Our History
2007
PLAY Creative is Born!
Founded in 2007, PLAY Creative was born from the idea of making marketing fun, thus the name “PLAY.” Our mission creates an environment where our clients and staff love working together. We keep communication and collaboration high to reach shared goals.
- Built our first office space (450 sq ft) at Turbine Flats in Lincoln, NE
- Joined Lincoln YPG and developed all branding
- Joined Lincoln Chamber of Commerce (member since)
- Joined Lincoln PNG group, BNI, and LIBA (Networking)
2008-2010
New Accounts and Team Expansion
- 2008
- Started work with Echo group and developed our first dynamic corporate brochure
- Hired first employees – Team size went to roughly 4 people
- Branding was updated, and the bird motif was introduced
- “Where ideas take flight” was developed (flight theme with planes and birds)
- 2009
- In late 2009 teamed up with NCUL and started developing a niche market for credit unions
- Brought 13 accounts in that year and continued work with credit unions since
- Started speaking at various events
- Team size went up to 6-7 people
- 2010
- Hired a salesperson and started developing the sales side of the business
2012-2014
Developing New Company Processes
- 2012
- Our internal process was developed
- Proposals and presentations are born
- Mission and vision were refined
- “Building handcrafted print campaigns” was developed and used
- Sales process developed
- Late this year, we moved offices from a 450 sq ft office to a new loft within Turbine Flats
- 2013
- The team size reached 10 people on the full-time payroll
- Dynamic print becomes a main product focus, and we start marketing it hard
- Implemented video and website development as core services
- Subscribed to Mavenlink (Project management software)
- Job folders are developed as tangible pieces to help communication
- 2014
- Team communication starts to become a focus and practice
2015-2017
A Shift to Digital Marketing
- 2015
- Focused on more team outings
- 2016
- Marketing efforts shifted from sales staff back to outbound marketing
- Sales processes were further refined, and content marketing and print were the focus
- Started implementing team goals and company goals each year
- 2017
- Divided out services into funnels (Credit Unions, Higher education, and Med/Large Business)
- Marketing efforts were edited to include more content marketing, social media, and some print
- Dynamic print is no longer the main focus
- Start introducing digital services late this year
- Social media services are also introduced
- Moved into new office space
- Aaron Petersen buys the company
2018-2020
Adapting to Changing Times
- 2018
- Digital services are fully offered in-house
- 2019
- Continued digital services as packaged campaigns
- Edited the PLAY company website to reflect mainly online services
- Started developing processes and procedures for working more remotely
- Continued digital services as packaged campaigns
- 2020
- Covid forced our team to go fully remote in March
- Around this time, we only offered online services like Facebook, Instagram, Google paid search, Google display ads, and SEO
- Later this year, we’d introduce Linkedin paid ads as a service
- Launched and tested several branding campaigns for PLAY
2021-Present
New Beginnings on the Horizon
- 2021
- Started offering more traditional media types for current clients. (examples: direct mail and misc-designed pieces)
- Continued our focus and building our process around online services
- Expand our email marketing services
- 2022
- The company is sold to James Spitler, Aaron remains on staff as a consultant and design lead, and the team and services expand to include PR, reputation management, and Google My Business management
