If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that you never know what’s just around the bend. Going into 2022, we honestly had almost no idea what to expect. We had some strong client partnerships and some big dreams, but the pandemic was still looming, and we didn’t have a crystal ball to know when the world would embrace experiential marketing again. But we forged ahead.

Our efforts paid off. 2022 has been an amazing year here at HFA. We’ve had so many highlights, wins, and, of course, a few lessons along the way.

Let’s start with the highlights!

• We had our highest grossing revenue year yet!

This year we more than doubled our 2021 revenue, which isn’t shocking given that 2021 was stifled by Covid restrictions in both retail demos and our larger experiential marketing events. What was unexpected is that we beat our previous highest revenue year (2019) by over 16%! It’s a huge testament to the partnerships we have built over the years and the strength of our internal team.

• We started offering fully covered healthcare for our internal employees.

This is a biggie. Until this year, all our employees had to find their own healthcare. Many were on low-level healthcare plans, and some even had no insurance at all. We were excited to offer healthcare this year at no cost to our employees.

• We began offering an IRA with a match for our internal employees.

We love our team, most of whom are female. According to the US Census, women are saving less for retirement and are more likely to retire with no retirement savings at all. We want to make sure the women and men that work for us are taken care of both now and in the future.

• We held our first leadership summit.

Alicia, Becca, and Jessica make up the leadership team. Back in January, these ladies met in San Diego to dream big, map out the year, and create a pandemic-proof plan for our experiential marketing agency. This planning and bonding were a great way to start the year strong.

• We hired 2 great people.

Marcus and Christine joined our team this year. Marcus joined us as the On-Call manager East in September and has really owned his role. Christine accepted our job offer in mid-December and will be taking over the On-Call Manager West role at the start of the year. We believe finding the right people to work with our team is really the secret to making our company successful.

We also learned a lot:

• You have to be prepared for anything.

You’d think a worldwide pandemic would have taught us this lesson, and it did…but then the threat of recession hit. We continue to find new strategies to bring the highest ROI to our clients while also balancing competitive wages and benefits for our brand ambassadors and internal team.

• It’s better to have multiple, medium-sized clients than one or two larger ones.

We began diversifying our clients during the pandemic to relieve the pressure on any one client. As we learned in 2020, literally anything can happen! This year we launched several experiential marketing programs, which helped us weather the storm when some clients had to reduce their marketing budgets at the end of the year.

• Our team can do anything.

We already knew this, but this year, I saw our team come together and double our gross revenue with only a 25% increase in headcount. It’s truly amazing the kind of teamwork we see with our remote internal team. Despite being spread from coast to coast, this team feels like family.

At this time of year, it’s always fun to reflect and then begin planning the next year. What will 2023 bring for HFA? We have big plans!

What about you? What was your highlight of 2022?