Labatt Breweries of Canada took Best of Show at the 9th annual Sponsorship Marketing Awards (SMAs), winning for a fan-based sponsorship program involving Budweiser and the Winnipeg Jets that exceeded business objectives. The SMAs, presented April 25th at the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada’s annual conference in Toronto, recognize companies that maximize their investments in sponsorship marketing by developing innovative strategies that drive results. Other big winners were BMO and Scotiabank, which each won two awards. Click here for the media release.

The second installment of the ACA’s Marketer’s Pulse finds that a majority of the Canadian marketers polled are responding to the challenges of today’s rapidly shifting landscape by changing their marketing organization structures. Overall, the report — based on a survey of 54 senior marketers — found that 60% of respondent marketing organizations are making changes. (more…)

By Stan Didzbalis, AgencyLink

Posted September 8th, 2009

Why is it that when folks from procurement knock on a marketer’s door, the marketer is inclined to slither under his or her desk? And when an agency hears that a procurement department is involved in an agency search, they mutter profanities under their breath, but pony up to try and win the business. Come on, it’s not the dentist!

Increasingly the procurement or strategic sourcing department is inserting itself into marketing agency searches, contract negotiations and consolidation exercises. Advances in corporate governance, thanks in part to Sarbanes-Oxley, the current recession and even the Quebec sponsorship scandal, have placed marketing decisions with financial implications under the procurement spotlight like never before. (more…)