Rachel David of Hashtag Communications talks about how the marketing industry has evolved
Rachel David is founder and CEO of Hashtag Communications. What is Hashtag Communications and what do you do? David: We are like a modern-day PR company. Companies like Google, Manulife, Best Buy, Sony, Bell, Huawei, you name it, they corporate brand and they call us. We act like an in-house consultancy for these brands and…
Leather and outerwear designer is making an impact internationally with her edgy creations
Malika Rajani is founder and creative director of Malika Rajani - Leather and Outerwear. Tell me about your business and what you do? Rajani: I’m an independent Canadian fashion designer. I started my namesake outerwear line after graduating from Parsons School of Design in New York City. I specialize in leather and wool and cashmere…
What would possess the ‘selfie PM’ to smile for the cameras at a flood zone with people’s lives hanging in the balance?
There are pros and cons to a national leader appearing at a natural disaster. For every act of goodwill, someone will question the motive behind this visit. For every bead of sweat on the brow, someone will wonder if he or she wouldn’t rather be somewhere else. By and large, the positives far outweigh the…
Shawn Wilson talks about how Muzooka works for more than 1.5 million artists and the industry built around them
Shawn Wilson is CEO of Muzooka. What is Muzooka? Wilson: Muzooka is where musical artists and their teams manage their media assets across multiple platforms from one central hub. Update your photos, bio, social media and video links on Muzooka, and we distribute those to our many industry partners, who always need access to the…
You really don't need to be in contact with everyone 24-7
Most of us have become almost totally dependent on technology – and in the process, many of us have lost the art of true communication. In many ways, being tech-connected in the 21st century means being disconnected from humanity. Certainly everyone has a story about how the digital world has let them down – the computer that…
Elle Campbell of Elle Connects talks about connecting with your target audience where they’re already hanging out
Elle Campbell is a marketer, social media strategist, brand storyteller, and owner and chief operator of Elle Connects. Tell me a little about your background and what you do now? Campbell: With my content marketing business Elle Connects, I help brands and businesses tell their brand story and connect with their customers through content creation…
Randy Milanovic of Kayak Online Marketing talks about entering partnerships with clients to achieve mutual growth
Randy Milanovic is CEO of Kayak Online Marketing. Tell me a little bit about your company – how it started and what you do? Milanovic: We launched Kayak Online Marketing in 2011. However, its origins date back to the second half of the 1990s when I was working in a number of Calgary’s ad agencies,…
Taking on more debt is not a good thing. In fact, it could be devastating for the Canadian economy
The future, when it arrives, isn’t always what we imagined. Technology hasn’t yet brought us vacation trips to the moon or Mars. But it has brought us Twitter, where even world leaders communicate in 140 character blocks. Does this affect our brains? Can we no longer hold more than one simple idea in our heads…
When youth take a political stand, it’s inspiring. History is full of such amazing and courageous young people
Nelson Mandela said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.” American news and social media were recently stirred up by a video of children meeting with Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The video went viral. The children represented a youth organization known as the Sunrise Movement, which…
Why can't we just say what we mean and leave off the attention-seeking hyperbole?
The pressing need to create an existential crisis on every topic has gripped both our media outlets and social media sites. Serious words have been stripped of all meaning. It’s impossible to have a practical discussion on any topic on social media. Some outlets, in an effort to be heard and seen above the cacophony,…
The damage done to public trust in journalism by not following basic rules of journalism is, at this stage, incalculable
Last week’s sickening media meltdown means it is back-to-basics time for journalism on this continent. The need for reportorial rehab began when major news outlets repeated a BuzzFeed report – based on unnamed sources – that the Robert Mueller investigation had been told by Michael Cohen that U.S. President Donald Trump directed him to lie…
Paul Bzeta of Kicker Video talks about how marketing in the digital age is evolving
Paul Bzeta is CEO of Kicker Video. Paul spoke with Calgary's Business's Mario Toneguzzi Tell me what Kicker is and what it does? Bzeta: Kicker produces video content for B2B clients in Canada and the U.S. Videos that help our clients explain their products and services in a simple way in order to drive new leads,…
How do we regulate the marketplace of ideas without compromising free speech?
Are big social media tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter monopolies? It’s a reasonable question since more and more they’ve come to control the public discussion of ideas. But the answer is not nearly simple. Based on active user counts, Facebook only has 36 per cent of the social network market share. But…
Gillette has stepped boldly into the socio-political minefields of #MeToo, bullying, spousal abuse and male self-absorption
It’s tempting to take the recent’s ‘controversy’ over the Gillette shaving company’s new advertising campaign at something less than face value. For starters, controversy itself is no longer the conversational cutting edge it once was. In this era of fake-versus-false news, universal short attention spans and ludicrous overstatement as the entry price for even being…
Ernest Barbaric of Ernest Media talks about adopting an agnostic and agile approach
Ernest Barbaric is a digital marketing strategist at Ernest Media, lead designer and instructor for digital marketing strategy at the Canadian Marketing Association and founder of the Social Media for Business program at Calgary's Mount Royal University. What's your feel about how businesses today have used social media to better their bottom line? Barbaric: Social…