Ilex is growing. Now in our seventh year of operations, we
are expanding capabilities to support our clients in new ways.
Over the last 12 months, we’ve broadened the services we
deliver as well as the types of companies we serve. We have covered everything
from rebranding established companies, launching start-ups and setting the
agenda for customer events, to creating a thought leadership report for global
management consultancy Accenture. We created sales presentations for Smart
Cities initiatives in the Middle East and delivered PR campaigns across Africa.
Online or offline, we are creating and delivering
world-class content and communications that creates touchpoints for influencing
our clients’ audiences.
We also continued to add to our client portfolio with new
additions including London Internet Exchange (LINX). At the same time, we’ve
nurtured and grown together with long-time clients like Epsilon and Stage
Intelligence. Just as our business has changed a lot over the last seven years,
we’ve adapted and learned from these clients. Best of all, we’ve grown as
partners and shared a lot of successes.
Ilex is definitely not the same business we were seven years
ago, and it shows in the diversity of clients we work for and the types of
content and consultancy we deliver. We continued to develop our Channel
Marketing offering with branded sales enablement content for our client’s
partners, while there’s been increased demand for consultancy services. B2B
technology and telecoms businesses want help in transforming their approach to
marketing.
We have proven case studies and we’re helping more companies
go from focusing on product, to talking about the potential of their solutions
to drive revenue and change the world. That’s what’s exciting.
I’m extremely proud of how Ilex has expanded its global
presence, with clients now spanning Singapore, Mumbai, Dubai, Turkey, France,
UK, US, Canada and Brazil and beyond. From the Hawker Centre’s of Singapore to
the Northshore mountains of Vancouver, Canada, we’re delivering local marketing
across globally. From supporting the sales of enterprise IT solutions in the
UAE to executing on a channel partner strategy in the UK, we don’t see any
limits on our business and as we grow.
We’re going to go deeper into new markets and enable our
client’s success, strengthened by our proven track record and expanding
portfolio.
Priorities in 2019
In 2019, Ilex will focus on expanding our scope to serve
more of our clients’ needs and growing our business across new geographies and types
of companies. We have had tremendous success as a creative engine for our
clients, but we see a desire for more consultancy-based services, as well as
tracking and managing content.
B2B tech and telecoms businesses are increasingly asking us
to help them transform their marketing departments, and tie content to leads
and leads to conversions. So far, we have been doing the creative heavy lifting,
but have a lot to offer through formalising our marketing transformation
consultancy and adopting new tools for inbound marketing.
What this means we need to focus on in 2019:
- Delivering
More Consultancy – We know how to take legacy B2B marketing and transform it
to lead an organisation and bring it up-to-date. That means helping clients to
restructure how their marketing department functions to maximise efficiency,
and optimise marketing with online and offline content. At the same time, we’re
being asked to name products, companies and create start-up brands from the
ground-up. We’ve been successful in taking start-up ideas and turning them into
compelling brands, or taking legacy names and reinventing them. Consultancy
leverages our creativity in new ways and creates new value for clients.
- Inbound Analytics
and Tracking – After years of using Hubspot through clients, we will adopt
and offer Hubspot to new clients. We have been great at populating Hubspot and
giving clients all of the content they need to drive inbound leads, but now we
will be able to offer a complete solution of compelling content and the
functional tools for tracking leads and tying them to real revenue. That’s
powerful for our business and will benefit clients tremendously.
- Scaling
Up and Growing the Team – In 2019, we will add new team members to continue
to expand and grow our business. This has been driven by new client wins as
well as existing clients asking us to tackle more of their marketing needs. New
staff means adding new personalities, skills and dimensions to our business.
I’m extremely pleased with our recent hires because they bring new ideas to our
business and offer clients new advice on things like Google Ad’s, Graphic
Design, events management and a whole range of experience.
- Nurturing
Our Core – We have a number of clients that have been with us for five or
more years and we will work hard to adapt and grow together. We aren’t just “another
agency”. We’ve learned about their business and many times shaped their
messaging over years, so we offer them unique perspective on their businesses.
It is important that we continue to evolve and take care of the clients that
have been with us since the beginning.
- Expanding
Our B2B Footprint – We have seen our business grow beyond the carrier
industry where we started, and we want to continue to expand in new areas. We have
worked with Cloud-based storage providers, Artificial Intelligence Platforms, Enterprise
IT solutions providers, Broadcast solutions providers, Management Consultants,
industry bodies- a whole range of organisations. As long as the company is focused
on B2B, we want to serve their needs. Cloud-based channel-focused businesses
and B2B AI platforms will be growth areas for us in 2019 in addition to our
core telecoms and mobility clients.
This time next year, we’ll be a bigger and more dynamic
company. We will be managing more of our clients’ marketing mix and offering
them more solutions. All of this will be underpinned by our core content
offering and creative ideas. We will take our business to a new level and that
will directly benefit both our new and existing clients.
