AHA Creative Strategies - B Seen B Heard B Known

Happy New Year. For all of us at AHA, the start of a new year is always filled with excitement, anticipation and potential. We’re looking forward to 2008 and the work we will get to do with our clients.

2008 marks the 5th anniversary of AHA Creative Strategies. While in the big picture, five years (which by the way is 1,825 days, 43,800 hours, 2,628,000 minutes and 157,680,000 seconds) is just a drop in the universal bucket…for us it symbolizes a great deal, it is an achievement of which we are very proud. We started out company in a small (and I mean SMALL office in a building in a marina, then moved it onto a float home in that marina …it was really fun having clients come to the office or the first time, seeing their faces as ducks or swans swam by them as they walked down the dock!) and then we moved our head office to the Sunshine Coast and found a way to be in two places at once, by sharing office space with one of our favourite partner companies The Donat Group, A Creative Technology Company‰.

2008 is also significant for us because we have found who we are, so to speak. AHA Creative Strategies is a full-service agency with a bit of a difference. While our head office is in Gibsons, B.C. a short commute via ferry from Vancouver, B.C. , our clients, our staff and colleagues are situated throughout North America.

We have taken full advantage of the freedoms the Internet and frequent flyer points give us. Our PR assistant and copy editor is in Calgary, Alberta (http://www.calgary.ca), we partner closely with several senior communications consultants that live in Vancouver, Toronto and in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, we work with a social media strategist and visionary who is incredibly knowledgeable in this ever changing landscape (although he’s pretty humble and would never admit to how good he is at what he does). We also have access to respected associates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris, and Aberdeen, Scotland.

Not to mention our strong ongoing relationships with some of the best communications companies in the world including Quay Strategies Inc. (http://www.quaystrat.com) and Capulet Communications .

It’s exciting to be a boutique agency right now. We work with the best of the best and build a team that is exactly right for each project or initiative. It’s obvious that our clients “get it” – they are innovative, creative and open to new ways of doing things. If they didn’t see the value in our agency, they wouldn’t work with us. What we have found interesting over the past year as we moved our business model over to this new business model is how potential clients have reacted when they realize how we work …and we’re talking some large – often perceived as conservative – companies as well as those in technology, entertainment and startups (who have a reputation for being a little more open-minded about new things). Out of an estimated 25 new business opportunities last year, we only had two decide that because we weren’t a “national” agency (one with offices in at least three cities in Canada), that we might not fit their needs.

In fact, several of the more traditional organizations (that, I have to admit we worried a little bit about), seemed somewhat intrigued about our evolving business model. As one of our larger clients said, “It doesn’t matter where you are, as long you’re there when we need you.”

We’re excited about 2008 – and while our big, funky AHA office seems a little empty with only a few of us working out of it right now – we think we’ve found our framework. Great clients, great staff, great partners, it’s a nice place to be, even if we aren’t all in the same location.

Here’s wishing you a great 2008 and hoping that you have found a nice place to be, in your life.