Evans Hunt Group enjoys organic international growth
Evans Hunt Group is a Calgary marketing company that doesn’t have to go knocking on doors to drum up new business.
Instead, Evans Hunt clients — which includes some of Silicon Valley’s largest technology companies — are knocking on its doors.
“Most of our business comes word of mouth,” says Bill Hunt, managing partner at Evans Hunt.
Indeed, word is getting out about the company of 115 employees that is growing across Canada and into the U.S. with several big-name clients including California-based Cisco Systems and Glassdoor.
“Silicon Valley is definitely a growing part of our business, but more broadly about 30 per cent of our work is based in the U.S.,” Hunt says.
Of course, the foundation of Evans Hunt’s success is Calgary, a key partner in marketing services for companies such as ATB Financial and Shaw Communications among others.
More recently, however, these clients as well as international ones have sought Evans Hunt’s expertise in product research and design on mobile and web applications.
In particular, the Calgary firm has built a solid reputation for software application design and related research, says Mark Heard, head of customer experience at Evans Hunt.
“There was a big shift during the pandemic where a lot of companies were investing more in digital assets,” Heard adds. “It’s gone from helping design a website showcasing what they do, to helping design software applications used by their teams and customers.”
And the services couldn’t be more in demand, especially in the U.S.
“It’s not just Silicon Valley; it’s across the U.S. because there are not enough product designers and researchers, so these organizations increasingly come to us because of our strong reputation,” Hunt explains.
That has led to significant growth for the Calgary firm, including building a 30-person customer experience team to craft better services to meet the unique needs of each client.
“It’s something you won’t find at a lot of competitors,” Heard notes.
That’s not only good news for Evans Hunt but also Calgary’s tech sector as the firm hires more skilled workers while contracting out new work to up-and-coming local companies.
“As our business grows, so too does the industry in Calgary,” Hunt adds.