Big Issue founder visits Coast & Country Housing

Graham writes… Last week John Bird, founder of The Big Issue, visited a range of Coast & Country Housing’s innovative projects which help people gain the skills required to find work. During his tour of the Redcar and Cleveland area, John Bird met people who have been assisted by such schemes as ‘Empty Homes’ and ‘Steeplechase’, which emphasise local employment initiative and helps people learn skills vital to finding work. John Bird also visited the ‘Living Sober’ scheme which helps people addicted to alcohol or drugs over come their addition.

We helped co-ordinate the visit, which resulted in excellent coverage, so far, in key regional press and a superb report on BBC TV.

We have worked with Coast & Country for seven years now and it’s still great to see its commitment to excellence and leading the way in providing schemes to not only providing affordable housing, but helping people raise their self esteem develop key occupational skills.

PR SPECIALISM - ENERGY SUPPLY CHAIN

Graham writes……The launch of the new TAG Energy factory on the banks of the River Tees was an exciting occasion. 200 of the top people in the renewable energy sector, local business and politics joined staff and their families for a celebration. The guest of honour was Rt. Hon Chris Huhne MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Recognition has worked with TAG Energy for a year, publicising the investment, preparing marketing materials and organising for top political and business leaders to see the new facility. Recognition is a specialist in PR for the energy supply chain. There are hundreds of businesses in the UK that have development products and services which are used in the energy supply chain and factories like TAG Energy are positioning Britain as a key provider of high tech engineering solutions to energy companies throughout the world.

Positive news in Tees Valley!

Graham writes........September 1st marked a new financial year at Recognition. The last year was a pleasant surprise. Turnover increased and profits were maintained in a difficult economic environment. The last few months have also been bright with three new client wins including Southdale – a national construction and development specialist – and NorChem a respected chain of pharmacies.
We have also been working with the new Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership. Tees Valley Unlimited has announced its new Enterprise Zones recently and has been involved in communication with its stakeholders to promote its vision for the growth and development. Recognition is playing its part; promoting the organisation and ensuring that the media has all the information needed to report on significant milestones. This report on BBC TV told the latest story really well.

LOCAL ITV ADVERTISING – act now or miss the chance before ITV reforms!

Recognition doesn’t do advertising; except with ITV. We are one of the smallest registered agencies dealing with ITV and have worked on several successful campaigns in recent years. We tend to offer our clients the opportunity to advertise on ITV’s local transmitters thus reaching audiences around locations they are targeting. A good example was a new nursing home in the Northern Ireland – a well-made TV advert produced some excellent enquiries; another was a restaurant in North Yorkshire. Both adverts were only transmitted locally. The adverts were affordable because ITV allows advertising to be bought by transmitters; its so-called ‘micro regions’. A typical example is the ‘micro-region’ serving Teesside, North Yorkshire and South Durham. An advert made by Recognition will cost from £1900 plus VAT to make. Then, if it is a 20 second advert transmitted 30 times in a week (11 times in peak viewing hours) the airtime will cost £3742 plus VAT, if it is a 30 second advert the same package will cost £4678 plus VAT. However, due to new technical requirements of the Sky satellite system (with the advent of new HD channels) the number of micro-regions is being reduced. This will start after January 8th next year. Hence there is now urgency to book local campaigns before ITV runs out of local space! If you want one chance of using ITV’s least costly packages get in touch with Recognition quickly!

Toby’s telly reports for the internet

New! LOW COST INTERNET VIDEOS from £200 (plus VAT)


Recognition’s services business has introduced a new LOW COST band in its video offering. From £200 plus VAT our own Toby Nichol will attend your premises; shoot properly framed video and produce short web video reports (2 to 6 mins) for use on your web site.

In this age web sites have moved on. They need video more than ever! But you don’t have to go for an expensive re-design. Recognition will produce a web video for you and host it on our site; which your site can link to! See our own site for an example of how it can look! www.recognitionpr.co.uk

Toby Nichol is Recognition’s young and enthusiastic audio visual star! We recruited him from our local college two years ago and he has built up this critical element of our service. He is now equipped with a professional camera, computers and editing suite, together with the high speed broadband needed to place videos on line.

Toby’s service compliments the high quality service we already provide, using professional TV crews all around the UK.

The prices fall into the following bands:

1) Simple web videos (Toby’s service) from £200 plus VAT
2) Videos for use on Web or on DVD (shoot by our professional network of TV crews) from £390 plus VAT
3) Web TV programme from our Darlington based studios from £600 plus VAT
4) Fully produced DVDs shot on multiple sites from £800 plus VAT

Give Recognition a call on 01325 363436 to find out more and discuss your requirements

Great fun with Fish 'n' Chips!

Sometimes our job can be great fun! This weekend was a case in point.The Wensleydale Heifer, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, has re-captured the record for the world’s largest serving of fish and chips. We helped organise the event and gained tremendous media coverage for one of our smallest clients. The chefs broke the record by frying a fillet of prime halibut, in its famous Black Sheep beer batter, and hand cut chips weighing a combined total of 101 lbs. They also cooked a vat of mushy peas to accompany the record-breaking dish. The Heifer was determined to use American Independence Day weekend to reclaim the world record, which was held by The Black Rose Restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts, USA with chips weighing almost 44lb and the fish 34lb, for the UK. The fish and chips were prepared in a custom made, giant pan made by Beekly Fabrications. The fillet was coated in over four gallons of batter and accompanied by an amount of chips proportional to the size of fish. The fish was weighed prior to cooking and then battered and fried as a single fish before being divided into servings. Local Black Sheep beer was used in the batter and served at the event. The record was officially verified by Guinness World Records and the dish shared amongst around 250 villagers and friends, who made a donation to the Help for Heroes charity.

Summer success

Graham writes: June has been a busy month so far......! I was delighted to win an assignment to promote a leading investment bank and wealth management business which is developing a presence in Yorkshire. This world class business has some great clients in the North, many of whom are activitely investing in the regional economy. I'm looking forward to tell people about its offering and promoting its take on the ways our economy can grow.
Meanwhile in the North East clients that invest continue to prosper. GT Engineering has won more work from Russia. It has secured a £50m contract with Russia’s leading automotive manufacturer, which will enhance significant growth over the next five years. GT, now established as world leaders in this field, has landed a contract to supply exhaust gas control systems for a new range of heavy duty diesel engines to GAZ Group in Russia.
The contract will help GT Group, which currently employs 300 people, to achieve its ambitious growth programme of increasing its workforce to 500 in the next three years. The Prime Minister is visiting Russia later in the year and GT's founder has written to him to tell him how the relationship can pay off.
Finally, we want to be working with the new Local Enterprise Partnerships throughout the North. I organised a number of events, via clients, to enage with local communities. These have taken the form of 'Question Time' style panels. We asked our clients to help pay for them and invited the LEP along. We've done this in Leeds, Darlington and Redcar. Hundreds of businesses have attended the three events. Look at the video to get a taste of the format.

Hat-trick of client wins in May

Graham writes.....there follows the official media release detailing a fantastic few weeks at Recognition PR...the picture is of the new Vertu Motor Group vehicle prep centre.

NEWS RELEASE
Recognition PR, a national PR firm based in the North of England, has announced three new client wins.

The firm ends May with two new retainers and the PR contract for the prestigious Radio Academy festival.

The Radio Academy festival is one of the most important events in the UK radio industry calendar, this year it will take place in Manchester from October 31st to November 2nd. Over the next two months Recognition will be announcing some of the festival’s landmark events, the firm will also co-ordinate pre-event publicity and run the event press office. The Radio Academy is a registered charity and a member organisation which operates under the direction of a board of Trustees.

Recognition has also won one of Yorkshire’s most popular drinks businesses – the famous Black Sheep Brewery. The Masham-based company has been brewing its fine cask beers since 1992. As well as its premium cask ales, the brewery has a first-class visitor centre located in the heart of Yorkshire Dales.

The third client win is Vertu Motors plc, which trades under the Bristol Street Motors, Macklin Motors, Vertu Honda and Bristol Street Motor Nation brands. Vertu was formed in late 2006 to acquire and consolidate UK motor retail businesses. The group is listed on the AIM market (UK:VTU).

Bristol Street Motors originated in the early 1900’s as a single Ford dealership located on Bristol Street in central Birmingham (www.bristolstreet.co.uk). Since those early days the business grew to become one of the largest dealer groups in the UK with a nationwide chain of franchised motor dealerships offering sales, service, parts, and bodyshop facilities for new and used car and commercial vehicles. The Group also operates a number of Bristol Street Motor Nation used car outlets (www.motornation.co.uk) and a number of Honda dealerships (www.vertuhonda.com). In 2010 Vertu Motors expanded into Scotland, trading under the Macklin Motors brand (www.macklinmotors.co.uk). Vertu Motors plc is now the 8th largest motor retailer in the United Kingdom and was awarded the Motor Trader Dealer Group of the Year in 2008. Recognition will support the dealer network with regional PR in different media clusters.

The three wins in May come on top of two significant wins in April; North East based telecommunications provider Odyessey Systems and international automotive parts manufacturer GT Group.

Recognition’s already acts for a number of well-known UK brands including Duncan Bannatyne’s Bannatyne Group of health clubs, hotels and spas, The Priory, Pimlico Plumbers and Wensleydale Cheese. It was founded in 1990 by Senior Partner Graham Robb and operates with a growing team in Darlington in the North East.

Commenting on the client wins, Recognition’s Senior Partner Graham Robb, said: “In 2010 we embarked on a serious marketing effort and it has paid off with some fantastic new client wins. Throughout the downturn our top clients, such as the Bannatyne Group and The Priory continued to grow, which provided a solid platform that has enabled our business to benefit from the economic recovery. We have also been transparent about our pricing, with rates and packages openly published on our website, and offered excellent value for money in a market that is watching costs with great care.”

ENDS
Editor’s Note: more information about Recognition at www.recognitionpr.co.uk follow us at www.twitter.com/recognition1st or www.facebook.com/recognition
Together with the UK's top 250 PR agencies, Recognition is a member of the PRCA. All PRCA members are required to hold the Consultancy Management Standard (CMS) - the hallmark of PR excellence. Combining elements of ISO9001 and Investors in People with criteria specific to a PR consultancy, it is an internationally-recognised accreditation, used by PR companies in 11 countries around the world.

May means more clients for Recognition!

Graham writes…We have started May with some brilliant client wins – two new retainers and the PR work for the prestigious Radio Academy festival.

The Radio Academy festival is a wonderful opportunity to recognise and promote excellence in UK radio. The festival takes place in Manchester in November. The Radio Academy is a registered charity and a member organisation which operates under the direction of a board of Trustees.

After stiff competition, we also won the Black Sheep Brewery. The Masham based company has had its beers in the market since 1992. As well as its premium cask ale, the brewery has also a first class visitor centre located right in the heart of Yorkshire Dales.

The last but not least is Vertu Motors plc. The successful car dealership was formed in late 2006 to acquire and consolidate UK motor retail businesses. It is now the 8th largest motor retailer in the United Kingdom and was awarded the Motor Trader Dealer Group of the Year in 2008. The Group is present in 70+ locations and it has 86 franchised and 3 non-franchised sales operations.

Recognition’s team is feeling really positive about the future – watch out for more client announcements soon and follow the PR stories we issue about our clients on twitter.com/recognition1st

3 New wins in April

The first week of April is here and the spring weather (together with hard work and application!)has brought three new clients to Recognition.

GT Engineering Group is a wonderful business that encapsulates all the arguments being made for rebalancing the economy to the productive manufacturing sector. It was founded by Geoff Turnbull and has clients throughout the world spending in excess of £25m per year on its engineering products. The company has several divisions, one of which provides precision products to the HGV sector and serves big name firms like Volvo; Scania and John Deere.

We also won Modus Ltd against stiff competition. Based in Darlington it provides specialist undersea equipment used in trenching. This could be laying pipes or cables. It has a base on the River Tees and its high tech kit is manufactured in the North East. Another global business extending the reach of Great Britain plc!

Final we won Odyssey Systems a telecoms business based on Teesside. Established by a brilliant enrtrepreneur the firm has supplied telephone equipment and line rental to the private sector for nearly 25 years. Its a great unsung success story....you'll be hearing more.

All three companies show Recognition is winning PR work in the real world of business. We are best when we are serving dynamic entrepreneurial organisations and, even in the downturn, there are great success stories to promote!