#7: "Where Art and Magic Meet Commerce" | Stephanie Wall (Sport Chek)

4Ps in a Pod

We recently chatted with Stephanie Wall who is the VP of Marketing at Sport Chek. As the largest sporting goods retailer in the country - they operate around 200 stores across the country & are owned by another iconic Canadian brand (hint: Canadian Tire). Stephanie has been at Sport Chek for 2 years & has helped them to continue their evolution towards building even more compelling, intentional & data-driven marketing.
Prior to joining Sport Chek, she spent 5 years in a variety of marketing roles at Rogers & had an illustrious 15 year career in advertising (at the likes of Tribal, BBDO, Taxi & Leo Burnett).
In this episode - we chat with Stephanie about the incredible story of how she landed her first few jobs, how the industry has evolved, why she describes her brand as her baby, why she loves working for a Canadian company & her tips for budding marketers.
More specifically, Stephanie shared her thoughts on the following questions:

• How would you describe what you do to a student? (5:10)
• What was your marketing moment? (6:45)
• Tell us about those early days in your career? (8:10)
• Can you walk us through the other chapters of your career? (13:12)
• Can you tell us about your transition from agency side to client side? (17:15)
• How has your view of marketing evolved over your career? (20:59)
• How have you balanced driving your own vision while staying true to the company's ethos/history? (24:07)
• How is your team wrapping their heads around the changing dynamics of retail? (26:22)
• What is Sport Chek’s approach to brand building? (32:10)
• What does your marketing team structure look like? (34:58)
• What are the traits you look for in a marketer? (38:54)
• How important is it to Sport Chek to be Canadian owned? (41:39)
• Rapid Fire: we put Steph in the hot seat! (46:03)