The only guarantee is that things will change. Brands who don’t embrace this truth fall behind. And a branding or advertising agency that can’t navigate these dynamic environments and deliver real returns won’t be much help. That’s why our culture is all about partnership. We work with clients to create new experiences that ignite an emotional connection and move people to act. We’re SPARK. We make brands meaningful, memorable, and measurable.
Whether they’re leading the company’s vision, growing new business, or getting their hands in the day-to-day, our founder, Mike, and partners, Dulani and Elliott, have brought SPARK a long way from a 5-person team with a dream.
Founder
Since founding SPARK in 2001, Michael has brought the New York hustle to Tampa—leading our strategic positioning, campaign development, and branding efforts. His experience creating big ideas for some of the world’s largest brands at Grey Worldwide means he knows smart branding starts with a real insight—not just a flashy ad.
Partner
Dulani is the strategic powerhouse behind all our insights. She learns everything about each client’s business and makes sure we’re bringing them closer to their goals. As a partner, she works across the agency to ensure our creative ideas are always holistic, measurable, and effective. And she keeps everything in balance by running half-marathons on the weekends. She’s intense like that.
Brands: VISIT FLORIDA, Hospitality (Marriott Autograph Collection, Hilton, Kimpton), Texas Children’s, Bertram Yachts, The Dali Museum
Features & Awards: HSMAI Adrian Awards, HOW, PRINT
Partner
A man of many talents, Elliott guides our creative team to make big ideas bigger. He’s developed large-scale campaigns, designed stand-out branding, and created attention-getting environmental pieces—all with the sensibility of a marketer (and the drive of an artist). Elliott loves boardshorts, and would’ve totally worn them in his wedding, had his wife let him.
Brands: Marriott Autograph Collection, American Heart Association, VISIT FLORIDA, Ironman, Herman Miller
Features & Awards: Print RDAs, HOW International Design Annuals, Mercury Gold, Adrian Gold, Wommy Silver, DieLine, Brand New, AdWeek, FastCompany
Media Director
The mind behind our media team, Nashira knows what you say is just as important as where you say it. She doesn’t just develop smart strategies. She leads our team of media planners and buyers to really find the best solutions—especially the non-traditional and the unexpected. Before coming to SPARK, she worked in the music industry and is best friends with Ja Rule.
Brands: VISIT FLORIDA, Experience Kissimmee, The Dalí Museum, BayCare, Tampa Bay Lightning
Awards: Marketer of the Year Award, Mercury Award
Studio Director
Joe’s passion for all kinds of art led him to join our team as director of SPARK Studios after touring the country in a rock band. Ever the entertainer, Joe writes, shoots, directs, edits, and color-corrects visual content for our clients.
Brands: AVI-SPL, VISIT FLORIDA, Experience Kissimmee, Espolon, Texas Children’s
Creative Director
As a Creative Director with a writing background, it’s surprising that one of Jim’s passions is so visual—he loves observation. Jim has a baseline interest in almost everything, but enjoys chronicling and visualizing in the form of graph paper infographics that have been featured in the likes of Huffington Post and Daily Beast. The “skill” of observation has translated seamlessly to create a dynamic career for Jim that’s included stops in New York, San Fransisco, Orlando, and Tampa.
Brands: SF’s exclusive Battery Club, VISIT FLORIDA, GE, Snickers, New York Life
Brand Director
Combine a love of people, an insatiable curiosity to figure out what makes them tick, and a relentless pursuit of meaningful ideas, and you have Bri. She’s a seasoned strategist and brand director who treats her clients’ businesses as if they were her own, bringing dedication to their success on every project. She balances a strict attention to detail with a keen ability to step back and see the big picture, keeping everything (and everyone) on-strategy, on-schedule, and under budget.
Brands: PetSmart Charities, Sony, HP, Diet Coke, CLIF Bar, Guayaki Yerba Mate
Brand Director
With over 16 years of experience in marketing, journalism, and public relations, Kate’s daily goal has never changed: help people communicate their thoughts and ideas clearly to the masses. As our Brand Director, she uses this calling to lead strategy, drive success, and create empowering relationships between our clients, our team, and ultimately, our consumers. In her off time, she enjoys all manner of baking and cooking and spending days outside with her family here in the Sunshine State.
Brands: VISIT FLORIDA, HSN, Datz
Creative Director
Paul brings over a decade of creative leadership and experience working on global brands. Coming to Florida by way of Brazil, New York, and Puerto Rico, Paul has created and transformed brands at agencies like BBDO, Ogilvy, and Razorfish. His passion lies in working collaborative with clients to find the right solutions for each opportunity—developing brands, content, interactive tools, films or space and product design. His work has been recognized by One Show, Clio, Communication Arts, and his mom, among many others. When he’s not in the office, you can find him collecting (hoarding) pens and notebooks, or taking in every minute with his wife and daughter.
Creative Director
As a seasoned creative, Jay has spent his career focused on building brands with partners and teams that value the creative process. From an ad to a shopping experience, Jay crafts stories that turns every facet of marketing into an opportunity to connect. At SPARK, he leads creative for boutique hotels and national clients like PetSmart Charities.
Operations Director
With experience in staffing, broadcast, marketing, and even a stint in fashion, Michael Dixon brings a wealth of experience to the SPARK team. As Operations Director, he keeps the ship running tight from streamlining processes to working through day-to-day challenges. He enjoys untangling organizational knots and uses his 20 years of professional entertaining to weave in some fun along the way.
SPARK wouldn’t be the agency it is without its people. Each member of the team brings not only their talent, but their drive to make great work for great clients.
Design Director
Senior Cinematographer
Senior Social Strategist
Senior Brand Manager
Art Director
Finance Manager
Content Manager
Shooter / Editor
Production Artist
Brand Manager
Designer
Brand Coordinator
Community Manager
Producer
Designer
Traffic Manager
Office Manager
Designer
Media Buyer
Never you, always us. We believe the very best solutions come when there is true collaboration internally and with our clients. SPARK always has been and always will be made of partnerships that come from a place of empathy and a genuine eagerness to lend a hand.
Real passion can’t be faked. What excites us is the journey to the right answers – and often they don’t present themselves the first time around. When both of our teams care deeply about any project, initiative, or campaign the results make us proud.
Win every day. Everyone loves those award-winning projects (trust us, we do too). But we believe growth doesn’t come from a name in a publication. It’s a determination to push a little more today than you did yesterday.
Your brand isn’t your name, your logo, or your tagline. Your brand is the reason you exist. The reason customers choose you, spend money with you, and talk about you to their friends. From repositioning, to developing a brand from scratch, we create the platform rooted in strategy and reflective of your customers. The result is strong but malleable branding that stands the test of time and trends—and sees international recognition and success.
When we started SPARK, we worked with the best production studios, but wanted to do even better. In 2008 we created our own studio to bring stories to life with the technique, skill, and efficiency our clients needed. Our nimble studio team of directors, photographers, videographers, producers, editors, and sound engineers create video and photo content that’s compelling enough to stop the thumb from scrolling past, and start the love affair with your brand.
Amazing content only works when it’s seen by the right people. With both high-level and day-to-day management of your distribution plan, we use our network of international partners like Facebook, Expedia, and YouTube to make sense of every new platform, trend, and technology. Then, we build a strategy tailored to your brand with one constant: we go where the audience is. Because it’s no longer about scheduling time with a network. It’s about engaging in real time.
Our industry is moving toward a place where the most successful campaigns are highly targeted and measurable. Data allows us to not only optimize, but identify opportunities to create unexpected experiences for consumers. From there, we create scroll-stopping, head-turning, conversion-making campaigns that speak your audience’s language.
Our team is ready and equipped for any industry’s challenge, but when it comes to hospitality, travel, and health & wellness, we’re a well-oiled machine. Our years of experience in these fields don’t limit us—they focus us.
With a focus on the guest experience, we brand and shape touchpoints that make every stay something to talk about.
We market your destination by playing into its unique story, getting you to the top of everyone’s bucket list.
We create engaging messaging to ease talking about the tough subjects while helping caregivers put people above patient numbers.
There are few days you can’t find a group huddled around a table working together, but we are no strangers to the "work hard, play hard" mentality. From coast to coast, SPARK Tampa and SPARK San Diego know how to have serious fun with SPARK Days, STOKED community service, and engaging with our local communities.
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Social Media
The conversation around your brand is always happening. By listening and engaging, we gain insight into communities that helps to define, drive, and optimize your brand’s communications. With social listening tools and an understanding of what motivates your audience, we don’t just get people to like and share—we get them to act.