Switchback Creative was incredibly proud to be a finalist for the Greatest Impact Award through the Airdrie Business Awards in 2024. This award is presented to a business that has had the largest impact in the community through philanthropy, volunteerism, and overall commitment to making it a great place to live and do business. While we didn’t take the top prize, being among the final five is an honour to be recognized for.

Our mandate is to help our clients craft the stories they want to be remembered for. We support those who are creating legacies for their communities, individuals, and families for many years to come. We are a small digital agency that focuses on branding, website development and advertising, all while creating captivating stories for brands. We use storytelling as the vehicle to market these messages to loyal, targeted customers, who need what our customers do. We create brand systems, custom websites and digital experiences that get your message out.

Here is a little Q and A about the impact we have tried to create incase it can help you create a purpose-driven business as well.

Question: Explain how your business has had a major impact in your community. 

Answer: We believe actively participating in our community is the key to making change and amplifying our ability to affect change in a positive way. We have built a philosophy in our company about doing good while running our business at every step and into everything we do. The better the places we live are, the better business success is for everyone.

As soon as we started Switchback we found ways to help and get involved with established organizations that were making a difference. One of which was Airdrie Angel, in our second year we asked to be their marketing partner to do pro-bono work to help them grow the program. They accepted and we have been partners ever since. To date they have helped 134 families and gifted/raised +$250,000 to give back to Airdrie families.

In addition to the hundreds of Airdrie based businesses we have helped over the years, we have been involved with the City of Airdrie and local organizations helping them to develop city programs that bring more visitors, support business and develop the vision for the future of our City. Projects such as the Airdrie Winter Games, Airdrie’s Economic Strategy 2018-2028 vision report, Right for your Business Program, visitor tourism book, Artember, airdrielife Magazine, Creative Airdrie, Airdrie Children’s Festival, Airdrie & District Community Foundation and more.

We became involved with SmartStart Airdrie helping them to grow the program with marketing help, as well as the evolution of the partnership when it transitioned to the Airdrie Entrepreneur Common. In addition to that, since 2016 we have been volunteering our time, sharing our expertise and speaking skills for every class of SmartStart participants 8 years and running, by presenting on branding and marketing theory and ideas.

Question: How has your business has been philanthropic throughout your history in business.

Answer: We knew when we started our business that we would build a philosophy into our company about doing good while running our business at every step and into everything we do. Being able to create impact was one of the reasons we wanted to start our own company from the start. Working directly with business owners and decision makers means we can have a greater impact with the work we do. Giving-back isn’t something you do once you are successful. It’s something you build in right from the start. Below are some ways we have strived to do that, but there is always so much more work to do…

Our Trailblazer Non-Profit Fund was created to help charities doing amazing work, do bigger things. Once a year we look for non-profit organizations that are doing really great work and have design, web or branding challenges. They apply and pitch us to have the chance to receive $10,000 worth of services donated to them.

It was designed to help those who are making the world a better place, but need some creative expertise to help them solve marketing challenges. We look for collaborative relationships that are a great win-win for both parties. We focus on organizations in Airdrie, where we live, as a priority. We have helped eight organizations to date, with one more just announced December 16, 2024, and have donated more than $90,000 in services ,5 of which are Airdrie based, including: Airdrie and District Community Foundation, Airdrie Public Library, Sour Dog Theatre, Nose Creek Valley Museum, and Airdrie Children’s Festival.

As everyone can see recently the Airdrie Public Library is the gateway project to the new Airdrie downtown development and we were happy to have done a very in-depth, collaborative branding project with them in order to guide them to the right path for their new project and building in Airdrie that is the utmost professional, welcoming and brand consistent. All as part of our philanthropic Trailblazer program.

We also created a podcast four years ago where we have posted more than 45 episodes, 33+ hours of content on topics picked to help small businesses grow their business. It’s a great free resource for anyone who wants it. It’s called the Raising a Business Podcast and is listened to by Business owners near and far. Putting out quality free content to everyone is something we enjoy doing and it provides value, while giving us purpose and direction too. We have worked hard to learn and teach what we preach so that clients can see how the idea of storytelling translates to their business.

In our first year of business we heard a web developer that was speaking at a conference we were at say that we need to be using our talents to help amplify the voices of those around us – we took that to heart ever since. He was working for Amnesty International and the impact he’s had was so obvious that we have never forgotten to keep seeking out those who need the amplification to help them create the lasting ripples for those who need it the most.

Our values guide us every day to be curious, brave and transparent. We do it all with unyielding passion and a sense of adventure. We love the actual work, of course, but ensuring that we build purpose driven work into everything we do is a non-negotiable. We love what we do and strive to be masters of connecting the dots between the customer who is the hero, the organization and the problem that they solve for those customers.