As difficult as 2020 was, 2021 had its fair share of challenges. With vaccines becoming more readily available and kids going back to school, the pandemic seemed to be slowing down.
Many people were venturing outdoors more and back into stores to shop in person. The travel vertical started seeing more life with more vacations being booked, and some areas even got rid of their mask mandates. But, soon COVID variants started to show up and the world seemed divided once again with vaccines.
Things started to look a little too familiar, but as we did in 2020, we all persevered and found another “new way of life”. Many were still taking their vacations with most opting for vacation rentals versus hotels and shoppers were still heading to the store with others opting for curbside pickup (which many more stores adopted in 2021).
Yes, some things changed and others stayed the same, but all in all, we continued to move forward in 2021 — AIM included.
For us, here at AIM, the year was about building and innovating and that started with our team. Last year, we sought growth, and with that comes the need for strong, capable team members, and 2021 delivered. While we were proud to promote 9 of our own team members, we also were able to bring on 14 new hires throughout the year.
With our newly expansive team, we formed new support teams to better assist our needs. We created a Program Services Team to support our clients on deliverables and our Agency Growth Team to strengthen Publisher Development, Business Development, and Marketing as our agency continues to grow.
On top of our team roster, we saw amazing growth with our client roster as well. 18 new clients signed on last year in a variety of verticals. From health and fitness companies like BodyBuilding.com to more unique businesses like Eterneva, 2021 gave us new opportunities to learn and hone our skills.
Other opportunities came in the form of a bigger change. Formally Vision7 which acquired AIM back in 2020, the company spun off with other agencies creating Plus Company. Made up of the full slate of Vision7 agencies, which include integrated creative agencies Cossette, K72, Camp Jefferson and San Fransico-based Eleven; media agencies Cossette Media and Jungle; PR agencies Citizen Relations, Middle Child and The Narrative Group; performance marketing agencies All Inclusive Marketing and PathIQ; and specialist arms Gene Global (health), Impact Research, Magnet (tech and data) and Septième (production) have been brought together with design and branding firm Fuseproject, social-led creative agency We Are Social and its sister creative agencies Socialize, Hello and Metta. This combined group has over 3,000 employees and operates in 12 countries opening the doors for us all to scale globally.
Learn more about this change here.
While we continue to grow and scale this year, our focus in 2022 will be on diversity and giving back. As a team and with Plus Company, we’re already taking strong steps to make this year be bigger and better, no matter what the challenges are that might lie ahead.
Thank you to everyone who helped us have such a successful year!
