D/CAL, a creative agency with offices in Detroit and southern California that was founded by famed skateboarder and actor Tony Hawk, and Apollo Program, a New York-based consumer intelligence software company, have formed a partnership designed to offer industry-exclusive behavioral insights and creative services to brands.
The partnership combines qualitative, street-level insights from D/CAL’s industry-first Cultural Advisory Board (CAB) with Apollo’s quantitative ability to assess real consumer behavior at the intersection of content, consumption, and media, at scale.
“In my former brand marketing role at Carhartt, we were one of the first brands to leverage the Apollo Program,” says Adam Wilson, co-founder of D/CAL. “It was hugely successful and I’m thrilled to join forces with them.”
While each firm remains independent, they believe the combination creates a strategic advantage for both firms’ current and future client partners.
“At D/CAL our mission is to help brands outperform their functional, vertical category through lateral, culture-driven engagement,” Wilson says. “Instead of making more ads, we make brands happen around the stuff people really care about. Our network knows what kinds of music, food, causes, art, and other categories audiences are into right now, but Apollo brings that validating gut check.”
Jim Caruso, co-founder and CEO of Apollo, says, “We no longer need to solve business problems in the rear-view mirror with off-the-shelf solutions, outdated data, or biased self-reported surveys. By mining billions of digital signals, we can zero in on specific consumer behavior built around a client’s business objectives, then apply it to strategic and creative planning on the front end. D/CAL’s unique approach is a perfect fit to unlock the potential of the intelligence we uncover.”
