25 Years of Ciniva

Twenty-five years. To some, it’s a lifetime; for others, the blink of an eye. For Ciniva, it is a milestone we are thrilled to achieve.

As we look back on the last quarter century of our firm’s existence, we are amazed at how we have evolved as a team. Our work has impacted the Hampton Roads area and beyond. In the last twenty-five years we have partnered with hundreds of wonderful clients and have adapted to changes in the digital landscape. We like to believe, too, this is only the beginning.

Pronounced Cin-neh-vah

What exactly does Ciniva mean? In short, it is a portmanteau of “cinema” (Cin) and Virginia (VA). Founded by Ron Greenspan in 1998, coincidentally the same year Google launched, Ciniva operated strictly in Web development, specializing in the travel industry. The “cinema” aspect of the company’s name alluded to the application of online videos used to promote destinations on emerging websites for CVBs and similar organizations. When Steve Van Leeuwen signed on as a partner a few years later, Ciniva’s scope expanded to offer eCommerce development and SEO services.

Onward and Upward

In the early 2000s, Ciniva employed one full-time employee and worked from a tiny office near Town Center in Virginia Beach. With every new innovation in design and promotion, Ciniva quickly adapted to accommodate their growing roster of clients. The launch of Google Ads in 2000, Facebook Pages in 2004, and Facebook Ads in 2007 led to Ciniva gradually offering PPC and social media management, respectively.

By the 2010s, with Steve now sole owner and president, Ciniva morphed into a full-fledged digital development and marketing agency. Now employing several experts in Web and graphic design, SEO and content creation, we moved to a larger space in downtown Norfolk. With the aim of serving as agency of record for our clients, we added video production, mobile development, UI/UX and brand awareness to our services menu.

In 2017, Steve retired from the agency business and sold Ciniva to James Burns, whose expertise in various aspects of development and design helped usher Ciniva into a new era. His leadership also saw our team through the trials of the COVID-19 lockdown. Assuredly, our firm remained active as our team collaborated via Zoom and Google Meet with our clients to ensure their needs were met and exceeded during this time. For example, when our tourism clients faced the challenge of losing visitors to “sheltering in place,” we brought the destinations to the people through virtual tour microsites, and promotion of videos and other resources.

To this day, we provide everything from hosting to analytics to 24/7 support. Ciniva’s roots, beginning in tourism Web development, have since spread to multiple industries: retail, legal, healthcare, B2B, B2C, real estate, and many other businesses. We have built websites for major corporations and have nurtured emerging brands and helped increase their visibility and customer bases. We look forward to the next twenty-five years and the exciting new challenges that await us! If you would like to see how Ciniva can help you build your website, brand or marketing plan, give us a shout.