What Makes Us Elite?

by Burke Dorman
3 mins read
A group of people sitting on chairs in an office with artificial grass.

Marketing agencies are evolving and diversifying every day. Working across multiple different industries, with multiple different approaches towards the marketing process, marketing agencies are at the forefront of the digital world – creating and often controlling the content that people consume each day. 

Most importantly, as media becomes more and more ubiquitous, marketing agencies have the opportunity to produce content that will be seen in virtually any space, and on every device.

There’s no doubt that each agency is hard-working, determined, and knowledgeable in their respective fields. So, with so many strong agencies out there, how do agencies differentiate themselves? How does an agency rise above the others, and reach that “Elite” status?

So, you’re probably wondering, “What makes Elite, so Elite?

The answer? Our people.

We call them “our people” because they are so much more than just “staff”. “Staff” punch-in, do their job, and punch-out. Our people, on the other hand, don’t just see the digital marketing world as a “punch-in, punch-out” ‘job’. They live and breathe their respective fields of marketing. 

Our designers are artists. Our developers are techies. Our managers are born leaders. The key to their success not simply to be good at what they do, but to love doing it.

There is no stronger driving force than passion. ‘Work’ in itself gets things done, but passion ignites work, and brings it to the next level. Alone, each department and the people in them are masters of their domain; but together, they mesh into a cohesive, well-oiled machine, albeit one chalk-full of human intuition, humour, and creativity — traits that machines seldom have. 

As we evolve as an agency, we are forever on the search for unique, disruptive and innovative ways to break through the clutter of the ubiquitous and saturated media world and push our campaigns in the forefront of the digital space.

So, if the main reason we are Elite is because of our people, then why not meet some of them? 

Elite Developers:

Jay Bauer — Full Stack Developer

Elite Developers work on their own development projects while outside of the office, constantly practicing their coding skills by working on their own websites, researching, and adopting new techniques and insight to bring to work the next day. Not because they must, but because they are excited to share their knowledge with the team, with the goal of adapting our development processes to be next level before that level exists yet.

Elite Developers understand not only that digital marketing would not exist without code, but also that code alone isn’t enough to make a great campaign. Thus, our Elite Developers live to discover how to “crack the code”, move beyond the basics, and streamline processes in new and innovative ways that not only help them work efficiently to tackle all the projects they work on but evolve their processes into forms better adapted for the increasingly competitive digital environment. 

Jay Bauer fancies himself a sound-editing aficionado and enjoys editing music in his spare time.

Elite Graphic and Interactive Designers:

Cheryl Almojeula — Junior Graphic Designer

Sure, our designers have mastered all the Creative Suites they need to make gorgeous logos, web designs, videos, and more. But what makes our designers Elite is their passion for the essence of design, art, and creativity in themselves, rather than as simply means to an end. 

They don’t ‘design’, they ‘create’.  They aren’t just ‘designers’, they’re artists. They don’t paint by numbers, they draw from inspiration – usually from their own lives and experiences. They are in love with the various facets of design and art and understand how these intricacies draw from a deep-set emotional connection that humans have to things like colour, shapes, and visual textures. 

Our designers work on their own projects at home and are masters at infusing their love of art with their mastery of various suite programs, resulting in some of the best creative and interactive designs that the industry has to offer. Cheryl Almojeula is a Junior Graphic Designer at Elite Digital. She plays the guitar, piano, and drums. She also enjoys musical theatre and ballet and has been part of several musicals.

Elite Analysts:

Lee Brokes — Director of SEO and Analytics 

In the world of big data, it’s easier for analysts to become comfortable simply reporting “the numbers”, and using programs to track the data, finding effortless ways to let someone or something else do the work. But Elite digital analysts see more than numbers. They live and breathe analysis – not simply of data, but what data means. How data impacts our daily lives, how we interact with it, and how it interacts with us. 

Elite Analysts possess the insight to tell a story about what those numbers mean. For them, digital consumers are characters in their story, the marketing campaign is the plot, and conversions or digital actions are inciting incidents. 

Most importantly, Elite Analysts possess the knowledge to foreshadow how something will perform before it’s written into our story, to maximize efficiency and focus our efforts on writing a story that resonates with our audience. 

Lee Brookes is the at Elite Digital and used to be a full-time personal trainer. As former Fitness Director and Personal Trainer, Lee Brookes almost had Ben Johnson (former Can Gold Medal Olympic Sprinter) work for him.

Elite Social Media Specialists:

Hurriyeh Iftikhar — Social Media Coordinator

Social media is rapidly replacing traditional modes of human conversation and interaction, and in turn, some are pessimistic about the ubiquity of social media in our world. But with ubiquity, comes opportunity. 

Our Social Media Specialists are ‘the great optimists’, and through their creativity, fun-loving spirit and specialized insight into how humans interact with one another, they constantly discover new ways to ensure audiences get more out of their social media experiences than they bargained for. 

By living and breathing the social media world, and researching what works, what we can do to make existing practices better, and how it can be used in ways never thought before, our social team is yet another Elite squad that uses their passion to yield unprecedented results for our clients. 

Hurriyeh Iftikhar is a Social Media Coordinator at Elite Digital. In her spare time, she enjoys playing video games. One of her favourite games is God of War.

Elite SEO and SEM Specialists:

Victoria Sullivan — SEO Specialist 

As the primary information hub of our age, while looking for the answer to a question, the world turns to search engines almost every time. But our SEM and SEO specialists see more than just a question. A question is simple and usually has a specific answer. However, our specialists can determine how some of the most important questions of people’s day to day lives get answered, more important, they help determine what answer people find. 

From local inquiries: “Good steakhouses to eat at in Toronto?” “Best Men’s Clothing Retailer in Liberty Village”; to online shopping inquiries: “Shop jeans online for men” – “Sports nutrition products delivery”, our specialists constantly develop new insight into audiences, targeting, metadata, and keywords to own the front page of search engines, and to maximize website visibility.

In addition, our display team digs deep to understand our audience so that we can hit them with an ad at the right time, right place, and while they are in the right mood to be captivated by a product. Our display and Adwords team together have mastered the art of turning just a few words into a fearsome concoction that draw in the right audience and generate results in one of the most competitive advertising fields around. 

Victoria Sullivan (left) is an SEO Specialist at Elite Digital. Besides spending her time perfecting SEO strategies, she is also active in the fashion and beauty industry, attending functions and shows as well as running her own hair extension business.

Elite Project Managers and Account Coordinators

Joanna Chung and Shawn-Michael Hann — Bilingual Digital Account / Email Coordinators

Working with a wide-range of industries, such as pharmaceuticals, retail, food and hospitality, real estate, accounting, event marketing, and more, our Elite project managers have their hands full daily. But you’d never realize it. 

Our Project Managers are some of the best composed, most organized, most polite, and understanding people on the planet. Client-to-agency relations are notorious for being dicey, but our Project Managers are not only masters or organization and time management, but they are each a “People Person” at their core. They can mitigate the stress of dealing with ever-intensifying client demands and the pressure of managing deadlines, all the while keeping a smile on their face. 

So, what makes Elite Project Managers so Elite? Aside from their “client first” mentalities and their kind demeanors, it is their overwhelming dedication to the vision of the project they work on and doing whatever it takes to follow through on execution and make that vision come to light. 

Joanna Chung and Shawn-Michael Hann are Bilingual Digital Account / Email Coordinators at Elite Digital. Joanna owns 107 notebooks. A tad less than half is actually filled…some of them with her sketches, poems or favorite quotes, others with her favorite words in English and French. Shawn has his M.Sc in Clinical Psychology as well as his counseling certification.

Elite Leaders, Administrators and Human Resource Managers:

Sophia Tran — Human Resources Generalist 

Elite Administrators and Human Resource managers help make our agency a safe, organized, and happy place to work. From organizing fun company events every few weeks to maintaining our fun yet professional corporate culture, these individuals are the foundation of why working at Elite is as comfortable as it is. As for the leadership team, all of the passion, insight, and dedication, doesn’t just come from our people, but from the roots of our agency. 

Our management team has over 14 years of experience in the digital marketing field, and over those 14 years they have accumulated a vast pool of knowledge, resources, and experiences, and invite the entire team to jump in each day. Our managers understand not only where digital marketing has come over the years, but also possess insight into where it’s going. 

Most importantly, they never cease to make sure that each person that works at Elite is excited to tag along on the journey of digital marketing. And, as we leave our milestones along the way, and as we look back at the amazing feats we have achieved, we wonder: if we’re growing this fast, just where will we take things next?

So, what makes every project at Elite a passion project? What makes Elite so Elite? Is it our people alone? Or is it something more?

Everyone was once an amateur before they were a professional, but 99% of the time what gets them there is their passion. 

And that’s what makes us Elite.

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