Certification in marketing communication

Module 1
Transform your marketing, communications and branding into a profit centre

Pierre Balloffet
Guest: Patrick Messier

This module aims to comprehend and quantify the return on investment (ROI) in marketing communications. Utilizing contemporary examples, we will showcase the evolving role of the brand as a catalyst for growth and success. Indeed, your marketing and communications department could become a profit center that goes beyond mere efficiency, while still fulfilling its primary mission.

• Measure the return on your marketing communications investment.
• Distinctly establish the connection between your marketing activities, growth, and profitability.
• Integrate design best practices into your marketing activities with strategic foresight.

Module 2
The “new normal” of marketing, communications and branding and what it means for you

Gaëtan Namouric

These days, it’s all about the brand. Our collective fascination with change has been amplified by our obsession with speed. We want more, faster. And then even more, even faster. How can your company compete in a world gone mad? How do you take a step back to define your own goals? And what can you do to capture other people’s attention? To become a brand, you need to:

• Accept that everything starts, not with you, but with others
• Embrace the complexity inherent in crafting consistent messaging
• Communicate a compelling vision to your customers, partners and staff
• Familiarize yourself with what you need to break into a given market nowadays
• Make sense of a media industry that, while in crisis, still has much to offer
• Untangle the myriad of influences that shape your brand’s path to market
• Grasp the enormous challenges for an inward-facing brand in attracting, recruiting and retaining talent.

Module 3
Harness your organization’s creative power with an effective content production strategy

Marie Eve Gosemick

How can you structure the development of user-centric content without diluting your brand? How do you measure your branding ROI? Avoid costly mistakes associated with in-house content production by establishing coherent content management rules and ensuring everyone’s roles and responsibilities are set out in clearly worded policies. Adopt a collaborative inbound marketing approach to support your entire content production lifecycle.

• Build user-centric content creation in line with your brand identity
• Put strong content management guidelines into place
• Use clear processes to define the roles and responsibilities of the content development team
• Apply an inbound marketing system to editorial management and distribution
• Plan your human and financial resources and define your ROI metrics.

Module 4
Be your own media company: A vision within reach of every business and organization today

For better or for worse, the marketing communications field is evolving into something quite different from what it used to be. Today’s professionals have to cater to audiences that are more niche-driven, more fragmented, more bombarded by content and more discerning than ever before. And the tools available to connect with them are increasingly sophisticated, yet more readily available. The rules of the game are changing at breakneck speed. So, what is the secret to navigating through this brave new world? How can you find your way through the marketing and communications puzzle to make smart choices, identify and stick to your priorities, and use the right metrics to analyze the results? Formulate your own answers with two specialists in the field.

Morning
Gabriel Tassé

From data protection and user consent to increasingly urgent ethical and environmental concerns, this module explores the current issues that are forcing us all to rethink our media strategies. In this module, you will learn about:

• Issues related to data protection and user consent.
• How to adapt your media planning approach in a context of increasing depersonalization.
• Emerging trends in advertising and audience targeting.
• How to integrate the principles of responsible and sustainable marketing into your media strategies.

Afternoon
Michelle Blanc

Digital advertising has evolved, and the return on investment has become less predictable.

• How can you reach your customers and interest them in the right way?
• Which platforms are most conducive if you aim to prominently stand out?
• How can you be interesting rather than interested in your digital communications?
• How can you ensure the sustained impact of your investments and content online, and is it possible for your marketing to become a source of revenue rather than an expense?

These are some of the questions that will be raised in this workshop. In addition, numerous Quebec examples of effective and profitable content distribution will be presented.

Module 5
Act thoughtfully and build highly productive relationships with external partners

Élizabeth Henry
Guest: Pierre-Luc Camirand

Communications and marketing practices are in the midst of a profound change. Some organizations are insourcing this work, while others are taking a whole new look at how they team up with their partners to optimize their business relationships and get the most bang for their outsourcing buck

How can you get a better handle on what your partnership-related needs are? How can you decide which activities to keep in-house and which ones to farm out? What are the factors that will determine the success of your collaboration with your partners? How can you enhance your results while still keeping your expenses under control? Which performance indicators are the best at helping you improve your business relationships and outcomes?

• Define, assess and prioritize your needs in terms of external partnerships and optimize your existing collaborative efforts
• Plan and structure your communications and marketing activities to stretch every dollar you invest in your branding
• Define every person’s roles and responsibilities as accurately as possible
• Identify the required level of transparency with respect to your business data and corporate strategy
• Determine the conditions for success with outside partners
• Collaborate efficiently to make your brand more appealing and impactful
• Establish KPIs that are meaningful to your business
• Assess partners as part of a continuous improvement process

Faculty administrator and instructor:

Instructors:

Guests:

Patrick Messier

President of MESSIER designers and of the Association des designers industriels du Québec.

Pierre-Luc Camirand

Senior Director of Digital Customer Experience, Cirque du Soleil.