Christmas comes early for Birkenhead hamper group Park

Xmas hampers business

It’s the height of summer, so there’s only one thing to do – film Park Christmas Savings’ new TV advert for Christmas 2019.

Birkenhead-based Park Group’s Christmas Savings marketing team defied the recent heatwave and dug out the tinsel to film their new Christmas 2019 TV campaign last month.

The latest Park Christmas family is made up of a former Britain’s Got Talent boy band star as dad, a film and TV actor as mum, and two talented Manchester youngsters.

Jayme Kontzle, from Crewe, reached the semi-finals of BGT 2012 with his boyband The Mend. Michaela Longden, from Chesterfield, has starred in Hollyoaks, Doctors, Coronation Street and has a film debuting at Frightfest this year.

Making up the Park family for 2019, are youngsters Avaya Hugo (4) from Gorton, and Roman Valentino (5), from Blakeley.

A small corner of Manchester was turned into a festive backdrop for the new winter ad campaign to encourage customers to save for their 2019 Christmas hampers.

Pamela Wildes, Park Christmas Savings’ marketing manager, worked alongside Manchester-based TV production company AdOn TV on the project.

She said: “The summer sun was really intense, but it’s amazing what you can achieve with big blinds, some tinsel and Christmas lights, a lot of festive spirit and an amazing production team.

“Despite the temperature challenges, we’re absolutely delighted with the outcome of this year’s filming. We have an amazing young family, who were just a joy to work alongside, and we know this year will be another very special one for Park and its customers in the UK and Republic of Ireland.”

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French coup for PR Agency One

Manchester-based PR Agency One has been appointed by one of the world’s biggest sports retailers, French group Decathlon.

The consumer and B2B agency has been briefed as part of a major marketing drive to raise Decathlon’s brand awareness and store footfall in the UK.

Decathlon UK launched in 1999 and now has 42 UK stores selling a variety of sports equipment, clothing and accessories.

The omni-channel campaign spans everything from headline-grabbing brand building campaigns and hard-working product press office, to employer brand activity.

PR Agency One has also been briefed to carry out extensive evaluation of Decathlon’s marketing activity in the UK, using the agency’s award-winning proprietary evaluation system, OneEval.

James Crawford

This is the latest in a flurry of wins for the agency, including the UK’s first reverse auction marketplace for consumer financial services, honcho, and specialist consumer finance lender, Duologi.

PR Agency One managing director James Crawford said: “Decathlon is one of the world’s biggest sports retailers, and is known throughout Europe and beyond for manufacturing and selling great quality technical equipment and sports clothing at fantastic prices.

“We are thrilled to be helping them gain greater brand awareness and store footfall in the UK, increase sales and help them become the UK’s leading sports retailer.”

Philippe Ribeiro, UK marketing director at Decathlon, said: “PR Agency One demonstrated a clear understanding of not only what we as a business are trying to achieve within this territory, but how to use PR to achieve this.”

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Flush It the latest in the pipeline to Start Smart

An Atherton resident is the latest to receive support from GC Business Growth Hub’s start-up business support programme to set up his own plumbing firm, Flush It Plumbing.

Joe Duncan was made redundant at the age of 51 from his role as an operations manager at a smart card company.

With nearly 20 years of his working life still to go he decided to set up his own business and signed up for his local Start Smart programme in Wigan in March, run by GC Business Growth Hub in partnership with People Plus.

Over four sessions Joe and other participants looking to start their businesses were taken through the different steps of setting up a business, while also receiving bespoke personal support from their business advisor.

Joe had previously worked in the building trade, as both a roofer and a plumber, so already had the knowledge and skills needed to take up the profession again.

Jo Duncan

However, Joe was less sure about some of the day-to-day aspects of running a business, such as accounting and marketing, so he was put in touch with an accountant to make sure the important legal requirement of a business to produce accounts was completed correctly.

In addition he was put on workshops focused on writing for social media platforms to help him promote his new business effectively. As a result, Flush It Plumbing can now be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

He said: “I really enjoyed taking part in the Start Smart course. It helped me to get everything set up properly, so I could focus on then getting my name out there and attracting customers.”

Start Smart is run by GC Business Growth Hub, part of The Growth Company. Businesses looking to access specialist support can visit www.businessgrowthhub.com for more information.

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