Canadian Marketing Association to Expand Blockchain Initiatives

The Canadian Marketing Association (MCA) is looking to expand its blockchain marketing space with the hiring of Joaquim Miro, a partner and chief marketing officer at global consulting and development firm MLG Blockchain as a member of its Martech Council.

CMA said in a statement that Miro would be specifically focused on creating blockchain opportunities in the market sector.

"As the blockchain marketing space continues to grow, an increasing amount of new marketing tools are available for professionals,” Miro commented on his appointment. “By remaining at the forefront of upcoming marketing technologies and trends, my goal is to help establish and bring forth the best practices within this fast-growing space."

As the preeminent voice of the Canadian marketing profession, CMA is tasked with promoting thought leadership in the domestic marketing space, as well as fostering development, growth, and development via a network of Thought Leadership Councils which provide an avenue for CMA members to access vital tools and knowledge on strategic insights.

Meanwhile, the Martech Council is in charge of supporting thought leadership and understanding to give Canadian markets the information they need on how to conduct businesses with the emerging distributed ledger technology. The council is also a significant source of data to explore emerging trends, forward-thinking leadership, and human implications.

Canadian companies are taking the initiative with the use of blockchain technologies on several levels. Last week, the commercial bank National Bank of Canada (NBC) announced it has partnered with IT consulting company CGI and blockchain startup Skuchain to pilot-test blockchain for operations involving guarantees and standby letters of credit. NBC is the sixth largest commercial bank in Canada.

Under the pilot phase, the NBC will conduct a trial project using CGI Trade 360 trade finance platform and integrated it with Skuchain Contract Builder, an application developed based on the startup’s blockchain platform called Brackets.

Over the weekend, Air Canada said it was working with Swiss-based startup Winding Tree to develop a blockchain-based travel distribution solution platform. To facilitate the program, Air Canada inked a letter of intent with Winding Tree to allow its customers to experience blockchain technology integrated into its services.

If the plan is fully developed, the Canadian flag carrier will be the first partner of Winding Tree’s blockchain platform, together with Air France-KLM.