I met these four people in 2002 when they had just got the idea for their business after graduating from the Centre for Arts and Technology Okanagan (CATO) and were about to start their new advertising agency. The four were Giuseppe Simpatico (Sep), Vivian Turgeon, John Bos and Brad Marshall.

They had their laptops and a chair - I mean this was a real beginning of what has become a continuing success story for Artistech Newmedia Inc.

Now here I am in their new boardroom of their new offices on Ellis Street in Kelowna where twelve people are now working on advertising accounts from all over North America.

“After graduating, the four of us got together to decide if we could start a company doing the things we had learned in school because we realized there was an opportunity for a high end web design firm. We had the idea of starting the company and everyone was in agreement it was a good idea so we located in a building downtown above Starbucks on Bernard Avenue. We slowly grew over the years, mostly by word of mouth and good quality work, with design creative on the leading edge to the point where we are the second largest studio between Vancouver and Calgary.

With twelve creative staff members and working for companies like Alliance Films, Best Buy Canada, Enviro we were doing work from internet web site development to Internet marketing, strategies and beyond.” 

But when you came together in 2002 was the world ready for you, I mean did we understand what you were doing and services that could me made available to business at that time? 

“When we met at CATO we had spent approximately half the time being with each other in different working situations, recognized different talent abilities and work ethics.. There was a synergy there and we never even discussed if we could fail, we just new we had to do it and that was our attitude from the beginning. We knew we would have to work hard and long hours from the get go. Each one of us naturally assumed responsibly from certain aspects of the business we did't talk about it a lot, we didn’t have a mission statement, we just did it. We knew there were sacrifices we had to make and we started with one client, who at the time, was lawyer Jim Herperger.  We built a site for him and we were started. We stressed it out and there was no turning back.”

“One of our original partners John Bos couldn’t continue because he had a family and couldn’t handle the situation in the beginning because there wasn’t a lot of money and he left us for a steady position.  We knew then who we wanted for our team position and we finally talked Nicolas Morin into joining us. He had been our audio teacher at school. He is a good communicator and is awesome technically and he was our new team member."

Nicolas: “I admired these people for a really long time and finally took the opportunity when it was offered and left my job with the school.”

“We talked to a lot of people in the business and we were not going into the business to be carbon copies of them but we wanted to be in that industry and we felt very strongly about our own identity."

From the development stage to where you are today is a long journey.  Is the road still winding?

“From the what we do and how we do it has changed dramatically, there was no social network media. There was no YouTube or Google as sources for information. The same thing applies to hardware and software and what’s available now and how that changes by the day. There is always a challenge - always external forces at work whether it be technology or the economy.  In those days your mobile phone was to call people.  Now you can check your e-mail and watch TV. All of these elements change our approach to projects and how we would do them. All these significant things has an impact on how we conduct our business how we run our lives day to day and how we connect with friends and family.

It isn’t that long ago that downloading music was a big deal, now you can download anything you want and that what you have to keep adding new content because within two minutes its dated and that’s where we come into the picture when we manage an advertising account in the best interested of the client to be front and centre all the time."

Brad: “The consumer has so much technology at their disposal and so many marketing messages coming at them that it our job to keep coming up with concepts that puts our clients in top of mind. We have to engage people and we can grab their attention for a few minutes we have done the job.

It changes the way companies have to communicate with the consumer market and that’s not just one big message that everyone hears but it is multiple small messages that speak to those niche audiences. That is what we do.”

Was the British Columbia Innovation Council’s Metabridge Conference held in Kelowna important to you and your growth?

Vivian: “Sep and I attended and it was interesting we met lots of great people. I think it’s a confidence builder primarily from our point of view.”

Sep: “For a firm that is doing something innovative with a product and is trying to sell it that opportunity to sell the idea to investors and the money people it can actually take them to another level.”

Vivian: “Or alternatively a sort of devil’s advocacy where we can tell our story, tell people about what we are doing, are we headed in the right direction and you are talking to people who are truly connected internationally, I think that is very important. To play golf and rub shoulders with some of these people, and these are people who have sold their ideas for millions and millions.”

Sep: “We met a man who sold his company to Facebook and Facebook doesn’t buy a lot of firms. It was interesting to hear stories like that about an idea and then a big firm was interested in them and how they went through the process of selling their idea. So if you’re a company that has an innovative product you can win or lose within minutes.”

What about people, staff for your operation is it difficult to find people to work today?

Sep: “It is easier today because many people are attracted to the area because of the larger operations like Disney and a number of other software companies in the Landmark Centre complex that employ hundreds of talented people.

One of the characteristics of talented people is that they like to put ideas into action. They want to work in a winning organization and work with other top talent and to be constantly challenged. This all sets the stage for an exciting future for Artistech Newmedia Inc."