At Setup, we have the privilege of partnering with multiple established marketing agencies with groundbreaking business practices and leadership styles. In this series, we will highlight these leaders’ stories in order to inspire, educate, and unlock new ways of thinking to marketers.      

Today’s feature is Martin Stoll, the CEO of Sparkloft Media.

What gap did you see in the market that led you to be a part of Sparkloft Media?

Sparkloft started originally as a B2B software company with a social platform product that organizations like Nike, Lufthansa, or Travel Oregon were licensing. In 2008, clients who were using the software came to us and asked if we could also help them with this new thing called “Twitter.” We started consulting on social media and one of the first campaigns we developed got covered by The New York Times. From there, things just took off, and we pivoted from software and consulting to being a social-first creative agency with a full-scale creative department, an in-house production studio, multi-lingual employees to engage communities around the globe, influencer marketing experts, and a robust paid media department.

What differentiates Sparkloft Media from others?

Today we are a social-first creative agency, but we started as a social media agency.

Over the last 15 years, social media has rapidly – and radically – changed. Because of this environment, we are used to moving pretty fast and dealing with constant change.

The biggest benefit that came out of starting in social is our understanding of consumer behavior and consumer interests. We spend a lot of time looking at social data to generate insights that guide our strategy and creative development. How we use these insights and how fast we can move really differentiates us from other agencies.

Are any of your personal values incorporated into Sparkloft Media?

Leaders of an organization (especially founders) are lying to themselves if they think that their personal values and behavior do not significantly influence the organization they lead. I underestimated this in the beginning, but now I’ve come to see its positive impact. I think it’s important for my staff to not just hear their CEO talk about the core company values, but actually model them with their behavior. It builds trust which is key to driving positive company culture.

Two values that I hope are visible in my own behavior and how we act as an agency are: curiosity and empathy.

And I hope that as an agency we are less stubborn than I am as a person.

Do you have any advice for marketers?

Life is a lot more about “who you know” than “what you know.”

Relationships drive everything, but they take time to develop and maintain. My advice is to proactively invest in connecting with other people, even if it does not serve an immediate purpose. Worst case is that you will learn new perspectives, best case is that it leads to a client or a friendship – or maybe even both.