5 Minutes with... Samppa Vilkuna

Samppa Vilkuna became an entrepreneur when he was just 19. When the family restaurant he had spent his entire childhood working in went up for sale, Samppa and his brother decided to buy it. “We sold it a little later, because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life working at the restaurant,” he tells me. In his second year of university studying international business, he got a call from his brother. They still had a little money left from the restaurant, and now a nightclub in their hometown was up for sale. “I was 23, single, and still studying, so of course I thought it was the best idea ever.”

After graduating, he thought it was time to move on. “At that time, our nightclub was one of the best-selling outlets for Red Bull in the region. The brand had just launched in Finland, and I ended up joining the company."

It was there, as head of marketing, that Samppa discovered the disconnect between client needs and agency offerings. That’s when he decided to launch Superson – a talent-first agency that puts client needs front and centre.

We sat down with Samppa to find out more about what he sees as the future of advertising. 

LBB> So, before we dive into where you are now, what brought you here? What led up to this point?

Samppa> I started at Red Bull, where I was working with multiple agencies. At that time, I was head of marketing, and I was frustrated with the agency model. There were probably seven different agencies, all trying to take a piece of the same cake. The biggest dilemma, and it sounds cliché, was that none of them were looking at things from the client’s perspective.

They were just trying to sell me their people, their resources, or their hours without really addressing what I needed as a client. I had no experience with agencies, so I didn’t know how they worked. But eventually, I realised this wasn’t working.

LBB> How did you approach starting your agency, having come from the client side?

Samppa> I started talking to one of the agency CEOs we worked with. I asked the cliché question, "Why isn’t there an agency that thinks from the client’s perspective?" He was a creative sales guy, and he said, "Yeah, we can figure that out, no worries." And then things just progressed from there. Together, we started Superson 12 years ago.

2012 was also the year when we saw a lot of platforms rising. I remember seeing a meme by Tom Goodwin that said, “Airbnb is the world’s biggest hotel chain without a single hotel room. Uber is the world’s biggest taxi company without a single taxi. Facebook is the world’s biggest media company without any journalists." We looked at that and thought, “What if there was an agency – the best creative agency – without a single creative?” That was our ‘aha’ moment. It sounded interesting, so we decided to explore that concept. That was the origin story of Superson.

LBB> Was it difficult to get started in 2012 in Helsinki?

Samppa> If I’m being honest, freelancing in Helsinki in 2012 was either something you did if you were really bad at your job or if you were so drunk you couldn’t get a real job. The first two years were really tough. It was hard to get the concept right and convince clients that this was the future. But we had a clear vision. We knew this was how we wanted to work.

For me, one of the biggest drivers was the unbiased approach I could take when meeting clients. I didn’t need to sell them a video editor or a PR strategist. I could just focus on their challenges and find the best team for them.

LBB> So how does it work? If I’m the client and I come to you saying I need help with a project, how does it work? What do you do?

Samppa> Our job is to really dive into the problem – or the challenge – together with the client. Usually, our client partners, who are the ones meeting with clients, work to get to the root cause. Why do you want to do this? What is the problem? Once we’ve created our own brief together, we start looking at what would be the best team to solve the challenge.

From there, we find the best possible specialists to tackle the project. We have over 600 specialists all over the world. The idea is that we can always promise our clients the best-in-class people. For example, if it’s a dog food company, we’ll have a team of specialists who are pet lovers and have dogs at home, so they truly understand the culture. If it’s a gardening company, we bring in people who love gardening. It’s about aligning expertise, personal passion, and experience – and that’s why they’re part of the team.

LBB> What limitations do you think traditional agencies have? You’ve mentioned they often can’t see things from the client’s side. What other problems do you think exist?

Samppa> I love this time we’re in now because the market is so messy. It’s chaotic, and that’s an opportunity to bring clarity. Clients currently hate the old model of paying for fancy offices, bloated teams, and bureaucracy. They want brilliant people who can focus on their work.

Clients don’t want to pay for nice offices or towers. They hate paying for inefficiencies – like when 30% of a team isn’t being used on a project. Who pays for that? The client. If I were a client, I’d hate that too.

The old model is outdated, stuck in the 1960s. Of course, I’m biased towards the Superson model, but I genuinely believe it’s the solution to these old-school problems. It won’t be AI that kills the traditional agencies – it'll be models like ours.

People leaving traditional agencies aren’t moving to other agencies – they're leaving entirely. What happens then? They start micro-agencies or work as freelancers, and companies like us hire them. In the US, 50% of creative people are freelancing. It’s not a trend anymore; it’s a fundamental change in the workforce. This shift really kicked off with the ‘great resignation’ during COVID, and now it’s gone global.

LBB> How would you describe your leadership style now?

Samppa> I lead by example, focusing on what’s best for the client while empowering my team with the freedom and trust to do their best work.

I love being on the front line. I get my kicks from working directly with clients. I’m not an office-bound guy at all. I really enjoy spending time with clients, getting to the core of the problem, and then handing things over to my team to take it from there. I also tell our trainees and new hires that we’re a company that trusts people. We hire them because we believe in them, and we give them a lot of freedom.

I don’t care if someone needs to run errands during the day. As long as they meet their duties, tasks, and KPIs and produce great work, I’m happy.

LBB> Even though you’re running a business, do you still manage to approach your clients in an unbiased way?

Samppa> Yes, every day. I can honestly say that. I’m really strict on this – we will not hire a single person who does creative work because then we’d end up in a position where we’re just selling someone’s hours or days. It’s about providing the right solution for the client, not pushing a specific service.

LBB> You mentioned the importance of purpose. How has your company’s purpose evolved since 2017?

Samppa> In 2017, the whole purpose discussion came up, and we had to define ours. At the time, we were working a lot with Unilever, and they had their own purpose. We came up with ours, which felt very cliché at the time. It was something like, “Our job is to liberate people to do what they’re best at.” But over the years, it’s grown stronger. Now, it’s really about helping people focus on what they’re best at – whether that’s project management, budgeting, or creative work. My strength is working directly with clients, and that’s what I focus on. Everyone else can excel in their own areas too.

LBB> You’re expanding globally, with hubs in Singapore, Amsterdam, and Helsinki. How does your Nordic culture factor into this?

Samppa> It’s a big part of our company culture. We operate as one company; our teams in Singapore, Amsterdam, and Helsinki work together seamlessly. For example, the Amsterdam team might get support from Singapore, and Singapore might get help from Helsinki. We don’t work with the old P&L structure where each location optimises for itself.

This allows us to provide the same high-quality service, no matter where the client is. My role is to bring that Nordic culture into our global teams. Interestingly, even in Singapore, we’ve incorporated many Nordic ways of working.