Matchstick : Independent digital agency that’s been generating strategic, impactful marketing in partnership with exceptional clients since 2001
I’m Matthew Stradiotto and I’m a cofounder of Matchstick a social media company based here in Toronto. And I am Patrick Thoborough and I’m also a cofounder of Matchstick. Ten years ago we were much more of an offline agency working with influencers in the offline space. So we were the agency that handed out the cool basketball shoes or running shoes to the young trendsetter or influencer as we called them to try to get that consumer to consumer messaging going but today we are very different. We are an online agency that focuses on building still that earned word of mouth but through social media channels. The most powerful selling of products and services doesn’t take place marketer to consumer but rather takes place consumer to consumer.
That word of mouth philosophy when we work with influencers offline by seating them with products meant that we were creating conversations on the street and schools at work at home all about these products. We are creating positive word of mouth recommendations for the products we were working with. And as we’ve moved into the digital space it’s really the same core philosophy that sharing of your brand’s message consumer to consumer is a much more effective way of getting the message out than from brand to consumer.
It’s not just about brands beaming good content to consumers which we have been doing for decades, it’s about beaming content that we know will have traction, will get shared, commented on, pinned, re-pinned, re-tweeted so that sharable essence is a very important part to be baked into good content. The brand doesn’t want to be that ad that’s interrupting the content that the consumer really wants to use. The brand actually wants to be publishing that content that the consumer wants to use. So rather than interrupt, we provide content that is useful or entertaining to consumers. That’s really the way to drive engagement. Probably the biggest opportunity for clients today is to be more of a human voice inside the social digital channels. I think that’s an amazing opportunity that hasn’t existed in the past. To be on a scalable level, a much more human-centric brand that can connect with individuals, touch them, share content with them and answer their questions and concerns directly and quickly in a 24-7 environment.
