Twenty-one years sounds like an awfully long time to build or achieve something significant. But if you put that number into historical context, it’s about how long it took to establish the United Nations (after some global trial and error). It’s also about the length of time it took for:
In other words, significant achievements, success, and change, and varying degrees of these, can be a long time coming.
It’s through this lens that I look back at THINKINK’s founding—21 years ago this month—and reflect on the company’s growth and achievements and how far we have come.
It was April 2004, and I was at a crossroads personally and professionally. After moving across the pond from London, I found myself scouting for PR agencies that fell within my then-employer’s marketing budget and possessed the skills that a rapidly growing (and newly transplanted) start-up needed. The brand needed national recognition, product placements, more customers, bigger orders, sales, sales, and more sales, and market traction.
The search went on for months, and after a few minor wins but mostly expensive fails, I came to the realization that what we needed would not be easily found or even available from the predominantly lifestyle-focused agencies in Miami, where the company was based. So what do you do when you can’t find what you need? You go make it yourself. After months of frustration and many back-of-the-napkin ideation sessions, THINKINK was born.
In the 21 years since, what's followed is a series of learning experiments, bold moves, failures, some questionable decisions, and many incredible wins for a company of our size. When THINKINK started, we weren’t a B2B agency, nor were we focused on serving aviation tech or travel tech companies, as these were only just emerging as the airline and travel sectors themselves were undergoing dramatic change.
But what we did know then and what still holds true and drives everything we do today is that the unique confluence of our work, combining a commercial mindset with B2B PR and other marketing disciplines that produce measurable outcomes, not vanity metrics, would deliver tremendous value and visibility for our clients.
And you can see that commitment reflected in the milestones we have achieved:
2006: Signed our first airline tech client, which would be one of dozens, just as the airline industry was going through a jet fuel crisis, a series of bankruptcies, and the beginning of “unbundling” that would forever change the air travel experience
2007: Our first office opened in Miami to house a growing number of THINKERs
2008: Opened our first office in Toronto to serve a growing Canadian client base. It was around this time that we became more widely recognized as the “go-to” agency for air & travel tech startups
2009: Expanded into loyalty and marketing tech, acquiring several customers in each of these sectors; mobile technology and SMS marketing were proliferating, and we were on the ground floor to witness how much they would change modern marketing
2010: This was not a great year for any business coming out of the great recession, but we made the (right) decision to say goodbye to B2C and become strictly B2B focused, working only with technology companies selling their solutions to other businesses
2012: Doubled down on adjacent industries, working with young gaming and payment tech companies developing solutions for the coming wave of ‘mobile-first’ businesses and users
2014: With the startup landscape developing in many national and international cities, we launched THE THINKUBATOR for startups in Miami. The program was designed to help early-stage companies develop and refine their brand story and proposition, and go-to-market strategies, and help them secure funding and valuable visibility that would propel their growth
2016: Doubled our annual growth, fueled by new customers and expanded work with existing clients; we also opened an office in Australia to serve APAC-focused businesses
2018: Expanded content and digital capabilities to support clients’ online growth, thought leadership, and demand generation, with new hires and new martech tools
2019: Another year of double-digit growth, primarily driven by the loyalty and travel technology sectors
2020: Impacted by the pandemic, we hit a hard reset as our travel clients’ businesses were decimated. We pivoted resources to support companies in grocery, retail, and supply chain, building new capabilities and staffing to help them stay visible and focused on business continuity
2021: Created “an agency within an agency” to support the content, demand generation, and PR needs of one of the world’s largest consumer data companies
2023: Rebuilt our air and travel focus as the industry rebounded, re-signed returning clients, added new ones, and expanded into the sustainability sector, with a focus on travel, tourism and hospitality
2024: Marked 14 years with our longest-standing client; added new customers in the airline crew travel and travel payments sectors
And on the roadmap for 2025… Building out a Business Intelligence and Research unit to meet growing client and global marketer needs; developing a tiered PR product for technology companies looking for more flexible programs; and building our own AI-powered PR and content tools to improve productivity and create new products for clients
Twenty-one years later, we’re still driven by doing things differently—and I hope that never changes. As I look at what’s next for THINKINK, our focus and mission remain where we began: solving real business problems, helping clients grow, and adapting to new challenges.
Happy 21st birthday to us! To see more of what we have achieved over the years, visit THINKINK by the Numbers.