Strathcona BIA E-Newsletter August 2010

Business Sucess
Work [at] Play

This summer Profit Magazine named Work at Play one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada. The Strathcona based firm placed an impressive 53rd in a year when many companies went belly up.

Work at Play is an independent digital agency that provides strategy, creative, and development services by building engaging digital experiences. Russell Barnes, Digital Strategist lets us in on what makes Work at Play a Strathcona success and why its always best to have that rainy day fund.

How did Work At Play start?
Work at Paly is a continuation of a company David Gratton started in 1999, called ici Media. This company was purchased in 2001 by Totally Hip, a local Vancouver Software company. In 2002 David left and rebuilt his agency with one employee. It has now grown to 30 and has recently been named to this year's Profit 100, as one of Canada's fastest growing companies. In the last decade, we have developed interactive experiences for such projects as BMW's wildly successful BMW FILMS, and digital campaigns sites for global giants like MTV, NBC, and Mattel, as well as great local partners like Knowledge Network, Rocky Mountain Bikes and BC Children's Hospital Foundation.

Why Strathcona?
Strathcona is a great location for businesses like ours - the proximity to downtown, technical facilities and property rental rates all make it a very attractive location for a thriving new media business... no
doubt it's the reason why a number of other creative firms can be found close to us in Railtown.

What makes Work at Play different from other digital marketing agencies?
We pride ourselves on the creative application of technology to solving our clients' business and marketing objectives. This differs from other digital marketing agencies who may be highly skilled at adapting traditional marketing campaigns to fit into a digital environment... but don't go beyond the brief, to really understand what is driving the business.

What is one common mistake people make when using social media to market their business?
They start using it without outlining what it is they really want to achieve or establishing a long-term strategy for how to get real, measurable results. These are both things that we're only too happy to help our clients with.

Most challenging part of running a small business?
We've found a need to reorganize our systems and processes from almost the ground up to accommodate our growth. Also, the economic downturn was a very challenging time... but it was also quite an anomaly. Pulling lessons from it needs to be done with a bit of care, as this is unlikely to be a frequently re-occurring situation.

The biggest lesson we would take from the downturn is "you can't hedge or mitigate unknown risks" like a world economic collapse - as such, always keep a bigger line of credit and cash reserve than you or your financial advisor thinks you need.

Learn more about Work at Play: http://www.workatplay.com