December 2025 President's Note

Happy December.

Many thanks for making our CMA Awards such a success, and congratulations to our deserving 2025 award winners. The gala sold out – twice. We had more than 1,000 talented Canadian marketing professionals together celebrating the amazing creativity and powerful impact of our craft in Canada and beyond. 

We also hosted the annual conference for the Global Data and Marketing Alliance (GDMA) at the CMA that week and had CEOs from marketing and data associations around the world join us for the CMA Awards.

They were universally impressed with the calibre of the creative and had fun joining us on the dance floor.

Our GDMA membership highlights how the benefits that the CMA provides go well beyond being Canada's voice for marketing. We are part of a global marketing community with access to worldwide insights, learning, research and resources. 

We’re wrapping up a very successful year of CMA events on Wednesday with CMAcx. Join us to learn from a leading Canadian futurist, CEOs and senior marketing experts about the vital role CX plays in business success.

Members can attend for only $25.

In November, I shared six of the many new benefits we provide to futureproof you and your teams.  The new CMA Mentorship program is a terrific example. It’s exclusive to – and complimentary for – members. We’ve had tremendous response for the program and need more mentors to meet the high demand. Being a mentor is a terrific way to give back and learn. I encourage you to apply.

Learning ranks as a top priority for members and is pivotal to career success, especially as our profession evolves at warp speed. We appreciate that finding budget for learning can be challenging, which is why we introduced significant member-only discounts of 50%. Here are a few ways you can engage…

• Our Chartered Marketer (CM) program, Canada’s only professional marketing designation in Canada, is a powerful differentiator and career accelerator. 
• AI is embedded across the CM curriculum and courses are offered on-demand to suit your schedule. You can start with one course and earn a micro certification before committing to the full CM curriculum
• We’ve launched a new on-demand training option that includes our most popular sessions like project management and copywriting. You’ll learn from practical exercises, real-world case studies, and exploration of key tools.
• Our CMA Digital Marketing Strategy and the Digital Analytics courses begin on January 19th

The CMA’s AI Mastery Playbook series for marketers is another valuable way we are helping futureproof your career by sharpening your AI skills and knowledge of this rapidly key area.

You now have 35 topics to choose from, including From SEO to GEO, AI Agent Integration 101, Leverage AI As a Pitch Coach, and AI Deep Research Agents. Each playbook delivers actionable insights to enhance your effectiveness and adoption.

Today, I am excited to share three more new benefits and innovations that we are introducing to further strengthen the value of membership:

1. AI continues to dominate many conversations and AI Readiness is a key focus. We have two outstanding initiatives to deliver on this:
• I’m thrilled to share that CMA member organizations now benefit from a complimentary, customized AI Readiness study in partnership with Twenty44 that’s valued at $10,000. It provides important insights into how you currently stack up, along with recommendations.
• The CMA just launched our second AI Readiness survey.  I encourage you to participate.

2. Participating on CMA Councils and Committees is one of our most highly valued member benefits. So, we’re expanding and introducing new Councils and Committees in 2026, bringing together members to share thought leadership on Innovation and Social Commerce.
3. Early-career marketers are the future of our profession. To ensure they’re getting the support they need, we’re creating a CMA Rising Star Professional Development Program. It combines learning, networking, and community with access to exclusive opportunities for tomorrow's leaders to grow their careers.

Advocacy is another powerful way the CMA is futureproofing the marketing profession and ensuring your organizations can innovate and thrive.

• In our recent fireside chat with Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, he shared the important role and impact the CMA is having for our profession:
• “We're lucky in Canada to have the CMA, which is such a credible and impactful voice. In fact, I name-drop the CMA often. When I spoke recently at a parliamentary committee, it was an opportunity to highlight the important work that we're doing together and the importance of privacy in support of the economy and the importance of data to the economy. “
• We submitted recommendations to AI Minister Evan Solomon for Canada’s next AI strategy, focusing on three critical areas: (1) scaling AI workforce training nationwide, (2) establishing harmonized federal standards to eliminate costly provincial compliance burdens, and (3) creating a "sovereign not solitude" data framework that protects Canadian sovereignty while maintaining full access to essential global AI platforms.

These are just some of the ways the CMA is elevating the role of marketing and marketers in Canada. It’s also why we’ve welcomed 60 new members to the CMA so far this year. It’s rewarding to see the diversity of organizations joining our thriving community.

Connecting with our communities, and making time for the people we care about is important, especially at this time of the year. So, whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah or Kwanzaa, I wish you a memory-rich holiday season.  

Warm regards, Alison Simpson

P.S. Tuning into our CMA Connect podcast is another great way to futureproof your career and learn from marketing leaders across Canada.