Despite setbacks, the changes made and lessons learned throughout a challenging 2020 have positioned LifeBlue for new growth, cofounder and owner Phillip Blackmon said.
Prior to the pandemic, the Plano-based digital agency that counts places like the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and Visit Dallas among its clients, was focused on helping draw people to physical experiences. It’s now focused on helping clients bring those experiences to the digital world, which has allowed LifeBlue to expand its team while setting itself up for increased revenue.
“Even before the pandemic, we had some philosophies and strategies on what consumerism and what retail was going to do, and how people were going to change the way that they bought, consumed and engaged with organizations,” Blackmon said. “The pandemic itself has obviously accelerated that. It has changed everyone’s lives, probably forever.”
Founded in 2006, much of LifeBlue’s early existence was focused on website development, technical integrations and design. But when the pandemic shut the doors for its client, the focus became on reaching people virtually.
At the start of the pandemic, Blackmon said many organizations and event spaces were experimenting with virtual events and experiences, often lacking in quality. Through LifeBlue's own experience experimenting with tech tools to keep its team collaborating and engaged, Blackmon said it was able to quickly help its clients make similar virtual pivots.
“As people stepped up their game and started to build better experiences in the virtual world, then what you’ll find is everyone is going to have to catch up to that new model, because people get to the point where they’re like, ‘Well, I like that experience better, therefore I’m going to partake in that,’” Blackmon said.
Blackmon said for LifeBlue’s 15-year existence it has seen growth each year — with 2019 revenue around $7 million. While that number declined 24 percent in 2020, Blackmon said the company is projecting growth again for 2021 and could surpass the numbers from two years ago.
Even with the challenges, the company has been able to expand its team size by about a third, adding 14 positions during the pandemic and bringing its total headcount to 34.
“What we saw was just our clients being bold and therefore we wanted to be bold,” Blackmon said. “We started investing heavily in technology and in our solutions ... and bringing things to the forefront that (clients) could take advantage of that maybe they couldn’t before.”
Looking ahead, Blackmon sees the digital trends of the pandemic continuing to shape consumer behavior. He said that much like on-demand deliveries have become almost the norm, as people look for new experiences – virtual or in-person – they will be looking for things like personalization and variety.
“This is a time for us to reimagine who we are,” Blackmon said. “The whole mantra out of the pandemic is we want to help set the tone for what businesses should look like, what digital products should look like and what working and having great experiences looks like. That’s been our biggest investment back in ourselves.”
The original version of this article misspelled the name of LifeBlue cofounder and owner Phillip Blackmon.
