The advertising and marketing industries have so much knowledge, experience and advice to give, but who they give that expertise to is the question – Canadian women-owned media companies is the answer.

This week, strategy and the BANFF Spark Accelerator for Women in the Business of Media partnered to create The BANFF Spark Marketing Accelerator, a new incubator that will equip 100 women entrepreneurs in the media and entertainment industries with tools, tips and advice when it comes to marketing and scaling up their business.

The partnership will provide BANFF Spark participants access to branding, marketing, media and PR knowledge through workshops, as well as a mentorship program.

“We’re hoping to help BANFF Spark program participants strategically approach marketing challenges – and capitalize on opportunities – as they scale up their businesses in this challenging pandemic economy,” says strategy’s publisher Mary Maddever.

The program is designed to advance gender equality, and specifically economic equality, including women of colour, Indigenous women, women with disabilities, LGBTQ2+ women, and non-binary business owners. Marketing and advertising advisors will be matched with these women through virtual meetings between October and January, where they will offer them counsel on how to develop and evaluate plans for their own specific branding, media, PR and marcom challenges.

BANFF Spark participants include content creators, producers and entrepreneurs of businesses from service providers to streaming and OTT enterprises, says Jenn Kuzmyk, executive director of the BANFF World Media Festival and publisher of Playback.

“The majority of the participants are well established in the media industry,” adds Kuzmyk. “By building up and growing the clout and success of more women-owned media businesses of scale, we believe that is part of the solution to creating real change across the media industries from both a gender and a diversity and inclusion standpoint.”

The second component of the program consists of online case studies and workshops will be available to Spark participants in January 2021.

The mentorship program will be offered to a limited number of Spark participants, with marketing experts at brands and agencies invited to fill out this form if they would like to become an advisor.