Happy Birthday To Us

Many people thought Matt and I were mad to leave the comfort of our jobs at Global Media Agency Universal McCann, to go and start up our own agency from scratch.In the midst of a worldwide credit crunch and recession, Matt and I met at the Marquis of Granby on Charlotte Street in the Spring of 2007, to discuss how going it alone would work. A few weeks later we had a master plan, Grant and Julian agreed to come on board with us and Navigate was born.We had no clients, no money in our bank account and had just 2 desks to our name. However, that didn’t deter us and we quickly managed to secure our first client (Park Resorts), first employee (Sophie Paulin) and our first proper office on Westminster Bridge Road.10 years later and we’ve not looked back.Whilst we’ve not quite grown at the same trajectory of the industry that we operate in, we’re now IPA accredited, have offices in London and Sydney with a portfolio of brilliant clients and fantastic teams that consistently go above and beyond. We’ve been consistently rated as a Top 100 Digital Media Agency over the last few years, have won awards for our work in both the UK and Australia and are regularly praised and recommended by our clients for the work we do for them, which is the best reward of all.Overall, we’ve gone about our business in a pretty low-key way. Just as we haven’t dwelled on the bad times, we haven’t really celebrated the good times, but this week is a time to celebrate. 10 years for any business is a fantastic milestone and one that Matt and I are very proud of.We’ve got so many people to thank – including our fellow Directors Grant & Julian, but especially those clients and staff (past and present) that have supported us on our journey this far - we look forward to seeing many of you as possible at our party on Thursday.Without doubt there have been some awkwards hurdles, but we’ve jumped them and become stronger for them.Now, we enter 2018 not knowing where the next 10 years will take us, but if we’re as successful as we have been during the first 10, then that would be Navi-great.John Kimbell, Joint Managing Partner