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Miro LaFlaga

The Birth of Six Cinquième: A Fusion of Creativity and Business by Miro LaFlaga

Miro LaFlaga’s journey into the world of startups begins with a unique blend of skills. With a background in business management and a knack for creative direction, his path led him to Montreal, where he immersed himself in the world of assisting local artists in building their social media presence.

The focus was on musical artists, where Miro’s talent for styling and coordinating content creation blossomed. It was during this phase that he crossed paths with Ash Phillips, a graphic designer with a penchant for freelancing.

The two entrepreneurs decided to combine their unique skills and backgrounds to establish an agency with a difference. Six Cinquìeme emerged as a response to the lack of diversity in the space, and a desire to work with non-traditional creatives in an industry that often followed conventional norms. Miro’s words resonate with their philosophy:

“We come from a non-traditional background. Let’s do it our own way.”

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Founders Ash Phillips and Miro Laflaga

Embracing the Sixth Sense: Six Cinquième’s Brand Philosophy by Miro LaFlaga

Six Cinquième’s brand name reflects their unique approach. Miro explains how traditionally we reduce the world to being perceptible through the five senses: touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. At the heart of Six Cinquìeme’s philosophy lies the concept of the artist’s “sixth sense,” what Miro describes as the artist’s intuitive understanding, often referred to as the “aha moment,”.

Its this moment that serves as the guiding force behind the agency’s name: encapsulating this concept representing the fraction six over five, emphasizing the unique, additional sense that artists possess. Miro shares how this philosophy not only informs their approach to creative problem-solving but also underlines the agency’s commitment to unlocking that elusive sixth sense in all their endeavors, resulting in innovative and visionary solutions.

Branding as a Culture Alignment Tool

As for his presence at TechBBQ, Miro attended the event as a speaker delivering a talk on Branding, inspired by the impressive portfolio from their creative consulting projects.

He shares how Six Cinquième’s approach to branding goes beyond aesthetics; branding is a powerful tool for aligning internal culture. From this perspective, they emphasize the importance of involving employees in the company branding process. this involvement is crucial to both building and nurturing that intangible aspect of a business that drives overall performance: company culture.

Miro believes that when employees actively participate in shaping the brand, they become more connected to it, contributing to a cohesive organizational culture. Their philosophy is to bridge the gap between creative design and the people within the company.

“Branding is a tool to align your culture. Employees should have a say in it; they should feel connected to it.”

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Six Cinquième’s work for Westbook, the media company founded by Will and Jada Smith

Hustle vs. Balance: Redefining Work Culture

Six Cinquième’s perspective on work culture challenges the traditional “hustle bustle” mentality. After first starting out as most agencies do, with the desire to please clients in all ways possible, he shares how they had no boundaries and burned out as a consequence of this. Miro acknowledges the need for ambition and hard work but highlights the dangers of burnout.

Their philosophy is to maintain a healthy work-life balance while achieving excellence, a balance that takes continual effort to create and then maintain. He emphasizes the importance of preserving mental and physical well-being and says, “If you don’t take care of yourself mentally and physically, it will catch up to you” And once it does… you can do  very little about it.

Miro Laflaga’s insights from Six Cinquième provide a refreshing perspective on branding, culture alignment, and work-life balance in the startup and tech scene.

As they continue to evolve and grow, their vision is clear: staying small, agile, and intimate while creating meaningful impact in the world of branding and creative direction.

Six Cinquième’s work on “A dreamy music video with a message”

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Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

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