The Story of Anthology Marketing
A great way to connect with your customers is to provide a bit of insight into your background story. It helps to reveal more about who you are, what motivates you and why you do what you do. So in the spirit of “practicing what you preach”, here’s the Anthology Marketing story!
Anthology Marketing was born from a love of photography, and esthetically pleasing design. As the daughter of an interior designer, I grew up constantly surrounded by beautiful images and vignettes. The spaces in our home were always filled with unique objects, art books and design magazines, full of incredible photographs of people, architecture and nature. I think this definitely had an influence on my eye for design, interest in photography and love for finding beauty in the details. I bought my first camera in New York while visiting my aunt who is a wedding photographer. I took it with me whenever I could, experimenting, practicing, learning techniques and developing my own style. The more I learned, the more I got hooked and fell in love with it as a creative outlet.
Throughout highschool and University, I worked in various roles that continued to inspire my passion for photography. I did some freelancing for a local paper, where my job was to go to various community events, and capture the story through photography.
One of my most influential jobs was when I worked at Shop B, a local Parisian clothing boutique in downtown Guelph. I remember the first time I walked into the little pink bubble on Quebec Street. The shop, the clothing, the atmosphere, right down to the music was all so well thought out, and designed with so much care and attention to detail. I am so grateful the owner Michele kindly gave me the opportunity to work with her. To start, I helped tend the shop, but as time went on, we began working on creative tasks. I started helping with photography and content creation for blogs and newsletters, assisting in creating window displays, and brainstorming ideas for seasonal events and promotions. We did big lookbook photoshoots, and created product videos. While working at Shop B, I discovered a passion for product styling and learned a ton about business, visual design and the importance of high-quality photography for small businesses in today’s market. All of which helped me hone my skills, tap into my creativity, and gain the confidence I needed to start my own business! I will always be grateful to Michele for her kindness, generosity and encouragement.
Around this time, I was slowly working on creating my own business “Camilla B Photography”, where I did photoshoots for families, newborns and graduations. While completing my Marketing degree at the UofG, I became more interested in the strategy of marketing and it became more and more obvious to me, the clear connection to photography as a vital component. I decided to redirect “Camilla B Photography” to focus more on business photography. With the connections I had made working with Michele at Shop B, I began working more with some of the amazing small local businesses in the area, providing product photography, portraits and social media content. In the summer of my final year at University, I participated in Guelph Wellington Business Centre’s Summer Student Program, where I received additional business training and mentorship, and even some grant money to help my business take off. (Shout out to the team at the Business Centre!)
I soon realized many of my clients were in need of help figuring out how to make the best use of the images I was providing. These busy, hard-working business owners just didn’t have enough hours in a day to sort out what image to post on what platform or when or how. As I got more and more requests for help, I realized there was an opportunity to expand beyond purely photography services – adding in a broader suite of visual and digital marketing services... and voila! my new company was born!
Once I graduated, and with the encouragement and support of my family and friends, I decided to continue my business full time. In 2019 I re-branded my company to Anthology Marketing, which I felt better represented the expanded services I could offer. I chose the word “anthology” because it means “a collection of precious, valuable items”, which perfectly reflects the care and respect we take in the curation of imagery and content for our clients.
Today, Anthology Marketing is a team of creative, enthusiastic, individuals working together to create, manage and optimize visual marketing content for our clients. We believe in beautiful visuals, a well crafted brand, and the value of good, honest, ethical, meaningful marketing.
