The future of Canada’s marketing industry will be shaped by its youngest talent—the super-worldly, plugged-in, brilliant and creative youth who are making the rest of us take notice. Marketing put out the call to the industry to find the top 30 standouts under the age of 30 who have already made their mark on the industry.
From PR to advertising to media and beyond, our 30 Under 30 showcases the smartest, bravest and most creative ones to watch in the business.
Jennifer Kaiser, 25
Senior consultant, Media Profile
Jennifer Kaiser admits the fact that she’s only 25 may have something to do with the way she loves taking on challenges in her PR career. “I haven’t done everything 100 times already; it’s still all new and exciting,” she says. “When someone says, ‘This is impossible to do’ I am tempted to say ‘Well, just let me give it a try.’”
That tenacity shines through in both Kaiser’s day job and her extensive volunteer charity work. For starters, she’s already been promoted twice at Media Profile in her two years with the PR agency. She’s shown a flair for injecting excitement into the, well, mundane. She even gave pizazz to a parking story by crafting a pitch for Yorkdale Shopping Centre—which was down hundreds of parking spots during the holiday season because of construction work—that promoted an app that detected the mall’s least-busy lots.
The making-shopping-easier angle clicked with media from The Globe and Mail to Citytv. “Some people would have said, ‘It’s a parking [story], it’s not going to go anywhere,’” says Kaiser. But she used her pitching prowess and cast a wide net. “I don’t think a lot of people would call Canada AM about parking, but I decided I was going to go big or go home,” she says.
It worked: the pitch resulted in about 50 stories. Even better, the work helped win Media Profile AOR status for Yorkdale (an account Kaiser manages).
When Kaiser isn’t busy helping Media Profile nab new clients (she played a big part in winning Canadian AOR status on the Match.com account after nailing the RFP and pitch), she spends a lot of time doing work for Project Sunshine Canada, a non-profit organization that provides free educational and recreational programs to kids with medical issues and their families.
In addition to co-chairing the inaugural Young Patron’s Circle fundraiser for the group last year and a spin-off cocktail event this June, Kaiser takes a hands-on approach to volunteering by spending time making crafts with kids the programs help. She says it’s both inspiring and humbling. “Especially working in consumer lifestyle accounts, things that are not necessarily a huge deal become disastrous quite easily and I think working with children and providing wellness programming to kids and families in hospitals gives you that world context that you need and it’s a reminder of things that are important.”
Courtney McLeod, manager at Project Sunshine Canada, says she is grateful for all of the work Kaiser has put into the organization—everything from spearheading PR for fundraisers to getting to know the kids for which she fundraises. “We wouldn’t be raising the funds we are without her around; she’s pretty special,” says McLeod. “She does everything with such a positive attitude and her heart is always behind it.”
Be sure to share our 30 Under 30 profiles through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can read the full 30 Under 30 list in the Sept. 10 issue of Marketing magazine.
