EP49 - How Sleep Country Canada Transformed Sleep Culture with Nuno Bamberg

What does it take to transform how an entire country thinks about sleep? In this episode, Alison Simpson, CEO of the CMA, sits down with Nuno Bamberg, Senior Vice President, Brand and Marketing at Sleep Country Canada. Nuno is the Brazilian-born, Canadian-made marketing leader behind Sleep Country Canada's cultural transformation. From his family's creative agency roots in Brazil to building brand portfolios that balance legacy with bold innovation, Nuno shares why curiosity beats caution, how to fail fast and iterate faster, and what Sleep Country's acquisition of UK's Simba Sleep reveals about scaling values across borders.

00:00:01:18 - 00:00:22:08
Presenter
Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, CMA CEO, Alison Simpson.

00:00:22:10 - 00:00:43:06
Alison
In today's episode, we're diving into a story that in many ways embodies the modern Canadian dream. From a 16-year old Brazilian exchange student in small town Ontario to the marketing executive who's transforming one of Canada's most beloved brands. I'm thrilled to welcome Nuno Bamberg, Senior Vice President of Brand and Marketing at Sleep Country Canada, to our podcast today.

00:00:43:08 - 00:01:07:22
Alison
Nuno oversees marketing strategies for Sleep Country, Dormez-Vous, Bloom, Endy, Hush, Casper and Silk and Snow, as well as the new retail store, the rest. His Canadian story began at age 16 as an exchange student in Bracebridge, Ontario, an experience that planted the seeds for his eventual emigration to Canada with his family as an adult. This was driven by his belief in both Canadian values as well as the opportunities our country represents.

00:01:08:00 - 00:01:37:06
Alison
Like me, Nuno started his career at agencies before moving to the brand side. Before he joined Sleep Country Canada and spent nine years as the SVP, Chief Content and Production Officer at Publicis Group Canada, where he helped nearly double the agency's size while working with iconic brands like The Home Depot, Rogers and Canadian Tire. Since making the move to Sleep Country in 2023, Nuno has been transforming how Canadians think about sleep, elevating it well beyond a commodity purchase to a critical component of our health and wellness.

00:01:37:08 - 00:02:06:20
Alison
Today, we'll explore how Nuno is driving this cultural shift around sleep and wellness, and redefining what it means to honour legacy while embracing bold innovations in today's dynamic and, at times, very challenging retail landscape. This week, his team launched their latest innovation, and Nuno will share a bit about what led to the bold new approach. So whether you're interested in the agency to client career transition, or how an established Canadian brand can innovate while honouring their legacy, today's conversation promises to both be inspiring and actionable.

00:02:06:22 - 00:02:09:01
Alison
Without further ado, welcome, Nuno.

00:02:09:03 - 00:02:18:01
Nuno
Thank you. And for the CMA and CMA Connect team for having me today. I'm excited to be here sharing a little bit about myself, my journey to Canada, and my professional experience in Canada.

00:02:18:03 - 00:02:25:20
Alison
So, you know, I would love to start by having you share what brought you from Brazil to Canada originally, and why you chose Canada over so many other countries.

00:02:25:22 - 00:02:53:15
Nuno
The first time I came to Canada, as you mentioned, it was when I was 16 years of age. And frankly, at that time, I was really focused on going somewhere where I didn't know anyone. I know it was a little weird, but that's really what I wanted. I wanted to go somewhere where I had no family, no friends, no safety net, and that would force me just to get out of my comfort zone and quite frankly, immerse myself fully into a new culture, a new language, daily habits, daily rituals, and an entire new way of life, if you will.

00:02:53:16 - 00:03:10:14
Nuno
And I've always been that way. I always been incredibly curious about people in general. Like I always, as a kid, saw myself observing someone down the street and kind of pictured in my brain, what do they come from? What do they do? What's their background? And so I want to live that myself, because I had family in the U.S., that ruled out the U.S. all together.

00:03:10:16 - 00:03:33:22
Nuno
I really wanted us, you know, clean slate, not a soft landing. And so I didn't want to fall back into the Portuguese, nor, because I didn't know English all that well, I wanted to fall back into my comfort zone. And so Canada became an obvious choice because it allowed me to grow, to expand, find a new version of myself if that makes sense, while also being able to encounter a new culture, which was something fairly new to me.

00:03:34:00 - 00:03:54:08
Nuno
And what quickly stood out to me was the Canadian people. As a 16 year old going to Bracebridge at that time, there was no Google, there was no bing, there was Ask Jeeves. I knew nothing about Bracebridge, nor Canada, and within the week I knew everyone. And so the incredible kindness and open-mindedness with which Canadians received me at that time kind of stuck with me.

00:03:54:08 - 00:04:10:16
Nuno
And so the second time I thought about leaving Brazil, fast forward to 2015, we had just had our second child a year before, and when my wife and I were in the decision of do we want to raise a family outside of Brazil, we have family in the U.S., so that felt like a natural place to go to. And my wife had never been to Canada before.

00:04:10:16 - 00:04:27:12
Nuno
So I said to her, let me talk to you about Canada a little bit and the experience of what it is to go to a country where you know no one and no one knows you, but you are incredibly welcome and well-received, despite of your background and your own walk of life. And so we made the decision to come to Canada together.

00:04:27:12 - 00:04:50:06
Nuno
I've been here now for ten years, and there's something about Canada kind of stays with you and has stayed with me since I was 16. And most importantly, quite frankly it molded me in many, many ways. So I always say that I was Brazilian-born and Canadian-made is because in many ways, the parts got assembled in Canada and made me a better human and I would say a better marketer, hopefully from all my experiences in Canada.

00:04:50:08 - 00:05:09:00
Alison
That's an incredibly brave move as an adult. At 16, it's one of those pivotal times where we're all sort of figuring ourselves out. So for you to pick up and leave everything you knew and transplant yourself deliberately in small town Canada was very brave and certainly speaks to, I suspect, part of what has made you such a successful marketer as well.

00:05:09:01 - 00:05:23:03
Alison
And then when you moved with your family to Toronto, I grew up in small town Ontario, so I like to think that we're the most welcoming part of Canada, Toronto isn't always as welcoming, but I'd love to hear what your experience and your family's experience was coming to Toronto.

00:05:23:05 - 00:05:45:10
Nuno
That's an incredible observation. Yes, I think moving to a small town, Bracebridge, at 16, was a lot easier in many ways than it was moving to Canada with an entire family and different pressures too, because when I came, my wife didn't speak the language. She was leaving behind a pretty successful career in advertising in Brazil. There were a lot more baggages and pressures that came with the move itself.

00:05:45:12 - 00:06:09:00
Nuno
What made it unique to being Toronto versus that small town Canada, to your point, was while it was, everything was very foreign to my wife and family at the same time, everything was very accessible. So having access to different cultures and most importantly, actually a little piece of Brazil already existed in Canada. There's a part of Toronto where it's a lot of Portuguese bakeries, Portuguese grocery shops, Brazilian grocery shops, Brazilian bakeries and restaurants.

00:06:09:02 - 00:06:30:18
Nuno
So that helped her get acclimated to Canada a lot easier than not. But certainly, to your point, took a lot longer to get accustomed to the life in Canada at a big city where you don't have that neighbour just down the street, you can knock on the door of. It made it a little harder for us. But still, what I can say remain the same was the open-mindedness that Canadians have.

00:06:30:20 - 00:06:49:00
Nuno
And I think that's because of the very diverse cultural background that we all have in Canada remain the same. People were still very welcoming to the fact that she was learning the language, my kids were learning the language. We're all acclimated to the culture. The open-mindedness was still the same. The access to people was a bit more far removed because it was a bigger city.

00:06:49:02 - 00:06:57:03
Nuno
But people's innate open-mindedness and kindness were still pretty much the same as it were many, many years ago when I was in small town Bracebridge.

00:06:57:05 - 00:07:17:12
Alison
So as Canadians, we'd like to pride ourselves on being open-minded, welcoming and being a cultural mosaic. So for me, as a longstanding Canadian, it's really rewarding to hear that you, as someone newer to our country, found that both in your teen years, but also bringing your your family back to Canada ten years ago, so... happy 10th anniversary, by the way.

00:07:17:16 - 00:07:19:23
Nuno
Thank you. Thank you. I'm very proud to be here.

00:07:20:01 - 00:07:30:01
Alison
When we first met, you had mentioned that you were born into the creative agency world with family that worked in the business in Brazil. How do you think that foundation really influenced your career path?

00:07:30:03 - 00:07:55:10
Nuno
Well great question. Yeah, creativity and creative in general ran deep into my household. My dad and my older brother are both in the business back home, and not only are they in the business, they led the business in many, many ways in the sense that both of them founded agencies themselves, ran them very successfully, as well as had some very successful large holding company careers as well, establishing themselves in top of the mind game in Brazil, if you will.

00:07:55:12 - 00:08:14:14
Nuno
But the biggest difference what it was and was really interesting is that they were very separated and in very different ends of the spectrum from an advertising perspective. My father was always the relationship type of guy who knew through art, craft, words and communication how to touch the human heart. And he was really the art in the science.

00:08:14:14 - 00:08:32:06
Nuno
And my brother was the science in the art. He was always very much data, how to understand structures, technology. In the early days of the bubble of the internet in Brazil, he was already at the forefront of that. So growing up in that world, I guess, gave me this duality that was very interesting of how I interact with the world.

00:08:32:06 - 00:08:53:10
Nuno
But in advertising specifically, where I look at creativity with rigour, I look at storytelling, but with strategy and this notion of leveraging data, which was the language of businesses, how business are built around, but using then storytelling as a language of humans, and how you bring the two together to tell more, more powerful, engaging and important stories, if that makes sense.

00:08:53:12 - 00:09:13:15
Nuno
And ultimately, what I feel is that because creative and creativity was such a part of my upbringing and also runs in my veins day to day, that allows me today in this world that I'm in, to actually put the work second, if that makes sense. Meaning, of course, the creative expression of the work at the end of the day is how we as a marketing team at Sleep Country addresses ourselves to the world.

00:09:13:17 - 00:09:44:22
Nuno
But what I focus on today is actually empowering and nurturing the people behind the work, and trusting that by ensuring that they feel recognized, seen, heard, and incentivized and most importantly, greatly appreciated, that the work becomes an intelligent expression of all that they've built together to that point. And so I think I've gotten that benefit of being raised with creativity and making creativity not something I'm chasing, but rather a part of empowering people to deliver on it naturally, almost organically, if that makes sense.

00:09:45:00 - 00:10:06:06
Alison
Beyond making sense, that's the perfect recipe in many ways to succeed in marketing today. Equal measures of the right and left brain, appreciating that we are only successful as the teams and relationships and people that we mentor and help grow. So I hope you have had the chance to thank your parents for the incredible foundation that they've given you, as well as a passion for the career.

00:10:06:08 - 00:10:26:12
Nuno
Very true. My father and my mother both, and my dad even more so, were very maniacally focused on us learning different languages and knowledge because especially growing up in Brazil, their whole schtick always was, if we leave you with any sort of structure, we don't know, but if we leave you knowledge, we'll leave you access. And so that has stuck with me forever, and it's a way of guiding my life today.

00:10:26:14 - 00:10:43:08
Alison
We also really bonded on sharing our agency experience, and we both really loved the agency pace and thrived in it. So what ultimately convinced you to make the move to client side? And since making the move, what's been the biggest surprise after 25 years in agencies?

00:10:43:10 - 00:11:04:20
Nuno
That is so true, like and honestly, when I say I thrived in the agency pace, I really did. The pace, the pressure the magic of building something brand new from literally nothing. I loved it, and frankly, I never thought of myself as a quote unquote client. I just didn't. It wasn't the cards for me. My dad was a client, but I never really saw that side of him.

00:11:05:02 - 00:11:36:17
Nuno
My brother was never a client, so I was just an agency guy. But through my conversations with Stewart, who was my client for nearly four years before he became my boss, that's our CEO Stewart Schaefer, through our many conversations, and we spoke for about a year, there was specifically one moment towards the end of our conversation before I signed and moved over, in which he looked at me and he said, your function is going to be marketing, but your true role is helping me reshape the business along with your SOT peers. And having worked with Stewart as a client for so many years,

00:11:36:17 - 00:11:56:07
Nuno
at that point, I knew exactly what that meant in his eyes. And so when he said that, I knew it wasn't just a job offer, it was a calling. It was a very unique opportunity to be a part of reshaping something that was already successful into something even bigger, that had a longer lasting effect. And that, to me, was the way to seal the deal, if that makes sense.

00:11:56:09 - 00:12:20:17
Nuno
And what surprised me the most, quite frankly, Alison, is that I saw a lot more depth than I thought. Having spent 20 plus years on the agency side, on the outside, the brand side of the business may have seemed to me for the longest time, that it was all about structure and access layers and unnecessary complexity. And honestly, sometimes it is, I think as brands and businesses, we have to look at that at times too, and and admit it.

00:12:20:19 - 00:12:55:07
Nuno
But what I also realize is there's a lot of purpose behind it. I found a lot of true purpose behind every action. And what I mean by that is I found myself all of a sudden no longer looking to shape ideas, but rather shape outcomes. And that was a very different way of looking at things that surprised me quite a lot. And quite frankly, just the ability of opening up your world to an entire new learning set; supply chain, logistics, organizational design, product design, so on and so forth, and utilizing all of that knowledge to truly serve consumers and the audience in the other end, tailored to the needs and wants they have

00:12:55:07 - 00:12:57:18
Nuno
with more intent and meaning than I had before.

00:12:57:20 - 00:13:04:04
Alison
So building on that, what advice would you give to other marketing professionals who are considering making the move from agency to client?

00:13:04:06 - 00:13:22:15
Nuno
Yeah, that's the toughest one, because in Brazil we have a saying that says, if advice was any good, people would sell it to you. So take this from a very honest, truthful, personal experience perspective. But what I want to say is the reason why it took me so long to make the decisions, that I wanted to make sure I knew the why.

00:13:22:17 - 00:13:41:10
Nuno
I had incredible clarity on, as to why am I making this transition. And at the end of the day, I didn't want to leave the agency life because I was tired or because the pace was too intense. That's kind of obvious. But was the pace intense because of me or because of the environment? So I need to go searching for that answer.

00:13:41:12 - 00:13:58:07
Nuno
And at the end of the day, what I decided upon is that I wanted to leave because I was ready to have a different kind of impact to my career, a different one than the one that I had up until that point. And so what I can say is that brand side isn't easier, it's just a very different kind of heart, if that makes sense.

00:13:58:09 - 00:14:16:01
Nuno
All the wins are a lot slower, but they're also deeper. You will learn to think beyond the brief itself, you know, think about all the other things that entices a product to the consumer, be it operations, supply chain, org design, product development and so much more that you didn't touch before. And now it's part of your world.

00:14:16:03 - 00:14:38:08
Nuno
And that all opens up to a lot of learnings. And so at first, you're going to feel like that's far removed from your experience. You may have even a little bit of imposter syndrome. That's okay. I personally felt that. But if you're incredibly curious, collaborative and open and ready to grow in different ways and experience different things, it's going to be one of the most rewarding experiences you could possibly have.

00:14:38:08 - 00:14:56:20
Nuno
At least it was for me. And once you get there, though, what I would say is do not lose your agency instinct because the agency instinct of being biased for action and having resilience, of having grit and having hustle and an incredible "can do" mentality, more often than not, is what brands need to move forward.

00:14:57:00 - 00:15:21:12
Alison
That is absolutely excellent advice. Well said. So in many ways, the retail industry, of all the client side opportunities, retail is one of the faster-paced, challenging and ever-changing. We've certainly in Canada see some long standing retailers, HBC being the obvious most recent example, ultimately fail. Sleep Country is absolutely bucking the trend, hugely successful for 30 years.

00:15:21:12 - 00:15:29:08
Alison
While many other retailers haven't been, so what do you think some of the attributes are for Sleep Country's sustained success in Canada?

00:15:29:10 - 00:16:01:02
Nuno
I think a big part of it, quite frankly, is this entrepreneurial culture, mindset and spirit that's been with us from day one until now. The company was built, be it Christine Magee at Sleep Country, be it Dormez-Vous by Stewart Schaefer, by entrepreneurs, by heart. And so because of that mindset in nature, we have always been encouraged to believe in the power of curiosity, innovation, listening deeply to our customers and knowing to never be afraid to try something new.

00:16:01:04 - 00:16:35:19
Nuno
And that mindset hasn't really changed, in fact, has been evolved further, where we live to this motto of try, always, learn constantly, fail fast and iterate a lot faster. And I think that has been a bit of the secret sauce in many, many ways. However, there's another component to it, which is that obsession for consumer experience. If you think about it, for 30 plus years now, there hasn't been any other retailer in Canada, at least not of our size, that has been solely focused on sleep, solely focused on that experience that we can give Canadians of awakening themselves to the power of sleep.

00:16:36:00 - 00:16:56:21
Nuno
And I think that dedication has never gone away. And we look at every little moment through that lens. So from the way someone's researching online, to how they feel when they walk into our stores, or how they feel when they're going through our self-serve channels or website or our dream line to how their mattress gets delivered. Every single step, every single connection point is well thought out,

00:16:57:00 - 00:17:18:12
Nuno
to ensure that the reflection of what we believe in and the core values of our brand stay the same. And we never settle, Alison, we're always chasing for more. Because the biggest challenge of being the only one in the space to do this is that we set our own standards. And when you set your own standards, there's never an end line, there's always content, excuse me, constant pursuit of excellence.

00:17:18:14 - 00:17:41:15
Nuno
And lastly, but certainly not least, the people. Without a doubt, our people are the secret sauce. And we may say that folks may leave our stores and not know or remember what brand they buy, but they know exactly who they bought it from. Because the folks on the front line, the folks serving you in the store, through our customer service or through the delivery system, they are the true representation of the brand and how you engage with the brand.

00:17:41:20 - 00:17:45:12
Nuno
And we pay incredible attention in detail to that.

00:17:45:14 - 00:18:07:20
Alison
Our last purchase was from Sleep Country, and you're absolutely right. The calibre of knowledge with your retail staff and how consumer-focused they are is, a real differentiator. So congratulations. Because having worked in retail myself, that's not always easy to deliver. Now, acquisitions have also played a key role in your growth with Casper, Hush, Endy, Silk and Snow,

00:18:07:22 - 00:18:13:01
Alison
And now Simba Sleep in the UK. So I'd love you to share a bit more about what led to that strategy.

00:18:13:03 - 00:18:42:00
Nuno
Yeah, absolutely. Again, I think it comes down to that innate culture of innovation and deep customer focus. And I think while I wasn't at Sleep Country, obviously, through all of those acquisitions, I sat in the sidelines as a partner of Sleep Country, observing what was happening. And I think it all comes from this deep belief that we always had that there's no one size fits all solution to how Canadians sleep, quite frankly. And be it their needs, their lifestyle, their preferences, they're all different.

00:18:42:02 - 00:18:59:01
Nuno
And so in our minds, our job has always been and continues to be to meet Canadians where they are and help them make their journey to better asleep, quite frankly, more attainable, and more accessible. And no matter how and where they want to shop or choose to shop, we want to be there for them. And for us,

00:18:59:01 - 00:19:27:19
Nuno
what that meant was building a true brand portfolio that could offer different value propositions, different voices, and different paths, while always being rooted in the same notion of quality, trust, with parallel expertise and innovation. So be it Casper, Endy, Hush and Silk and Snow or now, Simba, to your point. While each of them serves a distinct audience, they are all united by a shared commitment to helping people sleep better day in, day out.

00:19:27:20 - 00:19:35:15
Alison
You know your recent acquisition of Simba Sleep in the UK is fascinating. Why was the UK selected rather than the typical choice of the U.S.?

00:19:35:17 - 00:19:53:13
Nuno
Yeah, I can definitely touch on that. Look, when we looked at a path for expansion, if you will, we didn't want to follow necessarily a pre-written playbook. I think we wanted to do what we always have done, which is to lead with the same purpose and precision that our business was built on. So the UK itself stood out to us for a few different reasons.

00:19:53:18 - 00:20:21:01
Nuno
I think first and foremost, a very digitally innovative advance as well as branch forward market. And in the case of Simba specifically, Simba was already a high- performing, highly-recognized and leading brand in the space. Of course, they had a pretty strong, already direct consumer presence, as well as a fantastic product and a pretty loyal customer base. But I think for us, Alison, quite frankly, and most importantly, the shared values that they carry, were core to the same values that we carry.

00:20:21:05 - 00:20:43:07
Nuno
So again, the focus on innovation, exceptional service, genuine passion and helping people sleep better is something that gravitated us towards Simba. And our CEO always likes to say that we are always razor-focused on developing and delivering exceptional customer experience when it comes to sleep globally. We don't look only within our walls, we want to look outside of our walls.

00:20:43:09 - 00:21:05:15
Nuno
The UK made a lot of sense because of that. And what we saw in Simba was not only just a great business, but was actually a pretty perfect cultural and a strategic fit because it's led by fantastic people who cares deeply about what they do in the experience they provide to consumers. And it gave us to a point a meaningful pathway to expansion while allowing us to stay true to our DNA.

00:21:05:17 - 00:21:17:23
Nuno
It doesn't mean we have ruled out any other expansions into any other regions, but at the moment, it just felt that both the UK and Simba were very much aligned to our core values. And as a business, as a brand and as people, it made a ton of sense for us to invest in it.

00:21:18:01 - 00:21:25:10
Alison
And for our listeners, I know we're all going to be curious to see, is this the start of a truly global Canadian sleep company?

00:21:25:12 - 00:21:44:10
Nuno
Yeah, I guess the short answer is yes, because now we are truly global. And we do believe that sleep is universal, is a universal benefit that anyone can take advantage of in the right way. But how we serve people has to be local. And we just talked about this notion that people remember who they spoke to, not what product they bought.

00:21:44:14 - 00:22:09:01
Nuno
So while we continue to expand the view of sleep as a global thing, we want to be very respectful of the local nuances of each market and how we continue to respect those as we expand our operation. And we are very incredibly proud to be Canadian. So it is incredible that a Canadian company, that to your point, has been here for 30 years in a very challenging retail landscape, is not only strong in Canada, but now growing its presence in a meaningful way.

00:22:09:03 - 00:22:32:02
Nuno
And for us, Alison, quite frankly, it wasn't really chasing just scale. It was about building a meaningful, customer-focused global experience and one that was built on trust, on excellence, on innovation, and a laser focus on that customer experience and delivering better sleep and not just transactions. That for us was a driver. But the short answer is yes.

00:22:32:04 - 00:22:45:01
Alison
So now let's switch gears a little bit. I would love to talk about your exciting new campaign that literally just launched this week and features Eugene Levy as Sleep Daddy. So can you share a bit about how the concept came about?

00:22:45:03 - 00:23:02:16
Nuno
Yes, it's finally out. And hopefully going well. Frankly, what we did, was we took a giant step back as a team and we asked ourselves, what's really going on with our relationship with sleep? Because if you think about it, your relationship with sleep is truly the only one that lasts your entire life when your very first breath.

00:23:02:18 - 00:23:19:18
Nuno
And so when we asked ourselves that question, what we realize is that when you're when you're a kid, it's a lot easier to watch over your relationship with sleep because there's someone always watching over it for you, be it to tell you when it's time to go to bed, to not snack late at night, to sleep enough, and to be well-rested.

00:23:19:19 - 00:23:41:02
Nuno
But as an adult, especially in today's economy, and the pressure environment, when we start to neglect our relationship with sleep, we become terrible partners to our sleep. We will deprioritize sleep over a number of things, from watching that Netflix series a little too late, or just that last grind for work, or that midnight oil that we're burning, or purely stress.

00:23:41:02 - 00:24:07:21
Nuno
Because at the end of the day, we are all youths and we at  Sleep Country, and all of our family of brands recognize that understand that. In fact, we do a lot of surveys and researches throughout the country every year, and the most recent study that we just launched actually talks about the fact that only 16% of Canadians, that's one sixth, describe their relationship with sleep as very good and a whopping seven out of ten Canadians actually say they wish they could actually get better sleep.

00:24:07:23 - 00:24:33:04
Nuno
And that's very problematic because sleep is with nutrition, with mental health, with physical health, a core component of how you as a human wake up and perform every day. Right? And so for us, we've played a massive role in helping Canadians rekindle their relationship with sleep. We wanted to create a voice that felt a bit provocative intentionally, with Sleep Daddy as a notion, but most importantly felt warm, trustworthy and familiar.

00:24:33:07 - 00:24:59:13
Nuno
Somebody that could help you really rekindle a relationship and prioritize it back in your daily lives. And that's where Eugene Levy, our Sleep Daddy, really came in. We wanted someone who was iconically Canadian and that felt trustworthy, but yet very familiar and disarming and almost a father figure, but also funny. The kind of person that can really cut through that noise without ever delivering as a sermon, without ever getting on a soapbox,

00:24:59:13 - 00:25:17:00
Nuno
If that makes sense. We wanted to make it very relatable, and we worked very hard on the execution, along with our agency partners, to make it feel very relatable, to make it feel very human, and to be very rooted in everyday distractions that we all face. And instead of telling you in a judgmental way that you shouldn't, is to say, we get it.

00:25:17:01 - 00:25:36:04
Nuno
But how about looking at it from a different perspective, and we can help you do that. And that's where, of course, I got to give Publicis and their team an incredible shout out for continuously pushing us to be more intentional with the way we do advertising and marketing. And from the insight to the creative idea to the execution, they did it masterfully and they were incredible partners to have on that journey.

00:25:37:11 - 00:25:56:11
Alison
That's great. I'm excited to see it. And I can absolutely relate to being one of the seven in ten Canadians who would love to get more sleep. We're increasingly hearing about, you know, how mission critical it is, all the health benefits or the personal and professional benefits, and knowing that when you can't get enough sleep, it adds stress to it. So I'm looking forward to Sleep Daddy's

00:25:56:11 - 00:26:09:04
Alison
advice and helping me become one of the three in ten, instead of one of the seven in ten. I'm also really glad that the days of bravado, where people were saying, I can survive on four hours sleep and still be productive, are hopefully behind us.

00:26:09:06 - 00:26:20:08
Nuno
I couldn't agree more. That's not true ever, in any case. A great night's sleep is a great remedy, it's not perfect for everything, but it does get you on the pathway to it.

00:26:20:10 - 00:26:37:04
Alison
Absolutely. So, Nuno, you've had an absolutely outstanding marketing career that spans both agencies and brands, and I know our listeners would benefit from learning from your journey. So I would like to close off our discussion today by having you share your top advice for our listeners who aspire to follow in your footsteps.

00:26:37:06 - 00:26:58:18
Nuno
I would say stay curious. Curiosity has been to me, my entire life, a humongous driver of every decision I've ever made and quite frankly, after that, find people who make you better. Find people who see you before anybody else does, and hang on to those people and invest in them, and vice versa. And quite frankly, Alison, I never look to chase titles.

00:26:58:18 - 00:27:19:06
Nuno
I really chase purpose. I know it sounds very easy to say, but it was never focus on becoming any specific thing, an SVP of that or chief of that. I just want to do the right thing with great people and be proud of what I was doing. But also don't buy, because I think right now that's happening a lot, into the gloom and doom of our industry.

00:27:19:07 - 00:27:53:23
Nuno
It's not an easy time to be in advertising, especially if you're on the agency side of things. Our industry is evolving. It's true. It's more complex than ever before. It's more difficult to work in than ever before. But marketing is still one of the most powerful growth-drivers there are in any company anywhere in the world. And it's how we connect, what we build to real lives and the people that we serve. And at a time where data, technology, performance, AI, which are all languages of business, seems to be at the forefront and dominating the topics of conversation than ever before,

00:27:54:01 - 00:28:15:02
Nuno
brand, storytelling, the language of humans has never been more powerful. So stay curious on who are the humans you want to speak to, and why would they care to listen to you? And that will always drive you to something more meaningful. And that's not fluff in my mind's eye. That's just looking for impact, is to stay close to that.

00:28:15:03 - 00:28:34:02
Nuno
And if you always staying close to that curiosity and understanding the human on the other side of the equation, you're going to find meaning in what you do, be it inside or outside of the agency walls, the creative department walls, the brand walls. Find the human you want to connect with, and you'll always find meaning in what you're doing.

00:28:34:04 - 00:28:55:22
Alison
That is outstanding advice, especially on the positivity side. You're so right that we need to be more proud about the mission critical role that the marketing profession, whether you're agency side or brand side, we have a mission critical role in building brands, building businesses and contributing to Canadians' economy. So, Nuno, it's been an absolute pleasure having our conversation today.

00:28:55:22 - 00:29:03:19
Alison
Thank you so much. You're clearly been very busy launching a new campaign. So I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to spend with us.

00:29:03:21 - 00:29:20:15
Nuno
Thank you, Alison, and thank you to the listeners. Thank you to the CMA, the CMA Connect team. It's important work that you guys do for the industry. And I couldn't be prouder to be here and more humbled to be here. I really, really appreciate you.

00:29:20:17 - 00:29:33:06
Presenter
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