Here’s a #tbt for you!
Back the fall of 2012, I met Ralph Austin, the founder of Seagate Structures for a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee. We got to chatting and Ralph shared how he felt about his current website and that it wasn’t serving them well at all. Ralph was struggling as they had so many projects on the go and that they wanted to tell the industry about, but, had so little time to even think about their marketing strategy. It was a perfect match for us!
Fast forward to today, Ralph has been one of our cherished full-on agency client for over 7 years.
We’ve built him a very solid brand and magnificent website.
Over the years we’ve created stunning construction site signage, company swag (T-shirts, coats, hats, bags, even wooden hockey pucks for a trade show). We’ve built custom PowerPoint presentations for Ralph for when he speaks at industry conventions around the world. A few years ago we also took them into social media and email marketing and created a very valuable free download.
I vividly remember going to each job site to take photos, interview employees and their clients to share the progress and scope of each project. Steel toed boots, hard hat and high viz vest always in my trunk. Since social media was basically not really used in their industry at that time, sharing their story was all through their website. However, when social media started to become more popular, Ralph was unsure right for them, but given the pioneer that he is he let us start. He is now amazed by the relationships he has built with engineers and architects overseas through Twitter & LinkedIn. They use their Facebook page as a means for all the crews across the country to see the developments.
Huge success!
Ralph has been pioneering the use of mass timber instead of steel in construction. Their turnaround job was constructing the MEC Headquarters in Vancouver, BC. The project got so much attention that they then went on to build the roof for the Grandview Heights Aquatic centre in Surrey BC. Which then led them to build Brock Commons Tallwood house in Vancouver BC. At the time, this was the largest mass timber building in the world!
Now they’ve renamed their company from Seagate Structures to Seagate Mass Timber. They’ve branched out to the United States and have teams building sustainable buildings for some of the world’s biggest names! So much of their work is now shared in magazines all over the world, as they are pioneering the industry with pictures, videos, blogs and pdf’s being shared which have all been created by us.
At then end of the day, Ralph is a very humble carpenter but a natural leader who just loves wood, his home and work families, and the environment. When clients invite you to their Christmas party every year, you know that relationship is strong!
There’s so much power in storytelling and we’re so honoured to play a small part in Seagate Mass Timber’s success.
7 years on and still going strong, Seagate are one of the leading mass timber companies in the world and WMSH star client’s.
This is a picture of Ralph and his wife Cathie with us at the Canuck Place Love is Timeless Gala we sponsored.
Perhaps by now you’re starting to see the breadth of creativity and client’s we have the pleasure to work with. We sure do love to #Makestuffhappen!
Jonathan
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