Stagwell's (STGW) Instrument Signals Energetic Shift with New Positioning and Expanded Company Leadership

A 2023 Fast Company Most Innovative Company, Instrument unifies creative, engineering, and brand consultancy capabilities amid accelerated client growth 

NEW YORK and PORTLAND, Ore., June 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stagwell's (NASDAQ: STGW) Instrument has unveiled a new brand positioning that unifies its award-winning product, engineering, digital design and brand marketing capabilities, and underscores its track record of helping brands such as Nike, Levi's and Marriott reinvent through expressive and enduring digital experiences. As part of the rebrand, the agency is expanding its company leadership by announcing Laurel Burton as Instrument's next President. Laurel will fill a critical role overseeing Instrument's end-to-end delivery offering. 

Charting Client Innovation During Critical Growth

"The era of 'the digital agency' is evolving as our clients increasingly understand that merely being 'digital-first' no longer sets them apart in an ever-connected world. In embracing this shift, we are delivering a holistic approach that combines multidisciplinary expertise to transform all brand touchpoints, fostering fully interconnected ecosystems," explained Kara Place, CEO of Instrument. "Our agency operates under a fundamental and simple principle: that brand and experience are inseparable. We are thrilled to amplify our impact through new leadership and our new range of services."

With Laurel Burton as Instrument's next president and the new range of services, including Experience and Content Innovation, announced this month, Instrument demonstrates dedication to accelerating growth for the company, excellence in end-to-end delivery and an expansion of their offerings for brands and clients. As President, Laurel fills a critical role guiding the future of Instrument, overseeing strategic business leadership, nurturing client relationships, optimizing the delivery process and prioritizing excellence of Instrument's core services. 

"I have complete faith in Laurel's ability to excel in her role as president, and we eagerly await the transformative impact she'll continue to bring to Instrument," says Place. "Her passion, dedication, and exceptional skills make her the ideal leader for this position, and I'm excited to see what the future holds under her guidance." 

Prior to this role, Burton served as VP of Staffing, expanding Instrument's recruitment efforts and driving staffing strategies with the company's holistic business objectives—producing unmatched results that delivered across individual, team and organizational priorities. She looks to bring this successful track record to her new role.

From Old to Bold: Instrument's Energetic Shift 

The agency's rebrand embraces contrast, polarity, and bold editorial typography to reflect the multidimensionality of Instrument's client work and its thriving, 390+-person strong, diverse staff which spans three offices in Portland, Los Angeles, and New York, and remote locations across the United States. It comes as Instrument celebrates accelerated new business momentum and talent growth, and on the heels of impactful project launches with Android, Splice, Google I/O, and more. Instrument's refreshed website, as well as an overview of the new brand, can be found here. 

"As a partner to some of the world's most iconic brands, when it comes to our own brand identity, we've always exercised restraint, letting the client take center stage while our visual identity has remained subtle in the background," added J.D. Hooge, co-founder and CCO, Instrument. "We took pride in being understated for years. But as we've evolved into a confident, vibrant, multifaceted organization with diverse backgrounds, interests, and talents, it feels natural to reveal and express more of our personality." 

Instrument Develops Open-Source Fonts for Google's Ecosystem

In addition to its assets, Instrument partnered with Google throughout the rebranding process to develop a set of open-source fonts for the Google ecosystem and beyond. "Instrument Serif," "Instrument Sans," and "Instrument Mono" will be available on all cloud-enabled Google products. To date, Instrument Sans was served by the Google Fonts API over 2.15M times, and Instrument Serif over 1.04M times – with the latter already in use on over 720 websites worldwide. The final font, Mono, will release later this month. 

Instrument has been gaining recognition in the marketing, advertising, and technology industries in recent years: in 2023, Fast Company crowned the agency one of the world's Most Innovative Companies in the design category for its work on behalf of the Eames Institute and BankBlackUSA, and in 2022 it was honored across three categories in Fast Company's Innovation by Design awards. Additionally, Instrument's commitment to equity drove it to land on Fast Company's Most Innovative Workplace for Women list in 2022. To inquire about working with Instrument, reach out to [email protected]. 

Press assets for the rebrand as well as Burton's headshot can be downloaded here.

About Instrument
Instrument is a multidisciplinary creative company that redefines brands and experiences, with offices in Portland, Oregon, Brooklyn, New York, and Los Angeles, California. We are a dynamic group of creative technologists and storytellers that use the power of design and technology to co-create groundbreaking work with our clients. We connect brands like never before—helping organizations reimagine the most valuable pieces of their digital ecosystem. With deep talent in the areas of Strategy, Design, Development and Content Creation, we build modern experiences for ambitious brands.

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world's most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com 

Press Contact:
Sarah Arvizo
[email protected]

SOURCE Stagwell Inc.