Sowing Seeds for Movember

Movember has been on everyone's lips this month and we have been delighted to have supported our new client Germinal Holdings Ltd on their fantastic campaigns to support the Movember Charity, which aims to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

Here in Northern Ireland, seed specialist Joseph Morton Ltd had one message for local farmers this autumn - size does in fact matter - when it comes to moustaches at least! Hoping to inspire local farmers to support the charity, the company has cultivated an impressive 120m long grass moustache in a Co. Londonderry field.

The field, which belongs to a Ballykelly farmer, contains an Aber High Sugar Grass and red clover mix which was shaped into a giant version of the Movember moustache logo using an agricultural mower by Morton’s North West Technical Sales Representative, William McCollum.

As well as raising awareness of men’s health issues and fundraising amongst staff, Morton’s is calling on local farmers to grow their own moustache during November, and is offering a prize of £500 worth of Morton’s products for the most impressive ‘mo’. Morton’s will also donate £500 to the Movember charity on the winner’s behalf. Entrants are invited to take pictures of their ‘before’ and ‘after’ facial hair at the start and end of November and send them to info@josephmorton.co.uk

Meanwhile British Seed Houses, also owned by Banbridge based Germinal Holdings, has also gone big to show its support for Movember by giving the world famous Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset a grass moustache.

The huge mo added a rakish look to the imposing 180 ft tall landmark grown from British Seed Houses’ Grade A grass seed. The ancient naked giant is a protected site owned by the National Trust, which gave special permission to allow him to sport a mo for the first time. It is fair to say that helping to promote these campaigns has been a 'Mo'st enjoyable experience !

Action Stations for Nature

We have been delighted to have supported the East Border Region’s Action for Biodiversity Project, which is part funded by the European Union’s INTERREG IVA Programme. The project is aimed at helping create a richer and more diverse environment in the East Border Region of the island of Ireland, through raising awareness of biodiversity and the need to protect it – and has supported over 80 local conservation projects over the past three years.



Campaigns delivered have included the 'Give an Hour to Nature' campaign coinciding with the clocks going back at the end of October as well as the development and promotion of a 'Winter Wonderland’ online nature guide, based on public nominations of the top spots for enjoying nature in the winter months received through facebook at www.facebook.com/actionforbiodiversity .

A Month at Morrows…

We’ve recently welcomed a host of new faces to our team at Morrow Communications – new faces which we’ll be introducing over the next few weeks. Today we’re introducing you to two of our new PR Account Executives Suzie McDonald and Kerri Smith.

Suzie and Kerri were chosen to join our growing PR team after a competitive recruitment process and both bring something unique to our business. Here they give their highlights from their first month at Morrows…

Suzie McDonald

I joined the Morrow’s team mid-October on the back of their recent haul at the CIPR NI Pride Awards (an impressive 5 gold and 5 silver awards for those of you who don’t know!) and couldn’t be more excited to join the award-winning team.  My Sunday night previous to starting was of course riddled with the usual mixed emotions of excitement, nervousness and mild nausea (only joking!)  However, any negative emotions I had were quickly dispelled upon walking into the rather slick (purple) Morrow Communications offices situated in picturesque Holywood…

My next few weeks were jam-packed and fun-filled! I learnt a lot about the nuts and bolts of PR– the everyday tasks that make up the industry –news releases, photo calls, issuing, conference calls, tone, language, dealing with the media and clients, getting creative – the works.  The experienced team were my trusty guides for my journey and nothing was too much to ask.

Highlights for myself in the month have included working on the Age NI campaign with Flahavan’s Oats, ‘Like Your Grandparents Used to Make’,  where I worked on a photo call using an adorable 5 year old – who said you should never work with kids or animals? 

I also enjoyed travelling out to the sticks to search for gold!  Not entirely true unfortunately…it was for a picture for the ‘Tellus Border Project’ – who knew there was gold in Monaghan?  I also enjoyed the ‘Food and Drink Show NI’ where I was guided through Moy Park sampling and goodie bags, as well as witnessing the Events team host the highly successful ‘CIM Awards’ – phew I’m tired even just writing it!

I can honestly say I have loved my first month and it has made me even more passionate about the industry.  I cannot thank every single member of the Morrow’s team enough for making me feel so welcome and for being so friendly and always having an ear to listen or a helpful piece of advice to offer.  I can’t wait to get stuck in to even more client accounts, keep learning and continue on my Morrow’s journey…

Kerri Smith

It’s hard to believe I joined the Morrow’s team a month ago. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous the night before, so it was a relief when it took all of a few seconds to settle my nerves. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming to Suzie and I, and we began with a tour of the office - plus all the necessary housekeeping notes.  

Soon enough I was settled at my desk reading through information on clients whose teams I would be joining, trying to get to grips with all the technical terminology and recent activity. I’ve always been fond of jumping in at the deep end - which happens to be a useful personality trait in the communications world-  as before the first week was up I had phoned over a dozen different picture desks, learnt the basic break down of press advertising, I could also identify different varieties of grass seed and had spoken to quite a few local councils about the ‘Give an hour to nature’ campaign!

It’s only been month but I really enjoy getting up for work in the morning, I enjoy thinking about the possibilities that the day will bring and the variety of clients I will be working with. I’ve quickly bonded with the rest of the team with talk of entering the marathon relay and even a shared allotment that apparently is in need of a visit.

Overall, I have to say the thing I love most about working at Morrow’s is that no two clients are the same and no two days are the same – in the morning I can be proof reading a catalogue on different varieties of grass seed and by the afternoon I can be on the beach with a photographer capturing images of coastal walks to promote getting people outdoors and exploring nature!

Marketing Excellence!

The Morrow’s event team recently managed The CIM Ireland Marketing Excellence Awards. Now in their fourteenth year, these prestigious awards are designed to recognise and reward the best marketing achievements across business sectors in Ireland and to fly the positive value of marketing to both businesses and society. 

Hosted by broadcaster and journalist Claire McCollum, the gala ceremony took place at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Belfast with the winning companies taking home a bespoke Grainne Maher designed trophy. The winning and highly commended companies can be viewed online at the CIM Awards website. 

New for the 2013 awards was the “People’s Choice” award, where we encouraged finalists to engage with their own clients, customers and staff to vote for them via an online poll! It was a very close competition but the winner this year was The Ulster GAA and The Michaela Foundation with “The Match for Michaela.” A very worthy recipient! 

A special thanks also to the awards sponsors: Invest Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, TotalMobile and Ulster Business School as well as our event partners: Corporate AV Hire, Ramada Plaza Belfast, Northside and Bradbury Graphics, 3Sixty and NIMMS.

Ten for Ten: Morrow’s show their Pride at 10th Annual CIPR Awards

A total prize haul of 5 gold and 5 silver awards marked another fantastic year for Morrow Communications at Friday’s CIPR NI Pride Awards. Our work for clients such as Open Farm Weekend, Asda and Glens of Antrim Potatoes, was recognised with gold awards as well as our very own Kelly Maguire being named as the region’s Outstanding Young Communicator.

The team also celebrated winning 5 silver awards for our work for Irwin’s Bakery, Invest NI’s Propel Programme and Moy Park – as well as the silver in Outstanding Public Relations Agency. Overall, we brought home an award in every category we entered, another endorsement of our ability to hit the target with our communications.





And the Gold Award winners were:

• Best Not for Profit Campaign: Open Farm Weekend 2013 - From farm to fork
• Best Community Relations Campaign: Asda - Community Life
• Best Low Budget Campaign: Glens of Antrim Potatoes - From famine to feast
• Best Consumer Relations Campaign: Glens of Antrim Potatoes - From famine to feast
• Outstanding Young Communicator 2013: Kelly Maguire

 

And the Silver Awards went to:

• Best Corporate and Business Communications Campaign: The Propel Programme - Propelling Entrepreneurial Success
• Best Use of Media Relations: Moy Park - Revealing Northern Ireland’s best kept secret in GB
• Best Use of Digital: Irwin's Bakery - Bread the Irish Way
• Best Integrated Campaign: Irwin's Bakery - Bread the Irish Way

As anyone who was there on the night can testify, the same gold standard also applied to our moves on the dancefloor as Team Morrow dropped some awesome shapes. A special mention goes out for Sarah Stitt’s Moonwalk, Martin Byrne’s Running Man and of course, Seona McGrath’s twerk-tastic performance.

The 10th year of the Pride Awards made for an unforgettable night but due to the many bottles of champagne on the table some portions of the night were unfortunately more forgettable than others. Especially the last hour or so.

Here’s to Pride 2014!

Call for new talent to join our AV production team

The Morrows AV production team are growing and we are looking for some enthusiastic and talented people to fill the following roles.

Producer / Director  

Morrow Communications is currently looking for a video producer/director to join its AV Production team in Holywood, Co Down. Specialising in corporate production, including on-line videos, marketing DVDs, educational films and interactive media, we need someone who can take a brief and use their creative skills and editorial judgement to produce visual material which meets our clients’ production needs within a defined budget.

You must have excellent organisational skills and the ability to conduct interviews, direct a crew and, on occasions, self shoot and edit material on Final Cut Pro.

Applicants should meet the following essential criteria:

• At least 3 years’ production experience
• Excellent organisational skills
• Experience managing budgets
• Experience managing multiple projects to tight deadlines

Desirable criteria:

• Experience editing on Final Cut Pro
• Experience in a commercial or business environment
• Ability to self-shoot
• Third level qualification in relevant subject

This is a full- time position covering maternity leave. Competitive salary offered. Please send a CV and covering letter explaining why you would be suitable for the role and sample(s) of your work to Moya Neeson m.neeson@morrowcommunications.com by 5pm on Monday 16^th September.

Editor

Morrow Communications are looking for a technically skilled enthusiastic individual with a passion for multimedia and video. He/ she must be able to learn quickly and be able to support our in-house producers and editors with the production of corporate videos and multimedia output. The successful candidate will work on a variety of different projects from editing web video content to designing graphics for client productions .The role would require thorough knowledge of Final Cut Pro and associated software.

This is a first class opportunity for someone with a real interest in multi-media production and the development of other applications and platforms for our Production, PR and Event clients. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to further develop this role as the digital capacity of the business expands.

Applicants should have the following essential criteria:

• At least 1 years’ experience editing
• Thorough working knowledge of Final Cut Pro and associated software
• Ability to organise workload and manage the demands of multiple projects

Desirable criteria:

•   Experience developing graphics on Adobe After Effects or similar
•  A working knowledge of data management
• Direct client experience

This is a full- time position. Competitive salary offered. Please send a CV and covering letter explaining why you would be suitable for the role and sample(s) of your work to Kate Finn k.finn@morrowcommunications.com by 5pm on Monday 16^th September.

Putting DEAC on the Map

Morrows are delighted to be working with the District Electoral Areas Commissioner on the current review of District Electoral Areas (DEAs) which will be used in future local government elections across NI. The Commissioner has already published his recommendations which look at the make up and naming of electoral areas for the new 11 Councils, or Local Government District areas as they are formally known.

These proposed DEAs represent the key building blocks for future local government elections and not only take into account the reduction in Councils themselves but the resulting reduction in wards across NI from 582-462. Among other things the provisional recommendations will consider whether DEAs will be made up of 5, 6 or 7 wards as per the legislation. As each ward effectively (albeit indirectly) represents a seat on Council this represents an important piece of work which is likely to interest both political parties and the electorate.

As well as organising and managing the planned 9 public inquiries taking place across the province during August and September, we are supporting the Commissioner on his media relations throughout the review.

My Time at Morrows- Emma Devlin

When I graduated Queen’s University, armed with a degree in English and French, I hadn’t the slightest idea what I wanted to do. As career goals go, saying “Booker-Prize-by-twenty-five” to a friend when you’re thirteen just doesn’t cut it. Besides, I was 23 and that stellar writing career wasn’t going in quite the direction I’d hoped (read: going nowhere). I knew I wanted something dynamic, something creative, something fulfilling. But what?

Looking for some inspiration, I signed up to the GAP programme, a work experience scheme for graduates, who placed me with Morrow Communications for three months. With no prior experience in Public Relations (“you make people look good, right?”), I knew I was in for a huge learning curve.

Luckily, the staff at Morrow’s are a friendly bunch, and from day one I felt included in the team. With their guidance, I worked on client projects for companies like Moy Park, which gave me a unique opportunity to see the kind of hard work and preparation that goes into every successful PR campaign.  

I made the most of my time at Morrow’s, and I think I’ve learned a lot about the industry. For example, I have a much better idea of the relationship between PR and the media. Before I began at Morrow’s, the only thing I knew about PR professionals was that they sent press releases to journalists. Writing press releases, attending photocalls and contacting newspapers for myself has taught me that there is much more to it than that.

I’ve got plenty of memorable moments to choose from. From going to a pop-up farm to glamming up a pair of rubber gloves for a photo-shoot, no two days were ever the same. But if I had to choose, it would be the first time I saw one of my press releases appear in a local newspaper. While it wasn’t a big story, I took a lot of care to make it as lively and engaging as I could. It was a lot of fun to write – I got to exercise my pun muscle – and seeing it in print was hugely gratifying. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the Morrow Communications team. I feel privileged to have been placed with a talented and hardworking group of people who made a complete novice like me feel welcome. This experience has not only given me valuable insight into the PR industry, but also helped to shape my goals for the future.

Emma Devlin