Working for a better future. We’ve adapted to a different way of working during the pandemic – but we’ve also made it work better for the environment!
Like many businesses, we’ve adopted a hybrid way of working post-lockdown, with some days in the office and some working from home. And we’ve adapted our office accordingly, making it much less formal, with a more chilled-out atmosphere, comfy sofas for relaxed meetings and catch-ups and a bank of hot desks to suit our newworking patterns. But in refreshing our working environment, we’ve also taken a more environmental approach and made changes to reduce our carbon footprint. Now you’ll find new energy-efficient lighting with zone lighting so we’re not wasting energy in areas we’re not using; we’ve introduced a new cloud-based admin system that means we can all work from anywhere; and we’re building our own intranet site so we can go fully paperless in the very near-future.
The overall result is less travelling for the whole Northstar team, with those living locally walking or cycling when they’re in the office, and a significant
reduction in the energy we use. So even though ours is only a small office, we’re doing our bit and making a difference!
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New Starters
RONNIE
A fresh start…
We’ve been happy to welcome a couple of new faces to Northstar Towers in the last month or two! Ronnie joins our design team having started out with a degree apprenticeship before finding his feet in the industry over the last three years. He’s an experienced art worker and illustrator who’s now looking to focus more on design and animation. Jasmyn’s experience stretches over 10 years on both client and agency sides, and she’s worked with international brands across the telco, travel and dining sectors. She brings her experience in brand partnerships, promotional marketing and digital project management to our account management team.
Make sure you say hello next time you visit our offices!
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WATCH THIS SPACE! We’ve had lots of brilliant moments in the last 12 months - here are some of the highlights...
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Introducing Boxworks.
There’s a new side to Northstar!
Earlier this year we launched Boxworks, our new specialist video division, and it’s already proved extremely popular – opening the door to clients who wouldn’t normally think of coming to us for video production. Boxworks is about more than just video – it’s about creating engaging content whether that’s for use on broadcast media, online, on social media or at exhibitions. We’ve long offered video as part of our integrated marketing campaigns, and Boxworks simply brings together our skills and those of suppliers we’ve worked with for years into a more formal package. To see what we’ve been up to, just take a look at the Boxworks showreel - just scan the QR code, and it’ll take you straight there!
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Gifts & Promotions
Making brandmagic!
If you want to cast a spell over your customers, physical marketing’s what you need – so says Matt Metcalf, the specialist behind Whizzard promotions who work in partnership with Northstar. Matt will tell you that 88%of people remember your brand when you put it in their hands – literally – and he should know, he’s woven his brand magic to help many a client get more out of their marketing budget through everything from branded products to bespoke gifts to exhibition stands.
It really is marketing with the magic touch…
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Events Themain event?
With the ever-changing circumstances of the last couple of years, industry events have had to adapt to many different forms – some physical, some virtual, many somewhere in between! Suffice to say, we’ve been kept really busy helping our clients maintain their presence however an event’s taken place!
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Givinganew name inpilinga solid foundation.
Or rather, a not-so-new name.
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Abbey Pynford
That’s because Pro Plant Services has actually been around a long time as part of the Abbey Pynford Group, but in 2020 was rebranded as Pynford Piling Services to integrate it more closely.
That meant creating a new website to reflect their quality and credentials and offer a more dynamic online experience – and that’s where we came in.
Certain elements needed to be carried over to the new website – such as any SEO authority and the wide and varied range of testimonials – the latter becoming the main focus. The design revolves around the home page, with much more engaging messages outlining the business’s purpose, ambition and brand personality and imagery and graphics that could easily be updated via the content management system.
To promote the new-look business, we also created a highly-targeted LinkedIn and email campaign which has proved extremely successful – putting Pynford Piling on a solid footing for the future!
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Contract Scotland Anew recruitment website? We’re the right people for the job!
Last year, Contract Scotland – Scotland’s construction recruitment specialists – tasked us with creating a new brand identity to reflect the way they do things differently. Namely, building long-term partnerships and being motivated by successful placements rather than sales targets.
Our Brand
Following their management buyout, they’d also been left with a website that not only failed to reflect that ethos, but couldn’t integrate with a number of their back office systems. So during 2021, we’ve been rebuilding their site for them from the ground up, restructuring and rewriting it to better represent the brand. But most importantly, making sure it fully integrates with their job posting and CRM systems, with the ability to send out job alerts, updates and more.
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Technically, it’s been a very complex build – but ultimately it’s proven to be a real success. A tough job…but you can always trust Northstar to do it!
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Addingnew super-heroes to theCowgills universe… Cowgills
Produced by our sister company Boxworks, we created ‘A Day in the Life of Cowgills’, showing what it’s like to work with the firm and focusing on their ethos and culture, the great work/life balance, career prospects and the social side of the business. In short, it shows how they do things differently to a younger audience – which is why the video’s been widely seen on social media (as well as the Cowgills home page!). It’s gone down a stormwith both the target audience and client too – especially as it’s already played a key part in several new hirings. Cowgills is one of the North West’s leading accountancy consultancies. But even with their excellent reputation – and of course, our Super Accountants campaign – they were struggling to recruit enough staff of the right calibre in early 2021 to cope with all the new business they’d attracted.
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Cowgills
…and taking the Super Accountants to the next level.
As well as producing recruitment videos to find new Cowgills super-heroes, we’ve been refreshing the existing ultra-successful campaign with a whole suite of new images! While the originals featured the firm’s staff shot around their offices, the new photography covers a wider range of business areas, showing the diversity within Cowgills; they’ve also been shot against a variety of backgrounds, giving the brand a modern feel to appeal to a younger audience via social media.
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Marshall Client Win
Progress in construction.
Towards the end of the year we started developing a newwebsite for Marshall CDP – a Yorkshire-based family-run specialist in commercial construction and development. The group consists of eight complementary businesses, from construction and development to building management and joinery, working across every sector of the UK construction industry on projects from retail parks to residential property. Our task has been to construct a new website to showcase not only their projects but their people, making a visit to their site a much more engaging experience, highlighting their ethos and further enhancing their already strong brand. Work is ongoing at present, so watch out for the launch of the new website later in 2022!
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Sto
Sofar, Stogood!
Last year, we told you about our campaign for StoVentec Glass that helped architects see glass in a different way – and which, having aimed to get 100 leads, ended up garnering over 450! Such was its success that Sto came back to us in asking us to ‘reboot’ the campaign, showcasing some new blast data that made this glass rainscreen the perfect combination of aesthetics and strength – and perfect for architects to use in both high-rise projects and areas such as arenas, airports and train stations where protecting the public is paramount.
StoVentec Glass More than just a pretty façade.
Our solution? ‘More than just a pretty façade’ was the campaign theme, whichwas developed into press ads, a revampedwebsite, a newvideo, digital ads and social media. And as wewent to press, the response has been good too - with newwebsite users up by 938%and sessions up by over 1,000%during the campaign period.
The unique StoVentec Glass A rainscreen system is certainly beautiful to behold, its huge range of bespoke sizes, shapes, colours and finishes allowing you to create fluid, imaginative and colourful spaces like never before. But its real beauty lies in its strength – easily passing current bomb blast tests and with an A2 fire rating, it’s ideal for inner city, commercial and public infrastructure projects.
To find out more, visit www.stoventecglass.co.uk
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TNi Bringing thescience ofbuilding optimisation tolife.
The group behind long-standing client Superglass, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of building materials, launched its TN International brand to reflect its international manufacturing (with factories in Italy, Germany, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, as well as Scotland) and expand into newmarkets. And we’ve been helping them launch it, and their TNOLOGY ethos, across the globe.
With a need for a new brand that could be universally understood across multiple markets, Northstar created the TN International brand alongside the concept of TNOLOGY – their approach to their products, industry and customers.
Defined as ‘the science of building optimisation’, TNOLOGY represents everything the company stands for: protecting the building envelope, connecting technologies to create better solutions, sustaining the planet through environmentally-friendly manufacturing and empowering customers through world-class support.
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To introduce such a broad concept, we’ve been busy creating a distinctive campaign focusing on each of TNOLOGY’s four ‘pillars’ – protection, sustainability, connection and empowerment – with press ads, online videos, e-shots and social media all part of the international media mix alongside a new website. And all have had to be translated into as many as 6 different languages!
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Merchandise management madeeasy.
When a business grows quickly, it’s often left with legacy systems and processes that simply no longer work. Which is exactly what happened when TN International launched last year; their stocks of brandedmaterials for stockists, events or corporate gifts were all over the world, with a haphazard ordering systemand no real way of trackingwhat was where. Enter Northstar.
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TNi
Working closely with the client, we created a central storage facility for all goods, fromwhich everything would be dispatched to make stock management easier. Then, we set about creating the ‘online store’ – a secure portal that anyone in the company could use to see what was available and place an order. The orders would go directly to TNi’s Marketing team for approval, and once approved items are dispatched by Northstar within five working days. It’s a simple, more streamlined system – and one the client’s delighted with!
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Encon
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Happy 40th, Encon! One of the happiest tasks of the year was to help our client Encon celebrate their 40th birthday back in September!
Well-known as a leading distributor of insulation, interior systems, fire protection andmore, they started out in Halifax back in 1981 and have grown to be a £200m-plus turnover business with 24 branches across the UK.
Tomark such an auspicious occasion, Encon wanted to plan something a little special – so on September 10th they sent every employee a special celebration package, decorated each branch with balloons, bunting, party poppers and cupcakes (yum!), and launched the ‘Encon Cake-off’, a baking competition for staffmembers to raisemoney for Macmillan.
Over 40 years, it’s our people that have made us the Distributor of Choice.
Over 40 years, our people have made us the Distributor of Choice.
We’ve come a long way from our beginnings in 1981 whilst staying true to our original ethos – working with talented people to offer specialist knowledge and outstanding service. Our 40-year commitment has made us the Distributor of Choice for our partners, providing independent merchants with a comprehensive range of solutions for any project, expert advice from our nationwide branch network as well as comprehensive training and support.
To find out how our dedicated team will continue to support merchants to grow their businesses, visit encon.co.uk
The event was a roaring success, with the Cake-off attractingmany spectacular (and some not-so-spectacular!) entries, and raising over £2600 for the cancer charity.
As part of the campaign, we created a suite of print and digital assets promoting the event internally and to their suppliers and customers. And to top it off, we’ve also produced a special commemorative book centred on the history, the day’s events and reminiscences frommany of their longest-serving staff.
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3DModeling & Animation
Adding anextra dimension…
Creativemarketing takesmany forms – and often, that means creating something fromscratch, particularly with the rise of digital media. Over the last couple of years we’ve become something of a specialist in 3D rendering, producing ultra-high quality images like the one above to help clients showcase their products or various applications in a way no other technique can. As well as 2D and 3D digital images, we’ve also produced a number of animations for use in social posts, videos or podcasts – here are just a few examples.
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Fatigue Manager
Nowarriving…a newplatformfor the rail industry.
Fatigue is a serious risk factor in many industries, but in particular the rail industry, with Network Rail about to introduce stringent new regulations for their suppliers.
Our client, GRID Solutions wanted to provide a simple, affordable subscription-based platform that would make monitoring and managing fatigue easy and hassle-free – and they asked Northstar to design it.
Called Fatigue Manager, the innovative web and app-based system has proved to be a complex software build with API integration, which we were able to handle completely in-house using our UX and digital skills. With the system now undergoing testing, we’re currently busy producing the supporting website, ads, e-shots, social media assets and PR materials ready for a mid-2022 launch.
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Clients
Suppliers
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Video
Jenny Powell
Stars of the small screen
Lights…camera…ACTION!
Aah, the thrill of the movies is intoxicating for many people – not least the team at Northstar! And over the last year or so we’ve been creating a wide range of videos for various clients and events, including the awards ceremony for Cowgills that was introduced by well-known TV presenter Jenny Powell.
These are just four other examples we’ve shot recently – so now if you want a video producing and Ridley Scott isn’t available, you know where to come!
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‘A Day in the Life of Cowgills’ showed what a typical 24 hours was like with the Super Accountants to attract new graduates.
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One of our series of podcasts for Cowgills, this one with ex-Manchester United footballer Wes Brown.
Our online videos for Superglass each designed to highlight a particular benefit of their insulation products.
Our client taking a starring role explaining the benefits of joining their developer partnership scheme, ‘Kingscourt Select.’
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Events
Challenging times…
The time is late September, 2021. The Northstar team have just completed their first visit back to the office, working out our new ‘hybrid’ way of working, how to implement safe social distancing and other necessary restrictions and planning for the last quarter of the year. But now it’s time for the real challenge – The Crystal Maze! Having completed the day’s tasks, the whole team took part in the Crystal Maze Live Experience in Manchester. Like the TV version, there are four adventure zones – Medieval, Industrial, Aztec and Futuristic – with each of us taking on two challenges. And we’re very proud to say that out of 16 possible crystals, we won 11!
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A brilliant team-builder, and it was great to see everyone again – in fact we loved it so much, we went back for our Christmas outing!
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Get in touch Perhaps you’re a prospective client looking to grow your business. Or maybe have ambitions to work in one of Manchester’s most exciting agencies. Whichever, if you like what you’ve seen here we should talk. brighterthinking@wearenorthstar.co.uk or call us on 0161 300 5854
wearenorthstar.co.uk
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