Yalo’s 100th Client!

There are a lot of ways to express ‘100.’ A few that come to mind are “Benjamins,” “Perfect score,” “Hundo,” “Aces.”

But the best way I can express the pride and satisfaction that comes with having signed our 100^th client with our agency is “WHOA!”

Through our eight-year journey, from a one-man shop to our 100^th client as a growing creative agency in Atlanta & Cleveland, we’ve had some great moments. Some twists and turns in the road. But, always moving forward, onward, and ahead.

This blog is my dedication of our gratitude and gratefulness to all who have contributed to Yalo along this amazing journey.

First off, you can’t get to 100 without a few firsts. A big bear hug goes out to the firsts.

• Our first client was Novelis, an aluminum manufacturer. Thank you to the team for their trust and confidence in getting us started.
• Our first team member was Denise Cowden, as a contractor, who by the way is still with us! Incredibly thankful and grateful to have Denise still with Yalo.
• Our first full time employee was and is Anne Dawson, who again, is still with us! Anne is our equivalent of Renee Zellweger when she leaves her big office job to join Tom Cruise in, Jerry Maguire.
• Our first acquisition happened this year when we acquired Ninja Multimedia, a dev agency adding new chops, clients, and team members to our team.

Eight years seems like a long time. You can’t be in business this long without some long relationships. A high five goes out to our long-term clients.

• We enjoyed a more than three-year partnership with Jabil Circuits where we did everything you can imagine under the sun for marketing, lead gen, engagement, experiential, and innovation projects.
• Star2Star has been with us for seven years, and I am proud to say, still a client of ours. We have enjoyed a great working partnership with the whole team at Star2Star over the years covering all variations of marketing and sales assets, content, and collateral including web, video, mailers, strategy, and more.
• We were the small fish in the big pond that Primrose Schools believed in three years ago when we won the RFP to take over the UI/UX and development of their website. It is awesome to reflect on all the joint successes in three years.
• Another client that took a chance in selecting a small agency over the other options is Plante Moran, a top 20 CPA firm in the US, to help support and maintain their website over three years.
• Once again, we threw our hat in the ring for another RFP and came out on top at JacksonEMC to design and produce their monthly printed newsletter. It has been a great relationship and partnership for five years now.
• One of the most fun and willing clients was Hissho Sushi. We worked productively together for almost four years until Covid hit. We loved working on everything from branding, naming, focus groups, website, store openings, menus, packaging, and much more. Such a wonderful team and client.
• Our two-year partnership with M&T Bank is so multi-faceted, I can’t even begin to describe it. But at the core, we support M&T’s business units in all things digital design, helping them extend and expand their relationships in the market, including website, emails, ads, and videos. 

People will tell you that you should do what you love. Well, who doesn’t love doing kick a$$ projects? We are always looking to push the envelope with our clients on how they can differentiate and connect better with their targets. A ‘giddy up’ goes out to those that were willing to go to the edge and do something truly unique. Here are some of the most creatively fun projects we have done, which also produced amazing results.

• We created a three-dimensional hologram video for Jabil Circuits. Script, storyboard, 3D graphics, animation, to production, it was a complete success. Run time was seven minutes, generating awe in their customers that visited their customer experience center in San Jose, CA.
• StruXure wanted to put their customer ‘inside the product’ to generate sales. The CEO even coined the phrase ‘just go Yalo-fy it.’ So, we redesigned their website that included an embedded VR patio that customers could ‘sit in.’ Spoiler alert, we won an award for it noted below.
• When Covid hit, companies were looking for a new way to connect with their customer base. We delivered a virtual event for Imperial Distributors where their customers could browse, shop, and purchase all through a digital event experience.
• When Microsoft came to Atlanta, so did many of their technology partners. One of those partners wanted to tap into the 25,000 attendees. So, we created MetaFest for Metalogix. We shut down a main artery of downtown Atlanta for a little shindig of 3,000 people from 5pm to 10pm. We flew in four bands from around the world and had an award-winning comedian MC the event.
• Mailers can be blah, but not if you make them something people don’t expect. For Star2Star, we concepted, developed, and delivered a dimensional mailer that engaged and incented both customer and sales reps to actually meet in person. We shipped 220 packages and scored 210 in person meetings which amounted to over a 95% success rate. Needless to say, the CMO was jazzed.

Along this journey and leading up to 100 clients, we have had our share of recognition because the work we have done for our clients does truly make a difference.

• We were recognized as the Technology Association of Georgia 2018 and 2020 Agency of the Year in Georgia.
• We won the Horizon Awards Best in Category for B2B websites for our work on StruXure (noted above). It was ONE website out of 350 other websites to receive that honor.
• Our work on the Jackson EMC Newsletter received a silver award in the best external news publication category for JEMCO News.

As you can tell from the stories above, we creatively deliver a wide range of products for our clients. I half-joke that the only consistency in our work is the inconsistency of what we get asked to create for our clients. That means every day is a new day, and with it comes new challenges, new adventures, and new opportunities to produce something great for our clients. We take pride in delivering the impossible for our clients and seeing the joy in their faces when we outpace their expectations. 

So, you might ask, who is our 100^th client?

Our 100^th client is Bridge House Advisors, an environmental governance professional services company. We are rolling up our sleeves, getting to know their business inside and out, to help them better position their brand to their target market while improving overall lead generation. Just like we have done for our previous 99 clients.

It has been an exciting path throughout these eight years. We have had fun and enjoyed ourselves and the work along the way. But, most importantly, we didn’t get here without the trust and commitment from our clients. Thank you, thank you, thank you to our first 100, and we are looking forward to the next 100. You, new reader, might be in that next 100! Take a look at what we have to offer in terms of our creative services. And meet the rocking Yalo team while you’re here.