Marketing News Canada: New Hires, podcasts, and more!

Today we feature a round-up of some big events and recent industry happenings.

• Fluent.ai Hires Industry Veteran Jean-Marc Robillard as Director of Marketing
• JAR Audio Announces New Podcast by Avison Young.
• Twitter Canada's New Head of Marketing
• Read more below!

Fluent.ai Hires Industry Veteran Jean-Marc Robillard as Director of Marketing

Fluent.ai, a Canadian company specializing in integrated speech recognition solutions, today announced the expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of Jean-Marc (JM) Robillard to Director of Marketing.

Robillard joins Fluent.ai with 20 years of expertise in senior marketing and contract roles with extensive startup experience and a deep understanding of the technology sector and marketing landscape. In his new role, JM will lead Fluent.ai’s marketing strategy with a focus on product promotion and digital and content marketing to support the company’s sales cycle and drive impactful leads. He will also spearhead new and strategic partnership opportunities and drive consumer education on topics including advancements in edge AI, voice recognition and Industry 4.0 to further position Fluent.ai as a leader in voice technology.

“Scaling Fluent.ai’s marketing efforts to meet the demand we’re seeing for speech technology solutions is an exciting challenge,” Robillard said. “I’ve joined an incredibly talented team and together we’re creating real value and opening doors to unbelievable new opportunities.”

Before joining Fluent.ai, JM served as Senior Manager of Marketing and Digital Strategy for Crisis24 where he helped launched the brand from three acquisitions and an existing division of GardaWorld. Prior to working at Crisis24, Robillard owned Convergence Marketing and held various leadership roles with Genetec and nGUVU. He spent the first seven years of his career with Oracle and was instrumental in launching the company’s Collaboration Suite and its related competitive strategy regarding Microsoft. Robillard earned a degree in business management and marketing from Northwood University and graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s in computer science. In 2016, he continued his education and participated in Techstars, a 13-week program that empowered entrepreneurs to bring innovative technologies to the market through mentorship and investment.

Robillard’s hire supports the company’s larger plans to emerge as a leading provider of intuitive, offline embedded voice technology. The company offers patented speech-to-intent, noise robust and multilingual voice recognition software solutions for OEMs to voice-enable any device or application. Most recently, Fluent.ai partnered with BSH, Europe's leading manufacturer of connected home devices, to bring voice automation to its factory floors to increase efficiency and improve factory worker ergonomics.

“Our company is leading the future of voice user interfaces on the edge, and we needed to scale our team with the rise in interest we’re seeing,” Kirsten Joe, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Fluent.ai said. “Jean-Marc brings a range of multidisciplinary experience to the role and will help drive Fluent.ai’s future growth and strategic initiatives.”

For more information, visit https://fluent.ai/.

JAR Audio Announces New Podcast by Avison Young

Avison Young launched “Changing Places” this week, a podcast about how our relationship with the built environment is changing. Hosted by journalist Mariam Sobh, episodes feature deep-dive conversations about some of the most exciting, ground-breaking commercial real estate developments worldwide – examining the emerging ideas, economic trends, and social issues that surround them.

“When it comes to spaces, what's fascinating is seeing not only the changes being implemented during the new normal, but also, how far ahead designers, architects and dynamic retail have been working," explained Sobh.

No building is an island. Nor is it “just” a building. Our built environment is a reflection of how we think, our priorities, and our values. As we move forward in the era of climate change, it’s critical for everyone – not just those in the commercial real estate space – to think about where we’re going, what we’re building, and how.
The first season of “Changing Places” will feature 12 episodes, released weekly. To learn more about the podcast or to listen to any past episodes, please explore here. (Apple/Spotify)

Twitter Canada's New Head of Marketing

Twitter Canada has announced that Jennifer Bairos Hofer will be joining its team as Twitter’s new head of marketing for Canada. Jennifer joins Twitter from Rogers where she spent 6+ years in a variety of marketing, digital & brand roles. She has worked in former marketing roles for CBC, Corus, Alliance Atlantis and Indigo.

Jennifer inherits the role from Laura Pearce who left Twitter in July 2021 to join Google as its head of marketing for Canada. She is the latest addition to Twitter Canada as part of a massive year of growth. This year of growth was led by the addition of a Canadian engineering hub (first announced in March 2021). Twitter Canada currently has more than 180 staff in Canada with an office in Toronto plus remote team members across Ontario, BC and Nova Scotia

Compiled by Marketing News Canada editor, Emma Whiten