We talk a lot about gaps, because that’s where we’ve found we can be of most use. Filling those gaps. When the burden of growth is on your shoulders and the problems are many, it’s natural to assume you need a different partner for every one. Most of the time though, you just need one team with the right folks on it.
Jay Dingwall
Adam MacLean
Andrew Rygiel
Deirdre Thibault
Young Seo
Growth creates gaps. We help you close them.
Most engagements start with a clear mandate: a repositioning, a campaign, a brand system that has to scale, or more senior capacity. GapWork is how we connect them.
What is FamousFolks?
An enterprise-fluent team of strategic and creative leaders for marketing leaders at complex B2B companies. We close the gaps that make growth harder, whether that’s a position that needs sharpening or a pile of important work your team doesn’t have time for.
What’s the deal with the name?
None of us are actually famous. We are a fairly approachable bunch, though, so “Folks” fits. We started more than two decades ago as a sports agency, pivoted quickly to advertising and design, and kept the name. If you work in tech, you’ve probably seen a pivot or two.
What makes FamousFolks different?
Our people overlap. Our CEO is a brand strategist. So is our creative director. That means we can see how a decision in one part of an assignment affects the rest, and see it through. For CMOs, it means one team that can cover most strategic and creative gaps, with fewer partners to brief and manage.
Who will I work with?
The people you meet at the start are the people doing the work: senior strategists, designers and creative leaders with overlapping skills. No handoff to a junior team (there is no junior team) and no rebriefing, so the context you share in the first conversation is still in the room at the end.
What kinds of clients do you work with?
Enterprise marketing teams in technology, financial services, clean energy and a few other sectors. Some are in the middle of a big business change. Others need a partner who can step into ongoing work and expand what their team can do. The sector matters less than the challenge.
Where are you based, and where do you work?
Toronto, though our work goes a lot further. We work with teams in Europe and Asia and have a long history in New York, Southern California and the Bay Area. We’re used to working across time zones and fitting into how international enterprises run, early calls and late ones included.
What is GapWork?
It’s our name for how we work. The problems CMOs bring us rarely sit neatly inside one discipline, and luckily, we don’t either. One team works across positioning, brand systems and creative, and follows the work where it needs to go.That means you don’t have to assemble four or five specialist partners to solve problems that are connected anyway.
What kinds of gaps do you help close?
Four come up most. Your position hasn’t kept pace with the market. Your story no longer matches the business. Your teams are working from different assumptions. Or there’s simply more work than people to do it well. We call them positioning, story, alignment and capability gaps and they rarely show up alone.
How does your work support growth?
Brand work rarely grows a business on its own, and we won’t pretend it does. But it does remove a lot of what gets in the way. Growth gets harder when buyers, or the AI agents working for them, can’t tell what makes you different. When sales has to explain the value from scratch every time. When the brand undersells what’s behind it. Those are the gaps we help close, so your value is easier to see and easier to sell.
How does AI change the brand work you do?
Buyers are increasingly asking AI tools which companies to look at, how they differ and which deserve a closer look. Those tools can only repeat what they can find and make sense of. That makes a clear position and a consistent, credible story more valuable. After years of diminishing value, brand has never mattered more. We help make your business easier to understand and tell apart wherever buyers come across it, including in an AI answer. Your story has to hold together well beyond your own website. Did you find us through AI? We might know what we’re talking about.
How do you approach a new engagement?
You know your business better than anyone, so we start with your view of it. What do you need to achieve? Who’s involved, what’s already in place and what might get in the way? We add what’s harder to see from the inside. Then we agree on a scope and bring the right people to it. The work adapts as the need changes, and the thinking stays connected.
How can we engage you?
We work in three engagement models. A focused engagement, project work essentially, tackles a defined challenge with an agreed scope and outcome. A phased engagement connects several projects around a larger mandate. A working partnership reserves senior strategic and creative time for your team, so you can plan around it.
Can you work alongside our internal team?
Yes. We’ve worked with internal teams of all types. Every team works differently, so we start by learning how yours does: how decisions get made, who needs to be in the room and where we’re most useful. Sometimes we lead. Sometimes we extend the team. Sometimes we fill one specific gap.
Can you help with execution if the strategy is already in place?
Yes. Bring us the strategy, brief or brand system and we’ll take it into campaigns, content, design, motion, or digital experiences. If something in the direction needs a second look, we’ll say so. Politely.
Does every engagement need to start with a rebrand?
No. A rebrand is a big move, and it isn’t always the right one. You might need a campaign, a messaging update, or help stretching a brand that already works.
What should we expect to get out of the work?
Depends on the mandate, but we’re focused on outcomes. It might be a clearer reason for buyers to choose you, messaging your sales team actually uses, a brand system that makes new work easier, or a campaign that builds true differentiation.
How much does it cost to work with you?
It depends. We know that’s a thoroughly unsatisfying answer, but there are a lot of variables. Cost comes down to scope, complexity, and how much capacity the work needs. Tell us what you’re trying to achieve and roughly what you have to spend, and we’ll be clear about what the right engagement includes. We are usually less expensive than committing to senior full time talent, or engaging with several different partners to get the work done well.
How quickly can you get started and deliver?
We like to move fast. Tell us what needs to happen, onboard us and we’re off. In practice, enterprise pace is often set by stakeholder calendars, procurement, access, and approvals. We map those early so they don’t turn into surprises later.
How do we get started?
Just reach out! You won’t regret it, we’re a good hang. Tell us what you need to get done, why it matters, and any timing or budget limits. You don’t need a finished brief. Half-formed is fine. We’ll talk through the context and whether we’re the right team to help.
How can we stay connected?
Subscribe to B2BOOM! for practical thinking on the gaps holding enterprise marketing back and how to close them. Or browse our case studies and articles for a closer look at how we think and work.
Do you work with international clients?
Yes. We work with clients globally and collaborate remotely using structured workflows, clear communication, and regular updates to keep projects aligned across time zones.
What types of projects are the best fit?
We typically work with brands and teams looking for clarity, quality, and long-term value; across identity, digital products, and creative production.