Our SocialNext: Toronto Recap

The sessions people are still talking about, and the community behind them.

April 14, 2026

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Hey friend,

Last week, we joined over 650 marketers across the Storys Building and The Carlu for the third annual SocialNext: Toronto. The room was full, the people were vibrant, and one thing was clear from the stage to the crowd — community isn't a marketing buzzword. It's a feeling of belonging.

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No matter where you're reading from, Strategy Consultant June Findlay was on the ground for MNC across both days. Relive it, catch up on what you missed, and remember why this community is worth showing up for.

Coming up

What Two Days at SocialNext Toronto Taught Us

The theme no one planned but everyone felt: the tools have never been more powerful, and what audiences are actually responding to hasn't changed at all. They want to feel something. They want to trust someone. They want a real voice, whether that's a creator they follow, or a brand that's finally learned to act like one.

April 8: Leadership, Email, and the Work Behind the Work

Full Circle brought together over 300 senior marketing leaders for an afternoon of fireside conversations on AI and modern marketing leadership. Mitch Joel, Erin Elofson of Mastercard, Jonelle Ricketts of IKEA, Crystal Carter of Wix, and Neil Patel were all on stage — and the conversation was notably grounded. Nobody was there to hype AI. They were there to figure out how to lead through it. Six of the sharpest quotes from the afternoon are in June's piece, and Mitch Joel's PACE framework alone is worth the click.

Earlier that morning, the Own Your Marketing workshops tackled the channels practitioners actually live in. The CyberImpact email session was one of the most-cited highlights in attendee feedback — and the reason is simple: the Inform, Engage, Activate framework they shared is something you can act on this week.

April 9: Creators, Community, and the Future of the Work

600+ marketers, one venue, a full day across multiple rooms. Three themes kept surfacing no matter where you were.

Creators aren't a channel… They're the engine. Adam Constantine's closing keynote was the most-talked-about session of the day, and it's not hard to see why. His argument that brands optimize for internal approval while creators optimize for audiences, is one of those ideas that sounds obvious until you look at your own content calendar. June's full conference recap breaks down the creator, AI, and community threads from across the day.

Community is built, not declared. HeyOrca's session cut through the buzzword and got into the actual mechanics of how belonging works. If your brand has been talking about community without a real strategy behind it, this one will give you somewhere to start.

Does your brand actually know who it is? Lindsay Smith and René Thomas of Takt ran one of the highest-rated sessions of the day, a practical walkthrough of their Corporate Brand Identity Matrix and how to pressure-test a brand framework before it gets exposed by a culture shift or a leadership change. If you work in brand strategy, this is the one to read.

What the Room Said
The feedback forms told a story that matched what you could feel in the hallways. People came to learn and left with more than they expected.

The sessions that kept coming up were the ones that got specific. Adam Constantine's closing keynote, Neil Patel's search deep-dive, Caley Dimmock's Meta ads breakdown, and Will Yang's smartphone content workshop all landed because they skipped the theory and got into the work. Attendees left those rooms with frameworks, tactics, and in more than a few cases, things they were already planning to change the following week.

But the thing that came through most clearly in the feedback wasn't any single session. It was the feeling of being in a room full of people who get it. Marketers from healthcare, agriculture, hospitality, education, e-commerce, and everywhere in between — all there for the same reason. To stay sharp, connect with peers, and walk away with something worth bringing back to their teams.

That's what this community is built for.

Thank you to everyone who came, and to June for the coverage.

The AI Playbook for Video Teams That Can't Slow Down

Wistia's new AI Video Marketing Trends report shows how marketers are using AI to handle the unglamorous work, so creative energy stays where it matters.

Marketing leaders across industries are using AI to reach broader audiences, move faster, and extend the shelf life of every video they make. The report breaks down how AI is improving speed and output quality, helping teams keep up with demand and raise the bar while they're at it.

Because when every channel needs video, you need leverage, not another meeting that could've been an email. AI clears the runway so ideas actually take off.

See how top teams are using AI to iterate, refine, and ship while keeping a human grip on taste, voice, and strategy.

Across the Industry - Short & Sweet Edition

Industry news, research, leadership perspectives, and campaign spotlights driving Canadian marketing forward.

For years, CTV has been an awareness play. Reach cord-cutters, build brand, move on. Samsung Ads Canada just announced that era is over, and they have the campaign results to back it up. If you haven't thought seriously about what's sitting between a viewer and their Netflix app, this one will change that.

At the Liberal Party convention last weekend, two resolutions passed that could fundamentally change who Canadian brands can reach on social, and how. Neither is law yet, but the political momentum is real and the timeline is shorter than most marketers are planning for. Here's what it means for your targeting, your data, and the owned audiences you should probably be building right now.

Watch & Learn

Upcoming live webinars, interviews and conversations in the SocialNext Marketing Alliance. Every Wednesday at 10 AM Mountain Time / 12 PM Eastern Time.

April 15: The $0 Alternative to Supermetrics (Live Demo) 
Your reporting stack is costing you more than it should. This Wednesday, Ash Brar is walking through how to build your own Meta reporting pipeline using the Meta Graph API, free, flexible, and fully yours. You'll leave with a pre-built Google Sheet ready to go. No subscription required.

April 22: Campaigns That Convert: Connecting Platforms With Cohesive Storytelling
Gina Michnowicz, CEO of The Craftsman and the person behind integrated campaigns for Cisco, Disney, and Microsoft, is joining the SNMA to break down how to build brand-to-demand campaigns that tell one cohesive story from awareness all the way through to conversion.

Coast-to-Coast Job Opportunities

The marketing job market in Canada is more difficult than ever. To help those on the hunt, here's a snapshot of what's open right now across the country. Follow us on LinkedIn for job openings across every province and territory in Canada every Friday.

Thanks for reading. If you were there, thank you for being part of it. If you weren't, we'll see you at the next one.

Marketing News Canada

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