15 Fun Facts About CGR Creative
This month, we’re celebrating 15 years in business!
In 1997, Julio Colmenares came to Charlotte, North Carolina from Caracas, Venezuela on what was meant to be a temporary stay. If you live in Charlotte, or if you’ve ever visited, you know that it’s no surprise that he fell in love with everything the Queen City has to offer.
As his three-month visit came to a close, he decided to extend his visit, turning his temporary stay into a permanent one. The city wasn’t the only thing he fell in love with in Charlotte, though, and shortly after setting his roots here, he met his wife Veruska, who just so happened to be from Caracas, Venezuela as well.
If meeting your soulmate 2,000 miles from your shared hometown isn’t fate (and we think it is), what happened next certainly was.
Julio’s early experiences in Charlotte included working as a creative director for bilingual newspapers and magazines and as an environmental designer for an architecture firm. He was so passionate about his work that it wasn’t uncommon to find him working on projects late into the night, only to wake up the next day to do it all over again.
With drive and determination, Julio opened the doors to his very own agency in May of 2002: CGR Creative.
Since then, he’s built CGR Creative from the ground up, playing a hands-on role in transforming what started as a traditional marketing startup into the full-service marketing powerhouse we are today.
In honor of our 15 year biz-niversary, here are some fun facts about CGR Creative that you might not already know:
1. Julio was awarded the 2011 Businessman of the Year at the Excelente Business Awards. The very next year, he was honored to receive the 2012 Legacy Award with the Latin American Chamber of Commerce.
2. We can have entire conversations over Skype, email and text using only gifs and memes.
3. In 2015, we were recipient of the 2015 SBE of the Year at the Crowns of Enterprise Awards.
4. As a small business, we wear many hats. Here are some of the ‘extra’ titles: Fun Friday Event Coordinator, Minute to Win It Champion, and Beer Runner. There’s also the Director of Temperature Control for whomever is sitting closest to change the A/C. 😉
5. Our Christmas presents are legendary. For example, our President loves wacky socks. He loves them so much the the entire team pitched in one Christmas to gift him a year’s supply of crazy socks!
6. One of our team members was ranked 33rd in a national pool competition. Can you guess who?
7. We also have a competitive skier on the team, as well as a marathon runner!
8. We tried to do the cliche agency thing and turned a desk into a ping pong table. It didn’t work, so we settled for Mario Kart on Fridays instead.
9. In 2016, Julio received the Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 Under 40!
10. You know it’s a good day when Jamiroquai starts playing throughout the office.
11. You haven’t seen competitive until you’ve seen us playing Minute to Win It on a Friday…seriously, one of our graphic designers fell into a bush last time.