CMAinsights Morning Event

For multinational companies, the Canadian and U.S. markets are often lumped together, driven by an assumption of market similarity. While it’s true they share much in common, we constantly see that brands, innovation, and advertising perform differently across these markets.

To better understand these critical differences, Kantar Canada and Kantar Consulting collaborated on a study of more than 15,000 Canadians and Americans to identify critical differences in the consumer makeup and mindset. The result was Canada MONITOR, the first syndicated consumer insights service of its kind to enter the Canadian market in more than a decade.

In this session, Kantar will share key findings on not only what sets the Canadian consumer apart from their southern neighbours, but also some of the key differences found within the Canadian consumer market across generations, regions, and cultural communities.

Meet Casey Ferrell

Casey directs content development, thought leadership and product innovation for U.S. MONITOR and Canada MONITOR.
“My job is to tell compelling, credible stories in a variety of creatively intelligent formats—from presentations and webinars to microsites and infographics—that help our clients better understand and anticipate changes in the U.S. and Canadian consumer marketplaces,” he says of his role.
In addition to his product management role, Casey supports business development, client retention, and CX. His areas of expertise include generations, culture & diversity, and consumer insights, lifestyles and trends.

He holds an MA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in North Carolina.

Meet Lisa Freedman

Lisa Freedman is responsible for leading Kantar’s Digital and Media practice, growing the firm’s digital research solutions in the Canadian marketplace.

Prior to joining Kantar, Lisa held progressive client-side Digital Advertising Insights roles with Rogers Communications Inc. in Toronto, Scripps Networks Interactive, NBCUniversal, and most recently, The Walt Disney Company in New York, NY.

Lisa holds an Honours Degree in Business Administration from Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario, and a Master of Science in Media Management from The New School University in New York City.

Meet Scott Megginson

Scott is a 25+ year veteran of the Market Research industry.  After graduating from Queen's University, he started his career at the Angus Reid Group, where he spent 8 years learning the practice from Field through to Client Management. 

Scott spent the next 11 years in CPG with Warner Lambert (Adams Brands), and then PepsiCo Canada where he launched and Directed the Consumer Insights function for Pepsi/Quaker/Tropicana/Gatorade Canada.  His work at PepsiCo was recognized with the Chairman's Award in 2008.

Scott joined Kantar in 2010, as President of Millward Brown Canada, and now leads the recently combined Insights Division for Kantar Canada.  He is a regular speaker at industry events, and currently Chair of the Dean’s Council for the Arts & Science Faculty of Queen’s University.

Do you want to instill more trust and loyalty in current and future customers? The CMA’s new Guide to Transparency for Consumers will improve customers’ experiences by helping them be better informed and have more choice and control about how their data is collected, used and shared. It will also help companies respond effectively to new Guidelines on Meaningful Consent, issued by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which came into effect on January 1. The CMA’s Sara Clodman will provide insights into this valuable new resource, developed by the CMA Privacy and Data Committee.

Meet Sara Clodman

Sara is a mediator and public affairs executive with more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors and association management. Her key skills include a deep understanding of business and communications strategy and execution, stakeholder relations and change management. At the CMA, she directs all public affairs functions – government relations, media relations, corporate communications and reputation management. She interacts with the marketing profession’s thought-leaders to provide strategic insights and tools for Canadian marketers, guides the development of CMA positions on public policy issues, and oversees research planning and projects. Sara has an MBA in finance and is a former Vice-Chair of Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment. She has served on several boards and is active in the community – currently participating in a weekly Out of the Cold program.

Looking for ways to improve your customer experience and marketing ROI? Heart and Stroke, Assiniboine Park Conservancy and Cancer Care Ontario have all successfully used data analytics to overcome a key business challenge. Rupen Seoni, Senior Vice President and Practice Leader at Environics Analytics, breaks down these three distinct case studies to explain how these companies were able to leverage data to identify their target audiences, inform their messaging and boost engagement.

Meet Rupen Seoni

Senior Vice President and Practice Leader at Environics Analytics, Rupen Seoni leads a practice area that includes the public sector, health care, energy and not-for-profits. He brings to his position over twenty years of experience in marketing analytics, working with organizations of all sizes to unlock the value of information in decision-making and business strategy. He specializes in helping organizations understand population trends, segmentation and performance benchmarking. Rupen earned a master’s degree in urban planning and held positions with Nielsen, Compusearch, Campbell Soup and CIBC prior to joining Environics Analytics. For the last two years, he has appeared on CTV’s Canadian and U.S. federal election coverage as a commentator on voter demographics in key races.

As the digital age offers us new ways to fight for customer mindshare and market share, consumer-facing organizations that we work with are responding with new efforts to personalize the customer experience—and reaping big rewards in the process! When executed effectively, strategic personalization initiatives, from personalized product offerings and recommendations to dynamic pricing and personalized webpages, can drive significant revenue impact. They also tap into the power of customer-centricity, helping foster greater customer loyalty and retention. Such tactics add value for both the brand and the customer by delivering the most relevant offers and experiences to the right customer segments.

Balinder, the Vice-President of Merchant Solutions at Mastercard, will offer practical use cases to articulate exciting opportunities to power up their personalization efforts.

Meet Balinder Ahluwalia

Balinder Ahluwalia is the Vice President, Merchant Solutions on the Data & Services team in Canada. In this role, he’s responsible for helping merchant, acquiring and co-brand partners with their pressing strategic challenges.  His principle emphasis is on merchant solution development, market leadership, revenue and profitability generation, and strategic client management.  He leads the business development of all of the Mastercard Data and Services products for merchants by designing and directing the execution of strategy and by successfully closing complex merchant sales.

Prior to joining Mastercard, Balinder spent time as a strategy consultant at Monitor Deloitte and Strategy&, led Corporate Strategy and Development at PC Financial and worked for the Federal Government in Ottawa, in addition to a fun stopover in Private Equity.  Balinder completed his graduate work at the University of Waterloo, and undergraduate at the University of Windsor.