June’s over? Julying.

June usually indicates the start of the British summer; longer daylight hours, milder temperatures, and a heavy press down on the summertime festivals pedal. But not so much this year. It’s been dark, dull and cold. The rain kept coming, but it hasn’t put a dampener on our spirits… Even with the hayfever bomb that’s hit us this last week.

If you haven’t noticed already, we have a new website!

It’s snazzy, right?! Finally giving us a platform to practice what we preach and begin focusing on our own marketing. Agencies are famously known for neglecting their own profiles to dedicate their time to their clients, but we’re turning that around. And this is the start of a fruitful relationship with digital. Finally.

So as it’s the end of the month, here is our regular round-up of the most exciting bits we have been up to these last 30-or-so days. Regardless of the weather, it’s been a goodie.

#1 – Spartan Race

Several weeks of PT sessions held outside our office, building our team’s strength and fitness up toward a 5K Spartan Race, has been an interesting experience.

Only 5K I hear you say? That’s what they thought too. But throw in 20 gruelling obstacles including atlas balls, sandbags, buckets of rocks and fire and all of a sudden it doesn’t sound quite as tame as it first appeared.

Our team of eight who took on the challenge smashed it of course. Donning their impressive medals on Monday morning. Thankfully there were no injuries, and everybody made it into work the day after the race. Whilst majority enjoyed it for the most part, it was an overwhelming ‘no’ when asked if they’d compete again.

But I think those negative feelings have changed since seeing the professional photos taken. How epic do they look?

#2 – Team Building Company Day Out

We were recognised this year in the HR awards for our incredibly high standard of employee engagement. Our staff retention rate is well above the national average for agencies, and it’s something we’re super proud of. We know we can’t do what we do without our spectacular people, and our team are the bones of this business.

Labelled as “company days out” we often take an afternoon or morning out of the office for team building activities. Something light and fun for everyone to enjoy and be involved with. In the past, we’ve been pizza making, kayaking, cheese and wine tasting… This time we took a trip to Cardiff International White Water.

WHAT. A. BLAST.

We built rafts in three teams, tested them on the water and raced to win the challenge; with one clear winner (the other rafts came apart on the water – haha). Before taking to the paddleboards for stand-up paddleboarding on the Ely River.

We were challenged by the CIWW instructors to turn on the spot 360 degrees, to switch boards, share boards and “save” each other. We were in fits of giggles, working together to swap paddleboards, supporting each others weights and maintaining balance… In short, it couldn’t have been a better team building activity.

#3 – Kicked Off Events at Liberty

It’s something we have been working toward for several weeks, but this month we kicked off events at our Cardiff office. Our regular invite-only events are intended to knowledge share with marketing professionals, and to network with friends around good food.

This breakfast event played host to a number of marketing professionals in the finance industry, as their digital landscape becomes increasingly more competitive, we shared latest digital developments and underused techniques to remain competitive in the SERP wars. Through working with a number of finance clients, and variants of the finance industry i.e. insurance, we were in a good position to share interesting insights and common issues that we often come across.

It was a fantastic morning with great feedback. Interested in hearing about other events? Drop us a line!

#4 – Agency Collective Influencer Day

Marketing Manager, Paul Hunter, was invited to an Agency Collective afternoon for a personal branding workshop. Although he was somewhat sceptic beforehand, he thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and saw true value in the proposition.

“Building a personal brand is one of the most cost effective and valuable ways to generate business and attention online.”

Ashley Jones, Great Influence

Watch this space.

#5 – The weather made a U-turn and we’re relishing in it!

We’re lucky to have a beautiful grassy area, complete with a picnic bench to the side of our office that sits in the sun all day… When it decides to make an appearance! But we have been able to drag bean bags outside, plonk ourselves under the rays of the sun with our Macbooks and laptops and enjoy our delayed summertime this week. There has even been an ice cream van come by to add to the fun.

18-holes of golf were played in the glorious weather with Castell Coch serving as the backdrop, there have been team pub lunches, evenings out on the town accompanied by our favourite Old Mout Cider, even lunchtime FIFA was cancelled this week to be outside for lunchtime.