NEW TV CAMPAIGN FOR WENSLEYDALE

Graham writes…..if you have a moment this week please buy a slice of Wensleydale cheese at the supermarket. The Wensleydale Creamery is a rural community business and, as well as handling its PR, we have launched its first TV advert. The campaign distances the firm from the well known ‘Wallace and Gromitt’ image (which will be used for special occasions) and focuses on the key selling point; that it is the only Wensleydale Cheese made in Wensleydale. Others are the products of big agri-businesses and in the supermarket cheese wars try to undercut Wensleydale Creamery on price. The truth is that the Wensleydale Creamery makes the cheese using milk from more than40 farms in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. These farmers have higher costs because they have responsibilities to the environment under the National Park rules. Buying the real cheese will help them and keep the Dales as a green and pleasant land!

Pimlico’s ‘Secret Millionaire’

Graham writes.......Well done to Charlie Mullins, managing director of Pimlico Plumbers, who took part in an episode of Secret Millionaire last week. A charity dealing with support for cancer sufferers and a special garden centre for people with learning disabilities were among the recipients of large cash sums from Pimlico Plumbers as a result of Charlie’s generosity. I thought Charlie came across really well. It is always best to be yourself on these shows. The producers are careful to generate the best ‘reveal’ moment at the end but the programmes also tell the story of the subject’s ‘journey’ and change of lifestyle. Charlie is the third Recognition client to appear on this programme, which was the brainchild of UK TV genius Stephen Lambert. We met Stephen before the first programme aired, as one of our clients for involved in the pilot. It was a difficult thing to sell at first – the TV company telling a business millionaire he would be made a fish out of water for a week with no access to home or phone and a microphone and TV camera following every move. What is more they are expected to give out large sums of their own money to take part. Matching up the right project to the right millionaire is also a big job, in Charlie’s case the project took two years from initial contact to transmission. But it was worth it, a great show and everyone was a winner!

The Shadow MPC - 'Panel publicity'

Frances writes……today our firm organised two of our regular ‘shadow MPC’ panels on behalf of clients Arlington Financial in the North East and Lee & Priestley Solicitors in Yorkshire. The idea behind these panels is to position our clients as leaders of opinion and decision makers (which they are of course!) The panels work in conjunction with two newspapers and, in the case of the North East, also with the North East Chamber of Commerce. The Yorkshire Post and the Northern Echo each send a reporter to report the deliberations of the panels and interesting copy is generated from the front line of the economy. Each panel consists of around 10 leaders of the local economy. They debate the current trends and offer their view on what the Bank of England should do with interest rates when it decides on Thursday. We have other panels that work in a similar way, for example the property panel in conjunction with the Northern Echo and Latimer Hinks Solicitors and the commercial developers panel in Huddersfield in conjunction with Baxter Caulfield and the Huddersfield Examiner. The decisions of the two shadow MPCs were that rates should be held……click for a video