Have you ever fallen into a role you didn’t expect? That’s exactly what happened to Rupen Seoni, CM, Chief Client Officer at Environics Analytics. An urban planner fascinated by geography and demography, Rupen pivoted to marketing and earned his CM designation along the way. In his CM Spotlight, Rupen shares why your reputation is your most valuable asset, tactics to stay current in a rapidly evolving field, and how to build a solid foundation for career growth.

A Voice

Training and standards are an important mark of a profession. The CM program provides Canadian marketers and their prospective employers greater assurances of their skills and knowledge and a route to keeping skills up to date in this constantly evolving profession. The CM designation also brings credibility to marketing and supports marketers by giving them a voice when advocating for our needs.

Better Decision-Making

I became a marketer by accident. By training, I’m an urban planner who was interested in data and analytics and fascinated by geography and demography. I’ve spent over 20 years at Environics Analytics (EA), where we unleash the power of demography, geography, and many other data types to support better decision-making in marketing, communications, and real estate applications.

Your Reputation

While there are undoubtedly long-time loyal marketers to single organizations, it’s a relatively small industry with a lot of movement where people cross paths in the future. When I mentor younger marketers, I always remind them that their reputation is the most important thing they have.

Best Practices

Marketers have this ongoing challenge of proving their worth since a big chunk of marketing expenditures are an awareness-driving/top-of-the-funnel investment that supports base sales volumes. Because marketing is often seen as a discretionary expense, marketers tend to be asked to justify their value. Yet, it isn’t always easy to tie marketing expenses to a direct boost in revenue. Marketers need to “market” whatever measurement of value they can make and ensure their organizations understand best practices so they can support them properly and make appropriate marketing investments for the long term.

Participate

Participating is the best way to stay current in a constantly changing profession. Conferences provide an understanding of the here and now, and industry organizations (the CMA and others) have thought leadership groups, content, and networking that allow members to keep current on the latest trends and issues. Participating is critical since the profession is always changing.

An Exciting Time

Since my first role, I’ve noticed how much digital marketing has taken hold. Digital marketing provides precise targeting and measurement like never before, so it’s an exciting time. Traditional direct marketing principles are great when training young marketers because targeting, reach, frequency, response rates and more are all applicable today, but sometimes the training is spotty.

Some of these basics would help the industry be more data-driven and precise. Another significant change has been that ad agencies are active partners in being data-driven, including measurement. There used to be much more resistance early in my career, but now, they see the value, and advertisers demand it.

I’ve noticed how Canada’s role is changing. When I first started, even multinational companies had marketing strategies for Canada. Today, while Canadian brands still do start-to-finish marketing, it has diminished with international brands (I’m not saying it doesn’t exist), with Canada becoming, in many cases, a sales office and local marketing execution function.

Learning, Building, Leading

Learning

One difficult challenge was deciding on a career in marketing analytics and getting that first job. As I mentioned, I have a degree in urban planning. When I graduated, the job market was tough, but I was interested in data, analytics and marketing. I had to show that I had transferable, relevant skills to convince AC Nielsen that they should hire me. Thankfully, it worked, but it was a daunting challenge. Seeing and selling the transferability of skills was the key to learning for me there.

Building

Another challenge was participating in the building of Environics Analytics (EA) over many years. I’m proud to say I’m one of the people who helped build this company from nearly the beginning (I was employee number 8, as I recall). There were always challenges since creating the company meant doing things we were not necessarily experts in. It took curiosity, communication among the leadership team and the experience of making some great decisions along with some not-so-good ones.

Leading

Finally, I’d say the refinement of EA’s contribution to CTV’s federal and provincial election coverage over the past decade. I’m proud to have led this and appeared in many election specials on CTV. It was a daunting task to present our data in an informative but succinct way to CTV viewers, which is what television demands. Thankfully, our partners at CTV (also part of BCE, which is Bell’s ownership) are supportive and believe in the value, so we’ve worked at it together and made it better.

Great Leaps

I’m excited about the evolution of clean rooms, marketing attribution and data-driven marketing execution. The leaps made here (including keeping these approaches Canadian and privacy compliant) will help move marketing along in Canada. The fact that EA plays an integral part makes it even more compelling.

The Foundation

Nothing replaces knowing your stuff. Get “under the hood” and learn how things work when starting. That deep knowledge acquired through hands-on learning gives you the foundation to entrench your expertise and move into adjacent roles.

Today, organizations tend not to invest in training as they used to. Leaning in and getting the knowledge will serve you well down the road. Secondly, communication skills and expertise in turning the subject matter into a compelling story are highly valuable. It will help you get further in more technical roles, and it’s a “must” for leadership roles.

 

 

 

Becoming a Chartered Marketer not only boosts your credibility but also ensures you stay competitive in this evolving field. Download the CM Brochure to learn more about the pathways to becoming a Chartered Marketer program today and take a significant step in your marketing career.