Celebrating their 25th anniversary, Ralph Murnyak and Kevin Blake’s Image Base corporate production house is a rarity today, a thriving survivor of seismic technology changes that reinvented the communications industry.
The partners say they owe their longevity and prosperity to staying true to their corporate base, maintaining the stability of a permanent staff and “nimbly changing with the technology and times.”
Murnyak founded the company in May, 1984, when slide films ? the original Power Point presentation ? were the coin of the corporate realm and videotape had advanced from one-inch to three-quarter inch tape.
That was 20,000 projects ago.
The partners agree that staying one step ahead and making timely technology decisions is “what has allowed Image Base to survive and flourish.”
And flourish it has, grossing $3 million annually, from corporate video — the lion’s share of its business — interactive and event production.
“We’re entirely HD digital and distribution is 99% on the web,” says Blake.
The company’s greatest strength is its flexibility, especially for big corporate meetings, where late changes and additions are the norm. “It’s our distinguishing market advantage,” the partners agree.
For example, Image Base produced 23 videos that covered six brands, in about three weeks for Unilever Foodsolutions’ recent sales meeting for 400 salespersons.
“A job on that scale would have been almost impossible, even 10 years ago,” Blake adds.
