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Company > History
1996
Since
1996 Web Presence has been the premier provider of web development
services in Sonoma County, California. Originally intended to
be the west coast branch of a New York based web-development company,
Jenifer Levini launched Web Presence when it was obvious that
there were few experienced web developers operating in the San
Francisco Bay Area.
Our first client, Brown & Dutch Public Relations in Los Angeles,
the first PR firm online, remains steadfast with our company today.
Our second client Catholic Child became the first mail order catalog
to migrate their wares to the Internet, complete with e-commerce,
beating the curve by three years.
1997
In
1997 we became the first website developers to offer Internet
marketing services to guarantee that our client's websites generate
traffic and sizable return on investment.
Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school
district in the country, became our largest and most challenging
client. We learned the patience required while working within
large bureaucracies.
1998
In
1998 we joined hands with Grapevine Studios to become the largest
developer of winery websites in Sonoma County.
1999
In
1999 we founded the Sonoma County Web Developers SIG to establish
collaborations between web development companies, further increasing
the services we offer. Also in 1999, we became advisors to a local
college on web development education and curriculum allowing us
to sculpt future employees.
2000
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The
demise of the dot-coms in 2000 resulted in the closing of many
web design firms, while our revenues doubled. That year we turned
down twice the number of clients we accepted. We think this strategy,
making sure our potential clients have a viable business model
before designing their website, is partially responsible for our
success.
We became equity partners with one client, testing the waters
in this new business model.
2001
In
2001 we leveraged our online design and marketing expertise and
brought on board some additional talent to offer traditional,
print design and marketing services and become a full service
communications company.
We also wrote our company value statement to formally commit our
long held beliefs to paper.
2002
2002
was a challenging year. Businesses tried to weather the aftermath
of the 9/11 tragedy and bleak economy. Because of a general decrease
in spending on marketing, we watched the dissolution of most of
our competition in San Francisco, New York, and also locally in
Sonoma County. With the loss of most of the large web development
corporations across the country, we increased our workload to
include maintenance of more websites developed by other companies.
While its not as much fun to maintain someone else's site, we
recognize that this fills a much needed niche for companies who
may not have the desire or resources to develop a new website,
but want their site updated.
We also took on several large marketing projects: designing the
identity including logos and icons, creating a press kit and a
12-page newspaper advertising section for Santa Rosa City Schools'
Career Pathways Program, and analyzed the retail product mix strategies
to increase profitability for an international furniture importer.
2003
2003
will be remember as they year we went international. While we
have had international clients in Australia for many years, this
year we grew the company to include international staff. New team
members include programmers in India, graphic designers in Romania,
Argentina, Indonesia, and New Zealand and Spanish translators
in Argentina. Working with such a diverse group has brought a
renewed focus on cultural sensitivity. Who ever imagined that
the collapse of the economy in Argentina which sent Argentinians
seeksing jobs north ofthe border, could have such an effect on
a small company located in Santa Rosa, California?
When we began working with Los Angeles Unified in 1997, we discovered
that over 100 languages were spoken by their students. That challenge
forced us to explore the nature of communication, which led to
development websites as photo essays, telling the information
about each school through photographs as well as in English and
Spanish. In 2003 we brought these sensibilities to Santa Rosa
City Schools through an extremely creative bilingual marketing
campaign for Career Pathways and bi-lingual brochures for two
new charter schools.
We welcome Federally
Employed Women, a non-profit association of all the women
who work for the U.S. Federal Government, into the family. Their
website launched in fall 2003 and will be used by four million
women.
2004
As
a great start to the new year, Federally Employed Women reviewed
our relationship. Here is our preformance
review.
We welcome many new clients this January and February including:
Sassybax, Dr. David Marcus Cosmetic Surgery, The Housing Trust
of Sonoma County, Sonoma County Housing Coalition, SenarioTek,
Chateau Wally Music, Morningwood Enterprises, and Rivendale Homes.
Jenifer
Levini, our president, is currently serving as the president of
Leadership Santa Rosa Alumni Association, and hosted a politically
charged luncheon featuring elected officials Sonoma County Supervisor
Tim Smith, Santa Rosa Mayor Sharon Wright, and Federated Indians
of Graton Rancheria Chairman Greg Sarris. An educational time
was had by all 175 guests.
Our local newspaper, The Press Democrat, owned by the New York
Times, did a story on Web Presence in their award winning Global
Shift insert. And the other highlight of the year was our move
to new offices in downtown Santa Rosa.
2005
Can it really be 9 years already? Time flies
when you're having fun. This has been a big year. We truly made
the transition from website design to full service marketing communications
company. Our clients now use our services for logo and identity
development, branding, packaging design, marketing strategy development
and advertising implementation, and community relations, to name
a few of the services. In addition we are still designing numerous
websites, of course. Some new clients include: Clear Directions,
Clement, Fitzpatrick & Kenworthy, The Results Group, HighSchoolChoices.com,
The Sonoma County District Attorney, McCall & Company, Rapoport
Performance Institute, Multiple Image Advertising, and Elaine
Rushing.
This
is our fourth year producing the High School Choices magazine,
in English and Spanish, for Santa Rosa City Schools. It is growing
bigger and better each year. We welcomed several new faces: Our
interns Melanie Jones and Anna Lugo, and book keeper Mary Hartman.
2006
Celebrating 10 years! This year we developed
a partnership with Google to make the process of optimizing websites
easier. This alliance is resulting in improved visibility of our
clients' websites in this venerable search engine. We also formalized
our relationship with Brown & Dutch PR in Los Angeles and
Mike Aggerton in Sacramento, giving us offices in the three nerve
centers - northern, southern and capital - of California.
2007
We are calling 2007 the year of religion, rock
'n' roll and righteousness. (although some people might say that
these are all the same thing). We've covered both ends of the
Judeo-Christian spectrum with the development of websites for
The Diocese of Santa Rosa and Congregation Beth Ami. There will
be a few more religious clients coming later in the year. Music
spread through our midst with the marketing project for EMG Pickups,
one of the world's largest and most prestigious manufacturers
of guitar and bass pickups. The music theme was kicked off by
the website development for Psych Ward Recording Studios. Marketing
campaign design, development and implementation for County of
Sonoma Health Department to influence teen drivers to slow down
and reduce distractions has been a small way for us to work on
something that is near and dear to our hearts - teen safety. Likewise
the campaign for the Mental Health Coalition will result in more
people getting the psychological services they need to develop
healthy minds, bodies and spirits. There is so much more to say
about our marketing campaigns and wonderful clients. Stay tuned
or visit our news page!
Anyone looking for us should note our new Santa Rosa office location.
If past performance is an indication of future stability, we will
still be here to help your company whenever our services are needed.
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