With a $150 billion video game industry eclipsing the movie and music industries combined, the NHL withstanding the test of time as one of the longest-standing sports organizations, the growth of North America’s largest video gaming community, Enthusiast Gaming, and the most recent Biden-Harris campaign using new and innovative channels to reach voters, this event will focus on how brands and politicians are leveraging the popularity of video games, social media, and digital communications tools to get their message out to one of the most lucrative and influential demographics: Gen Z and Millennials.
Join Canadian Club Toronto on February 9 for a discussion with our thought leaders on how they’re shaping brand strategies, empowering marketers and influencing public behaviour. This panel will be moderated by Amanda Lang, Host of Bloomberg Markets on BNN Bloomberg and will feature:
Allison Stern
Digital Partnerships Manager, Biden-Harris 2020 Campaign
Allison Stern is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, and technology executive with an expertise in Internet culture and data-driven audience development. Most recently, she was a Digital Partnerships Manager on the Biden-Harris 2020 Campaign, leading cutting-edge partnerships with publishers, influencers, and platforms. Prior to her work on the Biden-Harris campaign, Allison was the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Tubular Labs, the measurement standard for online video. Allison began her career as a research analyst at CEB, now Gartner, and a business analyst at YouTube. She holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in History from Yale University. In 2017 Cynopsis Media named her a Top Woman in Digital.
Adrian Montgomery
CEO, Enthusiast Gaming
As the Chief Executive Officer of Enthusiast Gaming, Adrian and his team are building the world’s largest social network of communities for gamers and esports fans that reaches over 300 million gaming enthusiasts on a monthly basis. The Company’s business is comprised of four main pillars—Esports, Content, Talent and Events. The E-sports division includes 7 teams under Luminosity Gaming; Content includes 100 gaming related websites and 2 of the top 20 gaming media and entertainment brands on YouTube with BCC Gaming and Arcade Cloud; Our Talent division works with nearly 1,000 YouTube creators and leading gamer talent and our Events include EGLX, the largest gaming expo.
Adrian has been a senior officer and director of several public and private companies in the fields of media, sports and entertainment, finance and industrial services. Most recently, he served as President and CEO of Aquilini Sports and Entertainment, one of Canada’s premier sports and entertainment organizations. He is the former president of Tuckamore Capital Management, a conglomerate with over $700 million of annual revenue, and was also the former CEO of QM Environmental, one of Canada’s largest contracting companies. Mr. Montgomery has been active in the political process throughout his career and has served as a political advisor to Leaders at all levels of government. Mr. Montgomery is also a member of the New York State Bar Association.
Heidi Browning
CMO, NHL
Heidi Browning serves as Chief Marketing Officer of the National Hockey League. With over 25 years of marketing experience, Browning brings a valuable mix of client, agency and media owner perspective to the NHL. Heidi is known as a passionate pioneer in digital, mobile and social marketing and continues to drive thought leadership and innovation within the industry. Inspired by the intersection of media, technology and culture, she studies generational trends in consumer attention and brand engagement. Heidi is responsible for executing the League’s growth marketing strategy with a focus on social media, digital, data and innovation. She was recognized as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Sports” by both Forbes and Ad Week, by Forbes as one of the Most Influential CMOs in the world, and by Crain’s as one of the Notable Women In the Business of Sports.
Prior to joining the NHL, Heidi served as SVP, Strategic Solutions, at Pandora. Her team was responsible for developing marketing experiences that create value for fans, bands and brands. Leveraging Pandora’s passionate fans, first party data, and personalization, Heidi’s team launched live music and content experiences pairing Fortune 500 clients with emerging and iconic artists. She was recognized as one of the top “Women in Music” by Billboard.
As Senior Vice President of Client Solutions for Fox Interactive Media/MySpace, Heidi evangelized the value of social media in the marketing mix and positioned brand communities as a new way to build audience, create engagement and establish a two-way dialogue between consumers and brands. She led the first in-depth consumer segmentation and ROI study for social media – Never Ending Friending, A Journey Into Social Networking, which quantified the impact of The Momentum Effect.
Browning is a respected thought leader in the industry and is a featured speaker at industry conferences including TEDx Women, Mobile Marketing Association CMO Summit, Youth Marketing Summit, Hashtag Sports, Cannes Lions, SXSW, Forrester and CES.
Heidi holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder in International Relations. She currently resides in San Francisco, CA and New York, NY.
Amanda Lang
Anchor & Reporter, BNN Bloomberg
Amanda Lang rejoined BNN Bloomberg in January 2018, returning to the channel she helped create almost 19 years earlier. As New York correspondent, she was a key part of the team that launched BNN Bloomberg’s predecessor, ROBTV, in 1999.
Lang has been covering business news in North America for 20 years. She started her journalism career at The Globe and Mail and then the National Post, before moving into television with ROBTV and then CNN.
Lang returned to BNN Bloomberg/ROBTV in 2002 as anchor of the network’s flagship morning show before creating and hosting SQUEEZEPLAY, a nightly issues-driven debate show with Kevin O’Leary. In 2009, Lang left BNN Bloomberg to join the CBC as its senior business correspondent. Most recently she worked as an anchor for Bloomberg Television Canada.
Lang studied architecture at the University of Manitoba before becoming a journalist. Her best-selling book, The Power of Why, (HarperCollins, October 2012) explores the connection between curiosity and success. Her second book, The Beauty of Discomfort, was published in 2017.
