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Soshal Group expands head count, office space

Soshal Group CEO Dave Hale. Mark Holleron

Soshal Group CEO Dave Hale.

Courtney Symons
Published on June 4, 2012
Published on June 4, 2012
Courtney Symons  RSS Feed

Local startup Soshal Group is about to double in size soon after moving into a new office on Wellington Street West.

Topics :
Algonquin College , Soshal Group , National Capital Commission , Ottawa , Toronto , Parliament Hill

But with the local social media agency's plans for growth, the new space – three times the size of the old office – might not be big enough for long.

"The paint is literally just drying here, and we're already thinking we could outgrow this place by the end of the year," said CEO Dave Hale.

Its seven current employees will soon be joined by six to eight new staff members – mostly developers and people to help the company broaden its services offered to clients.

Founded in 2010 as a social media agency and one of OBJ's Startups to Watch in 2012, Soshal Group quickly expanded to provide offerings such as website design, video production and business strategy advice. Social media only made up about 20 to 25 per cent of the company's revenues, Mr. Hale said.

Regardless, Soshal Group was still pegged as a company with specialized but limited offerings by its customers in verticals such as health, higher education, sports and retail.

"We've had conversations with our clients where they've said, 'We love working with you guys and we wish you were more integrated so we could give you more of our business.'"

The new staff will be able to accommodate increased service offerings such as mobile app development, video and animation production and expanding business strategizing capabilities, on top of its established expertise in social media monitoring.

The company hopes to open a Toronto office by the end of the year, but for now is focused on integrating its new staff and completing the Ottawa-based contracts that have been piling in recently, said Mr. Hale.

"The city has been good to us," he said.

Previous clients have included Algonquin College, Carleton University, CHEO and the Canadian Hockey League.

Soshal Group's newest project is the development of a mobile app for the National Capital Commission to promote Canada Day 2012 in Ottawa.

The app is part of the NCC's contest allowing music group Simple Plan fans to vote on what song they would like the band to perform as headliners on Parliament Hill this Canada Day. All Canadians are eligible to vote and potentially win tickets to see the show.

The campaign, run through Facebook, is open until June 17.

Mr. Hale said the contest will help Soshal Group to kick off their new business direction.

"What we're really looking to do is provide a level of digital service that we feel is missing from the marketing ecosystem in Ottawa right now," he said.

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