Sonia Carreno
Sonia Carreno will be taking over as president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Canada, the organization has announced.
The new president has a wide range of experience, having worked over the past 15 years with digital branding and media agencies and as an independent consultant. Her most recent role was as head of Performics Canada, a search marketing agency under the Publicis umbrella.
Joe Strolz, the chair of the IAB board of directors (and general manager of AOL Canada), said the organization was looking for a “fresh face” who could help the association build new relationships, and continue the discussion with government bodies and other trade associations.
“What we needed was a leader who had experienced a whole wide range of disciplines, as Sonia has, who had length and tenure in the business to give her the wisdom to lead the organization, and finally to draw on all of that to chart a creative path forward,” he said.
Carreno said she looks forward to developing the IAB as a brand, and initiating more direct discussion with members about the issues facing the industry.
“We’re in a very healthy place right now, we have a strong membership, we’re seeing growth instead of decline,” she said. “I think we have a lot of opportunity to work with the community at a consultative level, and really get more exposure to the membership on a one-on-one basis, to inspire more of the conversations that are needing to happen today.”
Back in the early 90s, Carreno’s career began in sports marketing at IMG Canada. In working to measure the effectiveness of sponsorships, she became fascinated with measurement and media. That led to her being recruited to lead the Canadian arm of an upstart digital agency called Modem Media, which today is part of DigitasLBi. In 2001, she took on the role of general manager for DAC Group Digital, and helped transition it from a print-focused search business to a leading local SEM, SEO and online search listings provider.
More recently, she worked as director of digital strategy at Capital C and later Proximity, in addition to running an independent consultancy firm called Passage Communications. She’s worked on content strategy, social, search and user experience with brands ranging from Sun Life, to Yellow Pages, Gillette, Nissan and Torstar.
Over the next few months, Carreno will work with interim president Barbara Smith to transition the leadership of the organization. Smith has led the organization since former president Chris Williams stepped down at the end of last year.
Carreno takes on leadership of the IAB at an interesting time for the organization and the industry. In summer of last year, the IAB announced digital ad spending in Canada had surpassed TV for the first time — marking not only a major win for the digital marketing industry, but the beginning of a transformation of the IAB from a niche trade group into a mainstream standards and advocacy body. Meanwhile, the industry faces a glut of important and difficult issues, from transparency in the digital supply chain, to data security and privacy.
Strolz said for the IAB to push forward and make its mandate clear in an increasingly blurry space for industry trade organizations, it needs a leader that can appreciate how digital issues impact not just on the media industry and members of the IAB, but the greater sphere of marketing.
“Not only can she appreciate the more technical nature of the world of digital, but she understands, and has seen firsthand the impact it has on other industries that are associated with it,” he said, pointing to her experience across both branding and media, and across print, TV and digital.
“That was probably the number one thing that we were looking for: an ability to understand across disciplines,” he said. “We really needed someone who could bring more of a holistic lens to problem solving and charting our next steps.”
