Norcross Office Key to Florida Web Company

When Geoff Wilson was a student at the University of Florida in 1997,  he and two others created a web design company from a fraternity house room.  Seven  years later, Wilson and the company decided it was “time for us to look beyond Gainesville, Fla.”

What started in 2004 as a one-man Atlanta operation for 352 Media Group (pronounced "three five two" after the Gainesville area code where the company was founded and is headquartered), has today turned into a 10-employee operation in Norcross. 

The Norcross team handles sales, strategy, design and management from its office in the Oakwood Plaza complex on Indian Trail just off I-85, while the majority of the 35 employees in Gainesville are web designers and developers.

“From a sales standpoint (Gainesville) is not good,” Wilson said. “This is a college town. There’s not the level of sales here we want to be involved in.”

That’s where Don Wedington and the Norcross office come into play, drumming up new business and working with clients in the Atlanta area and beyond. 352 Media’s Norcross office is “huge” to the company’s success and future growth, said Wilson, the company’s founder and CEO.

“I asked Don to move up to Norcross and lead the charge for us in Atlanta because I saw such potential,” Wilson said.  352 Media also has a 6-person office in Tampa.

Wedington, who graduated with bachelors and master’s degrees in advertising and mass communication, respectively, from the University of Florida’s journalism school, worked as a media planner for an account agency in New York before joining 352 Media in 2001. Wedington also owns part of the company.

Wedington, who moved to Norcross in 2007, has embraced the town. Like most of the 352 Media employees, Wedington lives in Norcross and can frequently be seen downtown, whether it’s at Neva Spell’s barbershop for a routine haircut or the Iron Horse Tavern, where Wedington is a regular customer.

Wedington also prides himself on meeting customers at his Norcross office.

“Before we moved to the Atlanta area we never really met our clients,” he said. “Atlanta is essentially the gateway to the South … so the assumption is let’s do business face to face.”

His office fosters “relationships more than anything else,” he said.

The company specializes in web design, social media, interactive advertising and digital strategy.

352 Media designed a management system for Porsche that handles customer and financial records. Other notable Atlanta clients include a promotional project for CNN and work for Southeastern Mills, a food manufacturer. 

Numerous “Addy” awards for successful interactive advertising campaigns line the office walls. 352 Media will also work with smaller companies and entrepreneurial start-ups, while occasionally competing with bigger Atlanta companies like Definition 6, Moxie Interactive and Razorfish for clients.

“Norcross represents an opportunity to be close to the city and not having to deal with craziness that is being in the perimeter,” Wedington said. “Norcross offers a lot of advantages with our current location being close to 85, clients can find us easily.”

Wedington also wants to maintain continuity between the company’s management in Florida and management in Atlanta even though the office environments are different.

The Gainesville office has an arcade and fosters a creative work culture. While a Nerf gun war is less likely to break out among employees in Norcross, the local team is clearly a relatively tight-knit group.  On this particular Friday, the entire office staff went to lunch together at nearby Manhattan Pizza where the owner greeted them as regulars and brought out an unsolicited complimentary dessert.

Just another example of “awesomeness” that 352 strives for in business and in life.  A poster at the back of the Norcross office reads:

 “When you get sad, stop being sad and be awesome instead.”