ing growth with expertise: your marketing and creative recruitment partner with the experience that matters.

We’re the recruiters who’ve been where you are now.

At Spark you’ll only ever work with people who have previously held management positions in advertising and marketing - 
never an inexperienced salesperson or algorithm.

With 10+ years of experience in your industry, we know the pains of hiring the wrong fit — and the rewards of finding the right one. We’ll give your brief bespoke treatment, base our advice on hard-earned experience, and assign you a team that just gets it.

Quite simply, we’ve created the recruitment agency we wish we could have worked with in our past careers.

Who we are

Meet our people and their past.

Anna Söderström
Founder & Director

Anna Söderström
Founder & Director

After 13 years in advertising and marketing roles, I wanted to focus my efforts on people and making an impact on teams and organisations through the power of talent! I decided to start SPARK in 2020, with the ambition of providing a more knowledge, expertise, and partnership based recruitment service for the best creative agencies and brands in Amsterdam and beyond. I love teaming up with hiring managers and thrive in the role of talent partner where I am able to not just find the right talent from anywhere in the world, but actually help shape my clients' teams to set them up for success. I have two amazing kids, Leon and Kate, who keep me busy outside of work!

Read Anna’s past
Anna Söderström
Founder & Director

Anna Söderström
Founder & Director

Having started my career in advertising as a fresh graduate out of university in 2004, I spent 7 of my early and most exciting working years in creative powerhouse 180amsterdam as an account director in Amsterdam and Los Angeles on global brands like adidas, Amstel, Sony and OMEGA watches. A curiosity about working 'brand side' led me to Philips for 4 years as the global marketing & communications lead for a few of their Health & Wellbeing brands, where I ran global campaigns for several brands across global markets. A short dip back into advertising after that, led me to my current professional passion: to help build winning marketing and creative teams!

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Matt Atherton 
Founder & Director

Matt Atherton
Founder & Director

After 12 years working in advertising account management across London and Amsterdam, I joined Anna as co-Director of SPARK at the start of 2021, bringing my experience and network to recruit for the best agencies and brands in Europe. A life-long design enthusiast, I'm proudest of my work building tech scale ups' in- house digital design, brand/campaign and creative operations teams across both Amsterdam and New York. When I'm not behind a screen, you can find me walking the dog in the rain or playing farmer in my garden in Amsterdam Noord.

Read Matt’s past
Matt Atherton 
Founder & Director

Matt Atherton
Founder & Director

Originally from the UK, I gave up on my early dreams of becoming a vet and instead studied Marketing and Management at university before joining Iris London as an Account Executive. Looking to see more of the world, I travelled a full 216 miles to Amsterdam in 2009, joining Iris Amsterdam as their fourth employee before working my way up to Head of Account Handling over the next 11 years, delivering large local and global campaigns for the likes of Heineken, Sonos, adidas and Philips.

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Dan Colgan
Recruiter

Dan Colgan
Recruiter

When Anna and Matt asked me to join their company in 2021, I jumped at the opportunity! My career spanned almost 15 years of marketing agencies in London and Amsterdam, and those parts of the job relating to people and relationships were always the most rewarding. I love that my job with Spark involves really getting to know an organisation, a candidate, and then bringing them together! I’ve lived in Amsterdam for over 10 years and there is a special joy in discovering exceptional talent from around the world and helping them to find their feet here too.

Read Dan's past
Dan Colgan
Recruiter

Dan Colgan
Recruiter

I joined Grey London in 2005 on their graduate recruitment scheme, and spent the next few years cutting my teeth on different accounts for P&G. I was brought over to Amsterdam by Wieden+Kennedy, learning how to run global projects for clients such as Heineken, Honda, ESPN and EA. I moved on to 180 Amsterdam for a couple of years, before stepping into a more strategic role at BSUR. I am a qualified yoga teacher and enthusiastic (although stubbornly irregular!) meditation practitioner. As well as my role at Spark, I work in Amsterdam as a psychotherapist and coach.


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Jenny Söderström
Recruiter

Jenny Söderström
Recruiter

Joining SPARK in 2020, I was delighted to get involved in the industry that I was active in before I had my first child. Being a people person, talking to our passionate clients and ambitious candidates about their work and aspirations is the most exciting part of my job, and I love that moment of finding the perfect match! In my spare time I like to get together with family and friends in and around London and Amsterdam. Me-time involves walks with our dog Django and the occasional work out.

Read Jenny's past
Jenny Söderström
Recruiter

Jenny Söderström
Recruiter

I spent the first 10 years working of my career in different account handling roles for local Dutch advertising agencies before taking a year off to travel around the globe. Landing back in Europe I met the love of my life and moved to London, where I joined Unilever, gaining invaluable insights into corporate ways of working and processes. After having our first child, I pressed pause on my career to be there more for my family. 10 years in London has resulted in 3 house moves, 1 wedding, 2 children, 2 board roles, 3 volunteer gigs, 1 dog and now a new career. Life is good.

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Lucy Russell
Recruiter

Lucy Russell
Recruiter

I have an inborn drive to understand what makes us human and feel lucky to work in an industry where people, relationships and creativity are placed at the heart of everything. After spending 18 + years working on both agency and client side in account and brand management roles across London, Amsterdam, and Sydney I was ready for my next challenge. Being able to combine my passion for nurturing people and expertise in business development is incredibly rewarding. I love meeting each candidate and client, listening to their needs, their stories and bridging these two worlds.

Read Lucy's past
Lucy Russell
Recruiter

Lucy Russell
Recruiter

My global career has spanned brand and agency side working in account management and marketing - with a strong integrated background in strategy, advertising, brand design, comms and activation. I began working agency-side in London before setting up Iris in Amsterdam with founding client Heineken, whom I later worked for as a Design Concept & Marketing Manager. Searching for sunshine I moved to Sydney where I worked at Hendrick's Gin before returning to Europe. As a certified clinical hypnotherapist, coach and yoga teacher I run my own therapeutic practice, whilst also working at SPARK building thriving marketing and creative teams!

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Our services

Permanent roles

We’ll help you find the right people to grow with — our experience helps us know them when we see them. After a deep-dive into your brief, we’ll perform a bespoke search and show you a list of vetted, qualified candidates.

Freelance and interim roles

When you need freelance talent, and fast, we’ll get a move on. Enjoy a quick turnaround for your next project or interim assignment, without sacrificing quality.

In-house recruitment

In the case of a hiring spree or when you just need an extra set of hands, we’ll get cosy in your organisation and take care of the full recruitment cycle for you.

Consultancy

We consult on team growth and structure, helping you scale your internal creative capabilities. Having done this ourselves, our advice from actual experience will guide you through the tricky world of scaling at pace.

Who we work with

We’re honoured to be trusted with the talent needs of some of the world’s best agencies and brands.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Testimonials

"The entire process of finding and hiring the best talent is absolutely wonderful with Spark. From the exceptional selection of talent they’ve sent my way, to the well-managed step-by-step organization, to their kind and human manner throughout it all”

Einav Jacubovic -
Global Creative Director
Uber

"Every time I have ever worked with Anna she has succeeded in finding the unearthed gem we were looking for. She has an instinct for great, diverse talent, a detective-like ability to find them, is brilliantly organised and strategic, and always brings a level of openness and humanity to every interaction. She is a joy to work with."

Eric Quennoy & Mark Bernath -
Chief Creative Officers
Wieden+Kennedy

"The Spark team led us through a seamless recruitment process from start to finish. They provided high caliber candidates, based on their knowledge, network and personal experience in the creative industry, and were authentically invested in our hiring strategy from a team and cultural fit, building an immense amount of trust from the very beginning. Their honest enthusiasm for what they do and who they work with is palpable."

Lily Darby -
VP, Global Creative & Production
WeTransfer

"We came to SPARK with a very specific brief to find our Executive Creative Director to head up our Amsterdam office creatively. They unearthed a great range of in-market talent and, from the original shortlist presentation through to final contract negotiations, they helped our team navigate the hiring process seamlessly. Their process management is second to none! But most importantly they are extremely nice, light hearted and fun people to work with."

Sam Grischotti -
Managing Director
We Are Social

"SPARK unearthed the perfect people to deliver on some very specific roles that we required. They were tenacious throughout, creative in their approach, delivered quality over quantity, thorough on comms throughout and fun to work with – and most importantly, the hires have helped turbo-charge our business already."

Toan Ravenscroft
Managing Director
M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment

"The Spark team possess an in-depth knowledge of the Marketing / Creative industry and works with a vast network of highly qualified individuals across various disciplines. They are always helpful and reachable, providing the best talent for a range of projects and positions, and have a clear process”

Tony Matthews -
Global Head of Design
JustEat Takeaway.com

"We worked with Anna as an in-house recruiter when we needed to staff up quickly and across all disciplines and job levels. Anna successfully filled roles for our creative, account, strategy, and studio departments. Next to being an overall lovely human being, she's fantastic to work with: An absolute pro, highly organized, proactive, with a vast network. I appreciated her pragmatic and structured way of working, balanced with a sharp eye for talent and the human factor. As a seasoned recruiter, she manages senior leadership conversations around creative talent and hiring effectively. Anna easily understood the spirit of WKAMS and therefore quickly adapted to our hiring needs. If you're ever in a pinch and need to hire across many disciplines and levels, call Anna!"

Hester van Oene -
HR Director
Wieden+Kennedy

Current roles

Find your next adventure in our current job listings.

View all roles

Senior Writer / ACD Amsterdam Mid-Senior Team Amsterdam Creative Director (COPY) Amsterdam Copywriter Switzerland Freelance Operations Assistant Amsterdam Freelance Senior PM / AM Amsterdam Senior / ACD level creatives (solo and teams) Singapore Creative Director (COPY) on Nike Singapore Group / Executive Creative Director (ART) Singapore Creative Visualiser (2D/3D/CGI) Singapore (remote possible across similar timezones) Creative Director Beirut Account Director (PR) Senior Writer / ACD Amsterdam Mid-Senior Team Amsterdam Creative Director (COPY) Amsterdam Copywriter Switzerland Freelance Operations Assistant Amsterdam Freelance Senior PM / AM Amsterdam Senior / ACD level creatives (solo and teams) Singapore Creative Director (COPY) on Nike Singapore Group / Executive Creative Director (ART) Singapore Creative Visualiser (2D/3D/CGI) Singapore (remote possible across similar timezones) Creative Director Beirut Account Director (PR) Senior Writer / ACD Amsterdam Mid-Senior Team Amsterdam Creative Director (COPY) Amsterdam Copywriter Switzerland Freelance Operations Assistant Amsterdam Freelance Senior PM / AM Amsterdam Senior / ACD level creatives (solo and teams) Singapore Creative Director (COPY) on Nike Singapore Group / Executive Creative Director (ART) Singapore Creative Visualiser (2D/3D/CGI) Singapore (remote possible across similar timezones) Creative Director Beirut Account Director (PR) Senior Writer / ACD Amsterdam Mid-Senior Team Amsterdam Creative Director (COPY) Amsterdam Copywriter Switzerland Freelance Operations Assistant Amsterdam Freelance Senior PM / AM Amsterdam Senior / ACD level creatives (solo and teams) Singapore Creative Director (COPY) on Nike Singapore Group / Executive Creative Director (ART) Singapore Creative Visualiser (2D/3D/CGI) Singapore (remote possible across similar timezones) Creative Director Beirut Account Director (PR)

Get in touch

We’d love to help you find the best talent available — simply say hello and we’ll be in touch shortly.

anna@thespark-company.com


Design: Craig Jackson
Dev: Dan Powell