Global Marketing Agency Soho Experiential Announces Reorganization
New York City (April 10, 2023) – In response to the unprecedented 260% growth from pre-Covid levels, New York City-based Soho Experiential (@sohoexp), known for its global experiential marketing services in beverage alcohol, finance and retail sectors, announced it has restructured the organization as an employee-led company.
Visionary founders Jeff Boedges and Rick Kiley have already begun to transition away from day-to-day operations to pursue new business ventures. With a combined 50+ years of industry experience, they will continue to assist with high level strategy and creative work, and provide the agency with its strategic vision. However, their daily responsibilities are being passed to newly-named President Matt Kabel and the employee-led strategic leadership team.
“Over the past 18 years, this team has shown time after time their commitment to the excellence and creativity that we founded this company on,” states co-founder Rick Kiley. “Two years ago, when Covid hit, Jeff and I sat down and decided where we wanted the agency to go next. We landed on a vision: To create one of the best marketing agencies to work in the US. This step, elevating our employees to take the lead in the agency operations, we feel is a unique and exciting step towards achieving this vision.”
“We’ve grown from a small family to a large team of dedicated staff, and the past two years allowed us to evolve our structure to ensure we deliver best-in-class service, provide professional development, and give people a stronger work-life balance.” said Matt Kabel, President, and thirteen-year Soho employee. “We aim to build long-term relationships with staff as well as clients. Moving to an employee-led model affirms our commitment to the people who deliver the Soho experience for our client partners.”
Together with Kabel, the senior leadership team oversees a staff of 35 and more than 900 promotional staff and brand ambassadors, hand-picked and trained to support Soho’s experiential offerings. Capabilities include creative strategy and production, private events, trade show activations, mobile tours, highly trained promotional staff and brand ambassadors, digital program overlays, partnership development, and influencer marketing. The agency can help large and small brands deliver great experiential and demonstrate the ROI produced by each project.
Soho operates on a hybrid work schedule to build community through team activations and opportunities that foster connections from junior to senior staff. The team is translating its successes to business verticals including hospitality, automotive and CPG products, as well as leveraging its expertise in in-person experiential activations to grow digital offerings for clients.
Kabel, who is a new father, understands the balance needed for this high-pressure work and attributes the growth and success of Soho Experiential on his transparency as a leader by running the agency based on five principles: 1) Keep the agency pulse by continually listening to your employees 2) Ensure an atmosphere of collaboration, positivity and empathy 3) Enable a work/life balance for all employees and lead by example 4) Always be solutions-driven 5) Don’t f*ck it up.