Innovation, purpose, and longevity: Idea Engineers’ co-founder, Janice Spark, reflects on 21 years of building brands and making an impact.
In Internet terms, 21 years feels like centuries. It’s time enough for business empires to rise and fall and for new technologies to turn industries on their heads multiple times over. So how do you build a business that lasts in such a volatile and fast-moving environment? Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, offers one of the keys to longevity: ‘The secret…is to focus on the things that don’t change in your business.’
‘We might not have articulated it as brilliantly as he does, but that principle is how we’ve managed to survive and grow in an always-changing industry. Tactics and tools evolve, but the principles of robust marketing, communications, brand and advertising remain constant. It’s all about delivering campaigns and executions that help our clients tell their stories, share their purpose and build their brands,’ said Spark.
Spark discussed keeping up with industry trends, technologies, and best practices: ‘When we founded Idea Engineers in 2002, people carried cellphones rather than smartphones, Yahoo! was the leading search engine, and social media had yet to be invented. It was intoxicating to work with clients that were pioneering digital marketing, others among the first business to business internet service providers, and one that embraced reality TV at a time it was still new.’
‘But it also meant working hard to stay ahead of industry trends, from our early efforts at influencer marketing with BlackBerry’s brand ambassadors to creating integrated, award-winning social and PR campaigns for Sage, the cloud accounting software company. We also blazed a trail by launching Facebook’s brand and first office in Africa.’
‘We’ve always gravitated towards work that includes an element of purpose — we’ve loved working with brands that have a clear vision for how they want to change the world. We believe in driving profit and purpose, a factor that helps to ensure sustainability through times of boom and bust alike. It’s this alignment of growth and purpose that is at the core of many of our most long-lasting business relationships,’ added Spark.
‘Our industry has never stopped changing, but we face some of the most challenging and exciting disruptions we’ve encountered yet. Competition for new accounts is fierce, budgets are tight, and the next wave of technology-driven change is here in the form of generative artificial intelligence (AI). We’re continuously needing to upskill in new ways of working.’
‘On the upside, the growing focus on factors like diversity and inclusion as well as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) space plays to our strengths. What won’t change for us is our focus on growing with our clients and offering them a single-stop solution for their marketing needs. Here’s to another 21 years of showing that commercially successful work can be good for the world as well,’ concluded Spark.
IDEA ENGINEERS
www.ideaengineers.co.za
