O Communications News

O.tv launched!

2010-09-14T03:33:00.000-07:00

Our new blog has arrived at o-communications.tv we'll be closing this blog down soon so to find out what's happening behind the scenes at the North East's PR Agency of the year 2009/10 drop by at O.tv.../

HOWAY 5-O!

2010-08-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

O Communications celebrates its fifth birthday this month. From its baby steps, we've survived the toddler years and are up and running with great big strides!

Looking back over the last five years we have delivered some fantastic PR campaigns for a wide range of business and consumer clients all over the UK, and picked up a few awards along the way.

We've enjoyed this last year as the CIPR's "Outstanding Agency" 2009/10, pushing our capabilities further with the expansion of our content division embedding video and podcast alongside our brand communications expertise.

Big shout out to the outstanding O team, who are all great fun to work with. And to our clients, without them we would not be here and with whom we are proud to be friends and partners.

Thanks to the UK media (our number one client) and to all the friends who've helped us along the way.

End of Oscars speech....

Howay the lads, PR is alive and kicking in Newcastle!

WORLD CUP IN A WAREHOUSE

2010-06-28T07:58:00.001-07:00

On a sunny afternoon in the buzzing creative hub that is Hoults Yard Byker, O Communications joined forces with Muckle LLP and UBS to distract the business community from their day jobs and engage in a spot of 'networking'. Thanks to a 16ft screen, a hog roast and the Baghdaddies for entertainment the event quickly became the hot ticket in town with over 400 people attending.

Not one to forget our friends in the media, the region's newsrooms must have been eerily empty as everyone from news reporters and magazine editors, to picture desk snappers and national correspondents came out for a spot of sun - and an England goal to boot. The relaxed event even saw guests vox-popped by the BBC Look North TV crews and Brian Moore and the Metro FM team broadcasting live from the event all afternoon.

Press coverage started with the evening TV news bulletins and ran for days in the region's print titles. Connections were made, everyone forgot about their worries and possibly even a bit of business was done.

The only question now is what is the next event we can lay on to beat that! Watch this space...

STUDENTS TURN UP THE HEAT WITH PR AWARD

2010-06-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

AS part of our commitment to nurturing young talent, we awarded a group of Tyneside students for their ingenious use of PR and marketing within their own Young Enterprise company last night.

O Communications has been a supporter of Young Enterprise North East for the past five years, and we created our own award category for this year’s annual Regional Final event, where students who have set up their own company battle it out to be named Company of the Year.

O Communications chief executive Kari Owers presented the PR and Marketing Award to Cookii Doh- a company set up by a group of year 10 students from John Spence Community High School in North Shields, which designs and produces t-shirts and hoodies with bespoke graphics for teenagers.

As a result of its marketing activity, Cookii Doh is already in talks with Cramlington-based men’s clothing company The Officers Club and is exploring possibilities with high street clothes retailer Next plc and play.com.

As part of their prize we will host a PR master-class for all the school’s Young Enterprise Company Programme students in the new academic year.

O Communications chief executive Kari Owers said: “The Cookii Doh team impressed me from the moment I approached their trade stand.

“Good PR is about being able to sell your idea in the first 30 seconds and they did just that – their branding, presentation, press coverage, advertising campaign, promotional ideas - such as selling hoodies to raise funds for the Haiti disaster - and their evident passion for the marketing of their business was infectious.

“The standard of their creative thought process was knockout for such young people, they had left no stone unturned in marketing their company to their target audiences, attracting partnerships and squeezing every last drop of knowledge out of the Young Enterprise experience.”

The YENE Company of the Year Award went to BrightLife Books, a company set up by year 12 students from Newcastle Church High School, after producing two paperback books, 'Ronnie the Runner bean' and 'Sunny the Sunflower' with a global environment and healthy eating theme aimed at children aged three - 11.

The books come with sunflower seeds so children can grow their own plants and a ‘Wheel of Good Health’ placemat to teach children about eating healthily.

BrightLife Books will now represent the North East at the National Final in London this July.

The other two finalist companies that were judged on the day include, Smarty Pants, a company set up by students from Teesside High School, that produces quality audio CD revision guides and online resources for the GCSE science market, and Munchkins, launched by a group of year 12 business and textile students from The English Martyrs School & Sixth Form College in Hartlepool, who produce personalised aprons and recipe books for children.

EVEN THE STIG LOVES THE 'O'

2010-03-19T08:24:00.001-07:00

O Team Gemma and Chrissie do the 'O' with The Stig

Last night, we launched the new BMW 5 Series at Newcastle’s Fawdington dealership by transforming the show room into a glitzy and glamorous venue.

We saw some fantastic catwalk fashion by Fenwick, sampled some amazing cocktails and enjoyed an unbelievable taste sensation thanks to the canapés by Terry Laybourne (who was actually hands on, in his whites behind the scenes!).

After dancing away to the soulful sound of The Crosby Brothers’ band, we got very competitive on the Top Gear style simulators.

Even the Stig turned up to mingle with the guests and of course, we got snapped with him ‘loving the O’!

Hosted by Kim Inglis, the charity auction and generosity of guests raised almost £4000 for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation – a cause that is close to many of our hearts. We were fortunate enough to welcome Sir Bobby’s son, Andrew Robson, on stage who said a few words about working full time with the charity in place of his late Father.

The generous donations for the auction came from sponsors including M Steel Cycles, Cafe 21, Richard Sinton’s Jewellers, Jesmond Dene House, Close House, Fenwick, Bodyguards and, of course, Fawdington BMW.

The evening was a great success and it just goes to show that with a little creativity and hard work you can convert a busy car show room into a top class event.

O COMMUNICATIONS BUILDS ON SUCCESS WITH HOUSEBUILDER WIN

2010-01-18T04:00:00.000-08:00

A still from Miller Homes current TV campaign.

NEWCASTLE creative agency O Communications is building on its success at the recent CIPR Awards by announcing this week it has won the Miller Homes PR account in the North East.

O Communications was named the region’s Outstanding Consultancy of the Year at the CIPR Awards in November 2009.

Now Scotland-based national housebuilder Miller Homes has appointed the creative agency after a three-way pitch to handle all its press and PR activity across the North East region, where it currently has nine developments from Tees Valley up to Northumberland.

Miller Homes’ regional sales director for the North East, Debbie Dunthorne, said: “We were looking for a PR partner that could work alongside Miller Homes as we enter an exciting new phase as the market begins to move forwards, and the team at O Communications not only had many innovative new ideas but have the award-winning track record to deliver the results we are after.”

O Communications is preparing to support Miller Homes’ national PR activity in its 75th anniversary year by focussing on affordable ways to move in 2010 such as the HomeBuy Direct scheme and Miller’s part exchange options.

The win is a significant addition to the agency’s growing property sector portfolio which includes Quorum, the UK’s biggest speculative business park and Space architecture group.

O Communications managing director Kari Owers said: “We are delighted to be appointed by another national client for our on-the-ground media expertise in the region.

“Our creative energy was cited as the deciding factor to join forces, and we are very much looking forward to working with a forward-thinking and innovative company like Miller Homes.”

November marked the beginning of year-long celebrations for Miller Homes as it reaches the milestone of 75 years in business. Still a privately-owned family business since it was first established as James Miller & Partners in the East of Scotland in 1934, it has now built over 75,000 new homes and grown to be a major UK housebuilder. It is a pioneer in affordable, environmentally-friendly housing and won the ‘Best Zero Carbon Initiative’ for its Miller Zero eco-home at the Housebuilding Innovation Awards.

O Communications has an eight-strong team at its converted pottery offices in Ouseburn Valley. It offers all aspects of modern day communications from PR and media relations to social media and video production, events, design and marketing communications.

O is a golden twit!

2010-01-15T03:07:00.000-08:00

O Communications has been awarded two gongs at the Golden Twits awards in London, for its use of Twitter.

Commended in both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer categories, O Communications was ranked in the glittering awards alongside Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne and TV’s The Meerkat.

The inaugural year for the awards that celebrate the most effective, funny, unusual and informative Tweeters from around the world, the Golden Twits asked Twitter users for their recommendations the their favourite people to follow.

Kari Owers, MD (Twitterer in residence) at O Communications, said: “O has been into Twitter from the very beginning; we make it our business to know what social networks are emerging and use them widely for both ourselves and our clients.

“My Tweets range from what’s going on within the agency, the global media scene, our client campaigns and sometimes my own ramblings....I was quite amazed to find out we’d won at the Golden Twits and my followers have gone through the roof since. Oh the pressure to be even more interesting now...!”

Other winners at the Golden Twits included The Carphone Warehouse, Miller Homes, Channel4Homes, KeepBritainTidy and Amnesty International.

Follow Kari on www.twitter.com/ocommunications.

2009-11-09T06:33:00.000-08:00

YOUNG BLOOD ‘O COMMUNICATIONS’ WIN CIPR PRIDE AWARDS 2009

FAST expanding PR firm O Communications is feeling proud as punch after being named Outstanding PR Consultancy of the Year at the CIPR North East PRide Awards on Friday night (Nov 6).

The four year old communications agency took away the top honour at the NewcastleGateshead Hilton, with judges praising its hard work in “talent development, their culture of innovation and enjoyment of work”.

The growing firm, based in Ouseburn, Newcastle, also came home with the Best Not-for-Profit title and a silver award for Best use of Photography and Design for Young Enterprise North East’s One Day campaign and silver for Best Use of Social Media.

The judges said: “Established in 2005, O Communications has grown rapidly, to become one of the region’s most highly respected and creative PR agencies. O’s client base is a representation of business throughout the North-East. They work hard at talent development, their culture of innovation and enjoyment of work.”

The CIPR PRide Awards are hotly contested and recognise creativity, planning and outstanding execution of PR campaigns. It is the only awards scheme which showcases the best PR work being carried out across the UK regions and nations.

O Communications is run by 36 year-old Kari Owers, and employs eight people at its converted pottery offices in the burgeoning creative quarter of Ouseburn.

O Communications managing director Kari Owers said: “To win this coveted award so early in our journey, and in a year of country-wide recession, proves that clients are seeking young, hungry and innovative PR agencies to deliver new ways of thinking and make their brands stand out.

“We are delighted to have been recognised by the CIPR for doing something different, and look forward to using the award as a basis to grow further in the next year.”

The firm represents a wide range of top north east businesses, in sectors such as retail and leisure, arts and culture, technology, process industries, skills, education and enterprise. It is known for its work for organisations such as the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and Young Enterprise North East, and was this year appointed to represent Enterprise UK in the region; promoting Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Since the appointment of former The Journal commercial property editor Rebekah Ashby to the team last year, it has also grown a strong portfolio in property and construction, including England’s biggest speculative business park, Quorum.

Innovations such as Ovolution, its social media arm, have helped the creative communications agency pioneer online PR campaign delivery, having recently won a major contract to deliver video case studies for the science industries across the UK. Its team includes two video journalists, blog writers and in-house design studio allow O’s clients to embrace the growth of media channels such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Sally Keith, Chair of CIPR North East said: “A CIPR PRide Award is a hallmark of professionalism and success – it identifies, recognises and rewards the outstanding achievements of those working in the PR industry outside of London. To win a CIPR PRide Award is a tremendous achievement and I congratulate all of this year’s winners.”

ENDS

PR FIRM HEADLINES ITS SUPPORT FOR GREEN BRITAIN DAY

2009-07-10T01:21:00.000-07:00

Team O become Team Green for the day

A Newcastle-based PR agency is doing its bit for the first ever Green Britain Day which takes places on Friday July 10th.

To mark Green Britain Day staff at O Communications are joining ‘Team Green’ by picking one of its simple choices to make a difference; they are organising a Team-Swap of unwanted clothes and accessories.

With six girls willing to share their wardrobes, the only male member of staff design director Robin Owers is also doing his bit by picking the ‘Team A to B’ option and giving up his car to cycle a 25 mile round trip to the firm’s Ouseburn Valley offices once a week.

Green Britain Day is organised by Team Green Britain which aims to make Britain a leader in the race against climate change by 2012. A host of green events will be going on up and down the country on July 10th including Team Big Lunches, Team Swaps and Eco Teams.

Managing director Kari Owers said: “The Team Swap seemed like the ideal way for the O Communications girls to have fun, save money and highlight a ‘greener’ way of shopping. Rob, being the only man in the office didn’t have a swapping partner so he’s opted for the green commute to work.

“As a company we were already reviewing our environmental policy to aim to be more eco-friendly, so being part of Green Britain Day came at the perfect time. It is also a great community morale booster as it’s all about bringing people together.”

For further information go to: www.teamgreenbritain.org

Follow us on Twitter (where our logo will turn green for the day too) on www.twitter.com/ocommunications.

Media contact: Kari Owers or Gemma Clarke on 0191 232 5690.

SETTING A MODEL EXAMPLE

2009-06-03T03:33:00.000-07:00

O Communications sponsored 18 year-old Meryem Hartshorn throughout the Miss Sunderland 2009 competition.

O Communications has supported an aspiring model through Miss Sunderland 2009.

After being commissioned to handle the PR to re-launch the competition, which has been absent from the region for several years, the communications agency decided to become a sponsor and back 18 year-old Meryem Hartshorn from Cramlington.

Finalist Meryem battled it out in front of a judging panel consisting of ‘Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend’ finalist Emma Beard, Amazon and Warrior from Sky 1’s Gladiators, Serenity in the City owner Jocelyn Maxfield and award winning celebrity hair stylist Neville Ramsay of Ramsay & Johnson.

The two month intensive PR campaign generated over £33,000 of press coverage as well a series of radio interviews for the Miss Sunderland contest, and secured several key sponsors, including the Sunderland Echo.

O Communications’ managing director Kari Owers said: “The Miss Sunderland campaign has been great fun and the press coverage received was fantastic.

“In addition to sponsoring the competition, we wanted to back one of the girls and support her through the competition. We thought Meryem was a great choice as she was very attractive and is an ambitious and clever local student.

“We were all there cheering her on in the final and although she didn’t win, she did us very proud.”

The winner of Miss Sunderland 2009 was Alexandra Devine from Stockton who walked away with a modelling contract and portfolio with AM Models, the use of an Audi Cabriolet for one week and beauty treatments from Serenity in the City. She will also appear on the front page of Accent magazine.

PR FIRM HASN’T WRITTEN GRADUATES OFF

2009-03-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

GRADUATES are set to face the toughest job hunt in 20 years but O Communications is continuing its commitment to young talent. Despite reports that thousands of graduate level jobs have been cut in the last year, award winning O Communications has pledged to carry on investing in graduates.

As part of the company’s commitment to young talent, owner and managing director Kari Owers has continued to offer budding public relations professionals the opportunity to complete internships, which could lead to full graduate training programmes.

She said: “We offer internships as they are a fantastic way to prepare undergraduates for the world of work, whilst giving us a new talent stream for the business. With changes in PR such as the onset of social media, it is also often young people that are bringing new ideas into the company that can have sound commercial sense.

“I look for commitment and a passionate attitude when I recruit, and all too often a graduate leaves entering a workplace for the first time until they have their graduation cap in their hand. By opening our doors to an annual intern, and a series of short placements, I hope to be able to give some local young people the added edge on their CV when they come to job-hunting.”

Jerri Murtagh, 22, who joined O Communications full time after graduating from Sunderland University last summer, said: “I began working at O Communications after seeing a poster asking for a PR student to work part-time during the final year of their degree. It was a great opportunity to be their first intern as it is often hard to find an ongoing placement while studying.

“I was delighted when I was asked to join the agency full-time on the graduate training scheme when I graduated, which will see me fast tracked to an Account Executive position.”

Janelle Hardacre, 19, has recently joined the team part-time whilst studying for her degree at Newcastle University. She said: “I am so happy to have the opportunity of an internship at O Communications. I really want to work in PR after I graduate and seeing how far some of their team have developed their careers after leaving university is great motivation.

“I would advise every undergraduate to do some kind of work experience as you learn so much about working in a professional environment and it makes you much more employable in the future.”

O Communications was named the CIPR silver North East Outstanding Consultancy of the Year at Pride Awards 2008 and ‘One of 10 to Watch’ in the UK creative scene by The Drum magazine in January 2009. The Ouseburn-based agency specialises in PR and brand communications, social media campaigns and events.

PR COMPANY HELPS BUSINESSES O-VOLVE

2009-02-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

O Communications, the Newcastle-based public relations agency behind some of the region’s top business profiles, has launched a range of new media packages called Ovolution.

Launching today via its social media websites, including its own YouTube channel, Ovolution is designed to help North East companies revolutionise their dialogue with customers and embrace the world of social media and Online PR.

Already in high demand with the agency’s current clients, the services range from creating a popular blog that attracts a following to creating a Facebook or MySpace page for a business. O Communications will alsodesign and populate its own YouTube channel for video news and creating entire online media rooms for businesses large or small.

Kari Owers, managing director of O Communications said: “We’ve known for some time that we wanted to integrate more new media services to our PR campaigns, as it’s clear that this is the way that the modern business world is going.

“Newspapers, TV and radio are all heading online, citing their web presence as of equal importance to their future as their offline products. Reporters are now MMJs (multi-media journalists), breaking news is more commonly watched on a computer than a telly and companies can now produce and share their own TV channels.

“Web video, VNRs (video news releases), blogging and vlogging, podcasting, vodcasting, social networking, online newsrooms and webcasts - the potential to reach your customers has never been more exciting.”

As well as its in-house capabilities that includes two highly trained video journalists, a top blog writer and in-house web design function for building social media sites, O Communications has even drafted in the help of ITV personality Kim Inglis, to provide any voiceover work on the in-house produced videos and podcasts if required and to deliver media training for camera-shy business owners.

“For business owners not sure where to start, we’re offering a free online PR training session if they feel they would like one, demonstrating how we have already helped clients branch out and reach customers online,” added Kari.

To watch the Ovolution launch video news release logo onto www.youtube.com/user/ovolutiontube -or- www.myspace.com/ocommunications from 12 noon on Monday 9th February.

O Comms is on Cloud 9 with youth summit project win

2009-01-19T02:47:00.000-08:00

On the final day of Enterprise Week 2008 (Friday 21st November 2008), award winning PR agency O Communications got behind the biggest ever youth summit to arrive in the North East, that will take place at Rainton Meadows Arena on 25th February 2009.

O Communications was appointed to gather young people and enterprise representatives from across the region to launch the summit, named ‘Cloud 9’ and graffiti artist entrepreneur Graham Cleland, performed a street art ‘guerrilla graffiti’ demo where he designed the logo design live in the car park of Emmanuel College, Gateshead.

Cloud 9 promises to be the biggest conference of its kind the region has seen with more than 1,000 young people expected to take part. The event will be hosted by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, The Prince’s Trust, Make Your Mark, Young Enterprise, North East Enterprise Bond and One North East.

It will offer a unique blend of inspiration and practical support based on personal experience from a lineup of inspirational speakers including star of TV’s The Apprentice Tre Azam.

The summit will also include a Young Enterprise trading area, displays of enterprise projects from the region, interactive speakers’ corners with young entrepreneurs willing to share their skills and stories, a Live Challenge and live street art workshops.

Kari Owers managing director of O Communications said: “Supporting youth enterprise is at the heart of our work ethics here at O Communications. Over the years, we have worked with several large and small enterprise bodies to create award-winning campaigns. We are delighted to have been appointed to take lead on the media relations for the biggest enterprise youth summit to take place in the North East and will be set to ensure that this event is a success in inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

Kari is a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and online at www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk.

Fast growing agency takes PRide in awards success

2008-11-18T02:57:00.000-08:00

NEWCASTLE PR firm O Communications is celebrating another year of growth by winning five accolades at the North East PRide Awards held by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

Only one year after O Communications won the ‘Outstanding Small Consultancy’ award it leapt into the ‘agency of the year’ category winning the silver award, plus it picked up two gold awards for its work for Space Group and Signposter.com, and two further silver awards for the Prince’s Trust Challenge Trophy media relations campaign.

Managing director, Kari Owers said: “Being named the silver award winner in North East’s ‘Outstanding Consultancy’ category just one year after being named the best Small Consultancy is staggering. We have had a year of consistent growth in 2008, both in staff numbers, but also in new account wins and successful existing client growth.

“We now work for a significant snapshot of the North East’s most entrepreneurial businesses, awareness campaigns and lifestyle companies and are delighted especially to have won the gold Corporate Communications and Business and Trade awards as creative business-to-business PR is our biggest area of expertise.

“We hope to build on this success into 2009 with the announcement of more people to our team, and new service offerings in line with the changing communications landscape.”

CIPR judges commented on O Communications by saying, “A dynamic, very together and focused agency that knows where it's going and is determined to have fun on the way. The personality of O Communications shines through and its contribution to the regional community is considerable. No wonder clients are flocking to it.”

For further information contact Kari Owers, O Communications on 0191 232 5690 or go to www.o-communications.co.uk.

Promoting a Culture of Success

2008-04-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

A Newcastle PR and design firm that helps many of this region’s business promote their success stories has scooped its own recognition at the Culture for Success awards last night.

O Communications was Highly Commended at the awards, designed to recognise those companies which have built a successful culture and have contributed to the regional economy.

Now in its fifth year, the awards attracted dozens of entries, from which the judges drew up a short-list of six.

This was done on the basis of performance in six areas: personnel, customer service, technology, financial performance, winning business and being part of the region.

O Communications was commended for its approach to staff development and its culture of success has allowed it to grow to become a leading light in the local PR scene in less than three years, having already won the ‘Outstanding Small Consultancy’ accolade at the North East PRide awards in November.

In its two and a half years of trading it has demonstrated great commitment to its personnel and to customer service, by introducing a wide range of innovative new practices to encourage client growth and retention, as well as nurture and encourage emerging young talent.

Managing director Kari Owers said: “We are thrilled our unique approach has been recognised as we work hard to ensure we do things differently, from how we treat the press and look after our clients, to how we instil a culture of creativity and success among our workforce.

“PR is important to communicate the successes happening right here in the North East via the media, and we believe its impact goes a long way to encouraging other businesses to raise their game, or new companies to have a go at starting or growing a business themselves. More positive role models breed a culture for success, and we are delighted our passion for this has been recognised.”

Other winners on the night were John Lewis, Darlington Building Society, Muckle, Frank Haslam Milan and Explain Research.

O Communications is based in the creative regeneration area of Ouseburn, Newcastle and employs seven staff.