Marketing News Roundup: May 25, 2022
Today we feature a round-up of some big events and recent industry happenings.
Belgian Moon helps Canadians Reclaim Space Post-WFH
Growth Across the Board for 1Milk2Sugars in Q1
Unbounce Welcomes Three New Executives to Support Next Phase of Growth
Linda Carte joins FUSE Create as Creative Director
Read more below!
Belgian Moon helps Canadians Reclaim Space Post-WFH
With nearly 40% of Canadians who worked from home the last two years beginning to return to office, it’s polarizing the workforce and sparking a great debate. No matter what side you’re on, it's time to reclaim the dining room tables that became desks and bedrooms that doubled as boardrooms.
To help jolt your space back to it's earlier form, Belgian Moon has created Undrinkable Pints: a 6-pack of paint inspired by the signature colours of Belgian Moon. These 6-packs are developed in consultation with a certified colour therapist to help brighten up homes and how you feel within it - no matter what you choose to do with it.
Here are the colours and intended inspirations:
Midnight Blue: Now that the office beckons, free your space (and your mind) from the clutter of work with a blue designed to help you organize and master your thoughts.
Lunar Blue: Reclaim your bedroom that doubled as a boardroom by keeping the doors of positivity open and applying the blue of our moon to yours.
Golden Wheat: Bring a little fun back into a place that has lately been all function with this grain-inspired gold, and you too may flourish like a field.
Valencia Orange: An orange inspired by the citrus kick of Belgian Moon to help you reconnect with your body, spark movement, and find joy in the simple things.
Orbit Yellow: Force your work anxieties away with a yellow designed to help you release fears, tap confidence, and unlock the joy within.
Brewer’s Oats: For the corners of your home that work commandeered, this creamy off-white is just the blank canvas you’ve been waiting for to paint your fresh start
So whether you end up reinvigorating an accent wall in your home office with a coat of Valencia Orange to spark a movement, you can head over to the Belgian Moon Instagram & Pinterest to see what others are doing!
Growth Across the Board for 1Milk2Sugars in Q1
1Milk2Sugars continues to cement its status as a rising star in the PR and marketing world, affirmed by a fifth straight year of double-digit growth and a major buildout of its Montreal and Toronto teams.
1M2S has posted an average growth rate of 48% every year since 2018 — far outpacing the industry average of 5 percent yearly growth. The agency, which achieved a staggering 76.4% growth in 2021, has carried this momentum into 2022, expanding upwards of 30% since January.
“We’re so thankful for the success we’ve experienced in the first quarter of 2022 and to be growing our business during what is still a very uncertain time in the corporate world,” said Ruth Goudie, VP-General Manager & Partner, 1Milk2Sugars. “Like so many Canadian SMEs, these last few years have challenged us to think differently and redefine what’s possible on behalf of our clients. We’re humbled to be where we are today and to be forging into the future with the wind at our back.”
Since January, 1M2S has welcomed eight new clients to its roster in the key marketing verticals of food & beverage (Canada Dry, NotBurger, Motts Clamato & Keurig), lifestyle (Lagostina), skincare (Herbivore Botanicals), health (UltuCup) and urban mobility (Indigo Group). This new business momentum is underpinned by the agency’s 80%+ retention rate among its existing clientele.
To keep pace with its expanding portfolio, 1M2S, along with its sister agency, double shot, has solidified its team with several in-house promotions and new hires. They include:
New Hires
Patricia Amato: Senior Account Director
Nathali Perez: Client Services & Marketing Manager
Stephanie Caputo: PR Account Executive
Phynicia Choy: PR Account Executive
Annabelle Irakiza: Talent Executive, double shot
Promotions:
Lindsay Sganga: Promoted to Senior Manager, Digital Marketing
Kaitlyn Farrow: Promoted to Associate Account Manager
Sameli Valina: Promoted to Associate Account Manager
Shenique Rochester: Promoted to Senior Account Executive
As 1M2S continues its recruitment drive, the agency remains steadfastly committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity in its hiring practices. Currently, the Sugars are comprised of 42% BIPOC industry professionals. Advancing representation in the PR and digital space is one of the agency’s central values and will remain core to its recruitment policy going forward.
Unbounce Welcomes Three New Executives to Support Next Phase of Growth
Unbounce, the global leader in landing page and conversion intelligence software, welcomes three new high impact executives to its team. Pete Housley, Darby Sieben, and Saba El-Hilo are taking on leadership roles in marketing, product and engineering respectively. Their appointments will help fuel Unbounce’s continued commitment to helping businesses save time and accelerate growth using conversion intelligence technology and tools.
More than 140,000 businesses in over 120 countries currently use Unbounce to fuel their leads and sales using landing pages, copy creation and marketing attribution. These leadership additions are coming at a time of increased adoption of the company’s conversion intelligence tools. Smart Copy, the company’s AI-powered copy creation tool, has seen a 30 percent increase in users since the beginning of 2022, and Unbounce is on pace to see further adoption of its AI-powered landing page builder as it prepares for the launch of new app integrations with Shopify, Stripe and Paypal.
“These new leaders intimately understand how to build successful SaaS businesses and teams,” said Felicia Bochicchio, Chief Executive Officer at Unbounce. “Their combined talent and proven experience scaling marketing, partnerships, M&As and engineering at key stages of company growth, will work to cement Unbounce as the leading conversion intelligence platform for marketers.”
Unbounce’s appointments include:
Pete Housley joins Unbounce as Chief Marketing Officer where he’ll lead brand, growth and customer marketing. Housley comes with over 20 years of C-level experience at consumer brands including INDOCHINO, Milestones, Lavalife and the Hudson’s Bay Company. Most recently as Chief Revenue Officer at INDOCHINO, Housley achieved a ~45 percent 5-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through his excellence in strategic and operational leadership. Pete’s proven expertise in building disruptive brands using channels from performance marketing to demand generation, will help Unbounce unlock new revenue pathways, elevate customer value, and position the Unbounce brand for future large scale expansion.
Darby Sieben is appointed to the newly created role of Chief Product Officer and will lead the company’s product vision, strategy and roadmap. Sieben brings over 25-years of experience in product development and innovation, mergers and acquisitions, and partnerships from companies including Yellow Pages, Mediative and RBC Ventures. As co-founder and head of RBC Ampli Inc., Darby’s team built, launched and scaled one of Canada’s top cashback applications. Sieben’s unique ability to bring to market innovative product lines and foster strategic relationships will help Unbounce uncover new growth opportunities including a reseller program and future acquisitions.
Saba El-Hilo is Unbounce’s new VP of Engineering and will lead the company’s engineering and data teams. El-Hilo's career includes more than 10 years of experience building top performing and innovative products. She has deep experience working with Big Data, ML technologies and building web applications and services. Most recently, El-Hilo was the Head of Data Platform at Mapbox where she built and led a global organization responsible for producing data products from a user base of more than half a billion monthly active users. El-Hilo's ability to build performant and highly scalable systems, mentor engineers, and foster diverse and healthy engineering teams will help Unbounce deliver valuable products to its customers.
Linda Carte joins FUSE Create as Creative Director
Top creative Linda Carte joins Toronto-based independent advertising agency FUSE Create as Creative Director, replacing Patrice Pollack who left the agency in April. Linda will report into Steve Miller who joined the agency in 2019 as Executive Creative Director and Vice President.
“I love what Linda brings at this stage in our agency’s growth” says Steve Miller. “Her experience, craft, enthusiasm, and reputation for award-winning work will be a huge asset to our team and our clients. She arrives at a time when the agency has seen a ton of momentum – coming off our Agency of the Year (AOY) win - and her leadership will help carry it forward.”
Carte comes with 20+ years of agency know-how, spending the better part of the past four years as Creative Director at INNOCEAN Worldwide, with previous senior creative leadership roles at BBDO, Downtown Partners, and Lowe Roche. Her list of award wins is as diverse as the brands she’s worked on, which include VISA, Frito-Lay, FedEx, Starbucks, Canadian Paralympics, RBC, Sunnybrook Hospital, Mercedes-Benz, and Kia, among others. As Creative Director, Linda will oversee the day-to-day creative operations of the agency.
"I've been watching the transformation of FUSE Create over the past couple of years and was not only impressed by the work but the entrepreneurial vision that’s a part of the DNA.” says Linda. “There is an energy in the people and in their new space that’s all about what’s possible when creative is your starting point. I will be building on the momentum they’ve made in creative, strategy, and new business.”
Carte is joined by fellow new hires Greg Burpee and Jessica Bloom on the Accounts team, Emily Farrugia as Creative Strategist, and Alex Lu as Digital Media Manager. Five interns were also added to assist with increasing workloads across departments due to recent client wins with Proximo Spirits, Three Farmers Foods based in Saskatchewan, and Maple Leaf Foods including Schneiders, regional brands and the TV Media AOR assignment; this is addition to significant incremental assignments from AIR MILES, Lunchmates and Grab ‘N Snack. Linda’s start date is May 30th.