16 Sweet Facts for BlueTone Media’s Birthday
This week was an exciting one in the history of BlueTone Media because it’s the week we turned 16 years old! That’s 16 years of working with local businesses, building websites, and of staying at the forefront of digital marketing during its’ near-constant evolution.
It sounds like a long time but, honestly, it’s gone by quickly because we love what we do. It’s just proof that the saying “time flies when you’re having fun” is actually a reality here at BTM.
In honor of BlueTone Media’s sweet 16, we thought we’d share a few fun facts about our company, our history, and our team.
1. In the very beginning, we were based out of our founder’s house. In fact, BTM was basically run out of Jimmy’s bedroom for about three years.
2. Today, BlueTone Media lives in the Murchison Building in Historic Downtown Wilmington, NC. We’ve had three offices here since that time, #909, #903, and, our home since 2014, #601.
3. The Murchison Building is a beautiful building to work in, mainly because it’s 105 years old! It does come with its quirks, but we still can’t picture us being anywhere else!
4. One of the coolest things that comes with the building’s age is the Art Deco, hand-operated elevator that’s been carrying people up and down the Murchison Building since 1937. While the elevator no longer employs a full-time operator, it is still functioning and used on a daily basis. It is the only manually operated elevator left in North Carolina.
5. The Murchison Building’s last full-time antique elevator was Lila Boyd. Lila worked here for 22 years, day after day, taking who-knows-how-many people up and down. The beloved elevator driver retired just a few years ago in 2016.
6. Of our 15 current team members, only six were born in North Carolina! (Kris, Hayden, Brad, Jimmy, Klinton, and Phillip). The rest of us were born, well, all over! Chelsea is from Maryland, Tara is from New Jersey, Sam is from Colorado, Terrell is from Michigan, and Daniel and Megan are both from New York. Plus, Nick was born in Canada and James was born while his parents were overseas in Bangkok!
7. We did No Shave November a few years ago and the results were pretty great.
8. We’ve got quite a few BlueTone Babies running around, 12 to be exact, between the ages of 1 and 23.
9. Two of those BlueTone Babies are named Aiden!
10. Four of our team members have been here for 10+ years: Jimmy, Megan, Alan, and Brad.
11. We used to make every new hire take a big ole spoonful of Mad Dog 357 hot sauce as part of their initiation. We’ve gotten kinder in recent years though. Now, new hires get an onboarding gift instead!
12. Jimmy, our founder, is a master juggler. Just kidding… he’s ok at it. But he is a pro at the Rubix Cube!
13. Brad, our Marketing Director, was the regional silver medal Bolympian when he worked at Bojangles in 1997. Unfortunately, there is *supposedly* no photographic evidence of this day.
14. We have a fairly robust wall of Nerf guns that we use for the occasional Nerf battle. We have just one rule: You cannot shoot someone who is unarmed and the penalty for doing so is being shot with an airsoft gun.
15. We got into the web design game pretty early, so our first website looked like this:
16. Our very first web design client was Lost Boy Fishing. Believe it or not, they’re still with us today. In fact, Captain Charlie came by to see us just the other day!
A huge thank you to all the clients who have supported us over the years, as well as our wonderful team members. We plan on being around for at least another 16 years, so if you need some digital marketing or web design in Wilmington, NC, you know where to find us.
