Fresh

Tangerine PR was eight years old on 1st March 2010. In numerological terms, eight is a significant number – the number of new beginnings and Sandy Lindsay, Group MD, shared her views on this:

“2009/10 was quite a tough year — for the world in general and Tangerine had its share of challenges too. But it was also a really exciting year, during which we rewrote our business plan, giving us a detailed strategy for the next five years from this point onwards.

“As part of the plan we have restructured the business into three teams: consumer, trade and corporate/business to business. This gives us a devolved structure through which we can continue our growth and keep people motivated and inspired to continue to help us do so. And today, our brand new head of Corporate Communications — Chris Webb — joins us to help run the corp/b2b team — an auspicious day to begin a new beginning (no pressure Chris!)

“And we acquired our first business just recently too. Juice Digital is a social media marketing agency which was just over a year old and looking for a home in which to thrive and flourish — it found Tangerine. Now part of the team for only a small handful of months, it’s already seeing growth and is helping Tangerine open new doors and markets along the way. So 2010 should also be a fantastic new beginning for Juice too.

“So a happy new financial year to all Tangerine and Juice clients and staff — here’s to another eight that are just as rewarding and successful!”

ICI Paints AkzoNobel has reaffirmed its confidence in Tangerine PR, by awarding the agency the account for its premium woodcare brand, Sikkens. The move sees Tangerine secure the PR accounts for all of the company’s trade brands, which include Dulux Trade, Glidden Trade, Polycell Trade and Cuprinol Trade.

Tangerine, which has worked successfully with ICI Paints AkzoNobel since 2007, will now run the press office for the Sikkens range, a portfolio of high performance coatings designed to enhance and protect the natural beauty of wood.

Confirming the move, James Green, Communications Manager at ICI Paints AkzoNobel, said: “Over the past three years, Tangerine has consistently proven its knowledge of coatings market and helped us achieve fantastic, tangible results for our brands, so when we looked to consolidate our PR operations, it was a natural choice to award Tangerine the Sikkens account. The team’s unrivalled understanding of the industry, coupled with its creativity and enthusiasm, means we’re confident that Tangerine will deliver an effective and imaginative campaign.”

The Sikkens brand will be handled by Tangerine’s built environment team. They will be responsible for implementing a hard-working press office and developing media relations with architect and designer, public sector, construction and merchant press.

Tangerine PR has bolstered its rapidly-expanding built environment division by adding the world leader in modular flooring, InterfaceFLOR, to its impressive construction client portfolio, following a competitive pitch.

InterfaceFLOR is the modular flooring division of Interface Inc, which is based in Atlanta, USA, and which, as a worldwide group, is committed to developing its business through innovation, design and sustainability. InterfaceFLOR designs, manufactures and supplies carpet tiles for designers and architects in the public, private and commercial sectors.

Particularly attractive to Tangerine, which works extensively in the environmental arena, was InterfaceFLOR’s holistic and comprehensive sustainability policy. Its Mission Zero commitment, for example, promises that the company will become not only fully sustainable, but restorative by 2020, by putting back more than it takes out.

The decision to appoint Tangerine PR was one of the very first that InterfaceFLOR’s new marketing director for the UK and Ireland, Lynne Gawthorpe, made. Lynne said: “I am confident that Tangerine will bring an exciting and refreshing approach to positioning InterfaceFLOR within the trade media. Tangerine’s media contacts and industry knowledge are second to none and the team’s genuine enthusiasm for all things sustainable and interior design has been infectious from the outset.”

The InterfaceFLOR account is being handled by Tangerine’s in-house sustainability experts, with a hard-working press office complemented by creative project activity to help InterfaceFLOR enter new markets and reinforce its position as a global leader in sustainable design and manufacturing.

Sandy Lindsay, Group MD, Tangerine PR, has been named Northwest Businesswoman of the Year (Creative & Digital) in a high profile event to celebrate and reward women in business.

The 3rd annual Northwest Women in Business Awards were held on Friday 29th January, to give recognition to women in business throughout the Northwest and reward the huge contribution they make to the regional economy. The Awards, organised by the Northwest Women’s Enterprise Forum both celebrate the achievements of the women who are running some of the region’s most successful and innovative businesses and inspire more women to consider enterprise as a career.

The judges commended Sandy’s ethical approach to business, coupled with the company’s outstanding performance over the past 12 months. In a year when many in the sector floundered, Tangerine has grown to 30 members of staff, maintained revenue and grown profit. It has also acquired a social media marketing agency — Juice Digital — and scooped various public and private sector client wins, while growing its retained clients organically.

“I was shocked but obviously very proud to receive this award,” said Sandy Lindsay. “I launched Tangerine in 2002 to prove to myself that it is possible to run a business ethically and profitably, ie these two things are not mutually exclusive. Eight years later, we have a thriving business with best in class consultants and market leading clients who — I’m delighted to say — feel the same way we do about our founding principles: honesty, courtesy and respect. To have this achievement recognised via this award is a superb way to start a — hopefully even more successful — new business year.”

As well as Group MD of Tangerine, Sandy is also vice chair of the Community Foundation for Greater Manchester and project director of Manchester Masters, a graduate retention and job creation programme.

Following continued growth with the company, Tangerine PR has appointed a further five members to its Manchester based team.

Kate Greville joins Tangerine as an account manager from Brazen PR. With four years experience, she has a wealth of knowledge working on high profile consumer accounts, predominately across sport, fashion and beauty sectors. Kate will manage a wide range of clients including, Manchester United Soccer Schools, Turtle Wax, SurgiCare and Wilkinson.

From across the pond, Nick Vitale arrives at Tangerine fresh from New York to become digital marketing manager, which will involve managing digital and social media accounts and projects. Clients currently include Soreen, Manchester Masters, Concave football boots and Dulux Decorator Centres.

Two experienced senior account executives, Jo Hart and Cerys Wason from Triangle PR and SASS respectively, have also joined the team to continue to strengthen consumer and trade account teams, which include Dulux Trade and Aimia Foods.

Another exciting new appointment is Tangerine PR’s second apprentice, Megan Wieczorek. Megan joins as an office administrator, providing valued support to all agency clients. On top of this she is completing an NVQ in business administration.

Kate Greville, explains: “I am thoroughly enjoying my new role at Tangerine PR, working within a great team, for fantastic clients. I will also be managing Tangerine PR’s marketing, and with so much going on within the agency, we have a lot to shout about — it’s exciting times at team Tangerine.”

The Tangerine PR & Juice Digital offices are closed over the Christmas & New Year period, closing 24th December and reopening on the 4th January 2010. If your enquiry is of an urgent nature please contact one of the following:

Client Support

Karl Webster – 07775 518 803
Jo Dudley – 07912 380 531
Kate Dixon – 07545 210 302

(Or call one of your usual account handlers, most of whom will have their mobile phones with them, whenever possible.)

New Business Enquiries – Tangerine PR

Karen Adams – 07809 394 892
Sarah Halton – 07736 509 630

Juice Digital Client or New Business Enquiries

Steve Downes – 07889 508 338

Have a wonderful Christmas and may 2010 make all your personal and business dreams come true!

Tangerine PR’s managing director, Sandy Lindsey, has just been announced as a finalist in the prestigious “Northwest Women in Business Awards 2010”.

Sandy fought off stiff competiton to make it down to the final five in the Creative & Digital Business category, and will be going head to head against four other high profile Northwest business women.

The awards showcase and celebrate achievements of the region’s female entrepreneurs and are co-funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), which works to support and encourage budding business women.

Sandy Lindsay says: “The Northwest region is well known for its creative industries and I am proud to be a part of it. Tangerine’s success is not just down to me, it is testament to the intelligent minds and dedicated team I have the pleasure of working with.”

The winners and runners-up of the awards will be announced on Friday 29th January 2010.

Tangerine has today taken a major step in its stated intention of grabbing the embattled “space” that is social media, by acquiring Juice Digital.

Headed up by Steve Downes (of Paver Downes fame) Juice Digital specialises in social media and has been busy making a name for itself over the past 12 months. It will now become a division of Tangerine, which will retain the brand and invest in growing it into the leading social media specialist outside London.

Tangerine MD, Sandy said: "By acquiring Juice we’ve achieved three main things: 1) added extra strength and depth to our already thriving social media offer; 2) added extra "grey hair’ in the form of the extremely experienced and well respected Steve Downes to our senior management team; 3) taken over a very busy new business pipeline which, with the added credential of Tangerine behind it, should now be able to convert some very hot prospects.

“We have spotted an increasing trend whereby companies have expressed an interest in purchasing the services of a specialist social media team, over and above other PR and marketing services already in place, in order to take advantage of this vital area of audience targeting. Juice Digital, as well as supporting other client offers, will enable us to capitalise on this trend.”

Steve Downes agrees: "We’ve been talking to some of the UK’s leading brands about social media and there is no doubt this is both an exciting and lucrative opportunity.

“I’ve been speaking to a number of agencies about where to site Juice and Tangerine appealed to me because it instantly saw the opportunity and is completely committed to making it a success. I’ve also been following Tangerine’s growth over the past few years and know that it is a dynamic company that’s always at the forefront of any market development. I’m delighted to now be part of this leading team and am looking forward to working with Sandy and her team to move Juice to the next level.”

The Juice Digital team joins Tangerine in its Castlefield home from early November and will be joining the team at an exciting time. Due to new business wins and client growth, the agency has also seen a period of growth and new appointments and is currently forecasting a strong year, despite the tough market.

The sports team at Tangerine PR has been chosen by Concave Holdings Inc to launch its brand new range of football boots to the UK market for the 2009/10 football season.

Concave, a global company, is presenting a new concept in football boots. Its revolutionary new patented technology includes a distinctive sweet spot four times larger than any other football boot. Together with the unique shape of the boot, it allows players to have more power, more control and far greater accuracy than anything else available on the market today, while also protecting against foot injuries.

Tangerine has been recruited to support a range of activity from announcements of sponsorship deals with Premier League players to product placement in the consumer, trade and national press, using a mixture of online and offline activity. Online Tangerine will run a blogger outreach campaign and target forums to recruit brand ambassadors, in addition to managing Concave’s social media activity for the season.

Mark Mackay, head of global sales and marketing, explained: “Tangerine PR demonstrated great passion for sport as well as a wealth of knowledge and experience within the industry. We are excited to kick off the new campaign with a creative agency that fully understands the Concave brand, and the importance of using social media to connect with our target audience to differentiate Concave from the competition”

Vicki Lamb, part of sports at Tangerine PR, says: "Throughout the past year and despite the economic downturn, sports PR is an area which has continued to see huge growth. With the level of investments being made into football in the UK, and particularly here in the North West, it is big business.

“Concave has given us the opportunity to launch its new range of football boots, and to target its primary demographic – 14-25 year old males – we’re working on a wider range of new social media activity. The Tangerine team working on the account has both experience of the sector and a lot of passion for football, so it’s going to be an exciting campaign to be involved with.”

The campaign, which strongly focuses on the unique benefits of the boot, will be launching over the coming weeks via Twitter, Facebook and e-shots. Those wanting to know more can follow Concave on twitter or visit the website.

While other companies are reeling in costs and letting people go, Tangerine is bucking all trends by investing not only in additional people, but also in a complete overhaul of its brand, marketing material and website. Tangerine is seeing the credit crunch as an opportunity, as well as a challenge, and has moved its own image up another gear in order to continue to stand out in an increasingly quiet marketplace.

Tangerine’s creative agency, Crab Creative, conducted research to get a feel for what made Tangerine different; “We spoke to every member of staff, individually and in workshops and also interviewed Tangerine clients and contacts,” explained Costa Michalia, creative director, Crab Creative. "And there were two things that came across very clearly: Tangerine was described by clients and staff alike as being ‘..a breath of fresh air’ to work with.

“Secondly we were impressed with the quality of consultant we met at Tangerine and quickly realised that Tangerine is as good as it is because it has great people who fully believe in the business vision.”

From this research Crab gave Tangerine the strapline: ‘…a breath of fresh air’ and created a website that is truly unique.