2017 was a big year for Sassafras Marketing, and it’s worth a quick review! Founder and CEO Jenny Holton took us through 2017 and points us toward 2018.
85% Growth Recognized
One of the year’s highlights from an achievement perspective was being named to Ingram’s Corporate Report 100 in July. The Report showcases Ingram’s annual ranking of the fastest-growing companies in the region and highlighted our 85% growth. “Ingram’s Corporate Report 100 – What an honor! To be recognized for our hard work and ability to grow as a small agency felt really good. This was a great feather in our 2017 hat,” said Jenny.
Staff Milestones and New Employees
As we do each year, we honored and celebrated our staff with milestone work anniversaries. Sara Rhodes celebrated her 5th year with Sassafras! When she’s not working, you might find her kayaking or enjoying a nice steak and a glass of wine!
Two teammates celebrated their first work anniversaries, Jessie Devine and Trevor Barley. We’re looking forward to many more years of creativity and stellar stories from this crew!
We welcomed Ashley Scherzer, Shannon Redding and Katie Jones to our Sassy team!
Kick-Butt Meetings
We are really getting the all-agency meeting thing down pat! We all anxiously await these twice-yearly meetings; especially since our agency is virtual. The year’s first meeting was our Spring Meeting, forever known as “The Energy Bus Meeting!” Jenny said, “This meeting was full of energy – we laughed, played and bonded as a team. It is always a great time to get together and share our work with each other and problem solve. We invited vendors in to join us; this helps us stay at the forefront of technology and innovation.”
Jenny says that our Fall Meeting… “was our best meeting to date. The work that came out of the all-day session with Idea Champions was fun and we learned a lot. I am very excited to put what we learned to work for us and create stellar, innovative ideas for our clients in 2018.” Our Fall Meeting was really epic; it featured a night out at Kansas City’s Chicken N Pickle, the day with Idea Champions and a first-ever company Fitness Challenge!
Kicking off a fitness challenge at our company was important. It’s no secret that in a virtual environment there are days you don’t leave your house so we wanted to encourage Sassafras teammates to get moving! Jenny introduced a 6-month challenge based on taking steps and we will incorporate mini-challenges along the way to keep it fresh. Jenny said, “The health and wellness of our employees is important to Geoff and me and we want to keep them healthy mentally and physically. This is one step in that direction.”
Looking Forward to 2018
We’ve got a few big projects on tap to kick off the new year! We launched a specialty beverage at Wendy’s called Dave’s Soda. Wendy’s has created its own soda line and its first release, called Dave’s Cherry Cream Soda, has proven popular with consumers.
“I am excited about a great year ahead! Our creative department will grow in terms of staff and capability. We are also expanding our video capabilities even more in 2018. There is a new ideation process that was born through the innovation session with Idea Champions, and we will utilize this to promote critical, innovative thinking on behalf of our clients. We will continue to hit the ground running and look to capture new clients in order to broaden our portfolio of work,” said Jenny.
Cheers to a successful 2017 and we can’t wait to see what 2018 brings.