The Toronto chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) is “rebooting” Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends program after it was paused nearly two years ago.
The revamped Marketing Hall of Legends is also adding more events to its calendar, with an emphasis on reaching younger and mid-level marketers, said co vice-president Xzavier Ramphal.
That includes three instalments of the Legendary Leadership Event Series introduced last year, an event exploring the stories, achievements, influence and learnings of previous Hall of Legends inductees, complemented by a more general conversation on the industry and trends.
“The goal is to make the stories and knowledge of Canadian marketing legends more accessible, and allow the universe of marketing professionals to have more robust [conversations] about the future of marketing, and the ins and outs of the industry,” said Ramphal. “It’s using and leveraging these esteemed marketers to start a conversation on a variety of topics, and allow junior marketers to see what they can aspire to.”
The first Legendary Leadership Series event takes place on March 11 with additional events scheduled for September and November. “The key for us is knowledge transfer,” added Ramphal’s co vice-president Jacob Kessler. “We have so many great minds in the marketplace, so how do we better get them sharing their stories and knowledge?”
The AMA began conducting a review of the Hall of Legends property after the 2018 event, although the nearly two-year pause in operations wasn’t originally planned, said Ramphal.
“Rather than rushing through it and having another event completed annually like we had been doing, we decided to take our time and figure out how do we make it more than a single event, resonate longer, and be more inclusive for new marketers,” he said. “We wanted to turn it into a year-long program with multiple touch-points and allow more marketers to participate.”
The AMA also plans to make the annual induction ceremony into a more intimate affair, with a largely VIP crowd.
The nomination period for the Hall of Legends runs to March 4, with details about the award and the nomination form available here. This year’s jury committee is chaired by David Kincaid, a 2013 inductee and founder and managing partner of Level5 Strategy and a former marketer with Labatt (where he had a hand in the award-winning “Out of the Blue” campaign) and Corus.
“David checks a lot of boxes,” said Ramphal. “He’s a well-respected and accomplished marketer, and a [Hall of Legends inductee]. He understands where the property started, he buys into the vision of where it’s going, and just based on his sheer accomplishments, he’s a great steward and proponent of the brand.”
Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends has inducted 83 people since its inception. Inductees are selected based on their overall impact on the Canadian or global marketplace through their ideas and brand-building efforts, as well their contributions to the marketing community as a whole.
