Senior St. Louis Marketer and Cincinnati Customer Experience Expert Say "It’s About Time" for Building Something New: 8 East Agency to Launch July 8
St. Louis, MO, July 03, 2026 --(PR.com)-- Kevin Hart, a respected 20-year sales and marketing agency leader, has stepped away from his role as Regional Vice President at Lee Enterprises—a leading provider of local news and advertising platforms, including The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Amplified Digital—to launch a new venture. Hart has teamed up with entrepreneur, customer experience expert, and longtime friend Tyler Schoettmer to build 8 East, a marketing agency designed specifically to address the needs of growing a business: experience, intelligence, accountability, and nimbleness. Built for the long haul and purposely designed, 8 East promises to take the industry in a new direction. Launching on July 8, 2026, Hart and Schoettmer are boldly claiming this as “their time.”
“Throughout my career, the clients I’ve spoken to continue to share the same frustrations with their marketing efforts,” said Hart, Founder and CEO of 8 East. “Business owners are exhausted. They are overwhelmed when marketing isn’t driving revenue or bringing in new customers. Their agency partners aren’t delivering promised results, often failing to understand either the end-customer or the business’s ever-changing landscape, leaving agencies to make decisions that fail to move the needle. Business owners simply don’t have the time or the bandwidth to handle marketing and sales while trying to run their core operations.” That critical gap is the driving force behind 8 East.
The inspiration for 8 East sparked from an unexpected call between the partners on a Thursday night in early 2026 at exactly 8:00 p.m. EST. Longtime close friends, Hart (based in St. Louis) and Schoettmer (based in Cincinnati) reconnected to discuss the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and corporate culture. Schoettmer had recently exited the logistics company he co-founded following its acquisition. While Hart had always dreamed of the impact he could make running his own agency, it was this conversation that catalyzed the vision. Three weeks later, the duo had established a financial model, a comprehensive business plan, and a foundation that prioritizes a family-first culture—a value system designed to extend directly to how they treat their clients. Today, that Thursday 8:00 p.m. Eastern call continues weekly as an “innovation incubator” driving the agency forward.
In his prior leadership roles at both Lee Enterprises/St. Louis Post-Dispatch and USA TODAY Network, Hart led teams through massive structural shifts in the publishing and advertising industries, guiding traditional print markets into highly successful digital transformations. Hart’s high-level industry overview gave him line-of-sight to structural flaws in the legacy marketing model, allowing him to identify key deficiencies in traditional go-to-market strategies.
Consequently, 8 East completely bypasses those traditional agency methods. Instead of deploying broad, top-of-funnel awareness campaigns that yield empty vanity metrics, the agency flips the script by focusing on bottom-of-the-funnel tactics designed to drive immediate, trackable revenue.
“Most agencies fall into two camps: large, expensive firms with slow-moving processes, or small shops built around one narrow service unable to deliver a full solution,” explained Hart. “8 East Agency was designed to be different. By starting at the bottom of the marketing funnel and moving it to the top of the priority list, our approach focuses directly on the marketing tactics that drive revenue right away, turning customer demand into trackable phone calls, leads, and conversions.”
8 East operates as a full-service agency with a sharp focus on the quickest route to revenue generation for its clients. “Starting there, the positive and immediate impact of 8 East's solutions allows our customers to spend more time on what’s important to them,” Hart said. “Our results prove our worth. We stand by them. We are all in.”
“We’re not running a white-labeled playbook, and we’re not handing your work to a junior team,” added Tyler Schoettmer, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer. “8 East is founded by senior operators and leaders who bring decades of big-agency experience without the corporate runaround. Our team of subject matter experts brings a proven history of success. Decisions happen in real conversations with real-world expertise and full access to the best marketers in the business.”
To celebrate the upcoming launch, 8 East is offering prospective clients a complimentary, comprehensive marketing audit following an initial 30-minute consultation to identify immediate growth channels.
Interested businesses can learn more or book a consultation by visiting the website below or connecting via the agency's official channels.
Media Contact
Kevin Hart
CEO, 8 East Agency
info@8eastagency.com
www.8eastagency.com
“Throughout my career, the clients I’ve spoken to continue to share the same frustrations with their marketing efforts,” said Hart, Founder and CEO of 8 East. “Business owners are exhausted. They are overwhelmed when marketing isn’t driving revenue or bringing in new customers. Their agency partners aren’t delivering promised results, often failing to understand either the end-customer or the business’s ever-changing landscape, leaving agencies to make decisions that fail to move the needle. Business owners simply don’t have the time or the bandwidth to handle marketing and sales while trying to run their core operations.” That critical gap is the driving force behind 8 East.
The inspiration for 8 East sparked from an unexpected call between the partners on a Thursday night in early 2026 at exactly 8:00 p.m. EST. Longtime close friends, Hart (based in St. Louis) and Schoettmer (based in Cincinnati) reconnected to discuss the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and corporate culture. Schoettmer had recently exited the logistics company he co-founded following its acquisition. While Hart had always dreamed of the impact he could make running his own agency, it was this conversation that catalyzed the vision. Three weeks later, the duo had established a financial model, a comprehensive business plan, and a foundation that prioritizes a family-first culture—a value system designed to extend directly to how they treat their clients. Today, that Thursday 8:00 p.m. Eastern call continues weekly as an “innovation incubator” driving the agency forward.
In his prior leadership roles at both Lee Enterprises/St. Louis Post-Dispatch and USA TODAY Network, Hart led teams through massive structural shifts in the publishing and advertising industries, guiding traditional print markets into highly successful digital transformations. Hart’s high-level industry overview gave him line-of-sight to structural flaws in the legacy marketing model, allowing him to identify key deficiencies in traditional go-to-market strategies.
Consequently, 8 East completely bypasses those traditional agency methods. Instead of deploying broad, top-of-funnel awareness campaigns that yield empty vanity metrics, the agency flips the script by focusing on bottom-of-the-funnel tactics designed to drive immediate, trackable revenue.
“Most agencies fall into two camps: large, expensive firms with slow-moving processes, or small shops built around one narrow service unable to deliver a full solution,” explained Hart. “8 East Agency was designed to be different. By starting at the bottom of the marketing funnel and moving it to the top of the priority list, our approach focuses directly on the marketing tactics that drive revenue right away, turning customer demand into trackable phone calls, leads, and conversions.”
8 East operates as a full-service agency with a sharp focus on the quickest route to revenue generation for its clients. “Starting there, the positive and immediate impact of 8 East's solutions allows our customers to spend more time on what’s important to them,” Hart said. “Our results prove our worth. We stand by them. We are all in.”
“We’re not running a white-labeled playbook, and we’re not handing your work to a junior team,” added Tyler Schoettmer, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer. “8 East is founded by senior operators and leaders who bring decades of big-agency experience without the corporate runaround. Our team of subject matter experts brings a proven history of success. Decisions happen in real conversations with real-world expertise and full access to the best marketers in the business.”
To celebrate the upcoming launch, 8 East is offering prospective clients a complimentary, comprehensive marketing audit following an initial 30-minute consultation to identify immediate growth channels.
Interested businesses can learn more or book a consultation by visiting the website below or connecting via the agency's official channels.
Media Contact
Kevin Hart
CEO, 8 East Agency
info@8eastagency.com
www.8eastagency.com
Contact
8 East Agency
Kevin Hart
614-282-5424
www.8eastagency.com
Kevin Hart
614-282-5424
www.8eastagency.com
Contact
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