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Sponsored by:

Loft 1/2

Stop accepting friction as a given. Your marketing strategy, execution and measurement are only as strong as their connection to one another. Yet, too often, these elements operate in isolation, creating drag that undermines performance and ROI. This presentation will show you how to eliminate that friction by seamlessly orchestrating your data, insights and multi-channel activation. Environics will explore how best to align every part of your marketing process to unlock your full potential and gain a competitive edge.

Featuring:

Jan Kestle

President

Environics Analytics

Court

Court

With major cultural moments on the horizon, shifting audience behaviours and evolving brand priorities, WGSN unpacks the key trends that will shape culture in 2026. From the FIFA World Cup in North America and the Winter Olympics in Cortina, to global entertainment launches and music festivals, WGSN has you covered. This session will explore how to align brand activations with headline moments by looking at what’s next in marketing, lifestyle and live experience. Whether you’re planning product launches, partnerships or cultural takeovers, senior strategist Rebecca Rom-Frank will equip you with the right insights to lead in a year of transformation.

Featuring:

Rebecca Rom-Frank

Senior Marketing Strategist

WGSN

Court

Anheuser-Busch InBev believes in creativity as a force powering its growth. From back-to-back Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year wins to top honours at the Clios and Effies, creativity runs through the company’s DNA as part of the "One ABI Way." Driving its transformation are three pillars: People, Process and Partners. Join Andrew Oosterhuis, head of marketing for Canada, as he reveals how Labatt applies this framework to bring commercial creativity closer to consumers.

Featuring:

Andrew Oosterhuis

VP Marketing

Labatt

Sponsored by:

Loft 1/2

The Globe and Mail is doubling down on coverage beyond hard news – think food trends, streaming picks, health breakthroughs, even pet advice. Why? Because Canadians need mental relief from the onslaught of challenges confronting the world they live in. That's not just a hunch. The Globe's investments in lifestyle and culture have so far driven a jump in audience engagement. Globe Content Studio’s Kiran Rana pulls back the curtain on what content is connecting with Canadians most, and how the findings can be applied to brand campaigns.

Featuring:

Kiran Rana

Manager, Content and Podcast Strategy

The Globe and Mail

Sponsored by:

Loft 4/5

A new era of retail media is here. The Trade Desk and Loblaw’s partnership is empowering endemic and non-endemic brands to turn purchase data into powerful outcomes. Advertisers are achieving greater precision in targeting, clearer sales attribution, and measurable impact, bridging the gap between online and offline channels.

This session provides proof of concept for how leading brands and agencies are unlocking growth through retail media. Hear directly from The Trade Desk, Loblaw, and Omnicom Media Group as they share early successes, lessons learned, and how this next phase of collaboration is shaping the future of advertising effectiveness.

Featuring:

Lucy Baumgartner

Managing Director, Commerce & Retail

OMG

George Boulton

Senior Director, Strategy

OMD Canada

JJ Dobrovolski

Sr Director

The Trade Desk Canada Inc

Greg Gerber

Director, Sales and Client Services

Loblaw Advance

Foyer

Court

Whether you're in Canada fighting for local resonance or at a global HQ making sure the masterbrand still holds together, success comes down to finding common ground. That means balancing cultural nuance, regulatory differences, political climate and tight brand frameworks. In this session, leaders from both sides of the table will share how they've negotiated flexibility, championed local insights and built programs that land with impact in Canada – all without losing sight of the global brand story.

Featuring:

Brian Clayton

VP Marketing & Sales Strategy

Kimberly-Clark Canada Inc

Laura Cutsey

Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships

Coca-Cola Company

Tania Goecke

Global VP Marketing: Brands with Purpose & Global Asset Activation

Grupo Bimbo Canada

Brian Neumann

Head of Brand & Creativity

Kraft Heinz

Court

The Indigenous economy is on track to hit $100 billion, a reality that forward-thinking CMOs cannot afford to overlook. For RBC, Reconciliation isn’t a campaign; it represents guiding principles within the marketing strategy. By moving beyond the illusion of inclusion and treating Reconciliation as distinct from DEI, RBC is showing how brands can strengthen trust and deepen audience connection. In this session, RBC and BOOM InterTribal will share first-hand lessons on what it takes to embed Reconciliation effectively. From planning and strategy to creative execution, attendees will learn how to avoid costly missteps and apply actionable practices within their organizations.

Featuring:

Chinyere Eni

Head, RBC Origins

RBC

Mark Hamill

Director, Regional Marketing

RBC

Alana Lees

Partner & Chief Strategy Officer

BOOM InterTribal

Studio

While most conversations about Gen Z focus on mental health, climate anxiety and digital habits, this session will dive deeper – uncovering the lesser-known forces shaping both Gen Z and the rising Gen Alpha. From shifting views on geopolitics and financial literacy to evolving definitions of success, identity and influence, this exploration challenges assumptions and surfaces new insights. Join Sara Cappe at Harris Poll as she helps marketers understand the next wave of cultural and consumer behaviour. The data presented in this session will be collected prior to and exclusively for the CMO Forum.

Featuring:

Sara Cappe

President

The Harris Poll Canada

Sponsored by:

Loft 1/2

What a customer buys isn't just impacted by their past retail purchases. What they see on TV, where they spend their time online and offline, and how they interact with your brand and your competitors also play a key role. Join Spark Foundry and MiQ in conversation as we address some of the major roadblocks brands currently face in making agile and informed decisions in a volatile market, and new ways of engaging consumers holistically for high-impact campaigns.

Featuring:

Darius al Haddad

Product Lead, Commerce at MIQ

MiQ Digital Canada Inc

Christina Falconer

Group Account Director

Starcom Spark Foundry

Sponsored by:

Loft 4/5

Demystifying The Snapchat Generation: How Gen Z and Millennials are shaping culture, redefining communication, and reimagining how they connect with the world (and brands).

At Snapchat, we don’t just reach the next generation – we understand them. Made up of Gen Z and Millennials, the Snapchat Generation is where real relationships, self-expression, and cultural influence converge. From how they communicate to how they shop, Snapchatters are shaping the future, and we’re here to decode the insights that matter most.

Join Snapchat’s Toni Rufo as she sits down with Audrey Ansah, Group Director at Touché! and Shane Cameron, Chief Strategy Officer at OMG to demystify this cohort’s consumer behaviours, and take a look at what’s driving this generation and how brands can show up authentically in their lives.

Featuring:

Audrey Ansah

Group Director

Touche!

Shane Cameron

CSO

OMG

Toni Rufo

Agency Partnerships

Snap Inc.

Mezzanine

Court

The market is changing hands, with a new cohort taking the reins and turning the marketing playbook on its head. Brand loyalty isn’t inherited and legacy brands don’t get a pass. Even a market leader like President’s Choice got a wake-up call when it discovered its average shopper was age 53. In this session, Loblaw’s Lindsay Cook will take us inside the brand’s bold reset that’s putting the future customer at the core of its growth. You’ll learn how to rewrite the next-gen connection playbook in an industry hardwired for safe.

Featuring:

Lindsay Cook

VP, Control Brand, Social Media and Loyalty Marketing

Loblaw Companies

Court

How do you bring a fading icon back to life? In this session, Skip's Rachel MacAdam pulls the curtain back on the steps it took to reinvigorate the brand and reclaim market share. From winning buy-in across the organization to running audits that revealed where change was most urgent, this conversation will explore what it takes to pull off a brand sea change, and how marketers in the room can do the same.

Featuring:

Rachel MacAdam

VP, Marketing

Skip

Court

Marketers are sleepwalking past the most profitable, fastest-growing audience in the market. The 55+ demographic controls more than half of global spending power, yet gets just 5-10% of marketing investment. That's billions left on the table and wide open for competitors to grab. In this eye-opening, data-rich session, The Longevity Lab's Jennifer Meehan will shatter outdated myths and show how this culturally influential audience can be seen as a brand's untapped growth engine. 

Featuring:

Jennifer Meehan

Executive Vice President Brand Marketing, Edelman Canada & Global COO, Longevity Lab

Edelman

Foyer

Court

Behind every major marketing launch is a series of conversations most people never see between CMOs and the CEO or CFO. In this fireside chat, senior brand business leaders walk through the inner workings of a campaign, program or pilot that needed significant investment and full C-Suite alignment. You'll hear from execs at Kruger and Molson on how to make the case for marketing's value while navigating competing priorities.

Featuring:

Dino Bianco

CEO

Kruger Products Inc.

Susan Irving

CMO

Kruger Products Inc.

Leslie Malcolm

VP, Marketing

Molson Coors Beverage Co.

Anthony Purchase

VP, Commercial Operations

Molson Coors Beverage Co.

Manoj Raheja

Partner

Sklar Wilton & Associates Ltd.

Court

A staple of the Forum, this year's CMO Interview brings together brand leaders from IKEA and Sleep Country. You might remember their cheeky "U Up?" billboard exchange, but this time, the conversation moves from the streets to the stage. Putting rivalries aside, they'll compare notes on what's keeping them restless with the goal of finding solutions and new opportunities.

Featuring:

Nuno Bamberg

SVP, brand & marketing

Sleep Country Canada

Jonelle Ricketts

Head of Marketing

IKEA Canada

Court

Foyer

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Awards