Inspired by the cult classic movie This is Spinal Tap, our motto throughout 2018 was, “Does your digital marketing go up to 11?” From celebrating our 11 year anniversary to partnering with extraordinary new hotels and winning design awards for our new custom websites, 2018 has been a year of challenging the status quo and amping up the volume on who Blue Magnet is and what we do.
For our most beloved fans, we compiled a tribute to what the Blue Magnet rockstars have accomplished in the glorious year of 2018. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
January
January 22nd marked Blue Magnet’s 11th anniversary, so naturally, we needed to celebrate for 11 days, right? Right! Our 11 Days of BMI included fun days like Pajama Day, Trivia Tuesday, Whatcha Eatin Wednesday, and Selfie Saturday.
February
February 1st marked the finale of our 11 Days of BMI celebration and boy was it spectacular! We threw a Tiki Party complete with hawaiian shirts, leis, mai tais, and even a brand new employee. Yes, on this day the talented, doggo-lovin’ Alex Moritz joined the Digital Marketing Manager band, and when she had the guts to show up in a hawaiian shirt for the tiki party on her very first day, we knew she would fit in great.
Later in the month, Don started Next Level Content Meetings every Thursday as a way to develop new best practices, products, and dare we say it – bring our digital marketing up to 11. As a result of these weekly “NLC Meetings” throughout the year, the team created new standards for landing pages, targeted marketing messages, and more.
Let’s not forget we also restarted our infamous hangman game on the chalkboard wall which has been running more or less constantly ever since!
March
After long string of auditions, the SEO team happily welcomed the ever-stylish blogger Jessa Toth to the band. She has been a big hit ever since!
Blue Magnet held a little St. Patrick’s Day Happy Hour to celebrate our Irish roots, complete with Irish drinking songs and Guinness.
Nicole and Phoebe flew down south to the Cambria New Orleans Grand Opening Party to livestream the event, share photos and video on social media, and welcome the new hotel to the world.
April
Nicole and Phoebe did not end their travel adventures in NOLA. They also flew down to Tennessee for Cambria Nashville’s Grand Opening Party to livestream their event and welcome the newly-built hotel. The hotel held the event at their chic, on-site music venue, TRUE Music Room (which the Blue Magneteers were excited to see in person because our team built the venue’s website).
Kevin received a very well-deserved promotion to Senior SEO Manager, and we are honored by his awesome work.
Haley spearheaded our monthly internal newsletter project, and “The Fridge” was born as a way to keep team members in the loop of the monthly comings and goings of Blue Magnet.
The Blue Magnet Team celebrated Q1 with a day of Whirlyball and lasertag. In one particularly memorable game of lasertag (after someone noticed the teams were accidentally split by gender and said “that is not fair to the ladies”, we played men vs. women anyways and the women kicked the men’s butts and showed them the gender split was not fair to the guys!
May
We began partnership with a cool, new, local hotel (Hotel at Midtown) and began work on their beautiful, new custom website.
The design team also proactively implemented a complimentary cookie notification pop-up for all our hotel websites to make them compliant with the new GDPR guidelines.
June
For our Q2 outing, we explored Chinatown and had a blast sitting around lazy susans and gorging ourselves on dim sum. We topped off the day by singing karaoke and showing off what rock stars we really are.
July
Since Blue Magnet never threw a ten year anniversary party (and since there is not a lot to do in Chicago during our real anniversary in January), the company decided to hold an epic 11 Year Anniversary Party on Cambria Hotel Chicago Magnificent Mile’s 52Eighty Rooftop. At the party, team members took photos with a giant magnet, ate Natalie’s homemade cupcakes, and Laura and Jessa entertained the crew with the first ever “Blue Maggie Awards”.
Blue Magneteers held a bridal shower for Karie in anticipation for her wedding later that month. Congratulations on tying the knot, Karie!
The Senior Team also held “Brand Training Day”, a refresher class on all the wonderful brands that we work with.
August
We went on our annual Q3 Boat Cruise Outing, and it rained for the second year in a row. But that did not stop us from having fun. We told stories, ducked beneath the river bridges, and even filmed a Gilligan’s Island video of our adventure on Lake Michigan.
We said goodbye to Suite 700 and said hello to Suite 203. The new space allows all employees can maintain a healthy, flexible work-life balance and even has a bigger kitchen! We felt at home right away.
September
Remember that Hotel at Midtown we mentioned partnering with earlier? Well, the Blue Magnet design team won the 2018 WebAward for Standard of Excellence in Web Design for the website they built for that hotel. How cool!
Four of our team members received well-deserved promotions. On the Social Media Team, Morgan was promoted to Social Media Manager and Phoebe to Senior Social Media Manager. On the Digital Marketing Team, Nicole was promoted to Associate Digital Marketing Director and Karie to Director of Customer Success. We are so excited to see their work in their new roles.
Loving our motto “Does Your Digital Marketing Go Up To 11?,” we held a company-wide t-shirt design contest, and Morgan’s design won. Don’t be surprised if you see us rocking this swag holding up our devil horns in the future.
October
The moment we stepped into October, Blue Magneteers excitedly brought out the beloved candy cauldron containing a never-ending supply of sweets to keep us going throughout the day. It is honestly one of our favorite traditions. We did not just stop at candy, we celebrated Halloween continuously throughout the entire month! We held our annual Throwback Halloween costume contest, went on a festive field trip to Jack’s Pumpkin Nights, and we held our Halloween Happy Hour where we donned our best costumes and held a costume contest in the office.
We also ventured on a field trip to one of our clients, Hotel Chicago West Loop, for the launch of their “Annex Experience”. The Annex Experience is a gallery within the hotel rooms themselves featuring original artwork by Chicago artists. We had a blast touring the space and meeting our clients.
November
Laura and Brianna visited Chicago Marriott Suites O’Hare for a Thanksgiving lunch with their clients and to take photos of the new chef’s dishes for social media.
The Blue Magnet Team held a baby shower for the two baby Blue Magneteers due in December! We showered our team members with gifts of Natalie’s cupcakes, baby books, and a custom Blue Magnet onesie.
December
The Blue Magnet Team concluded 2018 in style in a couple great ways.
The social media team held their very first webinar where they taught both clients and fellow marketers about best practices and growing trends on various social media channels.
The entire Blue Magnet Team got together for the annual Christmas Party jam-packed with the secret santa gift exchange around our lovably derpy Christmas tree, bowling at 10 Pin, and finally dinner and cocktails at Farmhouse. It was a day to remember and a perfect way to celebrate everything we created together throughout the year.
Encore
As you can see, 2018 was an incredible show we will remember for years to come. We will never forget the websites built, the clients visited, the parties held, the games played, the lunchtime shows watched, and the friendships forged.
We are always humbled when we receive any recognition. Beyond winning awards for our web designs, we are going into 2019 recognized as a top digital marketing company on DesignRush. It is great knowing how the work we’ve done in 2018 sets us and our clients up for future success!
And before we leave, we want to thank our fans and our hotel partners for following us and supporting us. For without you none of this is possible.
Thank you and goodnight, year of 2018!
