I’m not usually a massive fan of yearly recaps, but after the year we’ve had, I felt that I had to take some time out to reflect on what has been an impactful year for Creightive.
Rewind to January 2021, we’re in yet another lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team are remote working at home, taking endless WhatsApp and Zoom video calls, quite frankly not sure what will be happening in the coming weeks and months – the world looked a very different place to that of January 2020.
However, all be it with a positive attitude and outlook, I had a plan, a plan that wasn’t going to get disrupted nor put back – that plan in short was a rebrand, new office space, more staff and a growing global client base.
Skip to March and we’ve found our perfect location and secured new office spaces at Brightwell Barns, a beautiful creative hub of businesses in the Suffolk countryside. We move in, dump our old furniture and start a fresh with multiple IKEA and Amazon orders and our new workspaces were beginning to take shape.
However, we kept the move under the radar, because something even bigger was about to happen, a company name I went with a few years earlier, Haden Media, didn’t fit the ambition or roadmap to where I wanted to take this creative agency, so we were days away from unveiling our rebrand to Creightive – a decision that has paid dividends on how we are seen and how we attract new business.
April saw us grow with new staff additions and with the world starting to get back on its feet, we found ourselves taking on some really exciting brands to help grow and navigate their businesses. Although we will not shy away from any industry, we set out a clear focus on music, fashion, lifestyle and food/drink industries as our target market.
A fantastic summer of achievement in the workplace, building a wonderful culture and fun environment for everyone to be in, from staff to clients led me to want to start giving something back to our local communities. That something being the most valuable thing we have – our time – and thus a start to our efforts of fundraising for Surfers Against Sewage began in a bid raise £10k in 12 months by cleaning our Suffolk beaches once a month in work time. A really proud moment for me, you can find out more about our Beach Cleans here.
We made a decision to also give back to communities by sponsoring our local professional football teams and a youth football club, Ipswich Town FC, Colchester United FC and Kirton Kestrels FC. Again more details can be found here.
October saw Creightive’s team expand further, with planning starting for 2022. In November I took my team to Barcelona – both as a thank you for an impressive year, but also as an opportunity to get away and be in a more relaxed environment to really reflect on what we’ve achieved in the past 12 months, take stock of how fast the company was growing and be truthful to ourselves in what we could and should do better in future and to set out ambitious goals for the next calendar year.
We’re now in December and I couldn’t be prouder of the team I have grown here at Creightive – a wonderful working environment, a true team spirit and some of the most talented people going – the work we deliver to our global client base is being recognised in every corner of the world. We have a very exciting 2022 in front of us and I couldn’t be more excited with the opportunities we find in front of us. A surprise announcement is being made in January too – something I am very excited about so keep your eyes peeled.
A massive thank you to all our clients spanning from Los Angeles to Stockholm and all the way back to our doorstep in Ipswich. A round of applause for my staff who not only entertain my madness at times, they truly believe in what I am trying to do and they deliver to levels usually stigma’d to only being able to achieved from London or major city agencies.
See you in 2022, check out our 2021 wrapped video below;
