Your Name: Jack Wardale & Georgia Fowkes

Company Name & Industry: Elation Creative, Marketing

Job Title: Co-Founders

Q: Tell us about your business – what inspired you to start it?

A: Elation Creative is a digital creative agency that was inspired by the desire to help businesses change their relationship with social media. Overwhelmingly brands still do not know how to leverage social media to grow brand awareness and post content that performs. Gone are the days of posting to exist online, so we decided to create a company that can fulfill content strategy, production, and management.

Q: What’s the mission of your business, and how do you see it making an impact?

A: The mission of our business is to help businesses transform their digital presence. Specifically, we help brands understand why content performs online, so that brands can position themselves accordingly for organic growth. We sit at the intersection of art and science. We make cool looking content, while packaging it in a way that will perform.

Q: What makes your business unique in your industry?
A: Jack, one of our cofounders is currently finishing his PhD in Psychology, which helps us to educate clients ‘why’ content performs (and why it doesn’t!) Secondly, we have the capabilities to create the content, not just advise clients on what to do. Too often you will have fantastic social media managers with limited production capabilities, or production companies that produce fantastic looking content without considering if it will perform online. We can take the client from ideation all the way through to execution of the content and posting it to optimize the impact of the content.

Q: What does a typical day look like for you?/ With the current project you are working on?

A: As many of you know, every day looks a little different being a co-founder as we wear many hats. Recently, our days have been full of networking as we are trying to understand how we can fit into the existing Pittsburgh marketing landscape. If we are not trying to plan our next step, we are servicing our existing clients, which includes consulting, on-site content productions, and supporting our staff with preparing each client’s socials for the upcoming month.

Q: What challenges has your business faced, and how have you overcome them?

A: This one is a loaded question! I think when we started this company it looked a lot different than it does now, and I think as entrepreneurs we are constantly iterating to face the needs of our prospective clients. I think one of our biggest challenges has been trying to convince people that they need to invest in social media. Everyone consumes it daily, but businesses are still reluctant to invest in it. We typically overcome this by providing case studies of past and existing clients to show the attribution.

Q: What has been your biggest success story?

A: Our biggest success story is that we get to travel the world doing what we love. We were in Japan in January shooting for the Four Seasons Tokyo, we currently have a contract in Tanzania shooting safaris and Mount Kilimanjaro expeditions. We are so lucky that we have been able to see so much of the world because everyone needs content today!

Q: What drew you to apply for the coworking fellowship at A26?

A: Relocating back to Pittsburgh from LA, we really wanted a coworking space that we could connect with others and listen to the pain points they have regarding digital media. We also want to help other early-stage business owners understand the value in social media, whether they invest in our services or not.

Q: What are you most excited to achieve during your time in the coworking community?

A: The best-case scenario would be to support companies here with their digital presence. We’re a boutique agency, so we can move fast, and we are happy to work with a variety of different budgets, even if it’s just on a consultation basis.

Q: Have you made any valuable connections or collaborations through the coworking space?

A: Not yet (sigh) but please reach out if you would like to connect! We don’t bite, and we are always happy to provide a brief audit on your existing social channels pro bono.

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Q: What are your business goals for the next 6-12 months?

A: I think our main goal is to develop our brand awareness in the city. When people think about social media, we want people to think of us. We want to be the go-to digital creative agency for any business that wants to develop their social media.

Q: What advice would you give to someone starting a business or applying for a fellowship like this?
A: Be a good person. It pains me that this is the advice that we give, but we truly believe that we’ve come this far due to wearing our hearts on our sleeve and genuinely caring about the people we work with. Oh, and don’t be afraid to pivot.

Q: Where do you see your business five years from now?

A: We would both agree that we want to be the biggest digital agency in Pittsburgh. We want our own studio in the city, where creatives can come and connect but also rent to execute on their own projects. We would love in 5 years to have opened a second office in LA, and a third office in London (as Jack’s from England).

Q: How can the community support your business moving forward?

A: If you hear of anyone that needs support with their social media, please let us know. Equally, if you are sitting there reading this thinking, ‘maybe I could use that’, grab a coffee with us.

Q: What’s the most rewarding part of running your business?

A: “We’re so glad we listened to you”. As we mentioned, it can be a tough sell for some to invest in social media. Nothing pleases us more than when clients take that leap of faith with us and they see how it positively impacts the trajectory of their business.

Q: Who has been a major influence or mentor in your entrepreneurial journey?
A: Hagen Starz and Steve Tanzilli have been awesome at Point Park University. Georgia is a Point Park alum, and they have been hands-on with us over the past year really helping us with our systems internally so that we can scale sustainably.

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Q: What’s a piece of advice you’ve received that has stuck with you?

A: There’s enough at the table for everyone. 

Q: What do you like to do when you’re not in the office?

A: Georgia can be found at a local coffee shop drinking an iced vanilla latte or in a yoga class. Jack will likely be doing some form of exercise, such as playing soccer or in the gym. 

Q: What 3 things do anyone starting in your industry need to know?

1. Most businesses only care about attribution. If they don’t see a return, they are less likely to invest in your services.
2. The only way to scale is to delegate. We reached a plateau for a while because we found it difficult to delegate responsibility. The quicker you delegate, the faster you grow.
3. Be prepared to scroll on social media. We are constantly monitoring social media to identify trends and understand how the algorithm is changing to inform our clients.

Q: Where do you see the future of your industry?

A: Obviously AI is the top of everyone’s mind. We are watching video and photo generation get better every day and trying to figure out how to integrate it into our workflow. I think the future for us will be found in prompt engineering. Video generation costs compute, which costs money. We know the technical language for shot types and focal lengths, so we can generate a better outcome first time of asking. However, social media is inherently social, and I think as AI becomes more prevalent, people will be seeking human interaction more than ever online, and brands will still invest in agencies to navigate that next iteration of the digital age.

Q: What do you want people in the coworking community to know about Alloy 26?

A: I want people to know that Alloy is a super spacious environment that is very conducive to our productivity. Although we have yet to network with others yet, we love that there are a lot of different businesses under one roof.

Q: Who/ what is your inspiration?

A: Jack’s inspiration is Gary Vee. Sounds a safe choice, but after seeing what he has able to accomplish in the media space, it provides inspiration for what can be achieved and how any business can benefit from digital media.

For Georgia, it’s Reese Witherspoon. Fun fact, Georgia wants to be an actress, and after seeing Witherspoon’s success with being both the owner of a production company and an actress, Georgia hopes to do the same.

If there’s anything else you’d like to include as a plug, let us know!

A: Feel free to follow us at @elationcreative on social media, and then @wardalejack and @georgiafowkes as our personal accounts! Our website is elationcreative.com and we would love nothing more than to connect with you.