12 days of Red Badger - Our 2018 in review

Over the Christmas break, we took the opportunity to highlight the 12 most impactful changes to our business in 2018. This was a big year for us. Our team surpassed well beyond the 100 person mark, we partnered with a highly innovative product analytics company, expanded our business offering by securing a space on the G-Cloud and DOS  frameworks, and we recently had two excellent Non-Executive Directors join our advisory board. As some readers may already know however, not all the news from this year was good news. 

1. We shared some snaps from this year’s Christmas party at Aures London, Europe’s best sounding venue. Forever raising the bar each year, we not only danced and drank our fair share of cocktails, but hosted a few activities - including a graffiti tour and the chance to participate in (legal) graffitiing. It was a perfect way to end the year, and we can confirm our ears are still ringing.

2. After 5 seasons of dodgeball this year, the Badgers reached 3rd place in the winter playoffs. This was a big cause for celebration, so we decided to share with the world the array of questionable post-match photoshop jobs we collected over the year. You can also read a match-report of the Sett in action here.

3. The awards we received this year are a proud testament to the work we’ve done over the year. We climbed to #47 in Econsultancy’s annual 'Top 100 Digital Agencies 2018' report, #181 in the FT 1000 Europe’s fastest-growing companies, as well as our inclusion in the inaugural ‘FT Future 100 UK’ list. We can’t wait to see what 2019 brings.

4. Where to start with family day? This was a day filled with activities, laughter, shouting, as well as being served more Haribo-coated waffles than you knew what to do with. Above all, it was a great way for many of the Badgers and their young kids to enjoy spending a day in the office together.

5. Dr Chris Brauer, Director of Innovation in the Institute of Management Studies at Goldsmiths and Kevin Jenkins, the past Managing Director at Visa UK & Ireland joined Red Badger as our innovative new Non-Executive Directors. By applying their entrepreneurial spirit and successful track record across operational and commercial skills, they will also help continue our growth as a business.

6. As mentioned, it wasn't all good news for us this year. Earlier in the year, we sadly lost our friend and colleague, Natalie. She’ll continue to be remembered for many things, notably her approachability, warmth and empathy, and will continue to be missed by the team dearly.

7. We continue trying to remember what it was like to feel the sun. Much like our Christmas party, we upped the ante this year by spending a long weekend in Malaga by the pool, playing an array of sports and dancing. No worries, summer can’t be too far away, right?

8. Some of our proudest moments as a business have come from the excellent nonprofits and charities we had the pleasure of working with last year, including Anthony Nolan, Pride in London, Music for my Mind and You Make it, who are the most recent charity we're working with. We can’t wait to see what 2019 has in store.

9. As previously mentioned, last year we partnered with Amplitude, a product analytics company speculated to be one of the next billion-dollar startups. They aim to help companies build better products through advanced analytics, and at Red Badger, we're particularly excited about the valuable retention data the tool provides.

10. While we grew as a company, 2018 was also the year Insights became part of our business offering. Insights has since become fundamental to everything we do at Red Badger. Since Jimmy has joined, we’ve introduced more critical ways of thinking, both internally and to our existing clients.

11. Last year we were blessed with some truly excellent interns joining us, some of whom are now proudly full-time Badgers. We hope to see some new faces soon, but until then we can fondly reflect on a specific time when Tian joined us for the second time at the Badger HQ and introduced the ‘Red Badger Mystery Meals scheme’, aimed at helping Badgers working in different locations to get to know each other better.

12. For our final thought, we fondly look back at our “We Love” series. Stay tuned on our events page to see when our next events are taking place this year. In the meantime however, have a watch of our most recent event, “We Love Mobile”.

Our success has seen us grow year on year since Red Badger started in 2010, and this year is one to look forward to already. If you’re interested in joining us, take a look at our current job opportunities.