O COMMUNICATIONS BUILDS ON SUCCESS WITH HOUSEBUILDER WIN

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!

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.