Marketing Director in Montréal: holding vision and performance together
After 12 years in marketing, much of it devoted to acquisition and SEO, I now work in a marketing leadership role. My job is to connect two things organizations rarely entrust to the same person: the vision that repositions a business, and the performance that shows up in the numbers. The two engagements described on this page show what that looks like.
A marketing director is accountable both for the direction the brand takes and for the results it produces. That dual responsibility is what defines the role.
Two skills rarely entrusted to the same person
When a business strengthens its marketing, it often hires one of two profiles. The first thinks about positioning and brand, but rarely measures what those choices bring in. The second masters acquisition and dashboards, without control over the overall direction. Each does good work, and yet the company ends up with a strategy no one checks, or with numbers optimizing a course no one chose.
Marketing leadership begins when both responsibilities rest on the same shoulders. The two engagements below sit at opposite ends of that spectrum.
BNP Paribas: performance measured at scale
At BNP Paribas, I came in as an SEO strategist. My role grew along the way: I was asked to support marketing strategy decisions, drawing on customer data to strengthen acquisition.
The work consisted of running an integrated acquisition strategy, where SEO and customer insight moved forward together instead of operating separately. Over 14 months, qualified organic traffic grew from 125,000 to 362,000 sessions a month.
That shift from SEO to marketing decisions sums up the point of this page. Mastering measurement is what earns you the legitimacy to decide.
Mallette: vision at the executive level
In 2026, Mallette, one of Quebec’s major accounting firms, brought me in on a marketing strategy engagement as an external consultant.
The firm brings together far more than accountants. Several of its practices, though distinct, were still seen by the market through the accounting label alone, which limited their ability to attract their own clients.
My work began with a conversion diagnosis, to understand at what point visitors’ interest stopped turning into inquiries. I then proposed a brand architecture in which each business unit speaks to its audience in its own name, while drawing on the firm’s reputation. The goal is for those units to become self-sufficient acquisition engines.
An engagement of this kind plays out at the executive level. It shapes how an organization presents itself, and it requires persuading partners as much as designing a plan.
From positioning to the customer journey
A marketing strategy is only as good as its translation into your customers’ journey. Positioning sets what you promise, and to whom. The journey decides how that promise is discovered, then kept over time.
I read that journey in four stages: discovery, engagement, decision and loyalty. Each has its own metrics. Upstream, you look at who arrives and through which channel. Downstream, you track retention and the value a client represents over the whole relationship. A strategy that says nothing about these four stages remains an intention.
The two engagements meet at this point. At Mallette, the conversion diagnosis started from this reading of the journey. At BNP Paribas, customer data fed the top of that same journey.
A multidisciplinary profile as a prerequisite
A marketing director is often introduced through a list of skills. I prefer to start from what these two engagements required.
Delivering performance means reading the data yourself and knowing acquisition channels from the inside. Analytics and automation are therefore part of my work. As for SEO, it remains the channel I practice most deeply. Vision calls for something else: understanding a brand, its audiences and what makes it credible to the people who choose it.
These skills don’t simply add up; they keep each other in check. Data keeps vision from becoming opinion, and vision keeps data from optimizing the wrong target.
One skill set, two ways to apply it
What I already practice as a consultant is marketing leadership. In my current position, the role is broad and covers several levers. I lead a team of six and make the strategic calls, such as redesigns, without being absorbed by day-to-day operations.
I’m open to bringing this skill set into a leadership team, in-house or as an advisor. The format changes; the skills stay the same. For a CEO, the real question is which one fits the company’s stage of growth, and I discuss it in an article on choosing between hiring and outsourcing your marketing. Two other pieces cover the role of a CMO in a small business and how to structure the marketing function.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of marketing leadership engagements do you take on?
Those where I can act on direction as well as results, whether repositioning a brand or structuring a marketing function with accountability for what it delivers. Pure execution assignments, where the course is already set, are less of a fit for what I bring.
Are you available for a marketing director position?
I'm open to leading marketing in-house, just as I do today as an advisor. The format depends on the company and the timing. What matters is that the role combines vision with accountability for results.
What happens in a first conversation?
It's a conversation about your business and what is holding back its growth today. At the end, I'll tell you frankly whether my profile fits your needs, and in what form.
Let’s talk
If you run a business or are hiring for a marketing leadership role, let’s talk about what you’re looking to build.