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Three senior Canadian marketers shared their strategies and insights for connecting with consumers in the digital age during a lively panel on Oct. 6 at the ACA’s Fall 2015 Executive Forum.

Patrick Dickinson, SVP, Core Marketing & Brand Strategy, Hudson’s Bay Company, Shelagh Stoneham, SVP, Marketing, Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation and Stéphane Bérubé, Chief Marketing Officer, L’Oréal Canada, didn’t hold back when discussing challenges such as managing the “explosion” in consumer data, proving ROI and creating content in real-time.

Their comments at The Spoke Club in Toronto were sparked by a timely topic – “The Path Forward: Marketing’s Outlook Into The Digital Future.” Audience members – a mix of marketers, media, agency and ad-tech execs – also got involved, not just posing questions but giving their views on the road ahead for marketing in Canada.

Federica Aperio, Head of Digital for North America at analytics firm Ebiquity, and David Johnson, VP Account Development at Ebquity sister-company Stratigent, got the conversation started, presenting the results of a global study that identified top-of-mind issues for marketers.

Managing the explosion of customer data was at the top of the global sample’s list. The ACA conducted its own survey of 43 Canadian marketers and found that their top concern is overcoming financial constraints and demonstrating return on investment.

ACA President and CEO Ron Lund, moderating the panel, asked them about the challenge of demonstrating ROI, to which Hudson’s Bay’s Dickinson replied “no one is harder on ROI than the marketer.

“But we have specifically said there are some types of activity we are not measuring by traditional return,” he added. “We also have those programs that we run simply for impact.”

Both L’Oréal’s Bérubé and Dickinson noted they had moved more functions in-house to keep up with the pace of digital marketing. Stoneham said that while Shoppers Drug Mart uses a “quarterback model” with its agencies – providing agency partners with multifacted briefs that can be adapted – it mixes in real-time capabilities for functions such as community management and responding to trends.

“Our customers expect that from us,” she said.

Ongoing issues undermining the online ecosystem – namely viewability, click fraud and, more recently, ad-blockers – formed the backdrop to the panel’s discussion.

Stoneham recalled the oft-cited quote of John Wanamaker – “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half” – and said that when the issues with digital are added to that adage, it is a cause for concern.

“I think what it really says to us is proceed with caution, be sure you know what you’re measuring,” she said. “We need checks and balances and you really need to look at the actual revenue being associated with the campaign, do your own testing and do not abdicate responsibility.”

The ACA will keep these issues front and centre over the coming year. Contact Susan Charles, VP Member Services, for more information.