November 10, 2007
[SARNIA, ON] - Winning national contracts as a new company while committing to the community is not only impressive but exactly why Innivity deserves this year’s Outstanding Entrepreneur Award.
Sarnia-based Innivity Marketing Group Inc. was established in 2002 as a full-service marketing and communications firm. Innivity brings creativity and innovation together, while focusing on communications and consulting, pre-press and printing, web and interactive and promotional marketing services. It is their mission to ensure their clients’ goals are met by going “beyond the norm”, and Innivity’s success has certainly shown this is being achieved.
“They are an impressive group of people bouncing with new, fresh ideas,” says Mary Alderson of the Sarnia-Lambton Business Development Corporation. She says that while Innivity is still young, they have “made their mark” in the city. “It’s been greatly beneficial for this area to have the services of a big- city marketing firm.”
Their recent purchase of an HP Indigo Digital Off-Set Commercial Printing Press has reinforced this “big-city firm in a small town” position. The press is one of only a small number in Canada, allowing Innivity to provide smaller quantities of professional, customized materials for their clients. This is important as many of these clients serve the relatively small Sarnia area and appreciate the ability to have current materials while saving on waste.
Innivity’s clients do not just stem from Sarnia-Lambton, however. The company has opened up sales offices in Toronto and Niagara, which, Alderson says, has brought more business into the Sarnia area. In fact, this small firm that employs only ten staff has a current client base of over 700. With 50 clients receiving full service marketing consultation, Innivity expects that, as this increases, they will be hiring additional staff in the near future.
What is most unique about Innivity is their commitment to community involvement. A brief look at their portfolio reveals an extensive amount of sponsorship and in-kind work for various community organizations, such as the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada, Canadian Cancer Society, and Pathways Health Centre for Children, among others. President and Founder Rob Dawson says that it was natural for them to want to give back to the community.
“It’s part of our company values that we are very proud of,” says Dawson. He sees their involvement as two-fold, providing non- profit organizations with services they would not have access to while also allowing Innivity to give back to the community. It should be no surprise then that Dawson and his colleagues are all very active in the community, participating in Big Brothers and the Heart and Stroke Foundation to name a few. “Across our staff and the company, our community involvement speaks for itself.”
It is this involvement, combined with a unique business philosophy and structure that has resulted in success. In 2005, Innivity received the “Business Excellence Award” from the Sarnia- Lambton Chamber of Commerce, while Dawson was named “Young Entrepreneur of the Year”. Of course, if one still needs convincing there are the numbers. With sales growth of 175% between 2003 and 2004, and projected growth of over 60% in 2005, Innivity has proved that their natural pre-disposition to creativity and innovation is undoubtedly a disposition for success as well!