Great work with (more) great people.

There's nothing quite like life to throw a little perspective your way. Personally, it's been that kind of year. But, professionally, it's also been a pleasant reminder to keep it simple—care about doing great work and working with great people.

Since joining SimpsonScarborough nearly six years ago that's what I've done. And things have worked out splendidly. When I first met our founder and CEO, Elizabeth Scarborough (now Johnson), things clicked right away. A wonderful person doing great work that clients and the industry flocked to. Having two other amazing partners, Dana Edwards and (since retired) Jeff Papa, and a core team that had been with the company for some time made for a perfect union.

It's amazing how things have fallen into place for us as we've nearly tripled our size and scale in these past six years. We made a wise decision to begin offering deeper strategy and integrated creative work for clients for a simple reason—it was the best way to do great work and to advocate for an industry that we cared deeply about.

This principle led us to our Creative Director, Mike Roe, and subsequently to the team we have built in Columbus, OH. And during one of my visits to Columbus it led to a meeting with Bob Rafferty and Ross Ballinger of Knowble Media. We had known Bob, Ross and the Knowble team from earlier engagements and always admired their work but, more importantly, who they were as people.

So as we headed into some long-term planning on where we wanted to take SimpsonScarborough in the future they were top of mind. And, today, we are excited to announce that we've scooped up Knowble as a part of our team.

We know that serving higher ed marketers means being able to bring brands to life on the web and in digital storytelling. But, just as importantly, we knew that our research, measurement and strategy work would get even stronger with, among other things, new opportunities to consider real-time digital and social analytics that could further influence our research, and making our agency more innovation ready to bring some bold new ideas for strategy and measurement to life in the near future.

The expectations for higher education marketing are rising. The same tactics, expressions and measurement methods will not allow the industry to meet the challenges it faces. We're here to meet those issues directly—with big ideas, even better intentions, and the best people.