It is all about the people for Vancouver-based staffing and marketing agency Propelle + Konnect. Company founder Ally Grodd tells TMI that the primary objective for her boutique agency is to bring great people and great organizations together.
“Our expertise is people. First and foremost, we are a people-based business. Our products are the people. And I think that’s what sets us apart,” says Grodd.
Propelle + Konnect is run by Grodd, who serves as President and CEO, and her husband Marcus, the company’s COO. They are now staffing in most of the major airports in North America, with plans to reach them all in the near future.
“I would say we are the premier staffing and marketing agency supporting North America. We provide staffing solutions for our clients in domestic markets. But my passion is travel retail. Our talent pool is across Canada and the U.S., and we’re in 14 major airports across the two countries. Some of our biggest airports are Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York,” says Grodd.
Talent pool plus more
“I think there are a lot of agencies that do a lot of things. But I think for us, it starts with the talent pool. When you go to an activation, the brand is really important, but it is also important who represents the brand. What are their knowledge, skill set, and languages? That’s really where we focus most of our time, and that’s where we really like to promote our business, in the people space.”
While her talent pool of people is the main aspect of P+K’s business, the company can offer options beyond just the staffing.
“We are really expanding our offering, and it depends on what the brands and operators are looking for. We are working with DFS, IShoppes, Avolta, Aer Rianta. Every activation will be different. Sometimes we’re just providing talent, sometimes we’re helping with ideation, coming up with ideas, and other times we’re helping them fabricate the activation. It just depends on the brand, the city, the location,” says Grodd.
Propelle + Konnect does anything from the pop-up management of the kiosk, or the liquor or beauty activation, as well as recruitment, says Grodd.
“Maybe Chanel is looking for a permanent brand ambassador in Vancouver, and they need somebody to support them in the local market. We would provide that service.
“We also provide full-time sales associates and brand ambassadors in airports such as Vancouver. We have a big contract with Coty, which is very exciting for us. Gucci, Kylie Cosmetics, all the fun, luxury beauty brands. We have four ambassadors that work for us full time, for that brand in Vancouver.”
PK Certified Training
With people the main product for Propelle + Konnect, it is imperative that they have the best training, says Grodd.
“We created our in house training called PK Certified, which we invested in during the pandemic. When business really slowed down, we were able to look around and see some holes in the industry. We had an expert come in and help create a retail excellence program in house. Any time we hire, our talent pool has to go through a two week onboarding that they must successfully pass with a certain percentage in order to stay within our talent pool. It covers things like sales objectives, overcoming obstacles, knowing how to turn a no into a yes. So it allows people to educate themselves prior to even starting.
“For us the biggest challenge is trying to find people that are going to come to life on the floor. And do they understand the nuance of travel retail? Sometimes the passenger only has a small bag to carry, how are you going to get them to buy that really expensive bottle of cognac that’s really heavy that’s not going to fit in their bag? Training can help them overcome such challenges.”
From Pretty Kitty to Propelle + Konnect
Overcoming challenges has been part of the Propelle + Konnect journey since its beginnings 16 years ago, says Grodd.
Grodd started out working as a promo model and saw first-hand that there was a gap in the market for well-trained staffing.
“Back in the day there were promo models. I was working on campaigns, and realized that there was a real lack of training, and I felt like we were selling sex, not selling products. And I remember thinking that there’s got to be a better way to promote these products. So I started the company, and picked a cute little name. It was called Pretty Kitty then. That was where we started,” says Grodd.
“In the beginning it was a lot of door knocking and getting out there and working events myself to gain customers. The first couple years were just trade shows, guerilla marketing campaigns, auto shows. And then I got very lucky, because travel retail found me. And we’ve been in travel retail for 14 years.”
Grodd’s first travel retail client was locally at Vancouver International Airport.
“We quickly found out that Mandarin speaking ambassadors would be much more suited and less Pretty Kitty style. We rebranded to PK Promotions and Staffing. That’s where the shift in our business began. Now we have PK Promotions, and then we have Propelle + Konnect, which is our U.S. entity.”
Today Propelle + Konnect runs its business from its headquarters in Vancouver, but has an office in Santa Ana, California, and account managers in key cities, including Toronto, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
And the company has plans to expand to more cities and airports in travel retail.
“We have our sights on Miami. We do a lot in the domestic market, but we would really love to see ourselves in Miami Airport. That’s hopefully on the horizon this year. Hawaii is also on our radar. I’m big on not growing too fast either. I think it’s really important to be able to maintain quality. I still interview every single person who comes to the agency to work for us, because I really want them to be connected to us and understand our values, and then understand the values of our customers. We want to make sure that we scale at the right level.”
