More to do in 2016

By Kim Browne

 

As we hurtle to the end of the year the word that sums up 2015 for me is more. More work, more clients, more pressure, more, more, more… We’ve grown our business, we’ve grown our agency and we’re blessed with an awesome team of individuals who just “click” and manage to create magic with sometimes insane deadlines.

A case in point is when earlier this month – during the busiest time of the year for us – a project client emailed on Thursday afternoon to ask us to help with creating an important content asset, for presentation on the Monday at an international event in Paris. We shuffled job bags around and delivered to brief on Friday, well in time. Happy client, happy us :)

It did mean we had to push new business out, but as the old idiom goes, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.

This month we were honoured that SmartRand was named as one of six international finalists in a prestigious Matchi fin tech challenge for Liberty Group SA. We didn’t win – that honour went to New York-based Vanare, but the fact that we made it to the last round left us exhilarated. To be a top six contender out of 34 entries from fin tech companies world-wide feels great.

So much so, it motivated us to enter the esteemed South African IAB Bookmark Awards 2016. These are the local digital industry’s highest-calibre awards aimed at identifying and rewarding excellence in digital creative work and execution, benchmarked against international standards and measurable results as judged by a host of local and international judges. The extended deadline is around the corner – more pressure!

2015, the year of more, has been pretty intense and a personal highlight of the times we live in was demonstrated to me again this month, with two new hook-ups on Facebook. One with a long-lost cousin I last saw when I was 10 and a dear old friend, now living in Switzerland whom I last saw when we were 17! This and the opportunity to demonstrate my condolences to those who lost loved ones in the terrible Paris attacks by “wearing” a temporary profile pic reminded me of just how amazing social media is.

A friend of mine was in Paris in the thick of things and it was fantastic to get notification that she was safe.

It’s been a tough year and I subscribe to the sentiment that #2015mustfall. We look forward to closing The Toast offices from 18 December to 4 January 2016 for a little well-deserved R&R after an intense year.

Wishing all our clients and suppliers happy holidays and festive cheer. We’ll be back in 2016 for what’s promising to be a BIG year. It’s a prediction and resolution all rolled into one and you know what they say about plans…