Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends announces 2024 award winners

In a landmark 20^th anniversary celebration, Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends, one of Canada’s most respected and renowned industry awards, is proud to announce this year’s class of Marketing Legends and the 2024 Marketer-on-the-Rise.

Canada’s newest Marketing Legends are:

●      Malcolm Gladwell, co-founder, Pushkin Industries; journalist; author; public speaker; and podcaster. 

●      Judy Lewis and Deborah Weinstein, co-founders and partners, Strategic Objectives 

●      Ronnen Harary, Anton Rabie, and Ben Varadi, co-founders, Spin Master

●      Ron Woodall, former EVP, creative director, Palmer Jarvis and DDB Canada.

The 2024 Marketer-on-the-Rise award goes to brothers Tyler and Braden Haden, co-founders of Inkbox, a cutting edge, direct-to-consumer, semi-permanent tattoo brand. 

“Marking the 20^th anniversary of Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends, each of this year’s inductees is being recognized for their remarkable leadership achievements and for elevating our industry,” says Santo Ligotti, president of the Toronto Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA Toronto), the association that runs the awards program. “These extraordinary Canadians are being celebrated to inspire us, share wisdom, and ultimately empower new leadership to drive business growth within our community.”

Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends honours the industry’s most inspiring visionaries, enablers, builders and mentors who’ve had tremendous impact on the field of marketing throughout their careers. ​​The Marketer-on-the-Rise award celebrates Canada’s top up-and-comers — the next generation of influential marketing leaders.   

The award winners will be honoured and formally inducted by AMA Toronto on May 15 at an exclusive in-person gala event. 

“Supporting this valuable awards program allows us to proudly help our community honour its Marketing Legends,” says 2021 inductee and 2024 jury member Sharifa Khan, president and founder of Balmoral Multicultural Marketing. “To inspire and develop the next generation of leaders in our industry, the stories and experiences of our most accomplished marketers need to be shared.”

Balmoral Multicultural Marketing, Canada’s most established, authentic, and awarded multicultural marketing agency, is the 2024 Presenting Sponsor of Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends. AMA Toronto sponsors and partners that also support Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends include Silver Leaf Solutions, the Globe Media Group, Bili Social, Stonehenge and Score Promotions.

The 2024 inductees  were carefully chosen from this year’s nominations by a 13-person selection committee made up of a distinguished and diverse group of marketing experts including past inductees, journalists, media, association heads, and brand and agency leaders. The selection committee was chaired by 2016 Legend inductee Arthur Fleischmann, group CEO, Ogilvy Canada. 

“Our 2024 honourees of Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends represent a broad range of diversity, industry, and capabilities. I love that we recognize entrepreneurialism, technology, and legacy industries,” said Fleischmann.

“After 20 years, Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends has evolved into a unique year-long program involving the award recipients that’s focused on mentorship and knowledge-sharing,” says Jacob Kessler, VP and Steward of Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends, AMA Toronto. 

In addition to their induction into Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends, award winners participate in programming that runs throughout the year, including the popular Legendary Leadership Series of events, blogs, as well as the video podcast series “Legends Journey: Lessons in Leadership.”  

About the 2024 award recipients

●      Malcolm Gladwell, a five-time best-selling author and the co-founder of the podcast and audio book company Pushkin Industries, is unquestionably one of the most acclaimed and influential thought leaders of our time. His ideas and books such as The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, have swayed and shifted how the marketing industry works.  

●      Judy Lewis and Deborah Weinstein, the co-founders and partners of Strategic Objectives, Canada’s most award-winning PR agency, are the first business duo to be inducted into Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends. These trailblazing women have influenced the marketing sector for over 40 years and their agency is the only Canadian firm to receive the United Nations Grand Award for Outstanding Achievement in PR. 

●      Ronnen Haray, Anton Rabie, and Ben Varadi, the co-founders of Spin Master, have built a leading global children’s entertainment company, creating exceptional play experiences through its three creative centres: Toys, Entertainment and Digital Games. With 31 offices spanning nearly 20 countries, employing close to 3,000 team members globally and with distribution in 100 countries, Spin Master is best known for award-winning brands PawPatrol, Hatchimals, Bakugan, Kinetic Sand, Air Hogs, Melissa & Doug, and more.

●      Ron Woodall, the west coast creative leader for Vancouver’s historic Expo ‘86 World Fair, was the force behind the remarkable creative legacies of Palmer Jarvis and DDB Canada.  He is known for creating some of Canada’s most memorable advertising, including the iconic A&W “Root Bear,” as well as mentoring a number of today’s top Canadian creative leaders. 

●      Tyler and Braden Haden launched Inkbox, a semi-permanent tattoo brand, in 2015 and recently sold the company to Bic for $65 million. Headquartered in downtown Toronto, where it operates the permanent tattoo studio Inside Out, Inkbox now employs 150+ people across Canada, Japan, and the United States.

About Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends 

Founded in 2004, Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends honours inspiring Canadian leaders who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of excellence in the field of marketing. The award, created to spotlight the stories, people and brands behind Canada’s greatest marketing successes, recognizes a noteworthy body of work and a life-time of achievements and leadership, including contributions that have made our community a better place. Nominations for induction are held annually. 

About AMA Toronto

The Toronto Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA Toronto) is a community of volunteer marketers who have been empowering leadership and business growth for more than 70 years in Canada. The AMA, with more than 30,000 members and 70 chapters across North America, is the largest not-for-profit marketing association in the world serving organizations and individuals who practice, teach and study marketing.