It’s been a year.
Typically, when we set out to reflect on our accomplishments for the year, our conversations don’t involve a global pandemic, racial justice movement, or our agency being forced to work from home. This year will be deemed historic, transitional, eye-opening, sad, and most of all, memorable.
Sagefrog was fortunate this year, but we’d be remiss to ignore the fact that this wasn’t a great year for everyone. Many people experienced significant loss including lives, businesses, and jobs; people faced physical and mental health challenges; and all people were forced to say goodbye to the life they knew to adapt to new ways of living, working, and socializing. To everyone, our hearts are with you.
One of the major lessons we learned this year is that there’s always something to be gained from hardship and focusing on those lessons and outcomes rather than the hardship itself, can make a difference. With that, we’re sharing our most notable (and memorable) moments from 2020.
1. Pandemic Relief for Small Businesses
As part of the small business community, we took action to support and sustain other small and local businesses that were impacted by nationwide shutdowns. Sagefrog’s CEO and Co-founder, Mark Schmukler, graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses scholarship program in 2017, and was quick to support and sign an Open Letter to Congress urging leaders to pass relief for small businesses. Sagefrog also launched an initiative coined, Dollars for Doylestown, which aimed to support local merchants in the Doylestown borough by raising awareness for the purchase of e-gift cards as cash advances for these businesses in their time of need.
2. PBJ’s Best Places to Work for Third Year
We were named to Philadelphia Business Journal’s (PBJ) 2020 Best Places to Work (BPTW) list for the third-consecutive year. This award continues to be our favorite accolade as it is an honor that can only come from the endorsement of employees. We’ve always been proud of our award-winning culture, but this year challenged our status-quo as our team shifted from two offices in Doylestown to a remote work environment, as a result of the pandemic. We worked hard to adapt and build a remote culture of connection through various activities. Achieving this award for the third year under normal circumstances would have been a major honor, however, being able to adapt and create an environment that our employees still deemed great after months of remote work, makes this award that much more meaningful. Thank you and congratulations to our awesome team.
3. Record-Breaking, Double-Digit Growth
Despite the pandemic, Sagefrog saw record-breaking revenue and employee growth this year. We attribute this growth to our specialization in healthcare, technology, industrial, and business services, in which many of our clients remained operative (and growing) during the pandemic as they provided essential solutions, resources, and supplies to critical markets. For example, Nixon Medical, a leading provider of medical apparel and linens, partnered with the USNS Comfort Navy hospital ship, to provide scrub and linen laundering services as the floating hospital relieved pressure on the city’s hospitals during COVID-19. Vulcan Spring, a US-manufacturer of custom spring solutions, provided supplies to companies that had previously relied on shipments from vendors overseas who were unable to accommodate orders at the onset of the pandemic. Another example of essential Sagefrog clients includes commercial cleaning companies, which provided essential disinfecting services to healthcare settings, schools, and offices, as well as a plastics manufacturing company that provides protective shields (like you see at checkout counters).
To all of our clients, thank you. Many of you are the heroes behind the scenes who allowed clinicians to provide critical care; allowed US-manufacturing and supply chains to operate uninterrupted; and allowed essential businesses to operate safely. You are also a reason Sagefrog was so successful this year, giving us the opportunity to expand our services and add employees, providing steady jobs to talented marketing professionals in the Greater Philadelphia region.
4. Doubled Office Space in Doylestown Borough
What feels like forever ago, in February 2020, we doubled our office space in Doylestown borough. After maxing out our 3,500 sq. ft. headquarters with 30 local, full-time, in-house employees, we added a second location on West Court Street, featuring 2,200 sq. ft. The new office is a short five-minute walk to our headquarters location on East Oakland Ave, enabling us to keep our award-winning culture in-tact and allowing for interdisciplinary team collaboration. While the pandemic required us to adapt to a remote work environment shortly after introducing the new location, we intend to continue using the space as part of our “flex location” work approach moving forward. We continue to maintain remote offices in Princeton, NJ, Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, PA, which serve as supplemental meeting and workspaces for employees and clients.
5. Top Marketing Awards & Regional Recognition
Throughout a difficult year, Sagefrog was motivated by several marketing awards and distinctions. In addition to receiving Philadelphia Business Journal’s (PBJ’s) Best Places to Work award, we also earned PBJ’s title of Top Full-Service Marketing Agency in its 2020 Book of Lists. Beyond that, Sagefrog remained a top-ranked marketing agency in the Lehigh Valley region as Lehigh Valley Business named Sagefrog to its list of Lehigh Valley’s Top Advertising & Marketing Firms. Additionally, our robust client base and remote office in Princeton consistently earn us awards in New Jersey including by NJBIZ and Clutch. Read more about these awards here.
As we wrap up our most notable moments of 2020, we want to give a special thanks to our incredible employees who weathered the unpredictable year with us, making it one of our most memorable. From your flexibility as we moved to a remote environment to your unwavering ability to bring your all every single day for our clients, is inspiring. Thank you. And again, we thank all of our clients for the extraordinary work you do. You’re heroes and you’re our partner…what’s better than that?
As we enter into 2021 as stronger people and smarter marketers, we’re here for you and your business. To discuss your 2021 goals and marketing plan, schedule a chat with us.
