30 years ago today, Liam Bateman and Shaun Madle founded The Think Tank.
They didn’t realise at the time how long their B2B marketing and PR agency would endure; how many brilliant clients would come knocking; how much talent and creativity, charisma and wisdom they would encounter. They probably weren’t thinking about how many awards they would win; the volume of amazing and impactful work they would produce; how much effort they would invest, or how much fun they would have.
But here we are. 30 years on and The Think Tank is bigger, better, stronger and more ambitious than ever.
As far as we know, there are very few (if any?) B2B marketing agencies that have been in the game as long as we have. And all those years in the industry have shaped the company we are today.
For that reason, our birthday is more than just a milestone. You see, our longevity says two very important things about us.
First, it shows that curiosity, openness and adaptability are baked into The Think Tank’s ethos. We’ve seen fads come and go, navigated numerous recessions and witnessed technology change the world repeatedly. Throughout everything, we’ve evolved, stayed on the front foot and helped our clients benefit from emerging opportunities.
Second, our longevity means that we’ve had the privilege of working on campaigns all over the globe with clients of all shapes and sizes in almost every sector. On each of the many thousands of briefs we have taken, we’ve learned new lessons. Now, The Think Tank offers a level of experience that simply can’t be found anywhere else.
A busy 12 months for The Think Tank
While these past three decades have provided countless reasons to celebrate, the last 12 months in particular have been some of the most significant in our history. In that time, we’ve conducted a thorough appraisal of our agency and our culture, turning our expertise inwards to find a more appropriate way of expressing what our brand is all about.
As part of that process, we founded The Think Tank Academy: a company-wide training programme that is driving the development of each of our employees.
Plus, in keeping with our commitment to learning and improvement, we’ve launched the Born to B2B podcast: a show that attempts to answer some of the biggest questions our sector faces. In every episode, we invite an expert guest to share their ideas and insights on what goes into Brilliant B2B marketing.
We have also welcomed new faces to the team, new clients to the roster and added numerous new trophies to the cabinet, including three Agency of the Year awards!
Exciting times ahead for the Agency of the Year
As we embark on our fourth decade, we have plenty of things lined up to mark our next chapter. The celebrations will be spread out over several months and we’ll be looking back fondly at some of the highlights of our story so far.
Most important though, this is a time for us to look forward to the exciting times ahead.
The last 30 years have been wonderful – but we’re going to work our socks off to make sure the next 30 are even better.
