In the latest edition of Marketing Derby’s Innovate Magazine we meet Keith Cox from Bloc Digital – a firm which is using digital technology to do amazing things.
The Derby firm is taking 3D content and alternative reality technology to support clients in the industrial sectors with marketing, training and industry 4.0 solutions.
Its talented team can create jaw-dropping animations, which appear to leap from billboards, intricate 3D teaching aids allowing virtual jet engines to be taken apart and put back together again by learners and factory simulations that can visualise the real-time effectiveness of production processes on an iPad.
Its services are in demand – particularly in the US, where it has established two offices.
Innovate is given a tour of this exciting virtual world by Keith, who founded the firm with Chris Hotham, who he met around a quarter of a century ago while working for Rolls-Royce.
After teaming up, the business evolved to become Bloc Digital, growing from being an animation studio to a digital solutions partner for industry, with a client list which includes the likes of Airbus, Siemens, Shell and Jaguar Land Rover.
Keith told Innovate: “We have 3D modelling and animation, the immersives, AR and VR, and web technologies.
“Then there’s data and AI machine learning and design. That, basically, is now the complete end-to-end solution.
“We began in aerospace and, over time, this has developed into other sectors such as space, where we are working with NASA and the European Space Agency, maritime and power generation.
“We can now go to a large industrial blue chip and say, ‘We can be a digital partner. Look at all the stuff we can do for you’.”
Bloc’s reputation has become so strong that most of its clients have been introduced by referral.
It has also established a foothold in the US – a notoriously hard market to crack.
Keith told Innovate: “They were saying, ‘We love what Bloc does, but to do it with the US Department of Defense, you’ve got to be an American company, on American soil, with American staff, otherwise we can’t even talk to you.”
The firm decided to take the leap, opening an office in Ohio to be close to businesses it already had links with and other potential customers.
It’s an investment which is already paying off, persuading Bloc to open a second US base in 2025, this time in Wichita, which is a major centre for aerospace. The firm is also considering potential further opportunities in the States.
Keith told Innovate: “UK growth is plentiful and, in the US, within the next few years Ohio could match the UK just on the opportunity alone.”
The read the feature in full visit https://heyzine.com/flip-book/09140571b9.html#page/4.
