When David Acheson and Laurie Lohner cofounded Stoke 10 years ago, they set out to create something different: a client-first company powered by energy, innovation, flexibility, and a passion for culture. From day one, they built a place where creativity, collaboration, and care shape each decision and drive every project. Through unexpected challenges, bold moves, and unwavering resilience, they’ve grown Stoke into the dynamic, client-devoted agency it is today.
Solving challenges through partnership: A foundation built on collaboration and innovation
Before founding Stoke, Lohner and Acheson spent much of their careers in high-powered corporate environments — Lohner had launched three agencies, while Acheson had worked for tech giants like Microsoft. Over the years, their paths frequently crossed, and they recognized a mutual understanding of what they both valued in work: partnerships and client service.
“We knew what we were looking for,” Acheson says. “We knew what we didn’t like about agencies and what we always wished they could provide. We had the experience and expertise to build an agency in a unique way and to do it right.”
Soon, they’d get a chance to put their vision to the test with their new agency, Stoke.
Adobe had a challenge — producing over 200 branded SEO articles a month, well before SEO was a common content strategy — and the Fortune 500 company needed to engage an agency to help solve it.
Leveraging their existing Adobe connections, Acheson and Lohner saw the opportunity not as a conventional client content project but as an invitation to reconsider how a creative agency should operate. They recognized a chance to build a nimble, responsive, and customer-focused team invested in solving problems and building partnerships, not simply executing deliverables and sending invoices.
“We just loved the challenge,” Lohner says. “We had to be really strategic about how we could make it happen and deliver at high velocity on a long-term basis. We said, let’s think outside the box. Let’s not be rigid, and let’s not do it the way everyone else is doing it.
“Our clients, both large and small, see this mentality come across in everything we do, and we continue to evolve and expand the services we offer.”
Stoke won that first job, beginning a deep, ongoing relationship with Adobe extending far beyond the original SEO content engagement. Today, Stoke is an embedded partner with Adobe, providing services ranging from social media analysis and event activations to creative podcasts, full-funnel demand marketing programs, award-winning video series, and more.
Resilience and remote work: How Stoke’s flexibility was forged in fire
A decade ago, Stoke was a brick-and-mortar marketing agency in Provo, Utah, with a short roster of clients. The company’s name, inspired by the act of stoking a fire, embodied its goals: to spark new ideas, ignite creativity, and fuel brand success. Over the next few years, growth was steady, as the team expanded from two people to more than a dozen employees.
Then in 2019, everything changed overnight — literally — and Stoke’s name took on entirely new significance.
The restaurant below the office had an actual fire, which tore through the building and rendered the space unusable. Instead of seeing the destruction as a crisis, Acheson and Lohner saw opportunity in the face of challenge. They called their employees and told them to work from home the following day.
Remarkably, the team didn’t miss a beat, transitioning to remote work overnight. Stoke’s forward-looking technology solutions and organizational flexibility fueled its transition to a vast virtual office. Years later, one large client was surprised to learn that Stoke had gone fully remote years ago because the partnership had been so seamless. A decision that had been made because of an emergency quickly became a strategic advantage — and eventually a defining strength.
“That was really an inflection point for us,” Acheson says. “And it just became the way we do business. It reinforces the idea that, from the beginning, Stoke has been operationally excellent.”
Without geographic limitations, Acheson and Lohner could recruit the best talent from anywhere and pursue global brands. Later, when the pandemic hit, other agencies scrambled to adjust to the disruption. Not so with Stoke. The company was already functioning in a flexible, fully distributed model — and it’s been growing ever since.
Culture of care: Propelling strategic growth with a people-first approach
Beyond operational agility, what makes Stoke special is its culture. As a veteran marketing and advertising professional, Lohner had seen all types of work environments, from aggressively competitive to downright toxic. She was adamant about creating a company where employees felt seen, heard, valued, and supported. She wanted Stoke to be about great people and great work for great clients.
“We spend a huge part of our lives working,” Lohner says. “It was super important to me that we create a culture where people had balance and were living a fulfilled, happy life, while enjoying the time they’re at work, surrounded by good people and knowing they’re making a difference. Our people can say: This is a place I want to be — I’m appreciated. I’m seen, noticed, and cared about as a person.”
Over the last few years, Stoke has tripled in size. The company’s 50-plus full-time employees come from all across the country — and around the world — bringing unique perspectives and a diverse range of professional experiences.
Among the creative experts at Stoke are a project manager in Alaska who led multicultural marketing at General Mills and a designer in Hawaii who was a school art teacher in Tennessee. There’s a vice president in Florida who started in newspapers, a content director in Los Angeles who worked in digital media at Disney, and a copy chief with a PhD who was previously a TV news anchor in Utah. The team includes a digital events specialist who once taught English in Abu Dhabi, a marketing wizard from the Ivory Coast now living in Texas, a Panamanian CTO who rock climbs when he’s not tech strategizing, and many others.
Stoke celebrates the talents of its team members that bring the agency’s culture to life — whether it’s the carpenter-slash-video editor who builds on-location sets at client video shoots and tells comically bad dad jokes in weekly stand-up meetings, the copywriter who brings her live theatre background to presentations at the company conference, or the mild-mannered accounting director you’d never guess is the drummer in a genre-fluid rock band.
As Stoke has expanded, it has developed an impressive portfolio of top brands that, like its employees, have been thoughtfully and deliberately selected to align with the company’s ethos and objectives. Rather than juggling hundreds of accounts, the agency handpicks prospects for lasting partnerships, preferring depth over breadth and ensuring that clients are more than just another name on a list.
“We haven’t grown just for the sake of growth,” Acheson says. “If we can’t maintain our culture and continue to provide for our clients and employees in a meaningful way, then growth isn’t worth it.”
The approach has been effective. Stoke has morphed from primarily an editorial content agency into a full-service creative powerhouse, adding capabilities like custom design and video, podcast production, event marketing, data analytics, and digital strategy — often in direct response to client needs. This versatile, partner-first mindset sets the company apart in an industry that often prizes quantity over quality.
“Our investment is both intellectual and strategic,” Lohner says. “We work to understand what our clients are trying to achieve — maybe even better than they do — and provide that true value because we care so deeply about their success.”
Looking ahead: The creative fire still burns
A decade in, Stoke is not only thriving — it’s redefining what a modern creative agency can be. Built on a foundation of innovation, flexibility, and human connection, the company has grown not by chasing scale but by staying true to its core principles: dedication to clients over growth, depth over breadth, and long-term partnership over short-term gains.
Stoke’s story is one of resilience, adaptability, and an unwavering belief that doing the right thing — for brands, for team members, and for the work itself — fuels enduring success and keeps the creative fire burning strong.
Leading with passion, vision, and a desire to solve complex problems through collaboration and strategic creativity, Acheson and Lohner guide Stoke and its clients with clarity of purpose and a culture of genuine care. As the agency evolves — adding new services, talent, and opportunities — the founders’ motivation remains the same.
“It’s the people,” Acheson says. “Our team, our clients, our partners — they’re what drive us. This isn’t just business. It’s relationships, it’s creativity, and it’s a commitment to doing things differently.”
Says Lohner, “We truly love what we do.”