Member Article

Horizonworks celebrates fifth birthday with string of client wins

Horizonworks, a full service strategic marketing company, has marked its fifth birthday with a string of new client wins and the expansion of its team.

The Newcastle-based company, which celebrates five years in business this month, was founded by managing director Samantha Davidson at the height of the recession.

Samantha started Horizonworks in 2010 armed with a single laptop, a loan for her first month’s office rent and with just one client on the books; the company now boasts a 10-strong team, complete with specialists in marketing strategy, PR, design, brand and digital.

Clients include The North East Local Enterprise Partnership, Durham County Cricket Club, The N8 Research Partnership, national business and financial management solutions provider Solutions for Accounting and pump distributor and manufacturer Tomlinson Hall.

Horizonworks’ client portfolio has further boosted its client base with the recent additions of commercial property development company Argon Properties, food and drink testing company Geneius Labs, North East-based estate agent Signature, diagnostics business development company OLM and asbestos and environmental testing consultancy Franks Portlock.

As a result of increased demand for its services, Horizonworks has appointed former journalist and editor Alison Cowie to the role of client marketing manager and Laura Nee to the post of executive assistant and marketing co-ordinator, while Jen Dugdale has been promoted to head of client marketing.

Managing director, Samantha Davidson, said: “Looking back five years, I had done everything I had wanted to do in my then 12-year career under the restrictions of working for other people and felt that the time was right to follow my own path. Contacts in business would say, ‘How can you launch a business in a recession? Don’t do it’, the banks weren’t lending to small businesses - but I persevered.

“I’d spotted a gap in the market to provide high quality marketing from strategy to delivery, and identified that many companies didn’t have the resources to employ a full time in-house marketing team – or their marketing activity was carried out as an addition to an owner or director’s usual role.

“With the additions of both new clients and staff, 2015 is shaping up to be a great year in which to celebrate our fifth anniversary, but while Horizonworks has evolved significantly, our core aim - to deliver what our clients need to make their businesses grow, thrive and succeed, and to deliver it with honesty, integrity and professionalism – is still at the very heart of everything we do.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .