Mediamix: Begbies hires Citypress; Riverhorse; Influential, The If Agency; Galibier
ACCOUNTANCY group Begbies Traynor has appointed Citypress to manage PR for its offices in the North West.
The team will be led by Citypress director and former Mail on Sunday business editor, Patrick Tooher.
Begbies has its headquarters in Manchester and a national network of offices. It specialises in insolvency and turnaround work.
Mr Tooher said: “Begbies Traynor is a well-known and respected name within the professional services sector, with a very strong reputation here in its home region of the North West.
“Our role is to help them build on that reputation even further by helping it secure a greater share of voice in all forms of media, so that its partners can demonstrate the breadth of their expertise and insight to target audiences throughout the regional business community.”
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MANCHESTER-based production company Riverhorse is working with Public Enemy’s Chuck D on a documentary about a 1973 album that is considered to have laid the foundations for hip hop.
Riverhorse has received funding from Creative England for the project, called Hustlers Convention, which is being executive produced by Chuck D’s company BTN Eastlink.
The project will tell the story of Jalal Nuriddin of The Last Poets who released an album called Hustlers Convention in 1973, a rhymed story of a fast-talking hustler by the name of Sport. It is a tale of card sharks, gamblers, drug dealers and thieves that Riverhorse founder Mike Todd says changed the face of music.
The film documents how Nuriddin’s street rhyming style, based on the African American jail toast tradition, combined with the black power politics of the post-Malcolm X era to create rap. The film includes interviews with some of the key figures connected to the story, including the late Amiri Baraka, Ice T, Melle Mel, KRS One, MC Lyte, Chuck D himself ñ and many more.
Chuck D said: “Very rarely does Hustlers Convention get mentioned in the annals of what emerged from it. Jalal’s legacy is important – both as a member of The Last Poets and as the creator of this profoundly influential work. This is a story that needs to be told.”
Richard Holmes, senior film executive at Creative England, said: “Creative England is really proud to back Mike and the team on this outstanding documentary through our Production Funds. We’re delighted to be supporting such an internationally important story from a Manchester-based talent. Mike is an object lesson in creativity, tenacity and drive – and with this film we believe he’ll gain even greater traction in the field of ground-breaking, powerfully-told feature docs.”
Mr Todd said: “The story of Jalal and Hustlers Convention is missing piece of cultural history. It’s fantastic that so many people have supported this project and made it possible for us to get this film out there.”
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INFLUENTIAL, formerly Paver Smith, has been appointed to deliver the PR and marketing for Liverpool’s £1.8bn Superport initiative to develop the region into a global logistics hub.
Superport is forecast to boost the region’s economy by £6.1bn by 2020.
Sara Wilde-McKeown, managing director at Influential, said: “This is an incredibly exciting and ambitious scheme to be involved with. The opportunities for Superport are global in scale and have the potential to transform the local economy. The initiative will bolster the region’s capabilities as a logistics hub and create a truly world-class, globally recognised transport nucleus which will benefit the region for generations to come.”
Influential said it will develop a brand identity for the scheme and conduct an in-depth analysis of its key target markets. The agency will also develop and deliver the initiative’s digital marketing strategy, alongside a PR and events marketing campaign.
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MANCHESTER PR agency Galibier has been retained to handle the national launch of Crowd2Fund, which supports five different funding models including debt and equity.
The firm will handle its launch as well as to raise awareness of some of its campaigns and investment opportunities.
The funding platform is the brain child of tech entrepreneur Chris Hancock who is working with Sarah Jane Thomson, founder of AIM-listed Ebiquity, and former HSBC Private Bank chief investment officer Nigel Webber.
Galibier founder and managing director Oliver Chesher said: “Crowd2Fund has been two years in the making and the timing is right to enter the market with this new proposition. With our connections and experience in finance and enterprise we are well placed to promote this brand in an exciting and rapidly developing marketplace. The UK is expected to see transactions top £1bn this year in peer-to-peer business lending, while globally the World Bank forecasts $95bn by 2025.”
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THE IF agency has created, designed and launched a new campaign to promote the Chef & Brewer Cask Ale Festival which is taking place at all Chef & Brewer pubs until October 26.
During the festival, every Chef & Brewer is serving a selection from an incredible range of 20 quality ales from around the country.
The campaign includes posters, a six-page roll fold leaflet and a bar top dispenser, as well as a loyalty stamp card.
Ed King, group account director at Manchester’s The IF agency said: “There’s a big movement around cask ales and the festival has been created to reflect that popularity. Chef & Brewer are Cask Marque accredited and real champions of cask ales so we needed to communicate that passion, along with what’s going on and how people can take advantage of the festival.”
