Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 25
MEDIA FIRMS
MERGE TO CREATE
THRIVEABILITY
Two media firms on Aycliffe Business Park have merged to form one digital powerhouse.
Branding and design specialists Echo
Graphics has joined forces with Au Fait
Business and Marketing Services to form
thrive, a talented nine-man team at The
HUB Workspace.
Echo and Au Fait, based within Enterprise
House at The HUB, have been working
closely together over recent years and,
gradually, their projects increasingly
involved the same clients.
Directors Rachel Townsend Green (Au
Fait) and Johnny Woods (Echo Graphics)
are now on a mission after creating their
powerful team.
And thrive - so called because it’s their
aim to enable their clients to do just that
- say they want to replace “interruptive
and annoying marketing with brands and
marketing that people love”
.
“Audiences have evolved, becoming
more mobile and digital centric than ever
before, says Rachel.
”
“This is why thrive combines a passionate,
personable approach with fresh, in-depth
knowledge and advice that evolves with
the times.
“We’re now here to help businesses gain
traction and brand presence across the
cluttered landscape.
“In business, challenges arise, but so do
opportunities! We want to help businesses
to prosper.
”
The new team consists of directors
Rachel and Johnny, along with designers
Tom Mather and Sean Ford, developers
Sam Stonehouse and Simon Copeland,
multimedia journalist Sarah Burns and
marketing apprentices Briany Hodgson
and Caitlin Sharkey.
Now an integrated and experienced team
of business and marketing strategists,
brand specialists and creative thinkers,
thrive looks at everything from the
perspective of innovation and creativity
coupled with deliverable, business
outcomes, measurability and ROI.
“Thrive is just a really positive word,
”
adds Johnny.
Rachel said: “We decided that because
we’ve worked together for so long over
the years, on and off, our businesses have
become very much inter-twined, it made
sense to join the two.
“It’s imperative that all employees buy into
the brand and that’s what we say to all our
clients, so it was important we had a new
identity that we all embraced.
”
“We had to completely remodel Echo
Graphics, with an emphasis on present
digital solutions.
“My business has become more involved
in social media strategy and digital
content, so for a number of reasons it
made sense to put it all together.
“We’re really close, there’s nothing we
don’t know about each other, and now
we’ve got two great teams working as
one.
”
Johnny adds: “Our central focus is
having a positive impact on our clients’
businesses, through the foundations of
creative strategic communication – that’s
clever ideas, measurable results and savvy
marketing.
“We’re all about providing solutions
that help to improve businesses - brand
solutions, web solutions, creative content
and strategic communication, and all under
the one roof.
”
There’s no real secret behind the branding
of thrive’s own new look.
Purple was chosen because it creates a
“friendly, approachable image” while the
,
name is fairly self-explanatory.
“We looked at all kinds of different colours
and fonts and, as we do with all our
clients, we take a democratic view with
who makes the final decision and decide
as a team.
thrive is now offering all firms on Aycliffe
Business Park a free marketing review
using their very own in-house system
that measures the effectiveness of their
marketing.
Rachel explains: “One of the first things
we do with our clients is measure their
business by what we call the Thriveability
Index.
“We look at what they’re doing, what their
market is, who they’re communicating to
and how they’re doing that, and give them
a score out of 100.
“This is just the beginning of the
“thriveability” process. Once you know
your score and what you need to do to
improve your strategic communication,
all our principles come together to work
on that.
”
Find out more about thrive at
www.thriveability.co.uk, or give
them a call on 0845 838 7517.