#14: "A Once In A Lifetime Opportunity" | Kate Torrance (SickKids)

4Ps in a Pod

In this episode - we had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Kate Torrance who is the VP, Head of Brand, Content & Comms at SickKids.
SickKids opened their doors almost 150 years ago with a commitment to improving health outcomes for children. Since then - they’ve helped countless families across the country & have been recognized as a global leader in this space. In order to fuel their life-changing research & care - they launched the largest healthcare campaign in Canadian history in 2016. This was driven by a platform that they created called SickKids VS. It’s a platform that has been awarded some of the industry’s highest honours, inspired others in the industry to follow suit - won over the hearts of donors.
Kate actually joined at the beginning of what she calls their brand transformation journey about 10 years ago & has continued to steward the brand. Her team is far from finished - they’re one the cusp of another monumental fundraise & just formed some new agency partnerships to help reach it. Prior to SickKids - she had an illustrious career in advertising, having worked at the likes of Zulu & BBDO.
Amongst other things - we chatted with her about why she was destined for a career in advertising, her experience as one of the creators of SickKids VS, how she hopes to reframe charitable giving, what she believes makes (or breaks) creative & the cautionary tale of the piñata (and no - it wasn’t just filled with candy 🤔) .
More specifically, Kate shared her thoughts on the following questions:

• How would you describe what you do to a stranger? (8:30)
• What was your "marketing moment"? (10:18)
• Walk us through your career journey before SickKids (14:24)
• How could someone differentiate between agencies to help them make a decision on which one to join? (21:35)
• What are some universal truths of marketing across industries and companies? (26:25)
• How did you navigate the career transition from agency side to client side?(29:23)
• Tell us more about your role at SickKids and your experience in the brand transformation journey (36:35)
• What kind of resistance did you face in the early stages of the development of "SickKids VS"? (43:38)
• How is your team thinking about what's next? How are you staying true to "SickKids VS" while keeping it fresh? (48:24)
• What does the Marketing team look like at SickKids? (59:59)
• We put Kate in the Hot Seat! (1:04:27)