Martin Aylesworth Syvertson and I opened Aylesworth Fleming in a tiny office suite on Poole Hill, Bournemouth, on this day 30 years ago, 4th March, 1985.

From slightly crazy starts, great businesses can be built. We now employ more than 100 people in offices in Bournemouth, London, Edinburgh, Leicester and Manchester, as well as in remote locations across the country. We’re one of the UK’s biggest independent marketing agencies.

I want to turn the clocks back for a moment and share some of our most important milestones.

• Soon after we launched, Clarke Homes came on board as our first big house-builder client, followed by CALA Homes in 1987
• In 1988, the agency’s longest-serving team member, Dave Spittles, our current director of design, joined us
• The 1990s began with a wobble, two clients folded in 1990 – the agency teetered but we survived
• Better times followed with the arrival of the Alfred McAlpine Homes contract in 1992
• By 1998 we had 50 staff
• Aylesworth Fleming’s Manchester office opened in 2005, followed by Edinburgh in 2006 and parent company, Emerge Group, formed in 2007
• The crash of 2008 tested our resilience but we made it through the dark days, bolstered by the arrival of Linden’s national marketing contract in 2009
• By 2012, we expanded into a new, larger home in Bournemouth and our Leicester office opened its doors
• Marketing Matters joined forces with Aylesworth Fleming in 2013
• Our London office opened in Soho Square in 2014

Here’s a video we made to show you this journey:

We began in an age when print media, TV and cinema were king. Today we operate in a much more complex, digitally-focused environment. We continue to evolve and our digital credentials are second to none. However, our heritage allows us to know where more traditional marketing has a role.

I’d like to think that the principles and values that made us what we are over the last 30 years still hold sway. Here’s to the next 30 years!