Fresh!

Tangerine PR has become the first North West marketing agency to be awarded a ‘silver’ Investors in People award, and is also the first PR agency in the region to score anything above the regular standard*.

Says Malin Cunningham, director at Tangerine: “Tangerine prides itself on its three core values – honesty, courtesy and respect. The PR industry is all about people; understanding, supporting and influencing them. We believe that treating staff fairly, offering ongoing training and mentoring, and making sure they know where the organisation is headed increases recruitment, morale and retention, which in turn increases the company’s profitability – a real ‘win win’.

“The initial feedback we received from the assessors, who spent two days with us, made us very proud. They said that our core values ran throughout the business – at every level; in fact they used the ‘stick of rock’ analogy whereby they felt that if any of our team was cut in half you’d see the values running through them! This is something we work very hard to achieve and it’s very rewarding to hear from an impartial, external assessor.”

Account executive, Rachael Ireland, who joins the company this month to support recent client wins and organic client growth, was attracted to the agency based on these attributes. Rachel, who joins the agency’s new corporate, automotive, technology and stakeholder team, says: “The moment I started at Tangerine I was made to feel like a valued member of the team. Everybody went out of their way to make me extremely welcome and from day one I understood exactly the direction the company was headed.”
*according to the awarding body.

Tangerine PR has appointed Nigel Hughes to the position of creative director. Nigel, who joins Tangerine in early May, will head up and bring additional strength to the award-winning consumer PR team within the agency.

Currently head of PR at One Marketing Communications, Nigel has a background in consumer PR at some of the region’s leading agencies, including Communique, Paver Downes and – mostly recently – Rattle PR.

“We’ve been on the prowl for a consumer specialist for some time,” explained Sandy Lindsay, group MD, Tangerine. “But it is such a pivotal role, heading up one of our biggest and strongest teams, that we decided to take our time and ensure we found the perfect person. Nigel has superb experience and is a genuinely creative guy; he comes with top references and already has a solid reputation within the sector.”

Nigel continues: "Appointing a creative director for a PR team is unusual but it’s what you would expect from Tangerine. Everyone in the business knows it is a fantastic PR agency.

“Once we talked about the role, the clients and the agency’s plans for the future, there was no decision to be made on my part. Tangerine’s consumer team is already successful and it has huge potential so I’m really excited to be part of it.”

The Consumer PR team within Tangerine works with some of the UK’s biggest and best loved brands, including Soreen, Manchester United Soccer Schools, Atkins, Stagecoach and SurgiCare and leading retailers including TJ Hughes, Wilkinson, Dulux Decorator Centres and Wimpy.

“The Consumer team represents a significant proportion of Tangerine’s income and its continued growth is critical to the company achieving its business plan,” Sandy explained. “Nigel will work with the team to continue is impressive organic growth and also generate significant new business. I’m personally looking forward to working with Nigel.”

For the second year running, Tangerine PR has been shortlisted for the ‘Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy’ category at the National CIPR Excellence Awards 2010.

Tangerine was selected alongside five other PR agencies from across the country in this year’s awards, for what will be the 25th anniversary of the prestigious event, taking place on 16th June in London.

Sandy Lindsay, Tangerine MD, commented: “To get national recognition from the CIPR is testament to all our hard work over the past 12 months. Being shortlisted means the world to myself and the team, and we look forward to finding out the results in June.”

The agency will now be invited for interview in May by a panel of judges comprising senior PR practitioners and experts from the business, media, marketing and advertising communities.

Tangerine PR has continued to add to its ever expanding team this month. Although more often found at home in a bath tub rather than in the office, Dunkan Duck has become the latest addition the agency.

Tangerine PR has sponsored a duck as part of the first ever Spinningfields Duck Race which will be held on Good Friday, 2nd April. The event will aid children’s charity Brainwave, a local organisation that works with families to deliver home based therapy and exercise programmes to help children with disabilities and developmental delay.

To help raise the profile of the inaugural race Tangerine PR set out to make ‘Dunkan Duck’ famous. He has been tweeting away on the social network Twitter for the past few weeks and a wide selection of images of him in and around Manchester have been posted on his very own blog, which has attracted attention from hundreds of people in and around the city.

Tangerine has also set up a Just Giving account on behalf of Dunkan to help raise additional funds for Brainwave. To help support Dunkan Duck and Brainwave please visit, http://www.justgiving.com/Dunkan-Duck or visit his blog, http://dunkantheduck.blogspot.com/.

Sandy Lindsay, Group MD, Tangerine PR explained: “We have gone all out to help raise the profile of the first ever Spinningfields Duck Race and had a lot of fun in the process. Dunkan really has become part of the team and we’re all looking forward to watching him in the big race on Friday in his bespoke Tangerine outfit.”

Following on from its successful stewardship of the high profile graduate retention and job creation programme – Manchester Masters – Tangerine PR has been appointed to create vacancies for administrative and support Apprenticeships among creative businesses in Greater Manchester.

Funded primarily by Skills Solutions and supported by the National Apprenticeship Service and the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the programme will seek to bust the myths around hiring apprentices and encourage as many employers as possible within the creative and marketing sectors to take one of the 85,000 (27,800 under 25) people in Greater Manchester currently looking for a break into work.

Recent research, commissioned by the National Apprenticeship Service, showed that over 80 per cent of people are more likely to use a business if it offers Apprenticeships to young people. And there’s even some talk that public sector procurement might be geared towards these businesses in the future, so there’ll be even more reason to take this road than ever before.

John Myers, employment services director, North West, of the National Apprenticeship Service was excited when he heard about Manchester Masters and quick to see the potential for the young people he supports: “Tangerine has superb access to one of the sectors we are keen to penetrate the most – the creative industries – and we are excited by the programme idea the team has come up with and confident it will generate vital demand.”

More details about the programme will be released in time for an early summer launch and Skills Solutions will, in the meantime, identify young people suitable for the places that will be generated for is: “This is an entirely unique approach to penetrating this key sector,” explained Mark Hayes, director of employer engagement & membership at Skills Solutions. “We are looking forward to launching this opportunity to young people across the region and to matching them in a mutually-beneficial partnership with creative agencies and marketing departments.”

“We employ three apprentices, in business administration roles, in support of our three teams,” said Sandy Lindsay, group MD, Tangerine PR, who is taking the lead role in this vital programme. “So we already know how useful and cost effective they can be. They are bright, ambitious and quickly become a vital part of the teams they support and, at a cost of less than £5000 per annum to the business, their value for money is beyond doubt.”

If the programme is successful in Greater Manchester it will be rolled out to other key cities such as Liverpool and Leeds. Businesses in the creative industries sector wishing further details about the programme should email: apprenticeships@tangerinepr.com. Potential Apprentices should contact: info@nwapprenticeship.co.uk

Tangerine is celebrating after being shortlisted for the ‘Best PR Agency’ category at the annual How-Do Awards. This is the third year running that Tangerine has been nominated, and the agency is looking to regain the title won in 2008 at the event on Thursday 29th April, at the Palace Hotel in Manchester. Guest speaker for the 2010 event will be Robert Shrimsley, Managing Editor of FT.com.

The agency has continued to expand over the past 12 months and now has a 30 strong workforce. The acquisition of Juice Digital in November also helped bolster the company’s social media credentials.

Tangerine already represents a number of high profile brands including, Wilkinson, TJ Hughes and Dulux Trade and in 2009, more big names added to the company’s portfolio, they were, Manchester United Soccer Schools, Turtle Wax and Soreen.

Tangerine PR has recruited another two new team members, who join the company this month to support recent client wins and bolster existing and new account teams.

With vast corporate communications experience in the technology, engineering and hotel and leisure sectors, senior account director, Chris Webb will be heading up Tangerine’s new corporate, automotive, technology and stakeholder team.

Chris joins Tangerine after 10 years of in-house roles with software businesses Hyperion Solutions, CODA Group Plc, and an interim role with hotel group Best Western. During his time at CODA, Chris was closely involved in the founding and promotion of the European Software Association where he campaigned on pan-European issues and policies affecting the software and IT industries.

Says Chris: “Tangerine appealed to me because not only did I want to work at a successful and energetic business, but at one that is run with ethics I believe in and support. Tangerine’s values of honesty, courtesy and respect are exactly what I would want from a PR consultancy, and I’m delighted to be able to develop the new corporate team within that environment.”

Senior account executive, Nikki Girvan is the second person to join Tangerine recently from Brazen. Nikki will work across the agency’s consumer clients, including System One, Stagecoach, SurgiCare, Wilkinson and TJ Hughes.

Nikki, who before joining Brazen, was the commissioning editor of Pick Me Up says: “I am absolutely loving my new role at Tangerine PR. Working with such fantastic clients within a dynamic, inspirational team is an honour. I’m looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead!”

Tangerine PR has been appointed by specialist ladies lingerie brand, Cami Confidential, once again adding to its impressive consumer portfolio.

Cami Confidential, the brainchild of leading Cheshire designer, Yvonne Gillon, was created to help boost confidence for women who have undergone a mastectomy following breast cancer. The camis provide prosthetic camouflaging and give a fantastic shape over a bra, ending fashion compromises for these women.

Yvonne said, “Cami Confidential was created to help women to maintain their femininity and confidence when they’ve had surgery. I’m really looking forward to working with Tangerine to launch our unique product and tell our story. Tangerine’s media contacts and industry knowledge are second to none and the team’s genuine enthusiasm for all things fashion and cause related was evident from the outset.”

Malin Cunningham, director at Tangerine added, “Unfortunately, breast cancer touches most people in some way and it is very rewarding to work on a campaign like this – we can’t wait to get started.”

The Cami Confidential account is being handled by Tangerine’s in-house fashion and health experts. The consultancy will operate a hard-working press office to launch the brand, which will be complimented by social media activity to drive traffic to the website and ultimately increase sales.

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.