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emedia starts afresh with new team

New team: emedia's Jennifer Ward, Jack Thomas, Heather Cooper, Susan Simons and Marilyn Zuill

After 10 years in business emedia boss Jennifer Ward has decided to change the focus of the company and its team.

The company, which marked its 10th anniversary this year, has switched its priority to producing top quality creative work for its clients.

And following an unsuccessful attempt to buy out the company by her former team who have since left, Ms Ward has built up a new team with fresh ideas for taking the business forward.

Joining her ranks are office coordinator Heather Cooper, graphic designers Susan Simons, Marilyn Zuill and Jack Thomas, and accountant Darlene Davis, as well as the help of her husband James from Resources Ltd. (formerly The Accounting Department).

Ms Cooper and Ms Zuill both worked at emedia previously, with the former, whose role is office management and support and managing clients' accounts, returning to the Island recently, and the latter, who used to work at Advantage, came back after completing a course at design school.

Ms Simons is responsible for the print work design and Mr. Thomas, formerly a consultant for Three J Ltd., works on website development. Ms Davis, who handles the company's accounts, previously worked for KeyTech.

Ms Ward said that the structure of the team had shifted, as had its approach towards more of a quality of work experience and flexibility with all of the staff bar herself and Ms Simons working part-time.

"Everyone was really in the same kind of mental spot," she said. "We all wanted to work but didn't want it to be all-consuming, so it all worked out really well.

"We were all looking for that flexibility while still wanting to be productive and to create some good stuff at the end of the day."

Having taken on a number of new clients in recent years, including Bermuda Gas and PureNERGY, as well as working with Argus in its 60th year in business and continuing its 10-year association with Kodak, Ms Ward has overseen some big changes both within the company and in the industry at large.

"I guess the main change is the approach to the business in terms of getting to the point where you say: 'What are your priorities in life?'," she said.

"It is about taking a step back and seeing what is important.

"For us it is just doing really good creative work for our clients and enjoying the work we do."

She has also noticed some significant trends among her client base, with many cutting back on the frivolous issues and being more concerned about getting the best return on their investment, as they turn towards a much more concerted strategic campaign rather than running random advertisements.

In turn, Ms Ward said that businesses have been looking at sales driven by the likes of banner advertising on their websites by monitoring the volume of traffic coming to that site as a result.

But equally she has been keen to get the message that emedia, as the name suggests, is not just about web-based advertising and marketing, but also offers services such as print advertising and marketing, and public relations, with the ability to effectively integrate all of the parts together with a personal touch all at a competitive price.

And despite the recession which has hit most businesses really hard, Ms Ward believes that the company's diverse offering and range of client work has stood them in good stead.

In the future she wants to stay true to the company's theme of creativity, while being nimble enough to take on more customers and yet sustain its current client base looking ahead to the next 10 years in business.