Of course we could! This was one project we could really get our teeth into!
Gnaw launched in Norfolk in 2011. Now these premium chocolate bars and treats are available all across the UK and in 23 faraway countries. We devised a video to launch their new Chocolate & Granola Bars – with the focus on the delicious ingredients.
Our colourful concept involved stop motion animation. Fortunately there is a 24 hour McDonalds close to our studio as Emma & Alice found themselves working late into the evening thanks to the painstaking animation process. Basically…
Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot. Make some tiny movements, take a shot… you get the idea!
The shoot required a lot of precision. We even had to slice the orange segments very finely and cover the back in greaseproof paper to ensure no juice leaked on to our specially painted wood backgrounds! Meticulous. But hey the results were worth it!
Oh and Gnaw very kindly let us keep all the leftover chocolate! Yum yum!
If you are looking to promote a product or service with video content, give us a call on 01603 811855, we’d love to work with you!
Kicking off their ‘better taste, less waste’ campaign signalling a revolution in pet-food packaging, Naturediet unveiled their vibrant environmentally conscious packaging at PATS Telford 2018.
The centre-piece of their PATS presence, we knew the importance of the eco-conscious Tetra Pak containers and partnered with Farrows Design, ensured this formed an integral part of Naturediet’s event from design to build. With advantages in ease of transportation, reduced waste, a lower carbon footprint, smaller CO2 emissions and not least leaving plastic behind, there was plenty to shout…or rather bark about. To draw attention to the big impact of this little package, we created a bespoke big-brother Tetra Pak, proudly welcoming visitors to the show and sign-posting to the array of products waiting on the stand!
Embodying their environmental efforts within the event, we worked closely to reuse and repurpose components of our previous projects with Naturediet to maximum effect. With bold type and rich colouring, the packaging paired brilliantly with the crisp white brick and natural wood tones of the stand. Integrated lighting ensured a consistently bright welcoming space, with bespoke display stands offering up 360° views of the products to visitors. Adapting these displays with custom product holders ensured a snug uniform fit, for maximum impact. Meanwhile clean back-lit branding displayed the Naturediet logo, with their promise of ‘the finest food – naturally’ arguably taking on new meaning with this launch.
An industry battling wastage & the challenge of good environmental practice in fast paced often transient events, we were delighted to play a part in Naturediet’s pioneering campaign as we are further inspired to deliver better events, with less waste.
If you like this story, check out more great content here. Planning your own exhibition or event? From product launches & specialist trade shows to conferences and brand experiences, we want our clients to ‘expect extraordinary’ nothing less.
Get in touch today to see how we can help you achieve your events success!
BUILD SHARE THE SECRETS OF CSR – Congratulations to Jess and Ali from Norwich PR Company, Jet Social for organising tonight’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) “Speed Dating” event for businesses and charities at Beluga where BUILD Chief Executive, James Kearns shared experience of working in partnership with business for mutual reward.
LazyLawn® seeks landscapers for licence opportunity as company grows
LazyLawn® is searching for business people, landscapers and home improvement firms in various areas to join its growing team, as the UK’s biggest artificial grass brand looks to train exclusive local licensed installers.
After recently being awarded Which? Trusted Trader’ status, LazyLawn® needs professional licensees to add to its professional network of accredited installers. Installing at iconic locations such as Center Parcs, Canary Warf, Liverpool One and Hilton Hotel, LazyLawn® is trusted throughout the UK, and has also installed for many celebrities including Sam Bailey, Amanda Holden, and The Real Housewives of Cheshire’s Ward family.
The increasingly popular brand LazyLawn® supplies over 10,000 gardens with artificial grass in the UK every year, with demand increasing by over 20% in the last 12 months. Offering a comprehensive range of artificial grass, plus new products LazyResin® and LazyBorders™, LazyLawn® is looking for the perfect licensees to take on lucrative areas as it seeks to expand.
Amanda Ford became a LazyLawn® licensee in 2013 with her husband Hayden. Amanda commented: “Becoming a LazyLawn® licensee is the best thing our company has ever done. “We were asked by a customer to install an artificial lawn and we thought this could be a great avenue to explore further. We were blown away by the quality of grass LazyLawn® offered. “Having the LazyLawn® brand, PR team, marketing team and technical people behind us was the support and guidance we needed and within two years we were crowned LazyLawn® Licensee of the year!”
Andy Driver from LazyLawn® said: “Demand for our products is growing extremely fast and we are on the lookout for new members for the team. “This is the ideal opportunity for those wanting to develop an existing landscaping business, with full training and support provided for each appointed licensee. “With the introduction of new products and many awards won, we are excited about adding to the team to offer every area of the UK the LazyLawn® experience.”
The successful licensee will benefit from full training and technical support, preferential prices, the right to use the LazyLawn® name and trade mark, access to marketing materials and much more.
The Maids Head Hotel was delighted to host the Grand Norwich Duck Race Auction of large painted ducks on Thursday 20 September. We are very pleased to announce that we managed a successful bid to buy Edith, our racing duck, for the hotel.
Masterminded by auctioneer Elliot Symonds, the evening raised £4000 for Break, an inspirational Norfolk based charity which supports young people, children and families in need.
Edith, who raced in the Grand Norwich Duck Race on 26 August, is a tribute to Edith Cavell; this year is the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the Edith Cavell monument in Tombland and the opening of the former Edith Cavell Home for District Nurses (now part of the Maids Head).
Spire Solicitors LLP is pleased to welcome Protima Sikdar-Wood as Partner at Spire Solicitors LLP, joining the Norwich Commercial Property team.
Protima is an experienced Commercial Property solicitor, with a particular interest in the not for profit sector. Having qualified in 2005, Protima went on to work at Morrisons Solicitors LLP in London where she oversaw the Not for Profit Sector of the Firm.
Protima deals with general commercial property work which includes secured lending, commercial property development transactions and investment portfolios. She works closely with charities and other not-for-profit sectors in connection with their real estate assets and also will be working with the firm’s Corporate and Commercial team dealing with the property aspects of joint ventures and the acquisition and disposal of businesses.
In addition to her legal work at Spire Solicitors LLP, Protima is a Trustee of Emmaus Lambeth, a charity whose mission is to work together to overcome homelessness and exclusion.
Following her appointment, Protima commented: “I am delighted to be joining Spire and to be working in the Norwich office, as part of the Commercial Property team. The firm has shown large growth in the last 5 years and I am confident my skill set and practice interests will be beneficial to the growth strategy, continuing to solidify Spire Solicitors LLP as one of the most recognised law firms in the area.”
James Knight, CEO, commented: “Protima has a wealth of experience alongside an impressive track record in high-value transactions and will be a continued asset to our highly regarded Commercial Property Department, which is now one of the largest specialist teams acting on commercial property matters in Norfolk.”
Norwich based website design agency, Bigfork, were appointed to design the new website for solar PV company, Absolute Renewable Energy. The new site’s main objective was to produce enquiries and the design included appealing images, strong calls to action and informative content to help achieve these targets. Using their successful website design process, Bigfork’s work made sure the new website looks great and works as an effective marketing tool. Bigfork are leading SilverStripe CMS developers (a powerful and easy to use content management system) and this was used on the Absolute website, giving them control over the website’s content.
World-class data centre MIGSOLV has partnered with data networking expert Next Connex to provide customers with unprecedented access to Jisc’s super-fast Janet Network.
The UK’s national research and education network, Janet, has more than 18 million users in colleges, universities and research centres, who utilise it to connect to the internet and securely share information. MIGSOLV’s connection with Next Connex will provide rare access to Janet for other public-sector and commercial organisations.
“We’re pleased to be working with Next Connex to offer such an opportunity.” said David Manning, Managing Director at MIGSOLV. “The Janet Network opens up a vast new marketplace for businesses who provide secure online services. As we provide enhanced connectivity to more than 250 carriers, this super-fast network is another great service for our world-class data centre.”
Outside the education sector, the Janet Network is widely used by public and third sector organisations, including government departments and scientific bodies. For similar organisations like charities and NGOs, connecting to it can provide a way to create relationships, share information and become involved in national and international programmes. As part of the Government’s digital-first strategy, the Janet Network may provide commercial companies with a secure way to supply their online products and services to otherwise hard-to-reach public sector customers.
“Our joint connection offers customers access to a high quality and resilient network that’s used to support the best in UK research and innovation.” said Richard Auld, Commercial Director of Next Connex. “We’re delighted to be helping MIGSOLV provide such an opportunity through their top-class facilities.”
Next Connex design, build and support bespoke high-performance network infrastructure and specialise in integrated data networking and hosting solutions. MIGSOLV’s Gatehouse in Norwich is a world-class data centre which houses and protects data and hardware for organisations in sectors including IT, energy and cryptocurrencies. The partnership will allow customers to quickly obtain a dedicated high-speed link to the Janet Network through MIGSOLV facilities.
For more information call 01603 510323 or visit www.migsolv.com
The whole team at Tudor Lodge Consultants are delighted to announce that we are working with the Transparent Umbrella Company on their new website. With the introduction of new employment rights legislation by the government, covering England and Wales, it is more important than ever that freelancers and contractors ensure they and their respective employers are up to date with IR35 laws and legislation.
We are working with the Transparent Umbrella Company on their online positioning, using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques, their lead generation, website performance and development and online offering to workers, recruiters and contractors alike. There have been a number of challenges with their website.
The Challenges
The Transparent Umbrella Company’s previous website (which we started with) was developed abroad and was not designed to be ranked on Google and other UK search engines. This posed the challenge that the entire build and nature of the website needed upheaval. However, aware of the interruption to a business’ online presence that an entire new site can cause, we worked with the development team at the Transparent Umbrella Company to ensure minimal interruption.
Furthermore, the site, having been around and live for a number of months, was not ranking on Google at all and this meant that we needed to address both the build and the content of the website as well as how content was presented to Google and other search engine ‘spiders’ which crawl websites.
What We Have Achieved
We designed a new website design within the confines of the branding and business goals of the Transparent Umbrella Company. The new website is fully responsive, supportive of content, media and user engagements; unlike the old website. Furthermore, the new Transparent Umbrella website has more useful information than ever and provides contractors, recruiters and workers with all the information they need to sign up to the Transparent Umbrella Company.
Furthermore, the website is now SEO and Google friendly and this means that it is being ranked for various high-value terms including ‘umbrella company.’ This has all been achieved through the use of clean and efficient SEO techniques and practices which we are continuing, to a great degree of success.
How We are Achieving Success
Having picked up the Transparent Umbrella Company’s old website, we undertook a number of SEO-focused actions and activities alongside the various in-house marketing teams they possess. This has included:
Responsive Website Design – The new website is focused on user experience, information and allowing interactions with the brand which means that the website is now fit for purpose and users can easily convert to a lead for the Transparent Umbrella Company.
Meta Data – One of the most important factors when it comes to SEO, the meta data is one of the first aspects that search engines crawl to determine where pages should rank. We therefore updated all of the meta data on the Transparent Umbrella website to make it more focused, relevant and SEO-friendly, which has already boosted rankings for the website.
Website Content – The Transparent Umbrella Company website was previously almost devoid of content. However, we have undertaken a strong and effective content strategy to ensure that there is both relevant and optimised content across the website in various forms. This allows users to engage with the site in a variety of ways. The website now plays host to content that includes landing pages, useful information and core navigation pages such as contact and about pages.
How Our Work Has Improved Rankings
Since beginning our work with the Transparent Umbrella Company, they have seen themselves go from not ranking at all to ranking for more than a dozen relevant and important terms organically. Climbing up the rankings and improving n an almost daily basis, we look forward to continuing to build on the progress with the Transparent Umbrella Company for the future.
Howes Percival’s employment law experts are advising employers to ensure that they are aware of the forthcoming changes to employment law that may affect their businesses.
In particular, a new fee regime for the submission of employment tribunal claims, is due to be implemented on 29 July 2013. Under the new fee system, like in the civil courts, a claimant will be required to pay a fee (or provide an application for fee remission against that fee) to present an employment tribunal claim, as well as a further fee if the claim proceeds to a full tribunal hearing.
Also in the pipeline is the introduction of a new type of employment status, from 1 September 2013, which will provide for an “employee shareholder” to be awarded shares in their employer, in exchange for giving up certain of their employment rights, including the right to unfair dismissal (except for automatically unfair dismissal protection) and the right to a statutory redundancy payment.
Harriet Howes and Nicola Butterworth will be discussing these reforms, and the potential impact they may have on local businesses, at the forthcoming Chamber of Commerce HR Forum on 25 June 2013 at Dunston Hall. The session will also look at the tax implications of paying in lieu of notice and practical pointers for managing redundancies.
Police have issued a warning to businesses to be vigilant to cold callers following two incidents in Norfolk and Suffolk. It comes after a company based in Harleston, Norfolk received a call on Monday 17 September from someone claiming to be ‘Sergeant Mark Shepherd’ from Suffolk Police and asked to speak with the director. He then stated he ‘was doing a campaign involving going into schools and talking about safety issues and requesting sponsorship’. When the call recipient declined, the caller put the phone down. On Wednesday 26 September a company based in Hadleigh, Suffolk received a similar call from someone claiming to be ‘Mark Shepherd’. He stated he was from the media department of the police and was asking for charity donations. When challenged he stated he was a freelancer and provided an invalid phone number. Later in the day a further call was received from a man to a sister company which shares the same address and was answered by the same member of staff. The man was challenged after he repeated his request to speak to a director and he then gave his name as ‘Steven Gerrard’ before the call was ended. Officers have this advice: Never give out personal information about your bank account to anybody over the phone. If someone calls claiming to be a police officer, ask for their identification number and police force. Hang up and call 101 using a different phone. If you can’t use a different phone, wait at least five minutes before calling back. A genuine police officer will not mind waiting while you check. Police and banks will never ask you to give out personal details such as account numbers or PIN numbers. If you have given out information which could compromise your bank account security in any way, call your bank to cancel your cards as soon as possible. Never hand over money to someone at the door to be sent off elsewhere. Anyone with concerns about such calls should contact Norfolk Police on the non-emergency number 101 or 999 if a crime is in progress. Alternatively, contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.
Cold Calling Alert – Cold callers offering to sharpen and coat blades and tools – 27 September 2018
Businesses need to be aware of cold callers visiting premises offering to sharpen and coat tools and blades. This follows an incident where a member of staff at a company was approached by individuals offering this service quoting a price ‘per unit’. The cold caller also offered a free sample of the service which was accepted. Following this an agreement for a number of items to be sharpened and coated was agreed. Since then the company has been invoiced for a vastly inflated amount as the cold caller is stating the unit in the ‘per unit’ price relates to ‘per centimetre’ not ‘per item’. Always be very wary of claims made by cold callers to your premises and never agree to services, buy items or for return visits if approached in this manner. If you are looking to contract work out only deal with reputable companies you have researched and chosen yourself, and always obtain a written quotation from them in advance of the work commencing. If you receive a cold call to your business from someone offering to sharpen and coat tools or blades we would advise that you decline the offer, ask the cold caller to leave your premises and then report the incident to us via our partners the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 03454 04 05 06.
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Business Companion has advice on how to spot and avoid scams targeting businesses
Abate Pest Management has set the wheels in motion to grow a network of pest control franchises throughout the UK. The business from Morley near Wymondham is owned by husband and wife team, Jon and Jill Blake, started operating in 1999 and has grown to be a major player throughout the Eastern region working to prevent and cure pest problems.
Abate has developed a client base throughout the region servicing domestic and commercial customers including Anglian Water, Intu Shopping, Best Western Hotels, Johnston Logistics UK and Greene King. In addition to the normal wasps, fleas, mice and rat problems they also specialise in property woodworm treatment and bird proofing solutions.
The business has created a new team to roll out and manage the franchising. In addition to Jon and Jill, Neil Foley joins, who has spent 40 years in sales and business coaching and Jonathan White who has supported Abate for the past 8 years in Sales and Marketing. The business has also appointed franchise experts Morgan Blake Solutions Limited.
Jon Blake Managing Director said “We have worked extremely hard on becoming a quality company delivering a quality service. We are triple ISO accredited, a full member of the British Pest Control Association and hold Safecontractor and CHAS certification. All of this has proved to be very successful in our client growth and retention strategies. The geographical area we work in has become much larger with client activity reaching out to Essex and Hertfordshire and we often get asked if we can cover areas which are even further afield. We can now replicate our service with our standard operating processes, quality accreditations and training programmes to other areas of the UK. Franchising is a perfect solution to support our growth.”
Abate Pest Management are looking to have their first franchise in operation by January 2019 and 15 franchises by the end of the year. Jon also said “One area we are looking at for our franchise recruitment plans are current pest controllers, who want to step up, have additional support with all the legislation and accreditations and to build a business. There are currently 35,000 pest controllers in the UK!”
Photo – Left to right: Jeffrey Rafftree, David Noble, Morgan Blake Solutions Ltd. Jill Blake Director, Tracey Jeckells Senior Business Administrator, Jonathan White Director, Neil Foley Director, Jon Blake Managing Director.