merit
1994
Toronto, Canada
Full-stack sponsorship & experiences
45
Underdog
At T1, we don’t play by the industry’s old playbook. We write our own.
We put community over clout. While the industry chases impressions, we measure impact through people. We actually have a Theory of Change, and it’s rooted in return on objectives through community, not vanity metrics.
We design for belonging, not billboards. Too often, sponsorships are treated as ads with logos slapped on. We believe partnerships, activations, and experiences should feel human, built to ignite passion, spark participation, and foster belonging.
We refuse to silo. Most agencies stay in their lanes: creative, production, strategy. We built a full-stack model that brings it all together, so ideas don’t die in handoffs and brands don’t have to choose between rigour and craft.
We lead with purpose, not posturing. Many agencies talk purpose. Ours is in our DNA. We are proudly Black-founded, women-led, and fiercely independent, with a team that reflects diverse lived experiences. That shows up in the work, the partnerships we build, and the impact we measure.
We turn moments into movements. The norm is chasing campaigns. We build legacies. Our activations and experiences are designed to leave a mark long after the lights go down.
In a sea of sameness, we’re not beige, safe, or status quo. We’re gutsy, grounded, and proudly indie, and that’s exactly how we like it.
Our independence gives us the freedom to shape a culture that is ours alone. We are entrepreneurial, equity-focused, and deeply community-minded, and that shows up in how we work, how we grow, and how we lead.
The T180 is our shared process. It guides us from discovery to activation to evaluation, aligning teams and clients around clear outcomes. Because we’re independent, we can refine and evolve it with every project, making it a living blueprint for impact, not a static tool.
Our culture is built on a high-performance model that goes deeper than “wellbeing.” In 2024, we introduced four dimensions of wellbeing — Functional, Esteem, Social, and Transformative — and designed programs that bring each one to life. From pay transparency and a co-created hybrid office, to our weekly mental health time and the growth of T1 Academy, we’re proving that independence gives us the freedom to invest in our people in ways that truly matter.
We’ve also built a company that reflects what modern marketing can be. We mentor emerging professionals, collaborate closely with clients, and push the industry forward through training, tools, and thought leadership. Our values guide how we give: we cover the operating costs of Black Talent Initiative and Park Street Education directly from our bottom line, investing in the next generation of talent and leadership.
Whether we’re working in stadiums or classrooms, with global brands or grassroots partners, our culture is independent at its core. It belongs to us, it’s powered by our people, and it ensures that every partnership, activation, and experience carries both rigour and heart.
Independence gives us the freedom to create what the industry actually needs, not what a global playbook dictates.
Because we are independent, we built T1+, our elastic talent model. It lets us scale specialist teams quickly to meet client demand while protecting craft and consistency. It’s a model born out of agility, not bureaucracy.
We’ve also developed proprietary tools that change how sponsorship is planned and measured. Our Valuation Model and AEV tool help clients invest smarter. Our Naming Rights Valuation Platform delivers high-accuracy property valuations in minutes. And our Talent Assessment Methodology combines social data, demographics, and performance metrics to help brands partner with the right voices. These tools were designed in-house, on our terms, because independence gave us the space to innovate.
Our independence also allows us to act as a convener for the field. We founded and continue to produce SponsorshipX (founded in 2005), Canada’s leading sponsorship conference, with 2024 & 2025 editions in Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver, Whistler, and Paris. We author the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study, now in its 19th year, which provides the most robust research in the country and shapes how the industry evolves.
These aren’t side projects. They’re proof of what independence makes possible. We can create new models, pioneer new tools, and convene the industry because no one is telling us to stay in our lane.
That’s the power of being independent — it lets us lead, not follow.
T1 was born on May 16, 1994, when Mark Harrison took his first leap into true entrepreneurship. With nothing more than a Macintosh Powerbook Duo, Buddy the Beagle at his side, and a few clients who believed in him, he set out to build something different — an agency rooted in trust, grit, and community.
As a person of the global majority in an industry that didn’t reflect him, Mark fought to earn his place at the table. Once he had it, he built a bigger one, pulling up more chairs and inviting change makers to join him. Independence wasn’t just a business model. It was a necessity.
Those early days were scrappy: cutting his own hair, living on a tight budget, and juggling every role from finance to sales to delivery. But they were also filled with conviction, fuelled by clients and partners who took a chance on an idea and an underdog.
That moment sparked a path that has lasted more than three decades. From TrojanOne to T1, what began as one person’s vision has grown into a full-stack sponsorship and experiences agency that unites brands with people through communities. We are who we are because of our founder — and because independence has been part of our DNA since day one.
From the start, we were told we couldn’t make it. We didn’t look like the people in the rooms where decisions were being made. We didn’t feel like we belonged, and too often, we weren’t welcomed.
That was our biggest challenge as an independent: proving our worth in an industry that wasn’t built for us.
We overcame it by turning exclusion into fuel. Instead of waiting for permission, we built our own frameworks, tools, and platforms. We created T180, our proprietary strategy model, and retooled it to deliver measurable outcomes. We developed valuation and pricing platforms that are raising the bar for the industry. We launched new verticals like T1 Futbol and T1 Nonprofit to serve communities and categories that were overlooked. And we built spaces like SponsorshipX and the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study so the industry itself could become more inclusive, more informed, and more reflective of the communities it serves.
What started as a fight to belong has become our advantage. Independence gave us the freedom to lead on our own terms, to build a team shaped by diverse lived experiences, and to prove that impact and equity go hand in hand. That is how we turned doubt into strength — and why we’re still here, stronger than ever.
Independence is no longer a compromise. It is the future of our industry.
Clients are looking for partners who are faster, more culturally fluent, and closer to community. They want strategy and creativity without bureaucracy. They want work that is purpose-led and built by teams that reflect the world they live in. That’s what independence makes possible.
We believe the next chapter belongs to agencies who can combine entrepreneurial spirit with rigour and heart. Agencies that aren’t chasing scale for its own sake, but building tools, training, and talent that actually serve clients and communities.
That’s the role T1 will continue to play. We’ll keep pushing the industry forward with platforms like SponsorshipX and the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study, and with new verticals like T1 Futbol and T1 Nonprofit that open doors for brands in fast-growing spaces. We’ll keep investing in people, in equity, and in community, because that’s where the real return is.
Our vision is simple: independence should no longer be seen as the underdog position. It should be recognized as the engine of change. And we intend to keep proving it — one partnership, one activation, one community at a time.
