Our First 10 Years

In 1999, Peter van Aartrijk left a corner-office gig to start his own firm, The van Aartrijk Group LLC, which specialized in public relations and editorial support for the insurance industry. Pete started out “by myself, in my jammies, in the basement,” but he soon took on additional consultants and a professional office in Springfield, Virginia.

Ten years later, our full-service branding firm has 15 highly experienced consultants in eight states with a wide range of skills, including brand auditing, marketing-communications strategy, design, web positioning, social media, public relations, media buying, video production and publishing.

Most of us work as a cohesive but virtual team: We offer clients a seamless unit, but we don’t spend our lives mired in meetings and office politics. Indeed, some of us only see one another at the annual holiday party, though we talk every day.

Our clients include some of the top brands in insurance, financial services and member organizations—and some have been with us the full decade. We are proud of, and grateful for, those relationships.

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we re-branded ourselves. Our firm is now simply called Aartrijk, which comes from a northwestern Belgian town and means “kingdom of fertile soil.” While we tease Pete about another word for fertile soil, we really do take pride in the rich minds and creative thinking of our team.

Let Aartrijk help your brand.