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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We are the North East's 'Outstanding PR Consultancy', as voted for by the CIPR in the PRide Awards Nov 2009 and 2009's "One to Watch" in The Drum creative magazine.
We have also been named as highly commended in the Culture for Success Awards 2008 for our excellence and innovation in client servicing and staff development.
We offer publicity and PR, design and marketing communications and are well known for our entrepreneurial client base, which ranges from emerging new companies, enterprise campaigns and fast growth businesses to lifestyle clients that demonstrate everything that is good about living in the North East, from restaurants to shops and sports teams.
We are based in an award-winning converted warehouse at Woods Pottery in Ouseburn which is fast becoming Newcastle's vibrant creative quarter.
Our team are some of the North's top creative experts in PR, copywriting and design.
a: First Floor, Woods Pottery, Stepney Bank,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 2NP
t: 0191 232 5690
e: enquiries@o-communications.co.uk
Team O become Team Green for the day
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