Putting a bow on 2020
December 22, 2020
Between all the presents, food comas and family, the festive season is a time to sit back and reflect on the year that’s been. And what a year 2020 has been. We’ve been through a lot together and have never felt prouder or more grateful for everything we’ve achieved!
Our pack had some exciting personal achievements this year…
- Liam and James were promoted to Senior Account Managers, and Nick got the nod as our newest Account Manager
- Ivan submitted his 40,000-word Master’s thesis on behavioural economics and consumer psychology
- Michelle won gold for Australia at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships in Iceland and celebrated her 10-year anniversary with Painted Dog
- Nicole, Liam and Ivan all bought a house
- And three of our pack got married (well, two did, with one more saying ‘I do’ early next year… more on this in a bit)
But that’s not all! There’s plenty more accomplishments we made as a pack, big and small, that we’re super proud of and want to share a bit more about below…
We’ve wrapped up over 150 projects across the country
Despite the challenges of the year, we’ve remained busier than ever! We’ve worked with new clients and old ones, in almost every state, and further expanded the kinds of industries we work in and brands we help.
Beyond the usual day-to-day of running the premier market research agency in the state, we also launched a national COVID-19 sentiment tracker for the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet; completed one of the biggest ever studies on residential water use in Australia; helped measure and boost public transport usage across the country; helped make WA roads safer; dug more into work with the mining industry (here and overseas); worked with dozens of clients to test and optimise their ads; and expanded our reach across the globe to places like Scandinavia, Israel, Canada, Peru, Chile, New Zealand and the US… to name just a few!
We’re lucky we get to work with so many great and interesting clients who love what they do almost as much as we do!
We spent over 70 days working from home during the lockdown
Any recap of 2020 would be painfully remiss to not acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect it had on how we all work. We’ve enjoyed the capability to work from home for years at Painted Dog, but 22 of us at the same time… this was new! It took a few days to find our stride and settle in – but we pride ourselves on being nimble and flexible, so we quickly adjusted to the ‘new normal’.
We changed office banter into Teams messages; in-person focus groups into Zoom groups; face-to-face interviews into video calls; and workshops and presentations into massive video-conferences (most of which worked without a technical hitch…).
Like other Australians, we even started to enjoy the perks of working from home, from working in our uggs and trackies, to more time with our pooches, to lunch breaks in our backyards. Throughout it all, we found new ways to stay connected with our pack and keep happy and healthy – but we sure are glad to be back in the office together!
We launched our very own syndicated community sentiment tracker, the People’s Voice…
Our People’s Voice survey has been in the works for a while – but when things started to hit the fan with COVID-19, we hustled to get it up and running and offer clients and the community the chance to keep their ear to the ground. Since then, we’ve helped dozens of clients ask important questions that affect their business and it’s continued and evolved well beyond the pandemic. We’ve explored people’s spending habits, attitudes towards de-regulated trading hours, politicians’ approval ratings, and kept an eye on West Aussie’s plans when they head to the polls for the 2021 state election. We’re excited to see what kinds of insights we can uncover in 2021!
…and helped keep West Australians up to date throughout the pandemic.
This was also the year we teamed up with Seven West Media and The West Australian newspaper to help get the word out there about our People’s Voice insights. You might have seen us on the front page a bunch of times, reporting things like community sentiment and well-being throughout the pandemic, support for keeping the WA border closed, attitudes towards school closures, and an exclusive special report on Eastern State Aussie’s perceptions of WA’s economic contribution. We even made it on to Channel 7’s morning show Sunrise no less than 6 times!
We welcomed 3 new pack members, with one more on the way in 2021
Despite all the challenges this year threw at us, our pack continued to grow. Last year, we added three talented consultants. This year, we added three more! In March we welcomed Sean and Ivan (barely two weeks before lockdown… talk about an initiation!) and in July we added Jordan, right off the back of lockdown. And early next year we’re excited to see our Data Tech team grow as well with the newest member of our pack, Matthew, joining us full-time in January.
We threw some great parties (as soon as we were all allowed to get together)
From our first ‘post-lockdown’ party to our EOFY extravaganza, and everything in between, 2020 certainly felt like the year to blow off some steam and make sure we were balancing out the hard work with plenty of fun. We made sure to stay connected with each other while in lockdown too, with virtual Friday ‘happy hours’ and even a few games of virtual bingo. We’re grateful every day to work with people we consider friends – getting through this year would have been a lot harder otherwise!
We celebrated two weddings with another just around the corner
2020 was the year we saw three of our pack say ‘I do’… or at least ‘I will’. In September, James and his beautiful bride Rachel tied the knot at Brookleigh Estate in the Swan Valley. Up next was Aimee and her dashing dude Tim, saying their vows under the ‘love tree’ at House of Cards in Margaret River. And looking towards 2021, Marissa will be walking down the aisle to her fine fella Jason at St Michael The Archangel Chapel in February.
And of course, it wouldn’t be Painted Dog without a pre-marital party to celebrate our lovebirds in the traditional fashion – by dressing them up in ridiculous outfits and showering them with excessive affection!
We launched a brand new series of staff events… PDsports!
Despite several months of forced separation, we still managed to build yet another Painted Dog product… but this one’s more for us – in the last 4 months of the year, PDsports has seen us get together monthly for some seriously athletic activities, like lawn bowls, ten-pin bowling, laser tag and even rock climbing (these last two actually were athletic!).
Rumour has it that the next events on the agenda for 2021 are squash, tennis, croquet and Ninja Academy – but some of us are lobbying hard for an in-house Mario Kart tournament to ease us back into the new year!
After a busy, challenging, eventful and gratitude-filled year, we find ourselves ready to take a well-earned break, appreciate the privileges of living in Australia right now and focus on the things that matter the most.
To everyone we worked with in 2020, and those we haven’t yet met, we wish you and all your loved ones a happy and safe festive period – we’ll see you in 2021.
