You’re Not Flying Blind, You’re Ignoring the Window

Dashboards won’t warn you. Your next blind spot is already in motion.

September 10, 2025

In partnership with

Hey friend,

You’ve mapped the customer journey. You’ve built personas. You’ve got a deck for every channel and a dashboard to match.

And yet, you might still be walking into 2026 like it’s 3 a.m. and you’re trying to dodge furniture in the dark.

We obsess over what already happened: campaign performance, traffic drops, last quarter’s “top performer.” But while we polish dashboards, audiences are shifting, new communities are rising, and competitor moves are already unfolding.

That’s what Charlie Grinnell, Co-CEO at RightMetric, is warning marketers about. Not just data overload, but data blindness. He challenges marketers to stop scanning dashboards and start scanning the horizon.

Coming Up

He calls it Outsight.

❝

Outsight is the discipline of looking outward, systematically, continuously, and at scale, to eliminate blind spots before they cost you.

Charlie Grinnell

Instead of building next year’s plan on internal signals like attribution models and post-campaign metrics, Outsight means watching what’s happening now, in culture, competitors, communities, and attention shifts.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

  • Tracking how real people behave, not what they say in research reports

  • Watching competitors in real time, not reading about them weeks later

  • Spotting signals in culture before they trend

  • Listening to how people talk about their problems and adjusting your messaging to match

Outsight is a muscle, not a magic trick.

You don’t have to throw out your strategy. But you do have to get curious, about new communities, rising voices, odd patterns, and changing behavior.

This mindset shift is not optional. The marketers who win in 2026 will be the ones who noticed before the rest of us did.

And if you want help noticing?

Right Metric is offering SocialNext Marketing Alliance members $500 off their Rival Report, a strategic benchmark of your top five competitors across web, paid, and social.

❝

Once you see the market this way, you can’t unsee it.

Charlie Grinnell

Community Spotlight: Charlie Grinnell Wants You to Stop Looking Inward

Charlie Grinnell is on a mission to help marketers see what’s coming, not just what already happened.

As Co-CEO of RightMetric, he helps brands eliminate blind spots by tracking real-time audience shifts, competitive moves, and cultural signals that most dashboards miss. Before launching RightMetric, Charlie led marketing at Red Bull and Aritzia, where he learned firsthand how fast the landscape can change and how dangerous it is to assume you’re ahead.

The New Rules of Marketing
Marketing in 2025 is noisier, faster, and more fragmented than ever. This session will show you how to:

  • Spot audience shifts in real time

  • Replace guesswork with data-informed content

  • Prioritize the right platforms instead of chasing them all

And if you’re heading to SocialEast, catch Charlie on the big stage as he brings this same framework to life in-person in Halifax.

SNMA Webinar Calendar

Free webinars in the SocialNext Marketing Alliance this week:

Wednesday, September 10 | 10 AM MST/12 PM EST
How to Transform Fragile Product Demos into Bulletproof Brand Moments
Product demos are high-risk, high-reward. Startup advisor Chris Matthews shows how to turn shaky prototypes and live walkthroughs into bold, brand-building moments that stick.

Wednesday, September 17 | 10 AM MST/12 PM EST
The New Rules of Marketing – How to Eliminate Blind Spots and Move Before the Market
Your audience is shifting. Your channels are crowded. And your dashboards are only telling you what already happened. Join RightMetric Co-CEO Charlie Grinnell to learn how to build strategy around what’s happening now.

Wednesday, October 1 | 10 AM MST/12 PM EST
The $8.9 Trillion Blind Spot: Why Marketing Starts Inside
If your people aren’t aligned, your campaigns won’t land. Communications strategist Cerys Thompson reveals how internal clarity drives external success and shares a pre-launch checklist every marketer needs.

SocialNext Events Roundup

Only 25 tickets left for SocialEast, happening September 25–26 on the Halifax harbour. Don’t miss your chance to join 500+ marketers for two days of strategy, creativity, and conversation with Atlantic Canada’s most engaged marketing community. Expect smart sessions, new connections, and a few surprises.

If you’re a marketer who does it all, SocialPacific is for you. Whether you’re running the show solo or juggling ten priorities in a fast-moving team, this one-day event delivers fresh, practical insights you can actually use. It’s all happening October 30 in Vancouver.

Canadian Marketing & Business Weekly Brief

New Trade Support for Canadian SMBs — The federal government has launched an initiative to help small and mid-sized businesses adapt to trade uncertainty. Expect an uptick in B2B service demand, localization efforts, and resilience storytelling.

$80M Tariff Relief Fund Announced for Atlantic Canada — Mark Carney has unveiled a federal fund to offset rising trade costs for Atlantic Canadian businesses. For marketers in export-heavy sectors, this could unlock new budgets and messaging opportunities tied to growth and recovery.

MediaRadar Enters the Canadian Market — U.S.-based MediaRadar is launching a tool tailored to Canadian social media marketers, bringing new visibility into ad spend, influencer performance, and competitive moves.

Bili Adds Director of AI — Canadian content platform Bili has named a Director of AI to lead its personalization strategy. It’s a signal that marketers will need to deepen their understanding of AI-assisted targeting and content workflows.

Payworks Sells Stake to Private Equity — Winnipeg-based HR tech firm Payworks has sold a stake to private equity, vaulting co-founder Barb Gamey into the ranks of Canada’s wealthiest. A strong reminder of the growth potential in Canadian B2B tech.

Treat Your Customers Like Influencers — Christina Garnett makes the case for turning your most loyal users into brand advocates. It’s not about creator reach, it’s about customer credibility.

Canada’s Surf Park Surge — A Vancouver company is riding the wave of global demand for surf parks. Their rise reflects how lifestyle-first positioning and experiential brands are reshaping what “leisure” marketing looks like.

Best Entertainment Apps in the Canadian Market — New insights into what Canadians are downloading show strong consumer demand for entertainment apps. Expect more branded content partnerships and app-first media campaigns.

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Coast-to-Coast Job Postings

Follow Marketing News Canada on LinkedIn for cross-Canada job round-ups every Friday.

Have a great story or big news to share?
We’re always looking for fresh campaigns, smart strategies, and standout wins from Canada’s marketing community. Send us your news at [email protected] and you could be featured in an upcoming edition.

Thanks for reading and being a part of the MNC community!

We’re so happy you’re here.

Marketing News Canada

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