Welcome to the History of Napier! As 2024 has marked the celebration of 40 years we wanted to share some key moments in history. Not just from Napier, but also from the marketing and technology landscape. Check out the highlights of the last 40 years below!
The History of Napier
Launched in 1984, Napier was one of the first agencies in Europe to specialise in the electronics market, subsequently expanding to help clients in a range of B2B technology sectors.
The first mobile phone call in the UK was made by Michael Harrison who called his father at midnight on the 1st of January, 1985.
Napier’s founders, Laurie and Veronica, moved Napier’s headquarters from London to Chichester. Today we have offices in Chichester, London, Keele and the USA.
We started working with Microchip, provider of smart, connected and secure embedded control solutions, over 30 years ago, making them our longest-running client.
Suzy Kenyon joined Napier bringing her extensive experience of technical B2B marketing within the electronics components sector.
The first ever website was dedicated to the World Wide Web project itself and ran on a NeXT computer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN.
By 1996, companies had started to promote their products digitally and the phrase “content marketing” was used during a roundtable at the American society for newspaper editors.
Adknowledge, a digital advertising technology company, launches ad retargeting, allowing users to recapture potential leads.
Originally created as a chatbot, Eloqua became the first marketing automation platform, tracking leads and buying signals, using digital channels like the web and email.
Google initially managed all advertisers’ campaigns themselves before introducing a self-service AdWords portal for small businesses.
In 2001 Mike acquired Napier with Suzy. Since that time he has directed major PR and marketing programmes for a wide range of technology clients.
The first embedded world was held in Nuremberg Germany, hosting professionals and companies from the embedded industry.
LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, began in co-founder Reid Hoffman’s living room in 2002 and was officially launched 2003.
The social networking platform Facebook, was founded by four Harvard University students in 2004.
Google Analytics was launched allowing users to track and report on website activity.
The first video published to video sharing platform YouTube, was titled “Me at the Zoo” and featured Jawed Karim, co-founder of YouTube.
The # symbol dates back as far as Roman times. It was first used on social media by American blogger, Chris Messina, in a 2007 tweet.
The Public Relations and Communications Association is the world’s largest and most influential PR professional body – challenging, supporting, and raising standards.
Napier acquired Peter Bush Communications, a PR and Marketing business, in 2015, increasing Napier’s portfolio of great clients and team members.
Specialist high-tech PR and Marketing agency, Armitage Communications, is acquired by Napier.
Napier became an employee-owned business in 2022. This means that – through a trust – everyone employed by us has ownership of the company.
Neesham Public Relations, specialists in the Electronics and AV industry, is acquired by Napier.
2024 marks 40 years since Napier was launched. On Thursday 23rd May, the team will celebrate with our clients and members of the media at the Science Museum in London.