Marcel Digital has spent the last two decades serving clients’ constantly evolving digital marketing needs. The company provides a suite of solutions for mid-sized B2B offering full stack .NET development, SEO/AEO, Paid Media management, and advance analytics.
Born in 2003, Marcel Digital has grown with the internet and withstood the test of time. Recognizing the interconnected nature of the digital world, CEO Ben Swartz (pictured) said all employees are “omni-trained.” Before joining the team, employees must participate in “Marcel Digital University,” a specialized training program that covers all services and culminates in a final exam to ensure optimal capabilities and perspective.
“SEO/AEO does not exist in a vacuum. It is affected by and influences all digital media that comes to the website and all the rest of the traffic, and so we really have to understand the business as a whole,” Swartz said. “We ensure that [our employees] have the capabilities necessary to, yes, be a specialist in their field, but to also understand how the other fields operate.”
Most of Marcel Digital’s thirty employees had formerly occupied a coworking environment that didn’t have their desired cultural fit, Swartz said. At the start of September, Marcel Digital opened up an office at TeamWorking by TechNexus, Chicago’s longest-standing tech hub located in the Civic Opera Building.
“I was the first to scoff at a shared office space culture… but we quickly realized that the folks at TechNexus have found a way to create a respectful community. Yes, it's a variety of different businesses, but all seem hyper focused on the future,” he said. “Every conversation at TechNexus is about where the world is headed, and we find that exciting.”
This future-focused mindset perfectly aligns with Marcel Digital’s internal mantra as it tackles the newest evolution of the digital world: AI. Swartz highlighted the uncertainty within the current technological landscape and compared keeping up with the rise of AI to riding a surfboard. He stressed the importance of staying the course and not letting eagerness or fear impact Marcel Digital’s ability to adapt.
“We need to ride the wave, and we can't be afraid about where it's going or how fast it's going. We need to stay on top of that wave regardless, for not just for our sake, our clients’ sake,” Swartz said.