Two young business partners are striking out on their own as Spoke, a new digital creative agency in Toronto.
Jeff Greenspoon, chief executive officer, and Kai Exos, chief creative officer, officially opened Spoke on Nov. 1, just days after leaving digital marketing firm Hooplah where they held account director and creative director titles, respectively.
Though Greenspoon is only 24-years-old and Exos 26, both have run their own businesses in the past and Greenspoon is the recipient of Profit’s 2009 Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Their new agency has already landed work with Nestle Nespresso, and Disney Consumer Products, for which they’re doing online and in-store product activation.
Spoke seeks to distinguish itself among Toronto’s other web-savvy boutique firms with a philosophy of letting strategic ideas drive technological execution.
“Most agencies are leading with media, leading with the tactic they think clients want,” Greenspoon said. “But there’s a fundamental flaw there if you think about core marketing logic. They’re leading with things like Facebook and mobile apps, cool technologies, not ideas for marketing messages… especially digital agencies.”
The agency launched with 13 full-time staff.
“We’ve consciously hired interdisciplinary teams,” said Exos. “People who are somewhat misfits who haven’t worked in advertising but have great ideas. We give them roles as producers; they have a lot of resources, ideas and ways to get things done.”
Spoke has also partnered with Torque Customer Strategy for research and analysis. Mark Healy, managing partner at Torque, has the title vice-president of insights at Spoke.
