4Ps in a Pod

📌 We had an absolute blast chatting with Azadeh Attar who is the Director of CPG Partnerships at Pinterest.

Pinterest has cemented itself as one of the go-to platforms to turn inspiration into action. Whether it’s searching for travel ideas, planning out a home reno, discovering a new recipe, shopping for a new outfit for anything in between. They’ve recently reached over half a billion monthly active users & continue to cultivate a positive space for users/brands. 

There, Azadeh actually joined as one of their first employees in Canada and since then, she has helped to dramatically scale their advertising presence in this market. Prior to Pinterest -  she spent 8 years at Google Canada & began her career in CPG at General Mills. 

In this episode - we chatted with her about her love for building from the ground floor, how she’s managed major career jumps, the biggest myths about marketing/sales, what is fueling Pinterest’s massive momentum, head-scratching “Gen Z” trends  & what’s on her vision board. 🔮

More specifically, Azadeh shared her thoughts on the following questions: 

• How would you describe what you do to a stranger? (8:27)
• What was your “marketing moment”? (11:12)
• How did you cultivate your passion for marketing at an early age? (13:55)
• Can you walk us through your career journey? (15:47)
• How have you managed major career jumps? (21:00)
• Why are you so passionate about Pinterest’s mission/ethos? (33:21) 
• Do you have some recent examples of how brands have activated on the platform? (35:57)
• How has your team managed through a time of rapid acceleration in terms of the number of ad products you’re launching? (37:48)
• What are the types of opportunities available at Pinterest Canada? (45:24)
• We put her in the hot seat! (51:38) 🔥

🥵 In the fourth episode of our mini-series “The Cheat Sheet”, we share tips for all of the university students out there on how to how to keep your cool in the summer. We get it, the summer can get pretty heated. You might be trying to make a strong first impression at your internship, feeling the pressure of not having one or just feeling the upcoming school year looming over you. We’re here to share some tips on how to cool down, make the most of your summer & take the long view. 

As a quick reminder - in addition to long-form interviews with our incredible guests, we're releasing short-form content that will answer the most burning questions that we receive from students/new grads. Have any topics in mind? Send us a message: [email protected]

🏅Ahead of the 2024 Olympic Summer Games - we had the pleasure of chatting with Kelley Tessier who is the Director of Marketing Partnerships at the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). 

The COC has been on a mission to transform Canada through the power of sport. They’ve brought this mission to life by supporting athletes to compete on the biggest stage, uniting Canadians across the country behind a shared passion & inspiring the next generation to fall in love with sport. 

Kelley’s team is sprinting towards the finish line in order to help over 30 partners activate throughout the Games. These partners span across almost every industry - including Lululemon, Canadian Tire, RBC & Sobeys to name a few. 

Prior to joining the COC, Kelley’s career path has been fascinating with jumps between industries (tech/telco to sports) but also countries (hint: down under). 

We chatted with her about why she likens her role to being a host at a party, the inspiration behind Lululemon’s Team Canada kit, how a snowstorm sparked a major personal move, her gold medal advice & what game she hopes becomes an Olympic sport (we may have pushed for pickleball 😅). 

More specifically, Kelley shared her thoughts on the following questions: 

• How would you describe what you do to a stranger? 8:13
• What was your "Marketing Moment"? 10:28
• How did you get your start in Marketing? 12:15
• How important is it to you to work at Canadian brands? 15:45
• How have you managed inflection points in your career? 17:27
• What does your role look like and how do you work with COC partners? 20:45
• How do you maintain the COC brand consistency while supporting your partners? 26:17
• What are some other elements of your "partnership pitch" when looking at prospective partners? 30:26
• Tell us about the Canadian Olympic Committee's new "Brave Is Unbeatable" creative platform. 33:11
• How do the Olympic athletes play a role in telling the story of the COC brand? 37:09
• How is your team approaching a post-pandemic Games? What has your team learned from the last two Games? 40:53
• How do you build flexibility into your Marketing operations during the Games? 43:13
• We put Kelley in the Hot Seat! 48:48

In this episode, we stepped into the mind of one of Canada’s most celebrated creative leaders: Carlos Moreno, a Partner & Chief Creative Officer at Broken Heart Love Affair. 

Over the past three decades work, Carlos has helped brands of all sizes win over the hearts and minds of consumers across the country. This work has not gone unnoticed and has been recognized on the global stage. To name a few: Carlos has won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity (the Oscars of advertising), been included in the Top Ten list of Art Directors globally, was listed as the top Creative Director in Canada on multiple occasions, and helped two of his former agencies reach “Agency of the Year” status in Canada. 

Carlos is nowhere near finished. He co-founded Broken Heart Love Affair in the middle of the pandemic and his agency's refreshed approach to advertising is already making a major impact. 

Amongst other things - we chatted with him about why he fell in (and out of love) with aspects of the industry, what he believes makes (or breaks) creative, how his team helped Sick Kids reach the most ambitious goal in Canadian healthcare history, his advice for upstart marketers & thinking about the monkey on the skateboard (yes - you read that correctly). 

More specifically, Carlos shared his thoughts on the following questions: 

• How would you describe what you do to a stranger? (4:49)
• What was your marketing moment? (6:30)
• How did you enter into the agency world? (16:23)
• How are students entering it today? (18:52) 
• Can you walk us through the rest of your  career journey? (21:33)
• Why did you start the Broken Heart Love Affair? (35:29)
• How are you co-existing with such a talented team of leaders? (39:09)
• What is your agency’s philosophy? (41:39)
• What advice would you share with clients to be better partners? (44:00)
• Can you walk us through the iconic Sick Kids VS platform that your team created? (47:07)
• What are you looking for in up and coming creatives? (54:50)
• We put Carlos in the hot seat! (56:50)

We recently chatted with Harry Hothi who is a Product Marketing Lead at Wealthsimple. 💸

Wealthsimple has been on an incredible run since they were founded a decade ago. What started off as a robo-advisor has blossomed into one of Canada’s leading fintechs that enables everything from filing taxes to trading crypto. From their witty campaigns to affordable products - they live out their mission of making finance accessible for 3 million Canadians (and counting)! 

Harry’s been on quite the run himself. He was recently recognized by “The Peak” as an Emerging Leader that is shaping the marketing industry in Canada. He’s been at Wealthsimple for 3.5 years & has helped to drive awareness/adoption across multiple products. Prior to that - he spent the majority of his career in digital marketing working at organizations such as Loblaw Digital. 
 
In this episode - we chat with him about how he made the move from out West, what’s fueled Wealthsimple’s meteoric rise, his experience launching crypto, the worst piece of financial advice that he’s ever received & why the Leafs are (not) winning this year🫣. 
 
More specifically, Harry shared his thoughts on the following questions:

• How would you describe what you do to a stranger? (7:38)
• What was your marketing moment? (10:08)
• Can you take us along the journey of your career? (12:00)
• What is the north star that drives your career decisions? (20:18)
• What is the role that mentorship has played for you? (22:19)
• How do you keep a pulse on digital marketing trends? (26:17)
• How has Wealthsimple driven hyper growth? (29:00)
• How is your team simplifying Crypto for the average consumer? (31:41)
• Can you walk us through the end-to-end process of Product Marketing to bring a product like Crypto to market? (36:09)
• How does the Wealthsimple team coordinate Marketing strategies when there are so many products to talk about? (41:05)
• Tell us about the skills and experiences that would make a successful product marketer. (43:21)
• What type of pride do you feel working for a company like Wealthsimple? (46:46)
• We put Harry in the hot seat! (50:55)

In the third episode of our mini-series "The Cheat Sheet", we tackle the daunting task of choosing a career path. This is especially tricky when you're just starting out in your career and are trying to deal with so much noise. Today - we share some thought starters to consider as you map out the next move. The aim is to find a role at the intersection of as many of those questions as possible. 

As a quick reminder - in addition to long-form interviews with our incredible guests, we're releasing short-form content that will answer the most burning questions that we receive from students/new grads. Have any topics in mind? Send us a message: [email protected]

A few months ago, we sat down with Conor Clarance. Since we spoke - Conor shifted into a new role as the Director of Go-to-Market & Partnership Marketing at Crunchyroll (US, CDA, AUS, NZ). 

Crunchyroll is a one-stop shop for anime fans. They’re best known for being a streamer that is home to the world’s largest collection of anime content. When we chatted with him - Conor was helping the brand grow within Canada by launching everything from new partnerships to experiential activations. 

Prior to his time at Crunchyroll - Conor spent the majority of his career as: the Head of Sports at Twitter Canada (um, we mean X…), a Manager of Global Partnerships at MLSE & an Account Manager at Momentum Worldwide. 

When he isn’t helping Crunchyroll to compete in the streaming race, he can be found racing down the slopes in Whistler ⛷️ 

In this episode, we chat with him about a career-altering revelation he had on the other side of the world, his refreshing advice on how to navigate big decisions, the power of fandom &  his stance on the eternal “subbed vs. dubbed” debate. 

More specifically, Conor shared his thoughts on the following questions: 

• How would you describe what you do to a stranger? (7:24)
• What was your marketing moment (9:14)
• Can you highlight your career journey since then? (13:47) 
• How has your view of marketing evolved? (20:02)
• What advice do you have for someone that’s weighing a major decision? (24:13)
• What role has mentorship played in your career? (26:43)
• How do you seek out a mentor & nurture the relationship? (30:08)
• Could you tell us about your role at Crunchyroll? (34:43)
• How do you help a team to rally around a decision? (38:12)
• How is your team set-up in Canada? (42:08)
• How do you think about fandom? (43:41)
• What’s the growth trajectory of anime? (51:25)
• Rapid Fire: We put him in the hot seat! (54:38) 

We recently chatted with Stephanie Wall who is the VP of Marketing at Sport Chek. As the largest sporting goods retailer in the country - they operate around 200 stores across the country & are owned by another iconic Canadian brand (hint: Canadian Tire). Stephanie has been at Sport Chek for 2 years & has helped them to continue their evolution towards building even more compelling, intentional & data-driven marketing. 

Prior to joining Sport Chek, she spent 5 years in a variety of marketing roles at Rogers & had an illustrious 15 year career in advertising (at the likes of Tribal, BBDO, Taxi & Leo Burnett).

In this episode - we chat with Stephanie about the incredible story of how she landed her first few jobs, how the industry has evolved, why she describes her brand as her baby, why she loves working for a Canadian company & her tips for budding marketers. 

More specifically, Stephanie shared her thoughts on the following questions:

• How would you describe what you do to a student? (5:10)
• What was your marketing moment? (6:45)
• Tell us about those early days in your career? (8:10)
• Can you walk us through the other chapters of your career? (13:12)
• Can you tell us about your transition from agency side to client side? (17:15)
• How has your view of marketing evolved over your career? (20:59)
• How have you balanced driving your own vision while staying true to the company's ethos/history? (24:07)
• How is your team wrapping their heads around the changing dynamics of retail? (26:22)
• What is Sport Chek’s approach to brand building? (32:10)
• What does your marketing team structure look like? (34:58)
• What are the traits you look for in a marketer? (38:54)
• How important is it to Sport Chek to be Canadian owned? (41:39)
• Rapid Fire: we put Steph in the hot seat! (46:03) 

We recently (virtually) sat down with Azim Akhtar who is the Director of Brand Marketing at KFC Canada. For the past few years - his team has struck the perfect balance between respecting KFC’s iconic history while still pushing the brand into new, uncharted territory. His team has been on an incredible run with exceptional work: heartfelt apology to utensils (because KFC is finger-licking good), hosting a funeral for old fries, "fixing" the competition's chicken sandwiches, and tapping into culture moments in basketball. 

In this episode, we chat with Azim about the power of (good) marketing, his humble beginnings, must-hear advice for upstart marketers, and the most underrated menu item at KFC. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear the 11 ingredients in their secret seasoning recipe... but we got a few tasty takeaways to chew on.

To skip ahead, here are the topics we covered:

• How would you describe what you do to a new Marketer? (6:27)
• Why do you think Marketing needs to exist? (7:36)
• What was your "Marketing Moment"? (9:45)
• How did you build your love for Marketing? (11:53)
• What have been the chapters of your career journey? (16:28)
• Can you walk us through the time when you transitioned from Hershey to KFC?(23:34)
• What role has community work and mentorship played in your life? (31:21)
• Tell us about what was happening at KFC when you were just joining (34:16)
• What is your view on brand building and how do you think it's differentiated KFC in a highly competitive space? (37:25)
• Can you walk us through how your team stays connected to culture to get the best work? (41:16)
• Can you talk about KFC's "Fry Funeral" campaign? (52:11)
• Rapid Fire: we put Azim in the hot seat! (57:18)

In the second episode of our mini-series “The Cheat Sheet,” we tackle the nerve-wracking cold reach-out: introducing yourself to somebody you have never met via email or message. The only thing standing between you and the individual that you’d like to connect with is a 300 character LinkedIn message (that may get buried in their inbox along with all of the other messages that they receive from eager students). 

As difficult as it may seem to craft that “perfect” introductory message - we share a few tips on how to: get in the right headspace, improve your odds of standing out, and ultimately, build a long-lasting connection. We're here to make that cold reach-out... a little bit warmer.

As a quick reminder - in addition to long-form interviews with our incredible guests, we’re going to release short-form content that will answer the most burning questions that we receive from students/new grads. Have any topics in mind? Send us a message: [email protected]