Salamandra.uk CEO, Christine MacKay, shares her passion for B2B animation solutions and declares, "We are visual problem solvers"!

Published

21st February 2022

Salamandra.uk CEO, Christine MacKay, shares her passion for B2B animation solutions and declares, "We are visual problem solvers"!

Christine MacKay, owner and founder of the award-winning Salamandra Animation Studios, recently sat down with Paul Powers, host of the Cybernaut Club Podcast, an ongoing podcast and YouTube series focusing on tech, skill enhancement, and improving one’s knowledge. 

Christine openly talks about embarking on her own business journey, and how focusing on staying agile and flexible throughout can be considered one of the secrets to her success. Now in their 7th year, her award-winning animation studios, salamandra.uk, are not just surviving these turbulent times, but having hired 5 new staff this financial year, they are continuing to thrive and visually delight on all platforms.

Christine started the first agency iteration of salamandra after having driven from London to South Africa in an 18-year-old Kombi, and settling in Johannesburg. Having identified a gap in the industry, Christine wanted to offer a combined PR and Advertising agency to ensure synchronised and unified communicators to save her clients’ money. At the time, salamandra was one of the first to do this. When Christine came back to the UK, she had fallen in love with animation, whilst working in New Zealand, as an impressive medium for B2B visual communications, and so started the second iteration of her company as salamandra.uk, focusing on this medium and offering her team as visual problem solvers.

This was no easy feat. On return to the UK, Christine had the challenge of both finding the talent she needed, building her network and finding affordable office space. At the start of the company, Christine and her first employees worked from her dining room table, in Windsor. Fast forward seven years, and Christine now owns two thriving animations studios in Eton and Dundee. Despite working remotely, Christine ensured that the company systems of communications, project management and collaborative working not only continued but improved and have become more productive now more than ever before and has recently grown the staff numbers by 66%. Sensing a dip in morale during lockdown, Christine took a risk and announced that she was ‘paying it forward’ and awarded everyone in the company a 15% wage increase last October supported by her motto that “If the company does well, you do well”.

Hear all about Christine’s turbulent yet greatly rewarding journey by tuning into the Cybernaut Club Podcast episode here.

More About Christine

Christine MacKay founded salamandra.uk in 2014, a multi award-winning animation studio that specialises in animation for business (B2B) and visual problem-solving. Having worked both client and agency side on three continents, Christine has expert knowledge in building collaborative, frictionless teams, developing a strong company culture, and, as a serial networker, cross-pollinating businesses. Her team works as visual problem solvers across 18 different industries, from children’s book illustrations and corporate explainers, to training videos or immersive augmented and virtual presentations, during which they produce unique and powerful multifaceted visual assets, and create content that resonates with their clients’ target audiences memorably.

In 2021, Christine’s published her now best-selling book, Destination Animation - How Smart Marketeers Convey Complex Messages Memorably. Find out more about it here


More From The Cybernaut Club Podcast here.

 

Extra Links and Information:

Listen to Christine’s LinkedIn Live Series, The Business of Writing a Book - Lighting the Way and Leaving Your Mark here.

Watch the Destination Animation Book Trailer here.

For more information on salamandra.uk and their services, please visit https://www.salamandra.uk/ 

To request an interview with Christine MacKay, or for any further questions regarding the publication, please contact Digital Marketer, Marilize Loxton, through marilize@salamandra.uk.

salamandra.uk

Salamandra.uk is an animation studio with lively lounges in Eton, Dundee and San Francisco. We’re experts at creating visual stories that convey complex messages, offering powerful productions on any platform.

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