Together, we grow in capacity and impact.
Collaboration is an official Spruce value. It’s part of a set that guides our creative work and our relationships with our clients. It’s at the core of our internal processes, and we are committed to working together so our combined strengths can make magic.
This commitment extends beyond our team: we consider our clients incredible partners. They bring their own abilities and strengths to projects that complement ours, and they challenge us in ways that allow us to grow.
While developing the Ādisōke library brand, insights from Elders of the Algonquin Host Nations made us realize how books are not inherently good things. In many cases, books—particularly one Book—were tools of oppression used against First Nations. This consideration was instrumental in creating a brand that reflected how Indigenous Peoples have shared their knowledge, culture and history across generations through stories.
Through our video storytelling work with Cahdco, we learned about their gamification approach to learning. This currently informs our new educational campaigns and toolkits. And there is always more to learn.
Our team recognizes that some projects require skills or knowledge that fall just outside of our wheelhouse. That’s when we reach out to our partners.
We grow the impact of our clients’ campaigns with media buys thanks to an ongoing partnership with M&K Media, a women-owned and led Canadian media planning and buying agency. Thanks to PACE Consulting, a public affairs and community engagement team, we can integrate robust bilingual stakeholder and community engagement strategies into our work. And we regularly collaborate with a range of trusted professionals, including Associate Strategist Amy Ede and the A/V powerhouse team at House of Common, to take our creative to the next level.
One of our longest-standing relationships is with First Peoples Group (FPG), a 100% Indigenous-owned, operated and staffed, women-led consultancy who are widely recognized as the foremost Indigenous advisors in Canada. After working with Spruce on many projects, FPG’s founder Guy Freedman joined Spruce as a partner in 2021. This formalized our collaboration, which allows Spruce to easily include FPG’s team on key projects while we help elevate the design for many FPG projects.
All of these client collaborations and creative partnerships are essential to our growth at Spruce, and essential to our mission of helping the good grow. Working together, we co-create the best solutions to client challenges. We all gain from open discussion, curiosity, new ways of working and fresh perspectives.
So, thank you to all our partners and collaborators. We couldn’t grow without you.
Have an opportunity or challenge that could benefit from a collaborative approach? We’d love to meet you.
Joseph Mathieu is an Account Manager and Writer at Spruce. You can reach him at joseph@sprucecreative.ca or connect on LinkedIn.
