1994. What a year. Big things happened in 1994. We were connected via a tunnel with our French neighbours. We played the lottery for the first time and really wanted to be a millionaire. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had dinner and 'allegedly' made a deal on who would become the leader of the Labour Party and ultimately the next Prime Minister of our fair isle. Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie, the Church of England ordained the first female priests and Prince knocked Take That off the top of the charts. Everything certainly changes. That year The Market Tiers, a radio agency, also opened its doors for the first time.
In the world of broadcast much has changed in the 17 years since, including our agency. For a start, we changed our name (a bit), merging with our sister agency Fourth Dimension Communications – yes that's why – and began to fill the floor space in our old zip factory offices. From three people in the beginning we're now 80, one studio has become five, and we've moved 100 metres down the road. Never abandoning our radio roots, we're exceptionally proud of the fact we were at the forefront of what is nowadays not so new media, launching Webchats.tv (nee .co.uk) in 2001. Now online programming is a staple of many clients' campaign strategies.
Also after a number of years of being the bridesmaid at the PRWeek Awards, the past few years have seen us exit the stage with the sought after red letters under our arm. We're also particularly proud of being recognised by The Sunday Times as a nice place to work for the last couple of years.
More recently we have also delivered a number of firsts proving you're never too old to try something new. We've done simultaneous live radio and TV broadcast from the Motor Show; broadcast a live WebTV show from the middle of the Irish Sea, and filmed the Prime Minister at No.10 Downing Street. We've also secured literally thousands of pieces of coverage across radio, TV and online this year. Being 17 is quite good already.
Thank you to all the clients we've worked for in these last 17 years and to our team for making the agency the success it is. Group hug. We'll be sure to have a drink to celebrate on your behalf.
