10 years; a decade. That’s 3 Olympic games, 2 FIFA world cups and countless Grand Prix’s. It’s almost a quarter of a working career!
When I sit back and remember the journey from February 2008 to now, I think about all the great clients we have worked with and all the people that have engaged with our videos. One, a Michael Ballack video for a Chinese company, was viewed 200 million times! Instead of a fee we should have asked for 10p per view!
The other thing I think about, is the talent we have here at the Tailwind Group and how much I have enjoyed recruiting this team and watching them develop their skills.
10 years ago, James (our Commercial Director) and I sat in my front room after taking redundancy from one of the largest Pharmaceutical companies in the world. We had 30 years of sales and marketing experience between us, we were in the middle of the biggest recession since the great depression and we were about to launch a media company. What could possibly go wrong?
We could see that the landscape of communication strategies within companies was changing and that internet traffic was becoming increasingly video centric. Advertising revenues were moving from broadcast to the internet, which meant there was a gap for a media company that could offer high quality broadcast level video with well designed content at a reasonable price. A company that could help organisations engage effectively with their clients and workforce using this technology. Any organisation who realised this was going to be ahead of the curve, and using our experience, we would be there to help them.
I looked after production and James looked after business development, but it became evident that we would need help and quickly. By the end of the first year we had doubled our capacity and then began recruiting specialist producers and editors.
As the years have rolled by, we have invested in great talent and in the technology they need to continue to produce high quality output. With the growth of social media, we have again recognised a change in the way our clients are using this content to engage with their audience. They need to be able to react quickly and deliver their messages to the right people in the right way, and ensure a positive return on their investment. This is becoming increasingly important in a competitive and noisy market. As a result, we also needed to change, to reflect the needs of our client base.
So on to the next ten years, and we continue to evolve. Expanding our service offering to include Events, Exhibitions, Design and Media Buying means we are becoming what we always knew we could be, a complete visual communication agency. The company you can come to with the seed of an idea, and where that idea can be translated into a complete and engaging campaign for your company or product. A place where you can #showtheworld.
Bill Graves, Managing Director