How UpHouse Uses Purpose-Driven Marketing for Good
While much of Canadian advertising happens out of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, that doesn’t mean top quality work can’t be found elsewhere. Case and point, UpHouse, an award-winning Winnipeg, Manitoba-based marketing and PR agency.
Maintaining a firm belief in elevating messages that need to be heard, and ensuring that media is authentic, accessible and diverse, UpHouse consists of a mix of marketing and PR expats who love collaborating and supporting in-house marketers. Rather than minimising or replacing brand-side talent, the agency prioritises filling in skill gaps, offering guidance, and ensuring everything is taken care of, from marketing strategy and concept development to production.
Labelling itself as a team of consultants, but better, UpHouse also offers creative bootcamps, cross-business brainstorms and creative direction - a mix that many modern in-house marketers have expressed appreciation for - and one which has proven successful via the elevation of many brands, be they local or national.
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with co-founders Kiirsten May and Alex Varricchio to discuss the agency’s history, their ambitions, and why their approach to marketing works successfully.
LBB> You’ve been open since 2017 - please give us some background on your history! How did you get started, and how did you evolve into the agency you are today?
Kiirsten> We started as a team of two, sharing an office with Alex’s partner’s production company – Wookey Films. Five years later, we are a team of 36… But we still share space with Wookey Films because they are the best office mates!
Growth has come from a few places:
- We’ve hired some great people who have supported our client acquisition and retention.
- We became a Certified Diverse Supplier through Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce in 2018, connecting us with corporations that want to work with diverse-owned businesses.
- We’ve cultivated a network of talented collaborators outside our organisation, allowing us to scale quickly.
- We’ve produced some award-winning work that put us on the radar of more clients.
- We hired staff in Toronto and Vancouver to expand our market reach.
- In 2022, we acquired a PR agency and obtained B Corp certification.
- Now in 2023, we are actively building our network in Los Angeles.
LBB> Where did the name UpHouse come from? What does it mean to you?
Alex & Kiirsten> We wanted to design an agency around supporting an organisation’s in-house marketing team. That’s where the name initially came from – get UpHouse for your in-house team. Over time, as we recruited staff who cared deeply about marketing for purpose-driven organisations, as well as marketing for good, the name has been able to encompass our organisational values.
The name UpHouse speaks to:
- Elevating in-house marketing.
- Revolutionising marketing to be more inclusive and socially conscious.
- Holding higher expectations for the industry as a whole.
- And creating a welcoming, homey environment where people feel comfortable being themselves.
LBB> Where many of Canada’s agencies operate out of Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, you’re in Winnipeg! What’s the local scene like there? And how does your geographic location influence the types of projects you undertake?
Alex & Kiirsten> Canadians love to make fun of Winnipeg, but it is such a fun city! It’s big enough to have great food, culture, art, music, events and tourism attractions, but also small enough that it’s easy to collaborate with talented local folks to elevate a campaign.
In many ways, the city has a bit of an underdog mindset. That’s probably why so many creative people come from here. And that mindset has fuelled our desire to grow and show folks the talent coming out of this city.
Since opening, we have grown to be a top agency in Manitoba, and we owe that success to the local clients who have been with us since year one. We want to continue to challenge old assumptions about the kind of creative work that comes from Winnipeg, and work with national clients across Canada, while serving them from here.
LBB> UpHouse strives to walk the line between an outside advertising agency and a member of a brand’s in-house marketing department. Tell us more about this! What benefits does this offer, what does this look like, and why was this the approach you wanted to take?
Alex & Kiirsten> Here is the language we put in our proposals to explain the UpHouse value proposition for in-house marketing teams:
Organisations are reducing their agency spend and taking their marketing in-house. This move comes with a lot of advantages – it’s cost-effective, gives you greater control, and leverages your product and industry knowledge…
… But it also comes with some disadvantages. That’s where UpHouse comes in. We collaborate where it counts and help make the most out of in-house. We’ve designed our services to solve three challenges of modern marketing teams.
Too close to your own brand:
No one knows your business better than you, but that proximity may limit your ability to see new opportunities. Plus, the stakes are high for your team. That pressure can stop marketers from pushing their brands to where they might go.
UpHouse brings the outsider’s perspective needed for ideation and innovation. We also have the processes and expertise to support you in bringing those ideas to life, so they’re not just a wish on a whiteboard.
Can’t hire for every single skill:
You’ve invested in building your in-house team, but it’s nearly impossible to hire for every single skill needed to execute every single thing required of modern brands. You need a partner to fill in the skill gaps, not to duplicate your team.
UpHouse builds specific work plans around your team and then only offers what you’re missing. If you’ve got designers, we won’t design. If you’ve got traditional covered, we’ll do digital (you get the idea).
Putting out fires, not building strategies:
You’re accountable to a lot of other departments, and as a result, your marketing plan may turn into a laundry list as you try to please everyone. In-house marketing teams may need help getting ahead of fires, focusing on strategy, making a smart plan and following through.
UpHouse creates strategic marketing work plans that you can implement with or without us. It’s not a proposal for us to do more work later – it’s everything you need for a successful year in one document.
LBB> As part of this, UpHouse prides itself on its marketing and PR capabilities. How do you use these to bolster standard campaign work, and how do you integrate these aspects to create a holistic process?
Alex & Kiirsten> We’ve structured our organisation like the hub of a spoke - where creative and strategy is the central hub, and our specialties are the spokes that support it. PR is one of those specialities. When we come together to brainstorm answers for a creative brief, we are looking for earned media opportunities right from the get-go.
In many ways, marketing is a two-way communications game now, so preparing our clients and ourselves for these conversations at the beginning of each campaign is super helpful. To this end, the folks who joined us from Dooley PR have changed the way we approach communications. They’re truly experts at what they do, and having them on the team has made us more effective at launching new campaigns, brands and initiatives. We’re magnifying clients’ media spend through earned media. We’re helping clients do a better job engaging communities and getting their message out through trusted channels.
Not only this, but when clients see the reports come back from the PR work, they are thrilled with the results. The PR work we did to promote the launch of the refreshed Travel Manitoba brand had a total publicity value of $7.3 million USD – 36 times greater than their media budget for the launch campaign.
LBB> Building on this, what have been some of the most pivotal moments for the agency over the last two years?
Alex & Kiirsten> There’s been several. In no particular order:
- Acquiring Dooley PR was an exciting move.
- Obtaining our B Corp certification – the process wasn’t quick, but it was definitely worth it and an amazing accomplishment for us.
- Doubling in size in the last 15 months!
- We invested in outside coaching for our staff, which has seen our team’s confidence grow, and not just accept the organisational changes but lead them.
- We went through the United Way’s Social Purpose Institute and developed our organisation’s social purpose: existing to inspire the social consciousness of brands.
LBB> UpHouse has referred to itself as a ‘gaygency’ before. Tell us more about this! How did this nickname come to pass, and how do you integrate the promotion of the 2SLGBTQ+ community into your business and work?
Alex & Kiirsten> For a detailed history on us being a ‘gaygency’, please check out this blog post that explains how the name came to pass!
In terms of promoting diversity, when we are onboarding a new client, we share three expectations we have for them:
- Produce work that is authentic.
- Produce work that is accessible. 22% of Canadians currently live with a disability, and all of us will experience a disability (even temporarily) at some point in our lives.
- Produce work that is diverse. As marketers, we have the opportunity to represent a different future - one with a wider variety of faces and voices.
With that in mind, we want to be the partner that comes to the table with a concept that fulfils all three points, and that invariably means there is going to be an authentic representation of 2SLGBTQ+ folks in the work. Some clients are ready to really go there, and for others it’s a small step from what they’ve done in the past, but we keep everyone moving towards the advertising that portrays the kind of world we all want to live in.
LBB> What are some of the unique challenges and viewpoints that have come from being a ‘Gaygency’? How have you overcome them, and as a whole, what are you hoping to achieve in this space?
Alex & Kiirsten> During the early UpHouse years, we felt unsure about whether we should identify as a queer-led agency. There were so many things to consider. Would we lose out on potential clients? Would it become our whole story? Eventually, we realised there are lots of organisations and marketers who want to work with or for a 2SLGBTQ+-owned business. It’s a differentiator, and we needed to lean into it to attract the kind of staff and clients we want to work with. It’s not for everyone, and that’s OK. After all, we don’t want to work with companies that make us feel like we need to hide our true selves!
Our goal is to make a true statement of allyship by being sexuality and gender inclusive. Some basic things we want the organisations we work with to achieve are:
- For Pride Month, make sure your workplace experience lives up to any rainbow-branded promises.
- Donate proceeds of any pride-related merchandise to a charity run by and for the community.
- Include 2SLGBTQ+ talent, models, clients, customers and influencers in your marketing communications year-round.
- Make it a habit to include pronouns in your introductions, email signatures, virtual meeting names and on name badges.
LBB> Is there recent work that sticks out as being particularly important for UpHouse? And if so, why?
Alex & Kiirsten> We have begun working in the tourism and destination marketing sector, and it’s a lot of fun. In particular, we facilitated a brand refresh for Travel Manitoba, produced a 2SLGBTQ+ safe space accreditation brand and program for Tourism HR Canada (it’s called Rainbow Registered), and are currently working on a Canada-wide recruitment program for the tourism industry called Discover Tourism.
We have also continued to do more and more in the workforce development and recruitment marketing sphere. We love doing this and connecting people looking for meaningful careers with industries and employers who are a good fit.
Aside from that, we’d love to add that since day one, we have always tried to accommodate as much pro-bono and non-profit work as we can. This work continues to be incredibly important to us and to our team. We can make the most difference here and we’ll continue to prioritise this.
LBB> On a personal level, what are your main aims and ambitions for UpHouse?
Alex & Kiirsten> Our vision for UpHouse has always been to connect and collaborate with amazing people and brands. We want to continue doing this over the years to come, and in more ways than ever before. We’ve been doing more and more of what we call ‘people marketing’ - supporting brands in workforce development, lifestyle, culture, health and community. We see a lot of opportunity here, and want to bring our UpHouse values in order to help brands connect in these spaces.
Beyond that, we want to work with clients across Canada and into the US, and of course, we want to continue to champion underrepresented communities!
