emedia Bermuda Ltd. will officially celebrate 10 years in business today having grown from a two-man operation working out of a living room to a seven-strong team of marketing, website development and public relations experts.

The company, which was launched by owner and managing director Jennifer Ward on January 4, 2000, started life as a website design company, but soon expanded into a fully-fledged one-stop shop for all your account and project management, production and development, and marketing and advertising campaign needs.

The split is 60 percent marketing, 30 percent website development and 10 percent public relations with most of the business coming through word of mouth or Request For Proposal process of bidding for a contract, and Ms Ward has big plans for the future to further develop those services and really put emedia on the map.

"Basically within the early months, I had some clients that wanted print work, marketing and radio ads done as well, and the work was about 50:50 between the website development and the other services for a number of years," she said.

"Over time, the marketing side has grown more, but we are still doing a lot of high end web development, and this year we have properly taken on public relations as well.

"It all goes so hand-in-hand that it is good having those three elements because they complement each other so well."

Ms Ward said one of the biggest challenges the company has faced since its inception at the start of the decade has been to get the word out that it offers a lot more than simply web development, with a suite of other services available.

Among the proudest achievements during its time in business, was landing the Argus account for its advertising and marketing in 2004, proving that emedia could mix it with the big boys, according to Ms Ward. Others has included developing the Bermuda International Business Association website, as well as becoming generally more knowledgeable about and keep pace with the latest technological advancements ever since e-commerce first took off five years ago.

Ms Ward believes the company is only as good as the people who run it and its staff have played a big part in the evolution and history of its development, in the form of the creative team of creative director Jane Pearson, website development manager Bridget Clammer and graphic/web designer Philip Trott, alongside senior account manager Erin Smith and account manager Stefanie Pedro, and the latest addition of public relation and sales manager Carrie Portnoy.

And her Ms Ward's faith in her team has been rewarded with a number of key deals being secured despite the global economic downturn which has hit Bermuda hard over the past year.

"This year we are seeing more than anything new start-ups that have lots of good ideas but not much funding, so they often can't see them through to fruition, whether it be on the website or on the marketing side," she said.

"So it is all about assessing and reassessing where their marketing should be, as well as having a more strategic marketing campaign, which may mean switching from methods such as direct marketing or newletters to being more creative with their budgets in terms of what is going to have the most impact.

"We are able to meet the needs of those clients who require extensive marketing plans and co-ordination of campaigns, but we also handle one-time individual design projects, if that is what the client needs. It can range from people with a budget of $10,000 to someone spending $500,000 per year, but we treat each one the same."

emedia plans to mark the occasion with a cocktail celebration party held at Fourways Inn this evening with many of the good and great of Bermuda's business community, including their clients and media contacts on the invite list, while the company is also busy putting together a commemorative notebook for its 10th anniversary year.

Ms Ward herself has undergone an interesting journey, having started her career in the hospitality industry on the successful completion of her Associates Degree at Bermuda College, going on to manage several restaurants, including Rosa's Cantina, before deciding to apply her leadership and business skills by branching off to set up and run her own enterprise.

Working in partnership with her former partner, the pair's skill sets fit one another perfectly with his graphic design expertise and her account management and client services background, starting in their home prior to moving into the building in front on the corner of Cobbs Hill Road and Middle Road in Warwick, formerly a cedar and gift shop run by Ms Ward's grandmother, a bike rental shop and a grocery store. The couple had to completely renovate the premises but soon enjoyed the fruit of their labours, and despite being situated in a remote location outside of town, Ms Ward finds it conducive to a good working environment with a small intimate team, all of whom offer their clients that personalised touch.

In 2006, Ms Ward bought out her former partner and has seen the company grow from strength to strength ever since, with the ability and staff's flexibility to interchange and multitask to take on increasingly more clients and harder projects.