The co-founder of a Scottish agency that is on course for a record year of revenues after bouncing back from pandemic lows has called for focus on the opportunities presented by technology, rather than fearing that it will replace people in the job market.
Set up in 2011 by Craig Davidson and his wife Laura, Glasgow-based paid media agency Tag Digital has rebuilt its business around artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning after income crashed during the year to March 2021. Revenues for the financial year just ended will be their highest ever at approximately £8.5 million, with the couple predicting further growth of 35 per cent in the coming 12 months.
“We were hit really hard by Covid,” Ms Davidson said. “We lost a lot of revenue due to the nature of our industry – a lot of our clients are event organisers so our revenue went down to about £2m, and then we came back and we did just shy of £6m, and now we are here.”
Currently employing 42 people, Tag Digital supports more than 2,000 events per year in more than 50 countries by providing paid media services and digital advertising to gatherings such as international technology conference LEAP, IDEX in Abu Dhabi, reMind in North America, and global pharmaceutical convention CPHI Barcelona.
Organisers are doing “much bigger and better events” to meet demand for in-person experiences, Ms Davidson said, which has contributed to recent growth. The company has also expanded deeper into its existing markets in North America, the Middle East and Europe.
“We have also won some new business in Australia and Abu Dhabi, so we’ve gone deeper into our key markets,” she said. “We expanded our product, offering creative and digital revenue services, so a few different things have all come together at the one time which has been great.”
Ms Davidson said early investment in AI, spearheaded by chief technology officer Alex Velinov, has been a further key to growth. Mr Velinov joined Tag Digital in 2015 as a pay-per-click specialist and became immersed in AI as the company pivoted towards data building and digital sponsorship to support its clients, retain jobs, and grow the business.
With lots of discussion recently about the changes being brought by AI, Mr Velinov said history has shown that new technology enables people, rather than replacing them.
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“Historically, when new tech appeared, this led to the disappearance of some jobs, but exponential growth of new jobs in general,” he explained, “so there is no reason to think something different is going to happen now.
“People are still crucial for digital marketing for a variety of reasons. They have free will, they can decide to do something or not. AI doesn’t have will. AI can solve some problems but will never come up with an idea about the problem. At least not yet.
“People can apply context better, layering different sources and types of information for making decisions. AI can't still do that.”
Ms Davidson agreed: “It’s important to say that you need people to make the decisions and create the ideas and build the innovations.
“People like doing business with people, so we don’t see that part of the world going away – it’s about how we look at the opportunity that machine learning and AI brings, and not be fearful of it.”
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The company expects to add further to its headcount, having moved last year to larger offices in Finnieston.
Ms Davidson and her husband set up the business in 2011. In 2021 the couple were regional finalists in the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year awards, having turned their focus towards building “an agency of the future”.
“We were both 24 when we set up,” she said. “We wanted to create something ourselves and bring digital to local businesses, and we wanted to get into digital marketing, so we built our own little agency, and started to grow from there.”
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