Corus-owned social marketing agency So.da is expanding its leadership team to accommodate both a new PR offering and ongoing client growth.

The agency launched in 2017 and has expanded to the point that it is producing 1,500 pieces of social content a week on its own brands alone, has made five key senior appointments across its service lines.

That includes its PR offering. So.da began offering PR services late last year to augment other campaigns it was already doing for clients, but has now also begun offering it as a stand-alone service that also includes experiential, event planning and communications services.

At them helm is Ashley Applebaum as head of publicity and Michelle McTeague as director of publicity.

Applebaum brings more than 15 years of PR experience across publicity, events, crisis communications and issues management practices into the role, and most recently was a senior publicist with Global. McTeague, meanwhile, brings 15 years of experience on both agency and client-side to the role, the most recent six of which are with Corus in PR roles of increasing seniority.

Elsewhere, Chaman Sandhu has been named the agency’s director of audience development. In the role, Sandhu will lead strategy and operations on the agency’s social and digital editorial content, while also overseeing its performance analytics team. Sandhu brings 15 years of marketing and strategy experience, both agency and client-side, to the new role. Most recently, she was the brand management lead at Truss Beverage Co., a leader in the cannabis-infused beverage space.

The agency has also promoted Kelly Duffy into the role of director of client accounts. Duffy joined So.da in 2019 and has worked her way up within the ranks of the agency’s client account team. In her new role, she will oversee the agency’s growing managed service business, and will also be responsible for expanding the team with an additional six hires.

Elana Schachter has joined So.da as head of influencer agency Kin Community Canada, which was acquired by Corus in 2019 and placed under So.da’s remit. Schachter brings more than two decades of experience in media and entertainment to the role, and will spearhead Kin’s vision, strategy and operations while providing oversight of sales, marketing, creator relations, data and analytics and new business development.

“Since its inception, [So.da] has seen explosive growth and the need for strong social expertise and the ability to produce content at scale continues to grow,” said Dervla Kelly, Corus’ SVP of marketing and So.da. “The addition of these extremely talented and experienced leaders will help us to continue to super-serve our clients and chart the next chapter of growth for the agency.”