Sweet Express is on the right track!

Whale client, Sweet Express, market leaders in pick n mix, are going full steam ahead and have moved into four large railway stations.

Bury based Sweet Express, will open stalls in Manchester Piccadilly, London Victoria, London Bridge and Glasgow Central later this month.

Whale has been working alongside Sweet Express on a PR retainer and which has recently grown into a full service retainer to include Account Management and an element of Creative.

Whale is currently designing a new consumer pick and mix website for Sweet Express which will be launched later on this year.

For more information visit www.sweetexpress.com

OLC Europe turn to Whale Marketing

OLC Europe, a management and leadership organisation based in Bolton, have turned to Whale for marketing support.

“We initially met OLC at a Greater Manchester Chamber event last year and invited them to our offices to chat through their current marketing and how they intend to move forward,” said Kirsty Forman, Whale’s Client Services Director. “Over the next few months we will be working alongside OLC to create a new brand, a website; design and content and a mini campaign for their Credit Management Courses.”

Welcome to the Pod...Paul Braddock

The Whale Pod are pleased to introduce Paul to the team. Paul joins us on his placement year from The University of Huddersfield where he is studying Graphic Design.

“I’ve already been working with Kevin on some big projects including a Guide to Las Vegas for Monopoly,” said Paul. “I’m looking forward to developing and learning new skills while at Whale.”

Creative Director, Kevin Whitter said, “We are looking forward to watching Paul grow at his time here at Whale. Experience in the studio during academic study is vital, it allows Junior Designers to develop their own style, learn new skills and see how a studio works. It is surprising how many graduate designers are unable to do the simplest of tasks including print order when they start out.”

Welcome to Gaming Foundry!

Our client 3D animation studio, Image Foundry, has recently launched Gaming Foundry which has been set up to reflect the company’s growing portfolio of work for game developers. Gaming Foundry will partner with development studios worldwide to provide game artwork. The sister company will be headed by industry veterans John Harris formally of Redhound Studios and Eric Elms co founder of Warthog Games.

Whale Marketing have rebranded the company to reflect their four areas of expertise; movies, advertising, property and games, and are in the process of resigning the new website. Whale will handle all marketing requirement for all four companies under the Image Foundry umbrella brand.

We have also gained coverage in business and trade publications, follow the links to find out more:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/image-foundry-forms-dedicated-games-company-to-create-in-game-art

http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090826/FREE/908269996/1036/-/-/image-foundry-acquires-redhound-and-moves-into-videogames-outsourcing

http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-digital-media/image-foundry-studios-sets-up-gaming-arm-200908276214/

Animated rebrand by Whale

Manchester based animation studio, Image Foundry have recently completed a rebrand undertaken by Whale Marketing.

The re brand reflects the studios restructure which now encompasses four dedicated divisions for the game, movie, property and advertising industries.

“When we first started working with Image Foundry two years ago they were mainly focussed on creating CGI for the property market,” said Whale’s Managing Director, Hannah Whale. “We helped highlight other areas of Image Foundry’s success which led to them to re-evaluate their product offering to reflect their experience in other sectors.”

Whale Marketing are a fully integrated marketing agency based in the Manchester. The rebrand included 4 sub brands as well as refreshing Image Foundry Studios umbrella brand. Whale is currently working on a new website to reflect the realignment.

Whale add CT Glass to their client portfolio

We are pleased to introduce a new retained client to our portfolio, CT Glass.

CT Glass, independent processor of toughened glass, will be directed by Whale’s Managing Director, Hannah Whale (formally of Pilkington Glass).

“Our first task is to create a new modern website for CT Glass; the brief is to create a site that doesn’t conform to those traditionally preferred by industrial companies. We want CT to stand out from other people in the industry and for it to reflect CT’s architectural offerings.”

Other glass clients include Pilkington, Independent Glass (IG) and Brownhills Glass.

WWOOF!

Through an organisation called WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) I recently spent some time on a finca in Southern Spain.

Las Nanas, or lullabies, is located in the heart of the Sierra de Aracena and lies between the villages of Santa Ana and Alajar. A mountain stream called El Barranco del Negrito forms the western boundary.

In return for accommodation and food, I worked for several hours a day on the farm; weeding, collecting wood, cooking etc. It provided the perfect opportunity to practice my (limited!) Spanish and experience the real Spain which included my first (and last!) bull fight!

http://www.campozendo.eu/en/index.htm

http://www.wwoof.org/

By Laura

A winning Whale Tale

A whale obsessed author has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.
Leviathan, Or The Whale, written by Philip Hoare depicts the authors life long passion for the mammal as he travels the globe in search of the creature.
US journalist Jacob Weisberg, led the panel, "What made Leviathan stand out in a shortlist of wonderful reads was Philip Hoare's lifelong passion for his subject and his skill in making his readers share it," he said. "His prose is dream-like and rises to the condition of literature."

To find out more about Leviathan, Or The Whale, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8127527.stm or to purchase a copy of the award winning book go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/buybooks

Kevin Goes to the British Grand Prix

Unfortunately Button didn't do as well as predicted but a good weekend was had at the British GP!

My Father is the Crew Chief of the BARC (British Automobile Racing Club) Race Rescue Unit and was at the British GP for the 11th time over the weekend with his crew.

He managed to get 2 spare weekend passes for myself and my brother, bot of us hadn't been to a GP since we were very young.

From Thursday to Sunday we spend the long weekend geeking out over the various amazing cars and drivers we met, old and new including Nelson Piquet (above).

My Father has also been selected in the crew to do the 1st Abu Dhabi GP in October this year, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some spare tickets will come my way!

If anybody is interested in racing or marshaling log onto http://www.barc.net/

Kevin Whitter

Dragon Boat Racing

Congratulations go to the Women in Property team who took part in this week’s Dragon Boat racing event at Salford Quays. The Event saw 36 teams from the construction industry battle it out for dragon boat supremacy, all in aid of a good cause. Funds raised by the event will go to CRASH, the construction industry charity in aid of homeless people. The team improved their speed with every race and were crowned overall Mixed Crew champions. An excellent achievement!

SAVE THE WHALE!

Save the Whale Week 8th-14th June

Get active for the Whale and Dolphin Society’s save the Whale week ... or maybe bake a cake... I know which we’re likely to be doing in this office!

http://www.wdcs.org/stop/killing_trade/index.php

http://www2.wdcs.org/hych/getactive/stww/stww.php

Great Manchester Run-Done!

After months of hard work and training, we finally completed our first Great Manchester Run!

The course took us past some of Manchester’s most iconic buildings; Old Trafford, The Imperial War Museum and Beetham Tower; 10k in total.

Mike finished in 1 hour 8 minutes and Laura in 1 hour 10 minutes and 2 seconds.

Although we felt a bit sore the next day, we both would compete again…and are even considering the Great North Run… 13.1 miles! Plus we raised money for our chosen charities The Christie and Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Great Manchester Run

Laura and Mike are currently in training for this years Great Manchester 10k Run. Both of them are hoping to raise funds for cancer charities The Christie and Marie Currie.
The race takes place around the city centre on May 17th, so the countdown to race day has definitely begun.

Birthday Sunshine

Thankfully the weather was perfect for my birthday weekend, and to my surprise my girlfriend had organised for me to have the use of an awesome little MGTF convertible for the weekend! Unbelievable fun and I even got a bit of a tan whilst terrorising the streets and lanes of Cheshire! It was even Whale colour coordinated. Fantastic! - Mike.

Beva Breakfasts & Birthdays

Long standing client Beva Group had something to celebrate recently, with the 60th Birthday of Chairman Fred Chadwick.

 
In the same week the company also held a breakfast viewing of one of its larger schemes at Vulcan Street in Oldham.  The development consists of a large refurbished industrial unit and additional new build units on the same site.
 
Whilst the bacon sandwiches were very well received, the best food of the week was definitely Fred’s rather unusual birthday cake!
  

MediaCityUK comes to Town

Whale successfully hosted a breakfast for the Forum for the Built Environment featuring the extensive development which is taking place on Salford Quays to create MediaCityUK. A hundred people attended the event at the Imperial War Museum North to hear more about the project.

A unique environment for the media sector to grow and prosper, MediaCityUK will be a place for people to work , live and visit. In addition to state-of-the-art TV studios and

an unparalleled communications structure, the site will boast a public open space capable of staging events for up to 9,000. The first phase of the development is due for completion in 2011, when the BBC will relocate five London-based departments to the Quays, including Sport and five live.

Speakers were Mark Covell, Head of External Affairs for the BBC at MediaCityUK and Paul Newman, head of communications at MediaCityUK, who previously worked for three years as sports correspondent for the BBC’s Six O’clock News.

Whilst the site is progressing at a pace, unfortunately the Manchester Rain did spoil the view somewhat!

Congratulations to the Forman family!

Finally we got the news we’ve been waiting a while for, Client Services Director Kirsty Forman gave birth to baby Henry on Monday 23rd March, weighing in at 8lb 13.

Congratulations to the Forman family!

Body Positive gets a little help from Celebrity Friends

You may recognise the faces on the front page of Body Positive's recent magazine, who were only too glad to help promote the Green Ribbon to support instant HIV testing.  Whale created the new edition of the magazine, which included photographs and stories from the launch of the Green Ribbon Campaign.  The first edition of the magazine had proved to be a great success, which encouraged BP to expand the second edition from 36 to 52 pages.  It provides a showcase for the work that the charity is undertaking, as well as independent articles and advertising which brings in funds to support BP's work.

Whale to work with Brook Manchester

Whale Marketing are pleased to announce that they have added Brook Manchester to their portfolio of third sector clients.
Whale won a three way pitch to work alongside Brook Manchester, part of the nationwide organisation which provides sexual advice for 16-25 year olds, on a monthly retainer basis.

We had previously worked on a project with Brook to design and produce materials to promote their innovative C-Card scheme, an initiative where 16-19 years old can collect free condoms from participating distribution points. We are now looking forward to working along side the charity and promoting future projects to support their regional and national objectives .

Brook will join Whale’s growing list of third sector clients including Body Positive, Intergen & IStructE.

To find out more about Brook please visit www.brook.org.uk

Recession is a Whale of a time!

"Hannah Whale, the founder of Manchester-based Whale Marketing, gives her seven top tips to ensure that your business doesn’t become an endangered species during the current recession...."

Follow this link to view the rest of the article as featured in How-Do:

http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-comment/media-comment/recession-is-a-whale-of-a-time-200902244744/