The future of Canada’s marketing industry will be shaped by its youngest talent—the super-worldly, plugged-in, brilliant and creative youth who are already making a name for themselves. Marketing put out the call to the industry to find the top 30 standouts under the age of 30 who have already made their mark on the industry.
From PR to advertising to media and beyond, our 30 Under 30 showcases the smartest, bravest and most creative ones to watch in the business.
Dave Hale, 24
Founder and CEO, Soshal Group
Dave Hale is a smart, engaging, articulate young marketing professional. He’s won big contracts and was named to Profit magazine’s Top 20 Future Entrepreneurial Leaders list last November. He’s thought a great deal about the industry and how ad agencies today have to be social first.
But his success as CEO of his own Ottawa-based 13-employee-strong digital agency Soshal Group at just 24 might be attributable to two underlying principles.
First, he needs to be his own boss. This conviction was born during the last technology bust around Ottawa when mass layoffs washed across the sector, putting thousands out of work including his father.
“I was like, man, I’m never going to work at a place where the actions of other people will dictate if I’m going to get paid or not,” he says. “I didn’t set out to build a business to try and make it big. I just wanted to have personal security.”
That produced a deep entrepreneurial streak in Hale that broke through while he was still in school when he started working part time at Saunders Farm, an “agri-tourism” destination just outside Ottawa. By 2008, he had carved out a new role as marketing director. Saunders Farm did most of its business during the busy October “haunting” season. Hale saw opportunities to expand the business during the summer season (weddings, corporate events and so on), and by the time he was done, Saunders was getting more business in the summer than in October.
After that, Hale bought the largest paintball arena in North America to earn some income to get him through school. Once again, he had a business-changing idea: selling ad space and sponsorship opportunities around the arena. His revenue doubled, and he switched his academic focus from law at Carlton to marketing at Algonquin College.
The second key principle is the mantra that guides all actions at the Soshal Group: You don’t work for brands, you work for the people behind the brands. “We want to help our clients succeed, I am trying to help the person succeed… How do we help the director move into a VP role,” he says.
Other agencies are focused on growth first, but by thinking first about the helping the client on a personal level, then growth will follow, says Hale.
Indeed it has. After growing nearly 800% from year one to year two, Soshal Group is in pace to grow another 400% in 2012.
For lots more of the 30 Under 30, pick up the the Sept. 10 issue of Marketing magazine.
