Busy week……Wensleydale launch, Carillion plc & Arlington on ITV; Pimlico Plumbers in The Times

Staff at Recognition have been really busy promoting clients this week. The fantastic development at Durham Gate was featured on ITV news. The £130m development is underway near Durham City, it continued despite the recession and as the recovery comes it will be ahead of the competition as the new business location in the North. Pimlico Plumbers entered the debate about the Big Society with an excellent letter to The Times from founder, Charlie Mullin. A major social enterprise project he is involved in is slated for some excellent coverage too. Meanwhile I’ve been very busy hosting the 'Dales Kitchen Challenge' competition to commemorate the opening of the new £1m visitor centre & restaurant at Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales. The competition saw two teams of local personalities competing against the clock to cook a recipe devised by our guest – celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager. I was the MC and it was a great fun event!

FUN START TO FEB AT RECOGNITION

Graham writes.....Recognition's people were all over the UK this week as clients launched products and services and held events to communicate with their customers. Caroline Walker was in Northern Ireland for the launch of two new care homes in the Priory Group, the launch events were covered on TV and radio and featured former Manchester United & Northern Ireland footballer Norman Whiteside, who hails from the area that one of homes is located.
In London Paul White launched a new report about environmental efficiency from the Manufacturers Association of Radiators and Convectors. The launch was at the Savoy Hotel in London and was attended by numerous journalists from the building and associated trade press.
Meanwhile in Leeds Melanie Smith, Emma Higgnett and myself hosted Strictly New Business, a competition for new businesses to win a great prize of a year's free office accomodation, insurance and legal advice. The prize bundle was worth many thousands of pounds and was hotly contested at an event that combined the scrutiny of Dragons' Den with the fun and glamnour of Strictly Come Dancing!
Business owner Craig Higgs, of Net 60 six, impressed the judges with his presentation and unique idea as well as his business acumen. Net 60 six allows golfers to play a round of golf in 60 minutes without the costly membership fees tied into golf clubs. The course is set up on a driving range and contains all the elements of a golf course, effectively bringing the course to the player.

Next week is even busier....

Prime Minister told of Recognition's research

Graham writes...last Friday I met the Prime Minister and told him about Recognition's research into announcements published in the North East regional press about private sector growth in the region. The research has sought out positive news to balance the negative. We are simply logging these good news stories every week, and have done so since the end of summer 2010. It makes interesting reading and I invite any organisation or individual to quote from it when talking about our region in public.

The most interesting conclusion we have reached is that the rate of growth in the private sector is already in excess of the rate of job losses predicted in the public sector. For example BBC TV/Experian predicted 28,000 job losses in the North East over four years in its special programme about public spending cuts transmitted on 9th Sep 2010.

This research provides strong evidence of new innovation, growing exports and new starter businesses throughout the North East. It is a live document and will be updated frequently. It was produced by one of our most talented members of staff, Anna Dawson who also met the Prime Minister (see picture).

KEY POINTS:
• Since Mid-August 2010 North East newspapers have reported the creation of 15391 private sector jobs in the region
• Since Mid-August 2010 North East newspapers have reported £3,220,182,000 of new investment by private sector business in the region
• Since Mid-August 2010 North East newspapers have reported £1,334,606,500 of new contract wins by private sector businesses in the region
• Since Mid-August 2010 North East newspapers have reported 130 firms recruiting for new jobs

New Year - New Clients.

Graham writes....it has been a good start to the New Year with some interesting enquiries and a good new client win. Creative Management Services is owned by three entreprenseurs and provides catering services to schools, clouncils and private sector organisations. It has been going a while and employs 250 people. In the North East economy the VAT rise was shrugged off by many business; our notable new indicators continued to demonstrate that private business is creating jobs....here are some of the highlights:
• Since Mid-August 2010 North East newspapers have reported the creation of 15197 private sector jobs in the region
• Since Mid-August 2010 North East newspapers have reported £2,965,407,000 of new investment by private sector business in the region
• Since Mid-August 2010 North East newspapers have reported £1,127,306,500 of new contract wins by private sector businesses in the region
• Since Mid-August 2010 North East newspapers have reported 109 firms recruiting for new jobs
So we are positive and getting on business business in 2011!!

2011 the year of the APP!

Graham writes... Happy New Year.

2011 is going to be a year when Recognition offers clients even more. It is my ambition that Recognition offers our PR services on all sorts of different platforms; the latest is mobile phones - in particular apps for iphone.

Last year we put considerable effort into breaking a price barrier to bring the cost of these products down and now we can offer clients a basic starter app for £3500 plus VAT(some terms & conditions will apply).

I have put my money where my mouth is and produced one for Recognition PR - its available on iTunes from mid-January. It starts with a screen about Recognition, then has a screen linking to GPS showing every client on the UK map with a dot at their HQ , then it has a screen with the logo and advert for the client and then every media release the client has issued. This took 40 hours of IT time to devise and my team needed to slightly change our web site to make it link up. If you have an iphone download it from iTunes and give it a go - search Recognition PR in the app store.

This new offering can bring clients' products and services to an audience that uses mobile internet all the time; a building society client is producing one showing every branch and including a mortgage calculator which will allow people work work out their mortgage payments while they view a house!

If you are interested let me know; we already have a small queue with three sold already. It will take a number of weeks from order to delivery.

All my very best for 2011 - once people are used to the VAT rise I'm confident there will be a sustainable recovery!

Graham

Paul writes...Tees Valley LEP event

Business people from across Darlington braved the weather last night to find out how the new Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) can benefit companies and organisations across the area.

We ran the event in conjunction with our client, Latimer Hinks Solicitors, allowing firms the chance to hear from and ask questions of Stephen Catchpole, the new managing director of Tees Valley Unlimited, which was successful in bidding to run the LEP.

More than 45 people attended the event at Darlington College, where Mr Catchpole outlined the importance of the LEP for Darlington businesses.

As Anne Elliott, managing partner at Latimer Hinks, put it: “To get the best from the opportunities the new LEP will offer, companies in Darlington need to engage with the partnership.”

The turnout, especially in such extreme weather, shows the desire from business people in Darlington to find out more about the LEP and how it can help the area. Hopefully, this will lead to real benefits for the borough of Darlington in partnership with the rest of the Tees Valley.

We need to take this initial dialogue further and establish a mechanism for the Darlington business community to influence the direction and decisions of the LEP.

Priory TV advert receives lots of responses

Graham writes.....the TV advert we produced for The Priory was screened in the South East of England this week. It has received an excellent response with Priory helping numerous people via its helpline. The advert took a great deal of time to be cleared by the advertising regulators. We needed to convince them that it did not break the very strict codes for services to help people dealing with a drink problem. The rules forbid 'products' to help tackle alcohol dependency. The reason is to prevent people thinking that they can have a drink then take a 'miracle cure', thereby neutralising the responsible drinking message. At first, the regulator sought to apply this rule to this advert. However, after further submissions and documentation, the advert was cleared in time for this important period in the run up to Christmas.

PRASHAD WIN MAKES ME CHEERFUL

Graham writes.....Blogs should be filled with universal good news and this post has some bad to balance the good. we have had marathon run at the business. Since August we won slightly more work than we lost, then this week Rok plc went under - I am owed £7k and lost a significant contract. If I hadn't done the hard work to win the new contracts it would have been terrible, as it is we'll be fine. I'm just angry that a relatively small supplier (recognition) was not paid for three months and the money is lost. The CEO apologised personally. For other clients it means I'll be extra focussed on collecting outstanding monies more quickly.

However, to balance this, the day after this news we made the list for four new pitches and one of our most reliable clients - Wensleydale Creamery made it to the finals of HSBC business thinking competition.

But nothing beats having a new client that everybody gets ethusiastic about, this is the case with Prashad Restuarant in Bradford. This family owned Asain Vegatarian establishment made the finals of the Gordon Ramsey Best Restaurant show on Channel 4. In my view they won the programme, coming across as skilled, fun and authentic (just the type of place I like to dine) but were pipped to the title. Caroline Walker has been working on this new account and is bubbling with enthusiasm. So lots of reasons to be cheerful.

Graham writes……it has been an eventful few weeks at Recognition. Firstly, I have completed a deal with Frances that sees her exit the business to follow some exciting new challenges in her career. Next, I have promoted three talented people to join me in the partnership: Caroline Walker who specialises in crisis management; Jamie Collis who gives so many of our clients access to top national media spots; and Paul White who has developed new ways of working in the new media environment. The results have been brilliant – we have won four new clients including the renowned Wensleydale Heifer Hotel; Beyond Digital an fascinating technology business; Prashad an Asian restaurant featured on Gordon Ramsey’s best restaurants; and Montpellier Developments a specialist developer in the healthcare sector. We are also advertising on TV with a special package to attract new smaller businesses to try our services for a one-off introductory offer see the advert in the video box. So plenty of action at the new look Recognition and thanks to all the clients who have supported me through the ownership changes.

Exciting events for Recognition clients

Graham writes...
It has been a very busy week at Recognition, with two successful key client events taking place.
On Wednesday morning, more than 50 business people from across the North East attended a regeneration executive briefing, run by two of our clients, Henderson Insurance Brokers and Constructing Excellence in the North East.
Another of our clients, John Orchard of Marchday Group plc, which owns Lingfield Point business park, and Michael Dowson or PD Ports delivered exclusive insights into future plans.
This was followed on Thursday evening by the third DURHAMGATE Business Forum, held at Thorn Lighting’s spectacular Academy of Light.
Special guest Lord Shipley spoke to a 60-strong audience about the future of the North East, LEPs and the need to compete economically with city regions such as Greater Manchester and Leeds, in the context of the Coalition Government.
Attendees were also treated to an update on the future of Durham Gate, which has just launched its new website at www.durhamgate.com.