DETROIT, July 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Justin “Jay” Norman, the Detroit-based creative strategist, music producer,and Ad Age Creator 100 honoree who most recently served as Global Director of Creative Strategy and Global Head of Music Marketing at Spotify, has formally departed the streaming platform to lead Verse + Hook (V+H); the culture-first creative strategy, branding, and marketing consultancy he co-founded.
The announcement marks one of the more notable creative executive departures from the streaming industry in recent memory. Norman spent years at Spotify overseeing some of the platform’s most culturally significant global campaigns, managing artist relationships and music marketing initiatives that reached audiences across dozens of countries.
Co-founder Miso Brown steps in as Head of Brand Amplification, Partner Tierra Filhiol assumes the role of Head of Cultural Intelligence & Strategy, and Kyle Bernhardt will take on the position of Executive Director, Head of Creative. Rounding out the team, Chelsea V Huguley will manage Client Partnerships & Business Development as Director, Apryl Gordy joins as Director of People & Operations, and Joe Zimmer will serve as Director of Project Management.
Verse + Hook operates across five practice areas: Strategy, Brand + Creative, Production + Content, Experiential, and Music + Sync. The agency’s sync licensing arm, Soundry, represents a plethora of musicians, including Billboard and Grammy-winning producers, and positions V+H as one of the few consultancies with a direct pipeline between brand strategy and music creation.
Before Spotify, Norman spent years as a creative director and advertising executive whose client work spanned Dodge, McDonald’s, JBL, Harman Kardon, Bertolli, Popsicle, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Suave, Tylenol, Listerine, and Zyrtec, among others. That body of work earned recognition at Cannes Lions, the Effie Awards, and the Clio Awards as well as a seat on juries at the Webbys, Shorty Awards, and ADDYs. What distinguishes Norman from most marketing executives, however, isn’t the hardware. It’s the dual identity. Norman is an active producer and songwriter. Music isn’t a reference point for him. It’s the lens.
Norman’s departure from Spotify also brings renewed focus to Detroit’s emergence as a creative economy force. A product of the College for Creative Studies with executive education at the Kellogg School of Management, Norman has long championed his hometown as a seat of cultural richness; not a market to be studied, but a culture to be led from. With Verse + Hook now operating nationally and reaching clients globally, that argument is getting harder to ignore.
Website: https://www.verseandhook.com/
Meet the Team: https://www.verseandhook.com/about
PHOTO CREDIT: CY ABDELNOUR
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In a press statement about his depature from Spotify to run his own ship, Norman reveals:
“I didn’t leave Spotify to go somewhere else. I left to build something that didn’t exist yet; an agency with big-agency thinking and none of the big-agency distance from real human behavior. Verse + Hook is the company I always wanted to exist. Detroit is where it belongs.
Most agencies study culture from a safe distance, we come from it. That’s not a positioning statement, it’s literally how everyone on our team got here. And it’s why the work is different.”
SOURCE Verse + Hook