Holy smokes! Danger Dynamite is 10 years old!
Did you know that only a third of small businesses make it to the 10 year milestone? As Danger Dynamite celebrates our 10th anniversary, Facebook’s popular #TenYearChallenge is trending in newsfeeds everywhere and we were inspired to reflect on the transformation of a decade in the digital world. We’ve come a long way to become the thriving, full service web design, marketing and multimedia agency that we are today!
How it all began…
On the cusp of starting a family and uninterested in the monotony and rigidity of the standard 9-5, a dude named Frank decided to start a business. He wanted a career that provided enough flexibility for him to be an active presence in the lives of his growing children– y’know, that work-life balance thing that we all crave? Frank envisioned a creative business based not on hours worked, but on the quality of the work done.
Just like any project, it started with an idea.
Frank is no shy guy— he likes talking to strangers and makes friends easily with all kinds of folks around town, including lots of local business owners in his neighborhood. “Every single business owner I spoke to had to manage all the pieces of their online marketing with different service providers: a marketing consultant, a web developer, a graphic designer and so on.” To Frank, this sounded time-consuming and frustrating, and he was inspired to create a solution. What if there were a marketing service provider in Saskatoon that combined all the separate components of online marketing into a one-stop-shop for business owners who want to play in the new and growing arena of online marketing?
Vision + Commitment to Idea + Leap of Faith = Danger Dynamite!
With a vision and a commitment to an idea, all that was needed to bring his business to life was a leap of faith. Drawing inspiration from a mentor in Calgary (thanks Micheal Dargie!), and positioning himself to fill a gap in the Saskatoon marketing industry for end-to-end marketing services, Frank launched DangerDynamite in 2009 as a solo entrepreneur.
And get this: The business name was inspired by the boxes of dynamite in the Wile E. Coyote versus Road Runner cartoon shorts from the Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes – yep, Frank loves cartoons! He figured marketing should be exciting, and wondered, what’s more exciting than a big explosion?
The internet of then…
Danger Dynamite was born into a much different digital landscape than the one we know today. Do you remember the internet of 2009? Viral videos like David After Dentist and Susan Boyle were on screens everywhere. New platforms like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter were in their infancy and already revolutionizing the ways we interact with each other.. Pinterest and Instagram didn’t exist yet, but they would soon change the game of social media yet again. Search engine algorithms were simple, predictable, and easy to appeal to, making things like SEO a walk in the park. In the wake of the first iPhone, surfing the web and participating in online social networks became even easier. Everything on the web was shifting to cater more to mobile usage. With Facebook’s launch of its like button in 2009, we were only just beginning to see what an integral role social media would come to play in online marketing.
You’ve gotta keep current if you wanna win the internet game.
A lot changes in a decade. This is as true about the internet as it is about a human child. As Frank’s kids grew and developed, so did the digital landscape in which he worked. One of the great lessons that Danger Dynamite (and concurrently, parenthood) facilitated time and time again, since the start, was that change is the only constant. There is no industry more dynamic than the digital industry. The only way to keep up is to remain proactive about learning, and being ready to make adjustments at every turn. In the world of digital marketing, the moment we become complacent or rigid is the moment we fall behind. Through the years of constant change, we have learned that staying nimble, balanced and flexible is the key to staying on top of the latest digital wave.
“The biggest thing I have learned is that what I know today might be irrelevant tomorrow, so be prepared to change the game at any moment.” – Frank Collins
Teamwork makes the digital dream work!
Today, the aspects of online marketing formerly treated as separate and offered as individual services have become highly interconnected. For a truly successful marketing campaign today, all of these services must become integrated in a comprehensive and cohesive way – in a way far beyond the skills and talent of just one person. In the ten years since Danger Dynamite was born, we have gone from focusing only on website and graphic design, to developing full marketing campaigns complete with branding, website, photography and video production, social media and review management, SEO and more. This expansion was only possible with the combined efforts of a well-rounded and burgeoning team of creative professionals who jumped aboard the Danger Dynamite ship to help steer this one-man show into a hub of creative collaboration and teamwork. To this day, our amazing team is something Frank considers to be our greatest accomplishment.
What’s next?
For our tenth anniversary, we are celebrating our successes and the amazing work that we have done throughout the decade. As a full-service digital marketing and multimedia agency, our goal to provide a one-stop shop for online marketing has become even more relevant today than in 2009 when we started. The more complex the internet becomes, the more pertinent it is to approach digital marketing in an integrative way. To best accommodate our clients in a dynamic industry, Danger Dynamite has expanded significantly since 2009 to offer a comprehensive range of services, which we combine to create totally bangin’ marketing campaigns that are cohesive and consistent across platforms. When you choose to work with our team at Danger Dynamite, you’re choosing collaboration with a dynamic group of creative professionals who want to work *with* you to develop your online strategy. Our next project could be with you! Get in touch!