Our Story

Our roots go back to 1970, one year after our family emigrated from England. Roger Hall - our dad - started a small but mighty advertising agency with two partners - John Palmer and Jim Cavanagh. The firm was called Artists & Partners.

It was the early days of advertising - when creative ability was the predominant benchmark for selecting an agency partner - and their combined mastery of strategy, design and writing was unrivaled locally for many years.

In 1980, I went full time as a studio junior. Back then we were called Direction Advertising, and we were located above Zorba’s Greek Restaurant on Dundas Street. Simon followed a few years later, and together we learned the art and craft of advertising and marketing communications from the ground up.
After many successful years of growth, we rebranded to Hall Associates and then added the subsidiary Hall Interactive a few years later when the web really came alive. In the early 2000s we reconsolidated and rebranded again as Hallmc, and held that name until 2016, when we stripped it all down to the bare metal and reinvented ourselves as Human Brand Experience Group.
We’ve always been a progressive agency, and have had a knack for identifying and utilizing whatever we thought might make our work better and our clients more successful. We were the first London ad agency to tackle websites, we were the first Google Certified agency in the region and the first local agency to develop and deploy a social media program for our clients (Ripple).
As of now, we are the only branding firm in the region to be CCXP Certified and to meaningfully apply those principles to our strategic and tactical arsenal. This panoramic perspective on branding has been successful in helping reinvigorate owner-operated brands of all shapes and sizes over the past few years, and we have big plans for the future too.
It has been said that the more things change, the more they stay the same, and while we have enjoyed introducing new ideas and services over the years, our convictions and beliefs have not wavered over 50 years. Nor should they.

Photo courtesy of Paul Lambert