January 2025 President's Note
Happy New Year!
I hope you had a memory-rich and rejuvenating holiday with family and friends, and you’re excited for the year ahead. I also hope any resolutions you made survived the first week. If they have, you’ve bested the 23% of people who already quit.
The CMA is starting 2025 in a new home, which will also serve as a ‘community centre’ for our members. Our office is now located at 145 Wellington Street West, Suite 203, in Toronto. It features collaborative spaces and meeting rooms that will be great for our members, Councils, Committees, Board, and the CMA Team to use. We look forward to welcoming you.
The year is off to a great start, with many terrific new membership benefits that you and your teams can leverage. Here are some highlights:
- We’re expanding our national focus on in-person gatherings, including a roadshow so our members across Canada can come together in person.
- All CMA members will benefit from free access to 25 CMA events. Plus, members will receive significant savings of 80% on our other events (except the CMA Awards gala).
- We’re launching the CMA Mentorship Program, which is exclusive to, and complimentary for, our members.
- We’re expanding and introducing new CMA Councils in 2025, bringing together members to share thought leadership on Public Relations, Product Marketing and more.
- Learning is key to futureproofing your career and ranks as a top priority for members. Yet, finding budget for learning can be challenging. So, we’re introducing significant member-only discounts of 50% off our CMA training programs, Certificate Courses and the Chartered Marketer (CM) program.
- I’m creating the CMA CEO Youth Advisory Board of rising stars from across the marketing ecosystem. This volunteer Board will work closely with me and advise the CMA and our profession.
- We’re introducing regular CMA socials for marketers in the first phases of their career to connect, have fun and grow their networks.
I’ll have more to share on these exciting new initiatives in the coming weeks.
Knowing that the economy is still challenging for many organizations, I’m also pleased to announce that we will not increase membership rates in 2025.
A number of our colleagues in the marketing profession are currently in transition and need our support. So, we have introduced a one-year Individual Affiliate program that gives marketers in transition access to select individual CMA benefits at a manageable cost. Some of the benefits include:
- Free access to 25 CMA experiences and member-pricing on all events and learning offerings,
- Exclusive access to our guides and thought leadership, and
- Networking opportunities with industry professionals
Our Digital Marketing Skills Canada program provides powerful support for marketers in transition, with fully funded scholarships to earn the Chartered Marketer designation and benefit from career coaching and assistance with their job search.
The CMA community is growing and thriving, and I’m thrilled you’re part of it. We had 55 new member organizations join the CMA in 2024, and we welcomed our first new member of 2025 last week. We look forward to sharing great conversations and thought leadership with all our members at our upcoming events.
The year is off to a strong start, and we’re excited to innovate and provide additional resources and benefits in the months ahead.
As the voice of marketing in Canada, the CMA is the only place where the full marketing ecosystem comes together to network, learn and work on important topics that impact all of us. I want to end by thanking everyone who participated in our survey in December. Your feedback will help us continue to evolve and help futureproof the marketing profession. I’ll share more details on the results of the survey in my February note.
As always, I welcome the opportunity to meet one-to-one, so, don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to chat.
Warm regards,
Alison Simpson
President & CEO
