It’s been a happy week at the Workhouse!

What with Grahams wedding, Nicky meeting the Duke of Kent, and the sun shining it’s been a happy week at the Workhouse! It’s been incredibly busy, Campo’s been doing some great work on Stax Trade Centres World Cup promotion which includes scratch cards, a giant spot the ball competition and an online fantasy football game which you can join here…. http://staxfantasyfootball.co.uk/

We’ve been doing a load of work for Lancashire Police Authority and received this nice testimonial from them recently….

I just wanted to say that  I am extremely impressed both with the quality of the work to date and the support, information and sunny dispositions that you have.  Please also pass on my thanks to both Jamie and Graham who have excelled themselves design wise and Graham in being such a good sport about donning the Bond suit!

We also got a good testimonial fom Andrew Graham for the work we’ve been doing on Youth Zone…”

Nicky, the marketing was outstanding”!

Well done to all the guys here who work on the Youth Zone project.

It’s been great to see James Warburton in the building this week as Heidi and Jamie help him with his new venture, and it’s very pleasing to be working on some nice stuff for Crown Paints with Steven and James which we presented yesterday. We’re getting excited about  The Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board Tourism Awards which is happening on Weds… we are sponsoring the Small Visitor attraction of the Year Award. Heidi, Nicky and Steven are going along to the awards to support our client (definitely not for the nice big slap up lunch)

And we’ve been busy on loads of other clients too, and met some potential new clients. Good to catch up with Rob Carder at Mid Pennine Arts, who created the fabulous Panopticons which I blogged about last week.

I go on my summer hols on Wednesday, a cruise round the Med (Nita no longer does aeroplanes!), sailing from Southampton on the new P&O liner Azura which was launched in April. Looking forward to stopping at Venice, Gibraltar, Dubrovnik, Split, Malaga and two places in Greece.

It’s a nice feeling to go off on hols knowing that we have a happy business, a growing business, and a successful business. Just hope it’s like that when I get back!!

Mark

Today Workhouse Marketing meets Royalty! (well, Nicky did)

If you’ve read this blog before you might be aware that Workhouse is helping out with a really important project which will help the young people of Blackburn. It’s called Youth Zone. Today, The Duke of Kent was in Blackburn and the team behind Youth Zone led by Andrew Graham of Graham and Brown met him and explained all about Youth Zone. Our own Youth Zone ‘hero’ Nicky Jepson also met the Duke and here are some pics…

Duke of Kent…and Nicky

Duke of Kent, Andrew Graham….and Nicky peering over shoulder.

Duke of Kent, Andrew Graham….and back of Nicky’s head

Here’s how it was reported in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph….

In a visit to the town HRH the Duke of Kent was given a presentation on the new £5million Youth Zone, which is set to be built in the town centre next year. Graham Burgess, Blackburn with Darwen Council chief executive, said: “We have shown him the fact that regeneration and cohesion is key to our future and we are proud of what is going on here.

“He said that he wants other members of his family to come here and see what is being done.”

Youngsters who are helping develop the new Blackburn Youth Zone spoke to the Duke about the project, which is to be built off Jubilee Street. The scheme, based on the highly successful Bolton Lads and Girls Club, will see a huge new facility created for hundreds of youngsters to get involved in a huge range of activities. There will even be a football pitch built on the roof.

Andrew Graham, the chairman of the scheme, said: “We told the Duke that this project can bring the community together. It could be completely life changing because it would give children somewhere to go and something to do that they really want to do.”

Dec Elliot, 16, of Roe Lee, spoke to the royal. He said: “I cannot wait for it to open. It will make a massive difference to Blackburn. We are all really excited.”

Exhibitions at Workhouse, DVD’s at Workhouse, and a welcome to some new clients at Workhouse.

Spent Saturday and a part of Sunday at the NEC in Birmingham. It was the Totally DIY/Totally Tools/Totally Secure trade shows. We were there setting up and dressing a large shell scheme stand for Stax Trade Centres. This year the organisers decided to move the show from Olympia in London and coincide it with the larger Spring Fair at the NEC and by all accounts it has been a great success. The show finished yesterday and Stax say that orders were up, visitors to the stand were up, and they benefitted from Spring Fair attendees visiting too. Exhibitions can be one of the first things cut from marketing budgets, but there aren’t many occasions where you can get good quality face to face time with a large proportion of your target audience in a short period. Exhibitions done well are definitely worth considering, and we’d be delighted to help you.

Got a really nice e-mail today from Onside North West, the sister charity of  Youth Zone in Blackburn, we filmed a DVD to help the cause and to quote the e-mail ” it’s causing quite a storm”, “it’s the best thing we have”, “I’m putting it forward for the Oscars”… lovely feedback. Of course the costs of shooting and producing video are much more affordable than they used to be, although I think the perception remains that they can be expensive. If you’d like us to cost one for you then get in touch. You Tube has conditioned us to the realisation that your on-line marketing video does not have to be produced by Steven Spielberg. Youth Zone is well worth being involved in, if you would like to know more, or even get involved, please e-mail me and I’ll send you some info. Here an artists impression of what it will look like.

Artists impression of Blackburn's Youth Zone

Arnold School Badge

Having seen the wonderful and detailed reports for January that Martin has produced from our all-singing and all-dancing new administration system we are delighted to have got 2010 off to a good start, it’s especially nice to welcome some traditional and well respected Lancashire clients to Workhouse Marketing, including Arnold School, REM, and Country Lane Homes together with rapidly expanding Birmingham based group of Companies 4BG. Welcome, and we promise you that we will strive to fulfill our mission which is to ‘delight our clients’.

Blackburn Youth Zone….a brilliant new initiative…

A Youth Zone workshop held at Workhouse Studios

Blackburn Youth Zone is a fantastic new initiative to help support young people in Blackburn. The mission of the project is…..

“to serve the social, recreational and emotional needs of young people, particularly those facing some kind of disadvantage, striving to help young people from the Blackburn with Darwen area become happy, caring and responsible citizens”

The project has received government funding of £5M and major support from Blackburn and Darwen Council, to establish a world class “Youth Zone” in the heart of the town. The project will make a real and positive difference to the young people of the borough and will be a hugely positive project for all people connected with the town.

This world-class youth facility will be based in the Cathedral Quarter, in the centre of Blackburn and will open every day, to provide support, fun and a safe environment for young people, especially those whose home life doesn’t provide it for them.

Workhouse Marketing is providing it’s services foc and is 100% behind this project. We’re currently working closely with a focus group made up of councillors, young people, youth workers and business leaders to develop hardworking marketing strategies to support fundraising and build awareness. Support from the local business community is crucial to the success of Blackburn Youth Zone and if you’d like to hear more about it or would like to get involved, please do get in touch with us.

Here’s how the Lancashire Evening Telegraph reported the launch of Youth Zone.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/4630048.Get_behind_our_world_class_club__Blackburn_businesses_urged/