No Fixed Address hires Dino Demopoulos as first CSO

Dino Demopoulos has joined No Fixed Address as its first chief strategy officer as the agency looks to establish more “upstream” relationships with clients and tackle more strategic mandates.

Demopoulos has spent the last two years at Paper Strategy, a strategic consultancy he co-founded following his departure from DDB Canada in 2016. He also brings planning leadership experience from agencies Tribal, McCann and BBDO.

At No Fixed Address, Demopoulos has been tasked with enhancing the agency’s existing strategic offering and help it take more of an “upstream” perspective with clients, an approach it has been hoping to take since it launched in 2016. For example, NFA has been working with Questrade – its first client – on exploring strategic opportunities beyond integrated advertising, after first being engaged in a more traditional creative role.

Strategic planning at the agency has been led by Rachel Lai since it launched. Lai will continue to contribute to the practice at the agency, but David Lafond, co-founder and president of No Fixed Address, says the agency’s growth – both in terms of its client work and service offering – required bringing someone else on to balance the work. In particular, he says Demopoulos’ recent time on the consulting side, mixed with experience in different areas of the marketing and communications ecosystem, was a fit for the approach the agency has been taking with clients.

“We often get engaged in very unique, almost consultative and strategic-forward mandates,” Lafond says. “Once you get more involved and engaged at a partnership level with a client, instead of just as an agency, you have a different seat at the table. That’s a good spot to be in, working as a partner that is helping clients grow their business.”

Over the last year, No Fixed Address has launched media, PR and health practices, on top of expanding to the U.S., all part of having a full-service offering for clients. Demopoulos says conversations with Lafond, Lai and co-founder Serge Rancourt showed him that they were on the same page when it came to tackling client problems that were more consultative than a typical agency assignment. But he also says that joining NFA was a chance to reconnect with the creative side of the business after working as a consultant for two years.

“I really missed having that connection to the creative output and what creativity can do for a client’s business,” he says. “There are a lot of consultancies, but one thing we’ve heard time and again from clients is what they really value is creativity. They know they can’t get that from the bigger, more business-focused consultant offerings. There’s a huge opportunity to elevate the role of creative problem solving by combining it with a more strategic, consultative arm.”

On the new business front, NFA has also added work with the Dairy Farmers of Ontario and GE over the last year.