20 Dec 2013: RONIN’s Highlights
2013; what a year. Not only have we worked with some fantastic new clients, but we’ve pushed the marketing boundaries for our existing ones too, we’ve created some beautiful bespoke websites, some fantastic email campaigns, whipped up a stir on social media and gained press coverage both near and far.
So what are everyone’s best bits?
Steve:
It’s been a busy old year and it’s zipped past pretty quickly too. Our own marketing has had a massive injection of energy; thanks to the graft and enthusiasm of the team, our website continues to zoom up the search engine rankings, boosted by a firm focus on social media. We’re putting ourselves about a bit and getting ourselves noticed. As a result we’ve taken on some new clients; some new work for existing clients; and some new staff too. It’s great to know that marketing really works. Did I hear somebody say plumbers’ pipes?
Our team-building trip to France this summer was a fantastic get-away. A few days in rural Haute Vienne, messing about in canoes, flying through the tree-tops and eating ourselves to a standstill was a welcome diversion for everybody.
Speaking of things international, it’s pleasing too to see our horizons expanding this year – and that’s not just our account manager Clare, swanning about on a four month sabbatical travelling the world. We are now doing some great stuff with clients in Australia, The Middle East, France and the USA. Good fun, even if it does means sometimes working a double shift.
I’m also very pleased with the Mediterranean facelift the London Borough of Bromley has kindly given our office front. Newly pedestrianised Bromley North village is now looking appropriately ‘media darling’, with swanky wine bars and restaurants, trees and hi-tech street lighting – all entirely befitting an organisation on a superior creative plane.
On the downside; not enough holiday this year. I intend to put that right in 2014.
Carolyn:
2013 has been a healthy and happy year! Here are my highlights:
Working on a great variety of even more challenging design jobs! Including website design for South London pop band, The Rise; web design for up-and-coming film reviewer and journalist, Adam Snowden, and his blog, FilmDebate; Stationery design for crafty e-commerce website, Kookeli; web design for local lettings and management agency, Hammond Properties and lots more…
Learning how to use Prezi (the latest development in presentation software) and abandoning my old friend powerpoint. I’ve gone crazy for Prezi! It gives me so much more flexibility to improve the look, feel & interactivity of our presentations and is also much more fun for clients to watch!
I joined TruGym Bromley and I’ve really enjoyed it! Giving up the boring running machine, I started Yoga, Spinning and PowerPlate, which have become an essential part of my healthy lifestyle (which also includes drinking magic buckwheat tea and using my MUJI face massager which sits on my desk!)
Preparing a 6-courses Chinese dinner on our team-bonding trip to France – definitely one of my most successful meals ever!
Drinking more alcohol than last year!
Lowlights:
Attempting to teach everyone to play a Chinese card game! Although it was very funny!
Getting stuck on the Zip-wire on our team-bonding trip to France!
Darren:
2013… what a fantastic year! I’ve been lucky enough to work on some great projects over the past 12 months and I’ve enjoyed all of them! One of my favorites was working on a new website for Construction + Management’s Quantity Surveying company Stewart Black + Associates. The project included an update to their existing website to create a synergy between the two brands.
Designing the Mills Care Group was also a favorite. I used muted tones of lilac, blueberry, grey and brown; inspired by floor tiles I’d seen during a visit to one of their care homes. The website has a simple navigation structure and the text was formatted using accordion and tab style menu’s. Commissioned photography was also a great addition to the site.
Creating the AWH Consultancy logo was another memorable project. I constructed the icon using the letters ‘AWH’ to depict both the interior and exterior of the cube formation; inspired by the building services & facilities sector side of the business.
This year hasn’t been all work, work, work! I had a fantastic time during our team-building event in France where I conquered my fear of heights during the high ropes tree top adventure!
I’m also very excited by Bromley Town center’s development scheme; progress is underway and I’m looking forward to seeing the results in 2014!
Saskia:
As a newbie to the RONIN team, 2013 was a big year of new experiences for me. I’ve learnt a lot in a very short time, and have enjoyed every minute! Here are some of my highlights:
I made the big move to London and got acquainted with the exciting world of PR and Marketing. It’s been great to work in an industry that is ever changing, and relevant to my English Literature degree; I feel like a very lucky graduate!
I discovered Pinterest and soon found myself completely addicted. It has quickly become one of my favourite stops for inspiration, and has taught me a lot about the importance of engaging visual content.
My inner geek has been happy to take on a lot of projects that were as fun as they were challenging. I had little knowledge of supply chain management, cloud computing and bespoke kitchen furniture before working at RONIN and I’ve been able to really get stuck in with researching, reading and writing about them.
Hopefully 2014 will be as action packed!
Clare:
2013 has been an incredible year for me, and not just because I am sat on the beach in Australia as I write this! As you can imagine, it’s been difficult to pick just three highlights, but here they are:
Working more closely with Stoneham Kitchens.
We were already very familiar with Stoneham; designing their website back in 2010 and working for them on a project-by-project basis since, so it has been a delight to take over their PR account and work with them on a more regular basis. And what a great year to do it, with Grand Designs, the Coronation Festival and the build up to the company’s 150th anniversary. I look forward to continuing working with their fantastic team in 2014.
Going to Paris to meet with Cordia.
As a company with an international client base, we quite often have to work with companies and the press abroad. But with modern technology at our disposal, it’s not every day we get to travel to the beautiful places where they work. Thus, our trip to Paris was a definite highlight. As well as meeting the lovely Cordia team, we made time to saunter the streets of Paris, eat some yummy food and have a few cheeky glasses of wine – and to top it all off we won the account. So here’s hoping we’ll have plenty more excuses to visit Paris next year!
Travelling the world.
My third highlight is fairly obvious and rather broad, but there have been too many amazing moments since I set my mouse and colourful pens aside back in September to travel the world, for me to pick just one. Scuba diving shipwrecks in Florida, exploring ancient ruins in the Mexican jungle, releasing baby turtles in to the sea, visiting San Diego zoo, sunning myself on the shores of Australia; to name but a few. I’m sure there’ll be plenty more to come so expect a highlight of 2014 to be boring you all with tales of my adventure on my return.
Milly:
2013; this year has been all about integrated communications. Marketing across multiple channels; email, web, social media, blogs, print; you name it. And I have loved the diversity it has brought to my year!
Getting digital savvy has to be a highlight. We’ve been carving out a presence in the social media sphere, not just with clients, but for ourselves too. Not only has RONIN become more influential on Twitter and Pinterest, we’re now regular marketing experts on Business2Community, B2B Marketing, InspirationFeed and the Agency Post.
The icing on the social media cake has to be presenting ‘The anti-social media strategy’ at Oliver Wight’s annual conference – a conference that gathered over 100 people from 65 international companies. It was great to meet such a diverse mixture of people and talk to them about marketing in the post-digital era.
Achieving coverage in local newspapers, London blogs and glossy British kitchen magazines, to the far-flung corners of Saudi Arabia, Asia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand; covering everything from reliable manufacturing to handbags, bespoke kitchens, Integrated Business Planning and ERP solutions, personally I am very proud of every piece of coverage I have achieved for our clients.
Above all, I have loved getting to know everyone that little bit more this year and welcoming the lovely Saskia to our team! Team-building in France; canoeing, tree-top climbing, wine tasting (thankfully not all at the same time) has to be the big highlight of 2013!
Alison:
What a busy year! In my 2nd year studying Graphic Design and Visual Communication at the University of Creative Arts, not only have I been immersed in learning new skills and undertaking my dissertation, I’ve been involved in some great projects here at RONIN.
My highlight has to be my logo design for LSA, the London School of Aerobatics. Taking the brief from company Director, Jack Leonard, I turned Jack’s hand drawn sketch into several design concepts, before developing his favourite into a unique logo.
Developing social media infographics for RONIN’s own blog, Pinterest and Facebook, was great fun! I had to come up with something quirky that could be used across multiple social media platforms.
My final highlight was developing the template for RONIN’s case studies; the brief was something smart but with lots of personality. Can’t wait to see them up on the website in 2014!