Former Walmart Marketing Exec to lead ACA’s cross media measurement initiative

Jennifer Holgate

The Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) has appointed former Walmart marketing executive, Jennifer Holgate, to Director, Cross Media Measurement. She will drive and enable the collaborative implementation of a cross media measurement (CMM) solution in Canada.

Cross media measurement has been a dream of the marketing and media community for some time, both locally and globally. Now the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is overseeing the development of a common system for global use that can be adapted locally (Project Halo). Supported by the WFA, cross media measurement initiatives are currently underway in the US by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and in the UK by ISBA (Project Origin). The ACA is an active participant with Project Halo and is following the US and UK initiatives closely for learnings.

Jennifer was hired to head up the Canadian initiative, which is guided by the WFA’s North Star principles and global best practice learnings to ensure continuous, comprehensive and full-funnel measurement. Cross media measurement will result in a better viewing experience for consumers by avoiding excessive ad frequency while ensuring their privacy. For advertisers, it will allow them to reduce media spend waste thereby achieving greater media ROI.

Jennifer will bring stakeholders together, including advertisers, agencies, broadcasters, publishers, industry associations, and research providers to build a blueprint for Canadian implementation.

“We are delighted to have Jennifer join the ACA. Her depth and breadth of experience across the Canadian media, marketing and agency landscape as well as her outstanding reputation as a marketing and communications leader make her ideally suited for this role.” said Judy Davey, Vice President, Media Policy and Marketing Capabilities at the ACA.

Jennifer’s past positions include Vice President, Marketing Communications and Vice President, Walmart Media Group at Walmart Canada, Vice President Product Innovation at Rogers Media, SVP Digital & Integration at Starcom MediaVest Group and Vice President Digital & Broadcast at CanWest Media. She is currently a professor of content strategy at Humber College.

“With the pandemic driving a significant change in media consumption and consumer behaviour, the need for cross media measurement has never been greater. I am really looking forward to bringing all parties together to deliver a truly successful approach that will meet the needs of consumers, media, advertisers, and agencies.”

The appointment of Jennifer Holgate is a significant step in moving this initiative forward, bolstering the significant work of ACA’s CMM Committee which is comprised of senior marketers from eleven national advertisers across Canada. In addition to education and learning, committee members are currently in the process of meeting with key industry stakeholders. To date, key stakeholders have indicated they are supportive of uniting to bring CMM to fruition.

The ACA is committed to a collaborative process and looks forward to working with the industry to make media history in Canada.

ACA is the indispensable advocate and thought leader for Canadian marketers, and the champion of a transparent and accountable marketplace. Learn more: www.acaweb.ca