Salient Global

When our clients at SoCo wanted to introduce themselves to gamers, subtlety wouldn't cut it. So as media and gamers hint at the death of the gaming console and couch co-ops, we helped the brand go all-in to protect social gaming in its purest form. Meet The SoConsole, the only gaming console that also serves up shots. This beautiful beast is proving worthy of the niche gamer nerd coverage and Xbox Reddit, Inc. hysteria the brand needs.

Today marks a year since Bryan, our founder and my dear friend, died. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ‘ready’ to fully share publicly what I’ve learned or felt this year as suicide has been the most complex and painful experience of my life. What I can share is a story of people and a business surviving and growing. Grief is relentless, but perhaps you’ll find hope in our journey so far. (To our clients, people, families, advisors, partners, friends: thank you).   ----- It began with a group of seasoned marketing and communications professionals wanting to build a great company. Bryan recruited good people with vast and successful careers to create a modern business that mattered to its clients and people. We admired his creativity, his ambition to build within an industry we love, and his warmth, compassion and confidence in great people. Start-up days were turbulent – of course – but we were adapting to every challenge. This industry requires endless resilience, a trait Bryan carried on his sleeve, and another reason many were drawn to his leadership. On October 8, 2023 we experienced a tragedy so profound that it nearly broke us. Suicide. The most illogical and confusing way to lose the founder of our company. A disease like no other. We were lacking clarity, confidence, stability and vivacity. Experts told us to survive we must separate our pain from the company. Others said to quit. Cut your losses.   We didn’t quit. We didn’t hide our humanity from our business. We unified them. We brought together our agencies, our diverse work, (good and bad) life experiences, pain, skills, values, differences, ambitions, ideas, and technologies. We used unity to build a new foundation for our future. We no longer resemble a classic holding company. The implicit division and lack of sharing in that model would not serve our future clients and people. So, we’re now a unified team with three distinct brands – working together to bring the right solutions and people to our clients. It’s not perfect but it’s working. We’re growing by every measure. Building and scaling remain our ambition, which is made possible by some of the strongest, smartest and most imperfect humans on the planet.   We all know pain. It can break people apart. We choose the opposite in an industry that builds, solves problems, moves people, creates amazing stuff. We get to work together through the worst and the best to solve problems, including our own. In the coming weeks, I’ll share more on how the Salient brand has changed alongside its teammates, Candor and Honeymoon. When you see it, know that it’s the unity behind the curtain solving our biggest challenges and the recipe for how we now approach our clients. Know that a team of remarkably resilient and driven people are creating a business we’re excited and prepared to grow.