Dear Clients, Friends and Business Partners,
I am writing you today to deliver some sad and unfortunate news. After 15 years in business, my wife Gretchen and I have made a decision to close our firm, Renaissance Creative.
As most of you are aware, prior to 2007, our business was primarily residential and resort real-estate focused with 27 employees doing about $5 million / yr. annually. Indeed, during this time period, we were named one of the city’s “50 Fastest Growing Companies” five times by the Jacksonville Business Journal in 2002; 2004; 2005; 2006; 2007, as well as one of Jacksonville’s “Best Places to Work” in 2007.
The sudden collapse of the real estate market was a significant shock to our system that required painful downsizing coupled with a complete, capital-intensive diversification of our client base. And while we had made substantial progress and continued to grow on these fronts, unfortunately, after giving it our most sincere best efforts, the fixed overhead associated with our now-8 member team, combined with the continuing challenges of the larger economy, left us with little alternative.
We have been blessed to have had an extremely talented group of creative professionals here for all of these past 15 years and you should be aware that our still highly capable core team, led by partner, Ed Bondi, will be continuing to service accounts, operating as a consortium. Call it Renaissance 2.0. It is our expectation that they will be able to continue successfully in a new and more efficient operating structure, and I would encourage you to please continue to support them with your business, and referring them to your friends and associates. During the months to come, you will continue to be able to contact them (and me) via their current RC emails, as well as via their personal contact numbers.
Together, with the help of all of you- our valued clients, friends and business partners, we have produced an extraordinary volume of memorable work that we will forever be proud of. It is disheartening to see businesses like ours everywhere struggle in this difficult, stubborn economy, but I am certain that “American Exceptionalism” will continue to prevail, and that things will eventually improve for all of us.
Just as our team is doing, Gretchen and I move forward not only with sadness, but also with an inherent optimism, drive and excitement that cannot be extinguished to meet all challenges in front of us, and seek new opportunities as well. We have long put 100% of our faith in Jesus Christ, operated by His will and on His timeline. Choosing to do so has never failed us; just the opposite. We have always been, are and will continue to be richly blessed! We are grateful for these blessings, to which all of you have for so long, contributed. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Sincerely,
Tim Hamby
President / Co-Creative Director
Roxie Lute, PR Specialist
Who says internships don’t pay?! Raquel “Roxie” Lute is the perfect example of an intern who joins a company on a part-time basis, then proceeds to make themselves so valuable, the firm can’t afford to lose them upon graduation! After interning for 3 months prior to her graduation from the University of North Florida, Roxie accepted a full-time position as Public Relations Specialist at Renaissance Creative. Nice work, Roxie! Just the way your professors drew it up.
Roxie earned her Bachelor of Science in Communications at UNF, with concentration in Public Relations. A social-savvy digital native, Roxie brings youth, energy and an ever-flowing number of new ideas to the Renaissance team, not to mention a “roaming gnome” that seems to have to have begun randomly appearing in different areas of our offices the day Roxie moved in (No one knows why… No one asks why… We just inherently know to stay calm and not touch it, or look at it directly in the eyes.)
At UNF, Roxie was a strong contributor to the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), serving as Vice President. She also served as Account Executive for the University of North Florida’s student-run public relations firm, giving her the real-world skills and leadership qualities needed for her professional career. Roxie also brings practical experience from the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network and the Children’s Home Society of Florida. She is continuing to pursue her Masters in Business Administration at the University of North Florida, while helping with accounts like III Forks, Cantina Laredo and Nemours BrightStart! to name a few, here at Renaissance.
On February 23, I will be moderating a panel discussion at the University of North Florida about the current state of social media and online communities, and where it’s headed next.
I’m very excited about this event, and have some hope that it could become a recurring event. I’ve been thinking about putting together an event like this for a little while. So when I was approached by two representatives from UNF’s chapter of PRSSA, I jumped at the chance.
The plan, initially, was that I would speak to the chapter members about social media. However, once I got to thinking about it, I saw how this event could potentially be something much bigger.
Yesterday I spoke at the Creative Company conference in Five Points, which was organized by the advertising and marketing firm Wingard Creative.
My talk focused on the importance of a business or corporation creating an online community for its customers. I used examples from companies such as Sony, Starbucks, Target, Southwest Airlines and more, to illustrate my point.
I used examples of branded communities across different social networks: Facebook, Twitter, DailyMile, Last.FM, Foursquare and Goodreads.Each of these networks has a different function, but each has the capacity to host a branded online community.
After I was finished speaking, I realized that there were other platforms that exist that could also house a branded community, including Quora, LinkedIn, DailyBooth and Formspring.me.
Now that businesses are taking notice of social media and using it to engage with customers, there exists a need to look forward and understand what the next level looks like. The above image is taken from the 1991 book “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore.
In a fascinating blog post, Axel Schultze, CEO of Xeesm, founder of the Social Media Academy writes in CustomerThink that social business is about to cross “The Chasm” as illustrated above:
