Taking A Look Back
Ten years ago, Guardians of the Galaxy reigned supreme at the box office, "Happy" by Pharell Williams was the #1 song, and a little company called Rain got its start with just two employees.
Heather Buttrum founded Rain in 2014.
"I started Rain because I was so excited about digital marketing's potential that I couldn't imagine doing anything else."
Heather, President
Preston Ciere joined Rain in 2014 as the Technical Director and Strategist.
"I joined Rain because I like to help people and solve problems. I wanted to do meaningful work in an innovative field, for people who valued where I can help."
Preston, Technical Director and Strategist
Rain welcomes its first two clients: Tennis Canada and the Economic Developers Association of Canada, both of whom we still work with 10 years later!
Schitt's Creek - a Rain team favourite - premiered in 2015. Apple introduced diverse emojis, Google began penalizing websites that offered a bad mobile experience, and Rain welcomed Alin and Courtenay onto the team. 👋
Our screens were blessed with the gift of Schitt's Creek in 2015.
Courtenay Caldwell joined Rain in 2015, starting as a Communications Coordinator.
"I joined Rain because I saw the potential of working with and learning from colleagues who wanted to do really great work (with really great clients). When you start with that, the rest falls into place. I am so proud of how Rain and our team has evolved over the past ten years."
Courtenay, Director of Client Experience
Alin Danila joined Rain in 2015 as the Lead Developer.
Rain welcomes two more clients in 2015: St. Joseph's Healthcare and the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University.
2015 was the year Apple introduced diversity in its emoji skin tones.
It's hard to imagine Instagram without its ubiquitous "Stories" feature, but 2016 was the year that they were introduced to the platform. Star Wars: The Force Awakens dominated the box office, and Beyoncé released Lemonade. Rain welcomed Radu Negru to the team as our Lead Designer. 👋
The year of Becky with the good hair.
Rain begins work with Mohawk College and Perimeter Institute as clients in 2016.
Radu Negru joined Rain in 2016 as the Head of Design.
This was a big year for digital marketing, with Instagram influencers becoming mainstream, the Snapchat IPO, and the debut of TikTok. Women's marches were held around the world on January 17th, "Envelopegate" hit the Oscars, and Meghan and Harry got engaged.
Were you learning TikTok dances in 2017?
Digital ad spends surpassed traditional television advertising spends for the first time in history.
Rain welcomes The BNP Paribas Open and Innovation 150 as clients in 2017.
Courtenay and Chad welcome Nathan to their family.
This was the year that Canada brought home 28 medals in the PyeongChang Paralympic Winter Games, Facebook was rocked by the Cambridge Analytica microtargeting scandal, and Apple Inc. becomes the world's first public company to achieve a market capitalization of $1 trillion.
Banksy's Girl with a Balloon was sold for $1.4 million. The image immediately began self-destructing, sucked into a shredder hidden in its frame.
Rain begins working with the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and the Rideau Hall Foundation in 2018.
In 2019, the world watched as Notre Dame burned, the UK voted for Brexit, and the first all-women spacewalk took place (41 years after women were first admitted to the US astronaut program). Google overhauled its algorithm with BERT, making natural language paramount for SEO, and Kyle Rumble joined our team as a Digital Specialist.
Kyle Rumble joined Rain as Developer and Technical Consultant.
"I joined Rain full-time after working with the team for a couple of part-time contract jobs. I was inspired by their work ethic, client philosophy, and good-natured work culture. I'm happy now to be part of that team and to shape how we do things and why."
Kyle, Developer and Technical Consultant
Rain welcomes Dennis' Horseradish, the Ivey Academy and CIBC as clients in 2019.
A year of global pandemics, presidential impeachments, wildfires, and murder hornets, 2020 was... a heck of a year. It was also the year of Black Lives Matter, the rapid development and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, and huge push forward for the effectiveness of remote work.
Lyra Pappin joined Rain in 2020 as the Director of Content and Social Strategy.
"When I joined Rain Digital, I was excited about the opportunity of moving to an agency after more than a decade client-side. The creativity needed to find the right solutions to achieve different goals is still one of my favourite things about the work we do."
Lyra, Director of Content and Social Strategy
Micle Andrei joined Rain in 2020 as a Developer.
Universal Tennis, Ivey Publishing and Springhills Fish became clients in 2020.
Kyle and Kait welcomed Addie to their family.
2021 was the year we saw the first female VPOTUS, Bitcoin became legit (at least in Honduras) and we found out how bad it would be to block the Suez Canal. Astronomers detected light behind a black hole for the first time (confirming Einstein's theory).
As for Rain, we took some time to reorganize, reprioritize and solidify our internal processes. Some things changed, some things stayed the same, but it was a great opportunity to ensure we were being true to our motto "Digital Done Properly". It can be hard to stop and be introspective, especially if it means missing out on some paid work to do it, but we all felt we came out better and more prepared for 2022.
Image of face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 3351 from the JWST on Flickr
Radu's beautiful rescue, Kari, joined team Rain in 2021.
In 2022, the James Webb telescope sent its first pictures back home, the #BettyWhiteChallenge went viral, and a small upstart you might have heard of called OpenAI officially launched its free public preview of ChatGPT.
Kyle and Kait welcomed Harris to their family in 2022.
The James Webb Space Telescope's first image is released.
In December 2022, OpenAI launched a free preview of ChatGPT, its new AI chatbot based on GPT-3.5.
The adorable and shy Trixie was rescued by Heather in 2022.
2023 was the year of AI, with chatbots and assistants becoming commonplace in our daily lives. Google introduced GA4 (RIP Universal Analytics) and Elon's rebranding of Twitter to X left us all scratching our heads.
Rain welcomes Cincinnati Tennis, Universities Canada and the Canadian Paralympic Committee as new clients in 2023.
Courtenay rescued sweet Mika in 2023.
