Purple Square, our first decade!

On the 31st March 2021, Purple Square is 10 years old, and what a decade it has been.

As the founder, I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved in the business (I wish I could take all the credit). We have brought together a team of incredibly strong marketers, technologists, consultants, commercial and operations people, working with some of the most interesting and innovative clients around the world. 

It is more than just smart people with good skills, many of the team have been with us for a long time and have become good friends, the bringing together of this group of people is most definitely our greatest success. For me, this became particularly obvious over the last year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when I have seen just how much the team care about each other and Purple Square, taking the time to check in with each other, doing what it takes to support one another, and generally being understanding that these times are not normal.

Across the industry we have seen continuous acquisitions of countless Marketing Automation platforms, new technologies emerging, consolidations, expansions, and divestments. More then ever before the technology landscape is crowded, but there is always a platform that can support client needs. The challenge for our broader industry is understanding which is the right tool for the right job, at each organisation.

At Purple Square, we have built breadth and depth across several leading Marketing Automation technologies, those that we consider offer the greatest capabilities to our enterprise clients, Acoustic, Adobe, Salesforce and Unica. What I admire most is that our services and commercial teams do not pay lip service to our tech partnerships, we don’t simply “pay the fee to add a vendor logo”. The teams invest significant amounts of time and effort training, shadowing, and certifying themselves before we present ourselves as experts, and very quickly establish ourselves as a reliable and trusted partner that delivers consulting and implementation services that result in project success. I believe this is why we are often the vendors go-to partner for their own services overflow.

I’d always planned to “go international”, so when we established our Australian business 5 years ago, it was a great personal achievement, even if time zones can be challenging at times! The Aussie team built itself a strong reputation in a very short period, and continues to deliver high value services and support to our clients across Australia and New Zealand. In 2021, we will continue to grow our commitment to, and deliver a wider set of services and solutions for clients throughout the region.

It hasn’t all been good, we’ve hit challenges, felt growing pains, seen the passing of former colleagues and continue to deal with the global pandemic. Some of these we have been able to manage through planning and controls, others we have simply had to accept, but the result has been a much stronger team coming into our second decade.

2021 really has not kicked off quite the way I expected our tenth anniversary celebrations to start, little did I think that we would be in the middle of a UK lockdown and the chances of getting to see everyone is minimal, so it really has meant that our celebrations are going to be put on hold for a while.

But being in lockdown hasn’t meant that we’ve taken our foot off the pedal for the year.

We have great plans for the next 12 months and for the years beyond, with new service launches and steady growth plans in 2021, plus additional focus areas and strategic growth plans for 2022 onwards. I am very much looking forward to writing my 20th Anniversary note, in which I will be able to describe the rip-roaring successes and growth that see us being the world’s leading, truly independent, Marketing Automation advisors.

The final thing, to round this off, is “Thank You!”

Thank you to our clients, our partners, suppliers, and vendors for their commitment to us and continued support over the last 10 years.

Thank you to my friends and colleagues for their guidance and counsel when I have needed it.

Thank you to the team for everything they do and their willingness to step up in the harder times as well as the good ones.

And most importantly, thank you to all the Purple Square families, that must cope when we disappear off to different parts of the world, often for weeks on end.

I hope to see many of you over the next 12 months, and hope that you are all staying safe and keeping well, if you have any feedback or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Andy