apt blog

Are you ready for the ride of your life?

We're really excited here at apt marketing & pr as there are a number of sponsorship opportunities available for the penultimate stage of the OVO Energy Tour of Britain 2017!

This September, our hometown of Cheltenham will host the penultimate stage of the Tour Of Britain. The stage will see the world’s top professional cyclists race through the Cotswolds to arrive in our historic spa town on Saturday 9th September − and for the first time, a stage finish of the Tour of Britain (TOB) men's race.

Residents and visitors to Cheltenham not only have the chance to get up close to the world-class race, but to also see the town transformed for another major festival, celebrating cycling, accessible to all.

There is an exciting variety of sponsorship and business partnership packages are available to suit all budgets, from finish line tickets and corporate hospitality, to naming rights for the festival and the Tour of Britain stage. All of these fantastic sponsorship opportunities are available on the new dedicated website: www.cheltenhamcyclingfestival.org.uk

Many of the packages feature exclusive opportunities not available on general sale, such as seats in front of the finish line, or one of four tickets to ride in the guest car for the full Stage.

Tracey Crews, director of planning at Cheltenham Borough Council says: “To make the very best of this world-class event, we have a comprehensive package of business partnership opportunities available to suit all budgets, from finish line tickets and corporate hospitality, to naming rights for the festival and the Tour of Britain Stage.

“This is a thrilling and high profile event for Cheltenham that will have an international reach, attracting large numbers of visitors to our town.”

There are also one and three-year packages available to help support the event and make it a huge success for the town and the local community.

As well as having some of road cycling's world-class greats in town, the festival will also feature competitions, a street fair, a demo zone, a kids zone and much more besides, encouraging everyone to get onto two wheels. Organisers are expecting thousands of people to flock into the town to enjoy the festivities.

For more information and to take advantage of these opportunities, contact Victoria Petkovic-Short, our very own Account Director on 01242 250692 or email [email protected]. We're really excited to be working on this local event and look forward to hearing from you!

 

apt attend clients Gala Awards and Training Congress

For the past few weeks the team at apt have been hard at work securing sponsorships, preparing various marketing collateral and other important information for our client The Federation of Holistic Therapists and their upcoming events. Last weekend, the apt team travelled down to Stratford-Upon-Avon to attend both the Gala Awards Dinner and the full day Training Congress events!

Both events were absolutely brilliant and were held at the Holiday Inn in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Luckily for everyone, the weather was great allowing the grassy banks along the canal to be enjoyed in the (dry) sunshine. Upon arrival, the apt team received a wonderfully warm welcome from our valued client and with hard work delivered from both sides we all looked forward to the evening’s celebrations!

Victoria and Kelly at the Gala Awards 

The boardroom, in which the Gala Awards were being presented, was set up beautifully by The Federation of Holistic Therapists team and it was excellent to see all hands on deck to ensure a fantastic setting for all of the guests. With apt Account Manager, Victoria as MC for the evening and presenter of the awards, industry leaders were rewarded and recognised by their category judges. It is safe to say that the evening went without a glitch followed by a lively disco, in which the guests could let their hair down, although we imagine that many guests tried not to let their hair down too much in order to be as alert as possible for the Training Congress the next day...

The Training Congress was also an excellent day; the exhibit and sponsor areas were busy and the training sessions and seminars flowed perfectly too with speakers presenting everything from Effective analysis and treatment of darker skin shades with Kim Ford to Getting to the root of the pain with John Gibbons.

Here at apt, we loved working closely with The Federation of Holistic Therapists to help ensure that both events were the best they could possibly be. We also enjoyed attending the event and supporting our client too; after all, for us it’s all about relationships!

Rural funding available for tourism businesses in Gloucestershire.

Here at apt, we were excited to hear the announcement that GFirst LEP has been working closely with the Cotswolds and Forest of Dean Destination Management Organisations (DMOs), to develop strategies to increase tourism in Gloucestershire. These strategies are expected to increase the county’s all year tourism offer, as a key part of the local Gloucestershire economy.

The strategies will be offered alongside a new funding boost of £177 million from DEFRA available nationally. Identified and managed through the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the funds are calling for business support in building knowledge and skills in rural areas, developing micro and SME businesses and supporting renewable investments for rural businesses and communities.

The funds will look at increasing the number of overnight and day visits to Gloucestershire, for rural businesses seeking to invest in recreational and small scale rural tourism infrastructures, through the promotion of sustainable events and festivals, as well as signage support for new product development priorities to raise awareness of the county.

The funds will also help micro and small rural businesses seeking to expand and create jobs, as well as farmers or members of the farm household seeking to diversify into non-agricultural activities.

The successful applicants will support existing tourism businesses to expand and improve their current offer. It will also help to create new jobs in the tourism sector in Gloucestershire and appeal to new markets through capital investments in infrastructure.

Chief Executive of GFirst LEP, David Owen said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for local businesses in the tourism sector, who know the county best, to get involved in supporting the Gloucestershire economy. The time and help businesses can provide will ultimately have a positive impact on job creation, increase visitors and overall benefit the local tourism industry.”

If you are interested in applying for the funding, DEFRA are encouraging rural tourism businesses to apply now. More details and information can be found at the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/european-structural-investment-funds.

Here at apt, we have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in grant applications and the tourism industry. So, if you’re not too sure where to start or need some help to submit your application, please give us a call on 01242 250692.

Inspired cross-promotion takes cheesy stock photography to a new level!

In a brilliant cross-promotional move between Twentieth Century Fox and iStock by Getty Images, a series of ultra-cheesy stock images have been created featuring the cast of Unfinished Business, including Vince Vaughn and Tom Wilkinson. They're free to use (editorial only) and will be available in batches over the next few weeks - download the first four here...

Having used quite a few shots like these in our time we think it's inspired! Would love to see them used in an internal staff newsletter...

Get you Hollie-day Hair ready for Christmas!

Authored by Kristina Rickards

The students of Gloucestershire College are styling the city for a day on Tuesday 9^th December, in association with the Hollie Gazzard Trust. The talented Level 1 Hair & Beauty students will be spending the day styling hair of all lengths – male and female welcome!

Being held at the Gloucester Campus, the students are offering curling, straightening, hair up, hair down and temporary hair colouring for a minimum donation of £1. People are encouraged to spare a few moments between 12-4pm to make their way over to the campus and support the event.

‘Hollie-day Hair’ is a collaboration between the Level 1 Hair & Beauty students, Level 5 Salon Managers and Level 3 Marketing Apprentices – one of which is a member of the apt team! This project provides the students to not only work simultaneously to gain experience for their courses, but to help out a great cause.

In addition, there will be a raffle, which will be sponsored by many local businesses in Gloucester, face painting and collection buckets circulating the campus.

All profits will go towards the Hollie Gazzard Trust and the Gloucestershire Domestic Abuse Support Service.

Level 5 Salon Manager, Sonia White, says: “We want this to be a fun-filled afternoon and hope we can get as many people come along as possible to show their support and have a great time.”

The Level 1 students commented saying: “We are extremely excited to be involved - supporting a cause that is close to us all.”

They will be assisted by the Level 3 Marketing Apprentices who will be promoting through various channels to drive as many people as possible towards the college on the day. Marketing tutor and Business lecturer, Kaye Blakemore, describes it as “An energetic collaboration between three different student groups”, adding that she is “looking forward to a positive outcome for all.”

Upon arrival, there will be clear directions to the onsite salon - located at the main campus next to the Gloucester Docks. Head over to show your support!

 

For more info, follow this link to the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/719264498170347/?fref=ts

Big-name brands serve an ace with Murray celebrations

After a gruelling 77 years of hurt, pain and disappointment Great Britain’s Andy Murray captured the nation’s hearts this Sunday by winning his first Wimbledon grand slam title, whoop! The nation went into a Murray frenzy (or what we like to call Murraymania) over his spectacular achievement. So much so, it took just seconds before Murraymania spread off the court and into people’s everyday lives with sponsors, newspapers and even supermarkets joining in with the celebrations. Official sponsors of Andy Murray, Adidas, were first to spark the Murraymania movement, releasing a very clever campaign. The UK sports brand used social media platform twitter to celebrate, tweeting their 'Wimbledone' image as soon as Murray hit the winning shot, receiving a hero’s welcome with over 3,000 retweets and was hugely popular on the social media site.

Although, as far as Tennis PR stunts go, we think Morrisons topped the lot. The supermarket giants hit a winner when they designed  a two-part PR stunt showing their support for Britain’s Andy Murray.

First of all, Morrisons pulled out all the stops by renaming its Wimbledon based store with a clever pun - ‘Murrisons’. The supermarket chain then decided to change the name of its Wimbledon store to 'Murriwins' after the tennis star won the Wimbledon men's singles title for the first time. Morrison’s tweeted:

"Congrats to #Wimbledon Champion @andy_murray! How are you celebrating? We've given our store a special makeover”.

Here at apt we see this as a fantastic coup to get national publicity. Any marketing manager will tell you that publicity is valuable and this is just the same when applying it to Morrison’s.  By capitalising on this opportunity Morrison’s will have enhanced their brand awareness with their consumers. Building brand awareness is essential for building brand equity and can reap all sorts of awards. High brand equity is a key quality to generate loyalty, which in turn, can increase long term sales and market share. Take apple for example, they’ve developed loyal followings on the strength of a brand that’s known for unique designs, elite equality and innovative leadership. This loyal following will then lead to greater profits, with consumers willing to pay extra for a name they trust and value.

If you’d like to hear more about the marketing and PR campaigns during Wimbledon, check out our previous blog “Wimbledon embarks on multi-platform campaign!:”

Summer Festivals Lacking Sponsorship Shine

The pinnacle of the summer music season, Glastonbury Festival, starts this week. Shockingly, whilst the notoriously anti-corporate event still attracts tens of thousands of festival-goers; a combination of poor weather, lack of diversity and a new approach to music sponsorship strategy mean other music festivals are beginning to lose their shine among brands.

In the past, brands have been quick to jump at the chance of sponsoring the majority of the hundreds of festivals that now run in the UK each year; keen to capture the attention of a young audience with high disposable income. Wireless festival, held in London, has gone through three sponsors (O2, Barclaycard and Yahoo) alone in the past five years, whilst alcohol brands such as Carling, Smirnoff, Tennent’s and Budweiser are almost permanent festival fixtures.

However, there are signs that the shine of festivals is beginning to fade amongst revellers and brands. This month’s Isle of Wight festival failed to sell out, with weekend passes even being offered by secondary ticketing websites for half their price a week before the event. Andy Kenny, Managing Director of sports and entertainment marketing agency BrandRapport, says festival sponsorship has ‘lost its sheen’. He adds; ‘Festivals are limited to summer months and are then vulnerable to being adversely affected by the weather. Sponsors like continuity and consistency which encourages them to commit greater resources to develop more detailed and advanced support’.

In recent years, in order to add stability, brands have embraced music sponsorship through one of two paths, either through a global brand ambassador, such as Pepsi’s links with Beyoncé and BlackBerry hiring Alicia Keys, or through technology; Coca-Cola and Spotify’s ‘global strategic partnership’ for example. We think these partnerships are always interesting to see and create a talking point amongst consumers unlike festival sponsorship, which is often not the central focus of the festival itself and can be ignored by target markets. However, despite all this and the wet weather, we do still wish we were at Glastonbury this week!

 

Wimbledon embarks on multi-platform campaign!

Dust off your balls and polish your rackets! It’s that time of the year again when everyone in Britain goes crazy for tennis, yes, it’s time for Wimbledon, and we for one are really excited; not least because we get to see relatively attractive men run around for hours on end, but because there are some really exciting and innovative marketing campaigns out there this year. We’ve taken it upon us to sprawl the internet and note our favourites out there, so sit back, relax and take a look at what brands are offering for avid tennis fans this year...

1.    Adidas’ #hitthewinner real-time Twitter competition:

Sports super-brand Adidas has launched a real-time digital game via social media platform Twitter, offering Murray fans the chance to win signed merchandise. The campaign, #hitthewinner, invites users to predict where they think Murray will hit on his opponents side to win a shot. Adidas has divided the court into nine areas, each fan will be able to tweet which area the winning shot will be hit by tweeting the handle with the target area number. Fancy a bit of Murray merchandise? Well tune in to Twitter tomorrow for your chance to #hitthewinner.

2.    Evian’s ‘Wimbledon Wiggle’:

Alongside Evian’s sponsorship of the campervan come giant screens set to display the centre court’s action for the two-week sporting event; the brand has teamed up with global conversation agency, We are Social, offering tennis fans the chance to jump the famous Wimbledon queues. All you have to do is upload your ‘Wimbledon Wiggle’, described by Evian as “a dance inspired by that cheeky move players make when awaiting serve”. We Are Social has integrated the campaign using Facebook, including a ‘Wiggles of Fame’ section. Evian has been known for its ‘Live Young’ campaign and we feel this greatly supports what the brand stands for.

3.    YouTube streams Wimbledon matches live for the first time:

Streaming platform, YouTube, is set to stream matches live from this year’s Wimbledon Championships; as well as airing the matches, the dedicated channel will show interviews, behind-the-scenes content and press conferences during the tournament. Sponsored by Rolex; the live-stream will be available to fans in the UK, US, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus, New Zealand and South America (exc. Brazil).

So that’s it so far for this year’s marketing efforts for Wimbledon! Be sure to keep your eye on the world of social media for how the campaigns turn out.

 

Driving consumer engagement

With the Formula One season kicking off this weekend, sponsorship brands are out in force to engage consumers from all over the world. Coca Cola’s sub-brand, Burn, has launched their campaign by taking to the social media platforms. They are pushing for fans to ask racing drivers from the Lotus team questions about the exciting season ahead of them. The team at Burn is also using Facebook and Flickr to promote a short snippet of the Lotus ‘Showtime’ campaign. If you can catch a glimpse of the cars as they fly past our screens, you will also see the drinks red flame logo plastered on the side of them.

Many of the other sponsors, such as Smartphone maker Blackberry, are also taking to social media to connect with their fans more. This makes a change from the previous focus on building B2B relationships with the ‘you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’ mentality, which have been notoriously sought after in the past.

We are glad to see that companies are beginning to see the importance of communicating well with their loyal fans as well as the multinationals, and are focusing their marketing and pr strategies in a more relative, consumer-minded manner.

Merry Christmas from apt!

Well we have finally reached that time of year where everyone finds it extremely hard to focus on anything else but Christmas, so we say, embrace it!  We have created a fun quiz which even the scrooges of the office can’t resist! So stick on the kettle, pop on your Christmas hat, turn up the tunes and have a good old jolly on us! (answers below so no peeking).

We’re off as of today so we’ll see you in the New Year when we return on the 2^nd January.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the team at apt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers: M:Monster, E:Dell, R:Redbull, R:Prada, Y:Yahoo, C:Coca Cola, H:Hyundai, R:Rayban, I:Zippo, S:Subway, T:Thorntons, M:MTV, A:apt, S:Old Spice.