The Engine That Could

The mid-size Vancouver agency Engine Digital is now revving hot, creating memorable online experiences for local and global brands

Wedged between the local branches of global firms and the baby-faced start-ups of Vancouver, there’s a middle class of studios gaining steam. Engine Digital, eight years old and going strong, are one of those shops, having steadily built up a reputation for innovation—with the client base to prove it.

Engine was founded in 2002 from the ashes of Tinderbox, the interactive division of Lanyon Phillips. Amid the industry chaos of the early-2000s, Stephen Beck and Kele Nakamura joined forces with Richard Gallagher to create their agency, which initially took on any work that it could.

“We were taking on every creative project which came our way,” explains partner and co-creative director Stephen Beck. “And we realized pretty quickly that you really need focus if you want to be good at what you’re doing. You need to say, You know what, we like doing identity design but it’s not really the type of work we really want to be famous for. So we looked back at our roots—which weren’t that far back in our history—and we said, let’s focus on developing web experiences and let’s stick to that.”

By moving from simply developing websites to “thinking digitally from an advertising perspective,” Engine tapped into the growing need for specialized web advertising to create a niche for themselves—as luck would have it, at exactly the time the digital sphere was exploding with innovations, from static banner ads through to engaging rich media experiences.

“Here in Vancouver there weren’t a lot of agencies then that were pushing the advertising side of online," Beck explains. "The work was really becoming more interesting and the opportunity for pulling those projects in was becoming more realistic.”

The little Engine that could has now become the mid-sized Engine that does, with a staff of 16 creating interactive experiences on behalf of a variety of brands. From Hockey Canada to Telus, and from the Vancouver Aquarium to HSBC, the client list of Engine combines the local with the global. The reason for the sustained demand for their services? A dedication to continually creating memorable experiences for brands that stick with the user long after they turn off their computer or handheld device.

“I think that we’re going to start to see a lot more brands focus on how they exist across all the different screens,” explains Beck. “It’s getting a lot more fragmented, but I think the smart brands are going to [create] smart strategies to exist in a cohesive creative way across all these different platforms. Not just existing in them, but actually providing relevant content through them.”

“I’d like to see this idea of branded utility increase and that’s really the holy grail of social marketing. I think if you’re not looking to create utility for your customer, then forget about it. You can sit in the space but you’re just occupying another seat in the room.”

Engine Digital are based in Vancouver, BC. Contact them by phone at 604-684-3330 or on the Web at www.enginedigital.com.