A year in review: 2022

It’s that time of the year. Christmas songs are on repeat in the Mention Me office, mince pies are a daily treat, and the morning commute on my Brompton is getting increasingly frosty. 

And, of course, it’s a time to reflect: on what went well this year, what could’ve gone better, and what we hope for in 2023.

When it comes to reviewing the past year, however, we have to look at the broader context. We’re ending the year in a very different world to where we started it in. 

This time last year, Boris Johnson was the UK prime minister.

Ukraine wasn’t under invasion by Russia.

Roe versus Wade was in place.

UK inflation was at 2%.

UK energy bills were 40% of what they are today.

The post-Covid economy was growing.

It’s quite incredible how much has changed in just 12 months. 

I don’t highlight this to bring a sense of doom and gloom, but rather to illustrate the reality of the backdrop against which businesses are now operating. This tough landscape has brought its own challenges for Mention Me, and for our clients. After experiencing growth during Covid, many ecommerce businesses are now contracting. 

But despite the obstacles we’ve faced, Mention Me has really come forward in the past year and succeeded in many ways.

From beating out stiff competition to hire top talent, to evolving how we deliver our product vision, strengthening our strategic partnerships and developing our approach to the market, our mission has gathered real momentum this year. All underpinned by our evolution from referral to advocacy-first thinking, rooted in first-party advocacy data that can enhance brands’ entire tech stacks.

Here are some of my top highlights from 2022:

• Growing to 140 Mentioneers, helping to further deepen our expertise and better solve for our clients’ needs 
• Raising $25 million in Series B funding at the start of this year (earning coverage in TechCrunch in the process), further accelerating our growth
• Extending our focus beyond Europe to the US, where we now have big name clients and a growing team 
• Launching our two new product packages, Acquire and Optimise, to spearhead our vision to make every brand think advocacy-first
• Working with both Mid-Market and Enterprise businesses, with a Sales team centred around this
• Revamping our London office to further bring our colourful personality to life – think grass walls, neon light decorations and more meeting space
• Scaling our strong sense of culture throughout it all, to make Mention Me somewhere our Mentioneers enjoy coming to work 

Driving forward our advocacy-first vision

One success that really stands out to me from this year is how much our product has continued to evolve. 

In May, our Data Science and Engineering team spearheaded the release of Propensity to Refer®, the world’s first predictive advocacy model underpinned by machine-learning. 

Earlier this month we released Extended Customer Revenue (ECR), a new advocacy insight that’s changing how forward-thinking brands think about customer experience. Indeed, it’s already inspired PUMA to rethink its entire contact strategy.

And we’re continuing to grow our partnerships network, which includes strong relationships with the likes of Emarsys, SAP and Ometria, and platform integrations with Facebook and Google. In the US, we have new key partnerships with Attentive and Klaviyo, accelerating our efforts to empower more US businesses to leverage the power of customer advocacy. 

With new product releases being released every quarter, this is just the beginning of how our product vision will continue to evolve.

Looking ahead to next year’s opportunities

Like many businesses this year, we haven’t hit every goal we set out to. But, given the context that we’re closing the year in, I’m proud of the headway we’ve made and the growth we’re experiencing. Now, I’m excited to see us build on this growth in both the UK and US next year.

2023 will come with its own challenges. We’re here to help our clients overcome the obstacles ahead and come out stronger. We’re doubling down on our US efforts and making sure we continue to operate as a single team. We’ll be focussed on maximising efficiency and productivity. And we’ll keep on evolving our advocacy-first approach to tell a story that every business knows (and is excited) about.

My co-founder Tim and I often used to talk about Mention Me as a teenager, growing up and learning as we go. We’re now firmly past that point, well into the adult days of Mention Me. 2023 will see us continue to mature as a business and build on the results we deliver for some of the biggest and best brands in the world.

And for all of that, I say thank you. 

Thank you to our investors, Eight Road and Octopus Ventures, for their continued support in helping us expand our product offering and grow our international presence.

Thank you to our 500+ clients, who continue to share our advocacy-first vision and excitement about what our evolving product can help them achieve. I can’t wait to help your businesses do even bigger and better things next year, with customer love at the heart of it all.

And of course, thank you to our Mentioneers. Driving change in how we deliver our vision and mission isn’t easy at the best of times; in the current business landscape, it’s even more commendable. Each and every Mentioneer has played a role in our growth over the past 12 months, and will continue to do so as we head into next year. 

Mention Me is a scale-up; not everything will be easy and work first time. We’ll try new things, fail fast, and go again. It’s exciting and it requires hard work, and that’s what every Mentioneer continues to put in. It’s been an unforgettable year, and I can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store.