Superson, a Helsinki-headquartered creative agency, has opened its first North American office in Toronto, naming industry veteran Alex Shifrin president of its new regional business.
Founded in 2012, Superson operates a sprint-based model that pulls senior specialists from an international network — with existing offices in Amsterdam and Singapore — to work with clients on individual projects as well as longer-term relationships. The Toronto office is intended to support North American clients looking to expand into European markets, and European businesses looking to enter North America. The agency’s existing client roster includes Google and the National Hockey League.
Shifrin, who brings more than 25 years of agency leadership experience across Europe and North America, said he was drawn to a model that departs from how traditional agencies staff their work. He argued that conventional agencies rely on whichever teams are already on payroll regardless of fit, while Superson can pair specialists such as a Helsinki strategist and a Toronto creative director on the same project without treating either as a fixed cost.
Veteran Leadership and Client Ties
Shifrin previously founded TCF in Eastern Europe, which was later acquired by Publicis, and has held leadership roles at Saatchi & Saatchi, LP/AD and Grace. His client work spans Coca-Cola, HSBC, Pernod Ricard and Lexus. Superson founder Samppa Vilkuna said Shifrin’s combination of North American market knowledge, European experience and established brand relationships, along with what he described as entrepreneurial drive, factored into the decision to put him in charge of building the business rather than simply running an office.
Vilkuna said Superson’s model has already proven itself in Europe and Asia, making North America what he called a natural next step, though he also pointed to timing as a factor. He cited pressure on traditional agency networks, the growing role of artificial intelligence in how work gets done, and client demand for more agile partners as broader shifts in the marketing industry.
Toronto as a Cross-Border Gateway
Vilkuna described Toronto as a gateway to North America, with the expansion arriving amid growing commercial ties between Canada and Europe. According to the Council of the European Union, trade in goods and services between the two exceeded €130 billion in 2025, an increase of more than 81% since 2016. Vilkuna said that broader trade relationship was not a factor when Superson first began planning the Toronto expansion, which he said was driven by business opportunities, though he also pointed to similarities between Canadian and Nordic business cultures around collaboration and pragmatic problem-solving.
Shifrin said he has observed growing curiosity about cross-border opportunities between Canada and Europe, though this has not yet translated into a significant volume of client briefs. Vilkuna said he sees particular potential among scale-up businesses that need specialist expertise to address growth challenges without taking on the overhead of a traditional agency, as well as demand from European businesses expanding into North America and international clients seeking consistency across markets.
Building the North American Team
Shifrin said his initial strategy will be to build the business through existing client relationships on both sides of the Atlantic, offering a cross-border specialist model that pairs European strategists with Canadian capability and vice versa. He said the agency’s growth in North America will be driven by client demand rather than a push to expand headcount in advance of work, consistent with the model used in Superson’s other offices.
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