Predictive Analytics in Marketing: Embracing AI

About the Digital Marketing Symposium

The speed of solving problems has rapidly transformed from months and years to just hours, days, and weeks. For marketers, It’s a time of excitement and anxiety. The future holds new challenges involving the interactions between humans and machines.

Are you ready?

With so much data at our fingertips, we must learn to harness it effectively, ethically, and efficiently. Do we trust human intuition or machine learning for predictive analytics? How do we determine our state of readiness regarding technology and our team’s ability to use it?

Join us as we explore best practices for leveraging first-party data, anticipating customer needs, predicting outcomes, and harnessing them into actionable insights.

Who Should Attend

• Brand and Strategy marketers
• Advertising agencies
• Marketing Professionals
• Educators
• Alumni
• Students

As Vice President of Portfolio Management at PC Optimum, Rohit Dua brings 17 years of progressive experience within Loblaws Companies Ltd. to unlock value through strategic analysis and data-driven insights.

Rohit has a proven track record of success in harnessing the power of data to inform actionable strategies. He excels at translating complex information into clear, concise recommendations that directly benefit business stakeholders. Beyond their analytical prowess, Rohit is passionate about talent development. He fosters a collaborative environment where team members with diverse technical strengths can solve complex business problems with a combined pool of knowledge and skill.

Fartash Haghani is an Associate Vice President of Applied AI & Data Products, known for his dynamic leadership and extensive expertise in cloud services, data management, data science and software engineering. With a proven track record at Canadian Tire, he has spearheaded ground-breaking projects, including the development of a Micro ML recommender system and innovative ML-based data products aimed at enhancing the user experience for Canadian Tire customers. Leveraging AI, his team improved the CTC loyalty program incrementally by 246% in the last three years.

Before joining Canadian Tire, Fartash was the CTO and co-founder of the AI-based meditation app Mindbliss, where he led engineering and data teams to use biometric data to recommend relevant meditation content.

Sonia Carreno is the President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada – the only trade association dedicated to the responsible growth of the digital advertising industry in Canada. With a career spanning almost 25 years, Sonia is a true digital veteran who has deep industry experience covering virtually every angle of the digital marketing sector.

From pioneering the digital media planning landscape in the early days at Modem Media (one of the first international consultancies to enter the digital marketing space) to founding DAC Group Digital (a worldwide leading agency that found its roots in search and content services), Sonia leverages her global citizenship to maintain a sharp leading edge pushing the envelope of digital capabilities to drive results. Since 1997, Sonia’s work at top international agencies has focused on building award-winning strategies for global Fortune 500 brands such as Coca-Cola, Gillette, Heineken and General Motors just to name a few.

Lia Grimberg is the Principal of Radicle Loyalty, a personalization and loyalty consulting firm. Radicle Loyalty helps clients find the root of the issue, the radicle, by analyzing data, gathering insights, and using them to personalize communications with customers. Radicle Loyalty creates marketing strategies and designs loyalty programs to correct customer behaviour and drive emotional loyalty.

With 20+ years in loyalty both as a practitioner and a consultant, Lia honed her loyalty and marketing skills during her corporate career at companies such as The Bay, Loblaw, LoyaltyOne, The Home Depot, and American Express.

Lia holds an MBA from The Schulich School of Business at York University.

Alison Simpson is the President and CEO of the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA). She has held executive marketing roles and served as president of several marketing agencies throughout her career. She has also held executive marketing roles and led brand, digital, loyalty, data, integrated marketing and customer experience teams for top tier brands, including Holt Renfrew, Rogers Communications, and TMX Group.

Prior to joining the CMA, Alison was Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Consumer Business at Key – a Canadian start-up that developed the world’s first all-digital, on-demand homeownership platform. Alison also serves on several Boards, including DCM (a publicly traded company) and the Advisory Board for the Master of Management Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Program at the Smith School of Business. Alison has also held Board Director roles for both the ICA (Institute of Communications Agencies) and NABS (National Advertising Benevolence Society) and previously served on the Board for MEC.

In her “life beyond work,” Alison is an avid traveller and passionate runner. Alison has completed 63 marathons and ultras, including winning her age group in a 250km Race Across the Sahara Desert and helping to raise $100,000 for the National Advertising Benevolence Society. Alison also climbed Mt Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Alzheimer Society.

Isaac White is a Principal Measurement Lead at Google, specializing in the strategic use of first-party data for marketers. He partners with clients to develop data-driven solutions that adapt to the rapidly changing digital landscape. Isaac has a proven track record at Google, Amazon, and Deloitte Consulting, where he's built data roadmaps and narratives, created analytics tools, led machine learning initiatives, and driven significant revenue growth. Isaac holds a Master of Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

Ash Andrews is an expert in Digital Marketing with 20 years of experience. He has worked as a senior in-house marketer and a consultant in the UK, USA and Canada. His credentials include working with several blue-chip brands in a variety of industries while holding senior-level leadership positions. Ash is also the Founder and President of The Andrews Groupe, a marketing consultancy that provides digital marketing solutions to a range of companies in Canada and the United States

Ash has taught digital marketing for Columbia University (New York) and has guest lectured at several higher education institutions across North America. Ash has a Master's Degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies at the Wharton School, and is currently an Executive Doctoral Candidate at the University of Florida studying digital marketing and artificial intelligence.

Host or Publisher Centre for Business