2013 has been a very busy year for us Giraffes, a lot happened and although we’re sure you’ve been keeping up to date with us – we wanted to collate all of our year’s memories in one place! At the beginning of the year, Giraffe was very much a baby. We had a few clients, and the team was essentially just Kane and myself. But due to our fantastic customer service, innate strive for improvement and results driven approach – we quickly became one of the fast growing digital marketing agencies in the country. Here some of the highlights that led us to where we are now!
Working with Zee Shah, BBC Apprentice – April 2013
We received a call in April from someone claiming to be about to appear on ‘a popular reality TV show’, after lots of guessing – it became clear that we were speaking with a future candidate on the 2013 series of The Apprentice. After some shrewd negotiating (I guess to be expected of an Apprentice candidate), he pointed at us and said the magic words ‘You’re hired’.
Upon the week of Zee’s early dismissal, he boasted the largest and most interactive social media of any of the candidates on the show. He had this to say about working with Giraffe:
“Giraffe have achieved the results I wanted, and more. I would recommend them to anyone.”
Giraffe’s 1st Birthday – 17th June 2013
On the 17th of June, we celebrated our first birthday as a company. The office was filled with cake, balloons and banners, as it should. We were all extremely proud of our first year experience, but even more excited about what our second year would hold.
The China Business Trip – September 2013
After meeting in Brighton with the Marketing Director of Chinese business, Hongjin Trade Co, we were invited out to China to seal the partnership and give a talk to a group of leading Chinese businesses. We of course obliged, and flew out a couple of weeks later. It was an incredible week, a brand new experience – and one that we will remember forever. I have written at length about our time there, which can be found here. The partnership offered a huge amount of potential for Giraffe, so we were thrilled to secure it.
Moving Into Our New Office – October 2013
Our first proper office. This was a huge step for us, to have our own space, where our rapidly growing team could work (and play!). It is based in an awesome location, on Albert Road in Southsea. Anyone who knows Portsmouth will know this is one of those ‘cool streets’ that every city has.
Pitching to Slush Puppie – November 2013
In November, we were invited to present a social media strategy to Slush Puppie, at the office in High Wycombe. It was a lot of fun to develop the strategy and present it to their team. We unfortunately didn’t get the gig. We were up against two larger, more established agencies, and in this case…David didn’t conquer Goliath. One of our team members today described us as ‘the little agency doing big things’ – and I like that. They’ll be back! Mwahaha.
Our Christmas Party – December 2013
Our year ended with a party at the new offices, where we celebrated a great 2013. I’d like to say it was a wild, ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’ type affair, but in reality it consisted of drinks and food at the office and Kane and I eating a Chinese takeaway. Merry Christmas!
So, there it is; our 2013 in review. I can’t wait to share our 2014 with you.
