product they want, many advertising shops are automating, scaling up and reducing their reliance on creativity, while those that rely on human capital are finding it harder and harder to sustain environments where creativity and talent can thrive.

So, can what worked for the coffee industry work for us, can we break out of commoditization and lure a new generation of creative minds into advertising?

The first step in coffee’s journey from commodity to the valued product we know today, was the Fairtrade movement. Fairtrade gave people an option to buy coffee that didn’t exploit anyone in its production. From field to cup, you could be sure that everyone involved was treated properly. This transparency, honesty and awareness put a generation of coffee drinkers on the path to conscious consumption. Fairtrade was the start of real, meaningful differentiation and the beginning of a proper hierarchy of value.

So, could Fairtrade Advertising be our industry’s answer? I believe it could. For years, the industry has embraced demands for leaner pricing and processes while still promising to deliver high quality work. The human and financial pressure this creates has seen expectations and remuneration lose touch with the broader market, to the point where employees are now refusing to work in the system this has created.

Human creativity can prosper

By not standing up when procurement measures first started to put the industry under pressure, the ad industry finds itself where it is today: 57% of marketing procurement professionals and 59% of marketers believe their relationship is “extremely or very healthy” – but only 15% of agencies would agree. Industry-backed, tiered products could be the first step in being able to offer the working conditions and packages that help us to build businesses where human creativity prospers. The tiers could look like this:

Efficient investment tier – Focused on maintaining the status quo and meeting benchmarks. Uses the lowest cost talent, and existing systems and approaches.  Staff only work their contracted hours.

Effective investment tier – Focused on delivering incremental change by getting consumers to behave differently. Agencies invest in building a culture that inspires and nurtures, so talent bring a higher level of dedication and professionalism.

Disruptive investment tier – Focused on redefining commercial outcomes and putting brands into a category of their own. Staffed with inspirational, committed, market leading talent, that is consciously nurtured through growth opportunities, inspiration, and a truly creative culture.

If the industry is transparent about the quality of the talent they can offer, how talent is stimulated, supported, and treated, and the quality of the output that can be delivered, clients can make informed choices. By setting a hierarchy, we can be sure to deliver what we promise, and clients can choose to invest in their brands as the needs of their business and conscience dictate.

The talent crisis provides us with a chance to make a stand. If the industry takes a lesson from the coffee business, we can make talent and quality valued aspects of our offerings. But if commoditization is allowed to continue, the talent crisis will drive us out of business.

It’s time we woke up and smelled…

Juniper Park\TBWA is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

The three big media opportunities for marketers ahead of 2023

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It’s not been an easy time for brands but Devon MacDonald, President at Cairns Oneil, the strategic planning and buying agency, has some solutions as we hit the fall

We’ve all been through another year of change with a realization that it will never be ‘normal’ again. Beyond our lives at home, this has left marketers with the very real sense that there are more questions ahead before they finish off the year and ready for the next.

With that in mind, and using our strategic knowledge of the media industry, there are three key trends that marketers can appreciate, embrace and capitalize on right now.

A big two years for TV

Are you kidding? You thought we’d say TikTok or the Metaverse. But, no, we see real opportunity in television in the next 24 months. While we have seen client metrics focus on lower funnel success, we have also witnessed renewed understanding and interest in building awareness, and the importance of this in terms of brand building. So, of course that means TV right? Yes, but it is different. Today “traditional TV” doesn’t need to be measured by reach and frequency.

We should instead chart outcomes. The deployment of targeted buying of traditional TV through products like Bell’s S.A.M. and Corus’s Cynch can give even the most modest spend a chance to deliver awareness and consideration at scale. Add Connected TV (CTV) to this and, in the next 24 months, new streaming access to audiences of Disney+ and more, can deliver real scale for cord-cutters and traditionalists alike.

For clients comfortable with broadcast television, CTV and OTT present opportunities to expand their current awareness programs to new consumer sets with existing creative assets. For clients who have shied away from television in the past that are attracted to the audience-based targeting and digital video performance metrics that CTV and OTT provide, this combination of OTT and traditional is a terrific recipe for success, at affordable investment levels. These opportunities are equally providing a demonstratable link to again showing how awareness can support performance

Making the most of fragmentation

There is a danger of diminishing audience performance within Demand-side Platforms (DSPs) as reach is impacted by privacy changes and content erosion. We continue to evaluate and onboard tech (including DSPs) for our internal trade desk CO2. This can also benefit brands with their own desk in terms of consultation on additional tech, target building and data activation.

Now it’s time for TikTok. The social platform’s initial audience size was partially fueled by the pandemic, but it continues to grow. Video formats on other social platforms are looking to replicate that success in building engagement so that they aren’t left behind. In relation to this, we have been talking fragmentation since the introduction of MuchMusic and TSN in Canada. The proliferation of content opportunities across OTT and CTV are also building on the increasing fragmentation of time across social. But can you name the platform where you last watched a hit show? Don’t worry, most people can’t either.

In both cases we are encouraging clients to continually explore options, but to ensure that strategically they remain focused on the platforms that best support their business objectives. That’s because there’s a real danger in chasing trends while not increasing budgets. Performance can be severely impacted if spend is spread too thinly across platforms, leading advertisers to wonder why certain KPIs look strong, but the outcomes disappoint.

Invest to grow

Study after study has shown that advertising, especially when it comes to brand advertising, aids in the long-term health of a brand. So, no problem, let’s keep spending, 2020-22 was a glitch right? But the budgeting process is the toughest of all right now, and whether clients have had a banner year or are still working out of the pandemic impacts, this budget season has been difficult for all. With uncertain economic times ahead of us and supply chain issues lingering globally, marketers now also have “economist” added to their job descriptions.

We know for certain though that the brands that paused marketing during the pandemic had the hardest time climbing out of it. Private companies might be more open to the idea of continuing to invest spend as supply chain challenges are solved and the fear of recession fades. The pain of reduced EBITDA for one or two years will be offset by a much healthier future. And what about the opportunity cost? Holding, delaying, are natural options but being proactive here can pay off in terms of preventing competitors from entering your category or solidifying a first-to-market position.

As a result, we believe consumers are looking for value and choice and will scrutinize each decision in the household. That presents an opportunity for both new and existing brands.

Where do we go now?

In terms of next steps, each of the three trends re-enforce the importance of goals-based planning. To encourage this, we’re integrating client web and sales data with media performance to level-up decision making because it’s clear that using data to make informed decisions and measure results is paramount to success.

More fundamentally, if you work back from business objectives to make informed decisions and create smart media opportunities then you will win in your category. And then do the same in 2023.

Cairns Oneil is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

A Heart in Two Homes: The 1.5M Inclusion Opportunity

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By Jessica Borges, VP, Business Lead, Koo Multicultural

Summer brings a buzz of excitement for new beginnings, as immigrants arrive in the country to set up their new homes, find fulfilling jobs, or pursue higher education, many with the goal of permanent residency and, eventually, Canadian citizenship. The buzz is even bigger this year, as pandemic restrictions are being lifted and the Canadian government rushes to welcome 432,000 new permanent residents in 2022, as promised in Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan 2022–2024. With a target of 447,055 for 2023 and more than 451,000 for 2024, it could well mean 1.5 million new immigrants calling Canada home in the next three years.

The excitement of coming to Canada and positive feelings about the Great White North have only grown since the pandemic. Take international students, for example—close to 80% said that “safety and stability” were the biggest draw, with 70% citing Canada’s educational reputation, according to The Canadian Bureau for International Education’s (CBIE) 2021 International Student Survey, which reached out to 41,000 international students across 67 Canadian educational institutions.

Canada scores high in global surveys on safety, progress, and quality of life for people from around the world wanting the Canadian dream for themselves and their families. In the 2021 Social Progress Index and the Global Peace Index 2021, Canada ranked among the top 10 countries.

For new immigrants, moving to a new home and settling into a new country means flexing their purchasing power. They not only want to recreate the luxuries they enjoyed in their home countries, but also enhance their lifestyle. They have big dreams for themselves and even bigger ones for their children, and they’re willing to make sacrifices to achieve them. Research shows that their families tend to be younger, larger and more multi-generational than average. Missing the home and community they left behind means recreating festivals and celebrations, considering friends like family, learning new skills, and maintaining close ties with the people back home, even as they embrace all that Canada has to offer.

These immigrants represent a huge profit opportunity for brands that want to grow their consumer base in the short term. And they hold even greater potential for brands that want to connect, create bonds, and build a long-term relationship with new immigrants and the generations to come.

Brands can benefit by following a series of steps that get right to the heart of inclusion with new immigrants.

  1. A warm first welcome is always remembered.
  2. Be there to celebrate—at festivals, but also during important life moments, all year round.Kia launched its Carnival by celebrating a milestone Canadian moment—a multicultural, multigenerational family’s first camping trip. Unfamiliar with sleeping outdoors in tents, the family gravitates to the comfort of their minivan at night. The online video produced by Stradigi Marketing used this simple insight to resonate with consumers and make them smile.
  3. Understand their worries, their insecurities, their dreams. Be there with solutions that meet their needs and bring them value.In these times of vulnerability and change, Pfaff Harley-Davidson, working with the agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, displayed corporate inclusiveness by reaching out to underrepresented riders from the Sikh community. Inspired by Sikh warriors who wove chainmail into their turbans, their prototype product Tough Turban (with 3D-printed carbon fibre and impact-hardening foam) merges modern engineering with ancient tradition. What a powerful way to embrace heritage, identity, freedom of expression, and a sense of pride—by offering riding safety that also protects who you are.
  4. Your employees should represent your customers. Make sure you have advisors on your team with lived experiences and rich insights into the new immigrant journey.
  5. Be authentic—show respect and genuine care and encourage them to speak in their language and be their true selves.Multicultural audiences are strongly connected to their culture, traditions and language, even as they settle in Canada, and it’s very important for them to pass on this connection to the next generation. Created by Cossette, Google’s Pixel 6 spot, featuring the Live Translate function, brought together Chinese-Canadian Simu Liu and his parents in Canada’s first national campaign shot entirely in Mandarin. Moments like when the Marvel superhero’s parents call him by his nickname, Mama, and tell him to sit straight, brought authenticity and a personal connection that resonated with the audience.
  6. Be prepared to listen and keep learning—a new first-generation immigrant isn’t the same as a second-generation Canadian. A newcomer changes as they move forward in the settlement journey.
  7. Embrace the diversity within diversity. There are cultural differences, food preferences, beliefs, and differing ways of life, even among people from the same country. It’s easy to make the mistake of stereotyping them.

Diverse, vibrant, strong— the multicultural consumer is the fastest-growing customer base in Canada. Reach out with inclusivity to build lasting bonds and brand love. Celebrate their love… both for where they came from and for Canada, their new home. After all, their success is your success.

Cossette is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies. Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.

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