As technology continues to reinvent the way customers interact with brands, DAC’s very own Vice President, Client Strategy Nasser Sahlool welcomed an exclusive group of senior marketing professionals to share their inspirations, challenges and best practices for effective digital marketing, and moreover, how brands can continue to elevate the customer journey.

Combining a balance between brand and client-side participation, the roundtable series was well represented by industry experts including: Michael Le Blanc, Vice President Marketing & Communications at Retail Council of Canada, Alison Janzen, Director of Marketing at Torkin Manes LLP, Kathleen Doheny, VP Marketing at Kensington Tours,  Jacqueline Baptist, Director of Recruitment and Retention at CBI Health Group, Olivia Verestieuk, Social Media at Western Union, Joseph Lee, Director of Digital Content at Great-West Life, Egil Mortensen, VP Marketing at Smart Centers, Yuriy Bilynets, Associate Vice-President, Product Management at Sears Canada,  Edward Hanson, Social Media and Communications Coordinator at Western Union.

During the morning session, the conversations extended beyond exceptional customer experiences and when asked about the importance of marrying online and offline channels, Michael Le Blanc, VP Marketing at Retail Council of Canada weighed in on what this type of success looks like for Canadian retailers, referencing Canadian Tire’s recent WOW Guide launch.

“The integration of digital and physical has never been more important. Retail is about a social experience. It is entertainment. It is more than just about convenience.”

“Content continues to be about acquisition, remarketing, and performance.” – Kathleen Doheny, VP Marketing at Kensington Tours. The change of focus for many sectors to become more channel agnostic has been a trending topic recently, as brands look to expand customer-centric marketing tactics. In many instances, companies are continuing to depend on content to build credibility within the digital space and less traditional markets like law and healthcare see this as an opportunity to reinvent the end to end customer experience.

The challenge, however, continues to be the segmentation of messaging based on internal practices and for those companies who have a B2C mandate, the outreach and messaging will need to be personalized to a specific target audience.

To make the session as engaging as possible, Toronto illustrator Clayton Hammer, joined to capture the morning’s key leadership highlights.

Trending topics included:

• Changing audience expectations
• Content remains king for building credibility
• Understanding the benefits attribution has on performance
• The next frontier in talent acquisition

To see a time lapse of the event watch the 90sec clip below:

For updates on future events in your area, get in touch with DAC in the UK!