Mission:

The Canadian Marketing Association engaged Fenton to contribute to two critical conversations.

The first centered on Inclusion and the evolving role of EDI in today’s climate, with a focus on equipping marketers to move from intent to impact. The second explored Canadian consumer trends for 2026, helping leaders understand where the market is heading and how to respond.

Across both, the goal was to equip marketing leaders with practical tools to unlock innovation, navigate uncertainty, and build more competitive, future-ready organizations.

Engagement:

Fenton delivered two keynote sessions tailored to CMA’s audience.

The Inclusion keynote reframed EDI as a driver of innovation and competitive advantage, introducing Practical Allyship as a toolkit for embedding inclusion into everyday marketing decisions, from team inputs to campaign outputs.

The Consumer Trends keynote focused on seven forward-looking trends shaping Canadian consumers in 2026. Each trend was grounded in real-world signals, then translated into clear implications for marketers, specifically how shifts in behavior, expectations, and culture will impact brand strategy, positioning, and go-to-market decisions.

Both sessions emphasized clarity and application, ensuring the insights could be immediately used by marketing leaders and their teams.

Outcomes:

On Inclusion, participants moved beyond values-based framing to a more rigorous understanding of EDI as a growth lever, with practical ways to embed diverse inputs, challenge assumptions, and drive measurable impact.

On Consumer Trends, marketers walked away with a sharper view of where consumer behavior is heading and what that means for their role, enabling them to make more informed, proactive decisions rather than reacting too late.

Across both sessions, the common outcome was action. Leaders left not just with ideas, but with clearer direction on how to translate insight into execution.