This year we celebrate 14 years in business. We believe in making our mark on the world so we’ve put together 14 ways we’ve achieved this in 14 years.
1. Supporting the Saltaire Festival, a local charity
The Saltaire Festival is a charity organisation set up to celebrate the arts, community and Saltaire village’s unique history. The festival usually runs over a period of 10 days and attracts more than 30,000 people to come and enjoy over 100 events. We volunteered our services to the charity in 2018 to:
- Carry out a full rebrand exercise
- Designed and build a new website
Our director Jag, was also a member of the board of trustees for 2 years.
2. Northern Max3 mentor programme
Our director, Jag, mentored a new startup tech business for 10 weeks to help them launch their new app which supports performing arts being live-streamed into people’s homes.
3. We have taken a chance on a our staff and helped them to grow
We believe in building careers and supporting young people to get into the world of work. In the past year, we have recruited our newest digital marketer, Charlotte, who came straight out of University. Faaiza works with us part-time while studying for her Degree at Bradford University after making herself indispensable during her work experience at Xpand. Previously we recruited Si as a digital designer straight after he left University. Si has gone on to build a successful career in the design world.
4. Creation of an animation and website design and development for Saltaire Canteen
Saltaire Canteen was a small ‘pay as you feel’ canteen that was part of the Real Junk Food Project. Saltaire Canteen’s ethos was to focus on supporting the community by making use of ingredients that are donated by supermarkets.
We created a professional animation with voiceover on a pro bono basis and designed and developed their website.
5. 50,000 downloads for a PE lesson plans specialist
PE Planning specialises in the provision of primary school PE lesson plans. They approached us pre lockdown in 2020 to help them rebrand, design and develop their website and support them with their social media.
We helped them achieve 50,000 downloads in 3 months, which meant that at least 50,000 children were getting access to physical education during the lockdown. Our work has positively impacted the health of children.
6. Easter egg/secret santa appeals for disadvantaged children in Bradford
Every Christmas and Easter we put out a post across our social media asking the community to help us collect Christmas gifts and Easter Eggs for disadvantaged children in Bradford. This is something that we have done with JCI Bradford since 2015, and in the last 6 years have collected a total of 1,017 Easter eggs and 70 Christmas gifts.
7. 180% increase in recruitment applications for Queensmead School
Queensmead School is a secondary school based in West London, and they needed help with their website design and development, creation of recruitment animations, creation of online prospectus videos, and the design and print of prospectuses.
As a result of our work, they had a 180% increase in recruitment applications compared to the previous 12 month period which meant that more jobs were created to cater for the increase in students which helped an organisation create more jobs for the local community while saving money for the public sector as the school didn’t need to spend as much on recruitment fees.
8. Bradford YMCA- brand refresh, design and development of website in 2012
Bradford YMCA was based opposite our very first office in Bradford city centre. We built a great relationship with them and carried their brand refresh and website design and development on a pro bono basis.
9. Supporting the NHS during Covid through Los Pollos Lockdown
One of our clients decided they wanted to support the NHS during their toughest period in the Covid-19 crisis. The client wanted to cook rotisserie chicken in the wood fire oven in their garden and distribute them free of charge to NHS staff.
We came up with the name ‘Los Pollos Lockdown’ and created their branding to really help them stand out.
10. £80,000 sales converted for Chris Makin, a forensic accountant
Chris Makin is a forensic accountant and expert mediator. In short, he solves people’s problems when they might be in a bit of a pickle. For Chris, we did his branding, website design and development, SEO and social media training and support. This led to £80,000 of converted business directly from the website in 18 months.
Chris works in mediation, so by helping increase the reach of his services to those who need them, we contributed to solving people’s problems with a very experienced mediator. Chris will have helped save a lot of sleepless nights.
11. Our webinar series
Throughout lockdown, we began a webinar series to educate our clients and audience free of charge. These webinars were a way of sharing our knowledge with those who needed marketing support.
The webinars were a tremendous success and we continue to deliver these without charge. See our webinars here.
12. Extra client support throughout the lockdown period
At the beginning of the initial lockdown, we had a lot of worried clients wanting to cut back on costs. Naturally, this meant cancelling contracts with us. We advised accordingly and helped them reduce their costs where necessary but without completely cutting back their marketing at a time when they needed it the most. For some clients, we went above and beyond and provided extra services where we could to ensure we supported them as much as possible.
13. £114k of converted sales for Headway Recruitment
Headway Recruitment has offices in Leeds and Bradford and has been in business for over 40 years. For Headway, we carried out their rebrand, website design and development, and their SEO.
In a 12 month period, our SEO got them £114,000 of converted business. This equated to approximately 40 candidates placed in roles, and therefore our work with Headway allowed these people to get a job and therefore be able to live their lives. Things like giving them the ability to pay rent/ mortgage, pay for their kids’ clothes, food, football lessons etc, go on holidays, buy the things they like. These 40 jobs created were something we contributed to, this really connected with our brand purpose.
14. Raising over £1000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care
In 2011, Jag swam a 5km Swimathon in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. It was a tough challenge, but he stuck it out and made sure he finished. Marie Curie Cancer Care supports cancer patients throughout the UK and the £1000+ raised was very much appreciated.
Our journey over the 14 years
Making a positive impact is a value that we all share at Xpand, in our work and our personal lives. Thank you to all our clients, suppliers, friends and of course, all past and present team members that have helped us get so far!
