The Good, The Great and The Better in 2020

Everything changed in what seemed like a moment. We were forced to slow down. To take care. To evaluate what really matters. We saw our industry grow, evolve and become even more essential than before. It was a crazy year, but in a way, it was one of the most important ones. We broke out of comfort zones while wearing sweatpants. We toasted our achievements miles apart. We explored endlessly as we sat in one place. While it may seem like we were farther away, we became closer than ever.

Say what you will about 2020, but we learned and accomplished a lot in the last 12 months.

We Worked

Our clients looked to us for guidance on navigating an increasingly digital landscape, so the work never stopped. We launched new websites for Travel Nevada, Vratsinas Construction Company, National Judicial College, RDS Logistics Group, Destined, Green Our Planet and Blue Heron. We created engaging campaigns for Yosemite Mariposa County, Carson Valley and South Lake Tahoe, San Luis Obispo and Reno Tahoe International Airport. We dug deep and used our pent up energy to create some beautiful work.

We Lived

Shaving our commute saved a lot of us quite a bit of time. So, of course, we found other ways to fill it. We filled our hearts and homes with new companions. Across our team, we added numerous pets of many species to the family.

• Rosita and Rosadita – Betta fish
• Mack – Golden retriever
• Reece – Labradoodle
• Millie – Cockatiel
• Andromeda (Andy) – Cat
• Archie – Newfoundland
• Radar – Dalmatian
• Gravy – Cattle dog mix
• Dr. Hubig Wisconsin – Cat
• Juneau – Goldendoodle

We also saw an opportunity to grow our individual skill sets and take on new hobbies. Who knew we had so many budding brewers, artists and gardeners in our midst?

We Gave

Each year we give 1% of our total annual hours to Nevada nonprofits as part of our Noble Deeds program. But this year we went above and beyond. We gave around 1,250 hours (a $250,000 value) to our clients to help them make it through these tough times.

We stayed true to our promises, and we maintained our scholarship program to UNR and UNLV, awarding four new students with the funds to make higher education possible.

The holidays are notoriously difficult for some, and this year, times are even harder. To continue our annual tradition, we “adopted” six students from Valley High School in Las Vegas, and three families from Washoe County’s Safe Embrace so that they could have a bit of holiday cheer.

We couldn’t celebrate the holidays with our Noble Studios family, so we decided to put the holiday party budget to better use. We donated to local food banks in Northern and Southern Nevada to help ensure no one had to go without.

We Stayed Home

Our governor asked us to stay home to help stop the spread, and we did just that. We didn’t think it would be easy, we’re an extremely collaborative company, after all. But we pivoted with ease. We transitioned to exclusively working from home, taking our meetings on Zoom and shooting the sh!t on Slack. And although we prefer seeing each other’s faces in person, we are making it work!

Speaking of meetings. Thanks to Zoom’s analytics, we were able to see how much time we spent brainstorming, strategizing and planning. In 2020, we held 506 meetings, which accounted for 24,867 hours with 35,137 participants. Wow, no wonder we have Zoom butt.

We didn’t just stay home in a literal sense; our dedicated team also stuck with Noble. We were fortunate not to have to lay anyone off due to the pandemic, and also managed a 93% retention rate over the year.

We Won

It may have been a crazy year, but we didn’t just sit and wait for things to come to us. We are wild bears, remember? We didn’t just take on new business, we earned it. Rolls Royce, Greater Nevada Credit Union, San Luis Obispo, LTVA and CVVA CoOp, SureClinical, North Lake Tahoe are just a few of the big accounts that we started working with in 2020.

We also collected quite a few awards to add to our trophy case:

• Search Engine Land Award (Landy) – Best Integration of Search into Cross-Channel Marketing Campaign
• Six Communicator Awards
• 20 AAF Reno Addy Awards
• Three W3 Awards

We Grew

If this past year taught us anything it’s that there’s never a pause on growth. We always encourage our team to continue to grow and evolve both as people and professionals, and we take that seriously. In 2020, 16 people were promoted within the organization for being total badasses. Shannon Griswold became our Offices Manager. Gabbi Hall was elevated to Associate Creative Director. Willis Alstead, Will Porter, Stephen Erdelyi, and Amir Behmaram were promoted to Web Developers. Jodie Litster is now the Director of Project Management and Danni Winter, Danielle Christenson and Tom Van Ruiten were all elevated to Associate Director of Performance Marketing. And that’s just to name a few. To help next level leadership, we bought into Management Bootcamp Training to give our leaders the tools they need.

Sometimes growth takes time and patience. It was just as we bought and moved into our Las Vegas office, that we sent everyone home to work. But our glorious downtown location is waiting on us when the time is right. Beyond purchasing the physical space, we also intend to fill it. We hired 10 new team members over the last year, spread out between our three offices in Reno, Vegas and Bristol, U.K.

Beyond the internal advancement, we also added a Noble BabyBot to our squad, and there are two more on the way.

Bring on the New Year

It’s general consensus that 2020 has been a shitty year, but as a company, Noble did a pretty good job polishing that turd. So that’s something we can be proud of. Bring it on, 2021, we’re ready for anything.