TAXI | Agency Profile, Contacts, AOR, Client Relationships

See Winmo sales intelligence in action

Score 26 - Future Possibility: Canadian Tire bolsters marketing team, plans expansion for Helly Hansen

Canadian Tire (CT), a retailer of automotive, hardware, sports and leisure products, plans to accelerate digital retailing, marketing, data analytics and merchandising, as well as focus on customer engagement, according to execs in the recent earnings call. I would expect the biggest focus to go to marketing, however, since CT just brought on a number of new personnel.

CT promoted David Lui to VP of marketing for the Mark's, FGL Sports and Sport Chek brands, effective October. He has been with the company since 2015, when he joined as the VP of marketing for Mark's, and prior to that, served as senior director of marketing for DMT Development Systems Group.

The company also brought on Yuli Shumsky as AVP of digital marketing and operations, effective October. He brings digital marketing experience from positions like director of digital marketing & operations at CIBC, director of programmatic media at CIBC and director of programmatic strategy & operations at XPETO.

Please view lower level personnel shifts here.

Now, you're probably asking yourself why any of this matters since CT is a Canadian company. Well, these personnel will likely affect Helly Hansen (HH), which wants to bolster its reach in US and UK markets in 2019.

Execs also disclosed HH will accelerate the direct-to-consumer channel and will aim to increase 2019 revenue by 30%. These goals will likely see marketing at HH increase, and that's also a possibility with the slew of new personnel at CT. In addition, HH brought on Jameson Clifton as US marketing specialist (November).

Therefore, sellers with high reach among HH's outdoor centric demographic should reach out for revenue. HH typically spends the most during Q4 to capitalize on the holiday season. It relies heavily on social and digital, as well as experiential and partnerships.

For HH, Adbeat reports digital display spend over the last 12 months totaled $13.9k and was placed primarily via direct buy (68%) and Google Search Partners (21%) onto sites like youtube.com, amazon.com, ebay.com, sears.com and jcpenney.com. This marks an increase as ads over the last 24 months totaled $25.2k and were placed primarily via Google Search Partners (54%) and direct buy (38%) onto sites like amazon.com, youtube.com, sears.com, ebay.com and walmart.com.

For CT, Adbeat reports digital display over the last the last 12 months totaled $28.1k and was placed primarily via Google (91%) onto sites like ctvnews.ca, tsn.ca, much.com, nhl.com and leaderpost.com. This marks an increase as ads over the last 24 months totaled $33.8k and were placed primarily via Google (80%) onto sites like ctvnews.ca, tsn.ca, much.com, nhl.com and thehockeynews.com.

Agency & martech readers -- with so many new personnel and a strategy for US growth, agency changes might be imminent at CT or any of its brands. Therefore, those of you with retail and/or CPG experience should reach out for work. Winmo states creative is split between Fuse Marketing, so expect them among your competition.

**Note: Since CT is headquartered in Canada, you might want to familiarize yourself with its Anti-Spam Law (CASL) before reaching out. HH has an office in Seattle.**