Coworking with Shereen Ladha

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Shereen Ladha is VP, head of strategy, North America, at Sid Lee, an international creative services firm founded in Montréal. She has also worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Rethink, and McCann WorldGroup Canada.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? At the heart of what I do is storytelling. I’m a naturally curious person, so my work is rooted in immersion, observation, and learning—about different people, cultures, human behavior, art, and technology. All of that gets woven together to create stories that are relevant to people and culturally sticky. It’s about finding the connections that matter and crafting them in a way that people want to lean in, engage, and remember.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? At Sid Lee we created “Feet Funder” for the Amputee Coalition of Canada. It was a wildly bold campaign where we used pictures of prosthetic limbs and sold them on FeetFinder. This idea built on a simple but internet-famous trend: “feet pics.” We flipped something funny and familiar into real awareness (and monetary support) for people living with limb loss. It’s a reflection of telling stories through creative that resonates in the now, while being unafraid to be provocative so people pay attention. For me, it’s a reminder of the power of creative that doesn’t just sell, but serves.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? The Apple HomePod spot, “Welcome Home,” directed by Spike Jonze and starring FKA twigs. I’m drawn to any piece that uses dance and movement to tell a story (and if you look at my body of work, it’s definitely a pattern). The way the concept pushed the boundaries of what the “home” can be and its possibilities, paired with the visual of the space expanding as her movement becomes freer, is striking. It’s the perfect blend of strong storytelling and high craft.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: That I’m a professional dancer. I was a finalist on Canada’s Got Talent, toured the world, and performed in films, TV shows, commercials, and produced for YouTube, TIFF, and Nuit Blanche. Dance taught me the grounding of strong storytelling, and it is the lens through which I see the world—in constant movement, patterns, beats, and rhythms.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m most optimistic about the world of content that taps into the creativity and storytelling abilities of real people. I love seeing how they bring their unique perspectives, lived experiences, and relationships into what they create.

I’m least optimistic about the race to churn out content purely to game algorithms. It can sacrifice originality and risk-taking, and the result is work that feels instantly disposable.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? The Business of Fashion Podcast! I’m obsessed with the world of fashion, and this podcast has consistently insightful conversations on how the fashion industry evolves, touching on topics from creativity to supply chains, and showing how global trends shape brand strategy. We can learn a lot and take cues from how the fashion industry is evolving.