As a marketer in Canada, you don’t get to treat multicultural marketing as an add-on. It is the strategy.

Here’s why: Canada is changing, rapidly and irreversibly. In 2021, immigrants made up 23 % of the population, or approximately 8.36 million people (Stats Canada) Even more striking, while pre-1970s immigration to Canada was predominantly from Europe, by 2021 the majority of new immigrants were born in Asia (including the Middle East). Meanwhile, more than 7 million Canadians, about 19.3 % of the population, reported Asian origins in 2021.(source:  Statistics Canada+2Statistics Canada+2)

Let’s draw the historical parallel: In the 1950s and 1960s, Canada’s immigration wave was largely European. For example, in 1951 immigrants comprised 14.7 % of the population and the largest-share country of birth group was the UK (~41.6 %).

The marketing implication? Back then, brands could more safely assume a somewhat homogeneous “mainstream” consumer. Today, that assumption no longer holds.

In a mosaic country like ours, understanding who you’re talking to, and how you’re talking to them, is not optional. When you lean into multicultural strategy, you recognise that consumers bring narratives, languages, values, and cultural touchpoints that shape how they respond to brands. One size fits all? In Canada, it rarely fits any.

Here are three guiding principles I live by as a marketer in Canada:

1. Consumer first means culturally fluent: If your target audience is … let’s say … South Asian professionals in the GTA, you need more than a translated ad. You need to speak their aspirations, rhythms, reference points, community context. (Side note: the South Asian population nearly quadrupled from 1996 to 2021 in Canada. Statistics Canada)
   
   
2. Diverse channels + creative ecosystems matter: A campaign that spans TV, creators, out-of-home, experiential, digital,  aligned with cultural moments and community cues,  wins. In other words: balancing creative excellence with commercial discipline. That means you’re not just diverting budget into multicultural channels; you’re integrating them into the total ecosystem.
   
   
3. Authenticity > generic reach: Marketing to “Canadians” without acknowledging culture, heritage, community, is a strategy for being invisible. In effect, you’ll get lost in the noise. But marketing that shows up in culture—at festivals, with creators, within community narratives—builds trust and relevance.
   
   

For me, being a marketer in Canada means being a cultural detective, a translator, a strategist and a storyteller all at once to romance the story to the audience you are trying to create a connection with. You don’t just ask what do Canadian consumers want? You ask which Canadian consumers? and how do they want to live and be seen?

In today’s era, multicultural marketing isn’t a risk, it’s an imperative. And for a brand aiming to truly resonate in Canada (let alone scale beyond), it must sit at the heart of every brief, every campaign, every metric. Because when the consumer mosaic of Canada changes the rules of relevance, you adapt. Or you fade.