Digital advertising entrepreneur and founder of Uprise Tim Pointer has been voted in Forbes magazine’s ’30 Under 30′ list of young innovators and leaders in media, marketing and advertising in Asia.
The 27-year-old from Wellington was named in the list of 300 leaders and innovators in 10 different categories aged under 30 who are said to be transforming business, industry, media and culture.
After being vetted by a panel of expert judges in their respected fields, he was the only New Zealander to be recognised in the Forbes 30 media and advertising category, alongside two Australians.
The criteria for honorees included leadership and disruption in their field; entrepreneurial mind-set and results; and the likelihood of changing the field in the next half-century.
Also making a Forbes list was New Zealand entrepreneur Shay Wright, who was named in the Social Entrepreneur category, which honours the top promising young leaders, daring entrepreneurs and game changers in Asia.
Pointer’s individual award adds to the accolades Uprise received last year including achieving 10th on the New Zealand Deloitte Fast 50 for its outstanding revenue growth of 431 per cent in only its sixth year of business. It was also ranked 102nd in the hugely competitive Deloitte Fast 500 Asia-Pacific technology listings.
He says he is both surprised and proud to make the Forbes list.
“It’s an incredible feeling to be in a list with some of those other people who have been chosen and the achievements they have made.”
Pointer founded Uprise, a specialist digital advertising and marketing agency, with business partner and school friend Matt Rowe in 2009 and it has since grown to a staff of 19 and they have also opened an office in Auckland.
In a release, Pointer credits its growth to the use of technology measuring the reach and impact of advertising which gives clients information on the performance of their marketing and promotion to ensure the budget is not wasted.
“The key is to drive quality leads and traffic to a company’s best sales tool, its website, a 24/7 sales opportunity that few have been exploiting to maximum benefit.”
While completing marketing degrees at Victoria University, Pointer and Rowe were driven by a vision of capitalising on the power and strength of the internet as they felt few were doing so successfully. They saw a number of players dabbling in the market but none with a model that delivered effective results to customers.
At the time, the concept of search engine optimisation and Google rankings was in its infancy and few businesses recognised the importance of featuring as high as possible on Google’s search engine to drive traffic.
Hoping to change that, the pair attended a business seminar on how to make money online. Left with the encouragement to back themselves, they graduated and took a punt by setting up a digital marketing business in the spare bedroom on Pointer’s parents’ home.
Seven years later, Uprise is using its knowledge about the rapidly expanding web and how businesses can commercialise to deliver results for both small and large businesses .
With offices already in Wellington and Auckland, Pointer says Uprise is looking at how it can get the message out about what it does. In the future it plans to further expand across New Zealand and it’s also looking at the Australian market.
