Client Westleigh Developments has been recognised for its continued commitment to its employees after being awarded the prestigious Investors In People gold status. And in much the same way, the Unsworth Sugden PR team has been rewarded for its hard work with two pieces of coverage in the Leicester Mercury inside a few days.

Our press release and photography resulted in THIS initial piece in the Mercury business pages however just a few days later it received much larger coverage as part of an article in the paper’s weekly business supplement.

This second piece was a really strong story about Investors in People which leads with the Westleigh gold award and shows exactly what Westleigh is all about, a great company to work for. In fact their photo caption “going that extra mile” sums it up perfectly! You can read the article HERE.

Westleigh HR Manager Suki Deol (left) and Administrative Director Judy Beighton (right) with the Investors in People Gold Status plaque.

The Unsworth Sugden PR team has secured excellent back-to-back coverage for clients in consecutive issues of The Times property supplement ‘Bricks & Mortar’.

Last Friday (28th Jan) saw very strong coverage for the launch of client David Wilson East Midlands’ new “dash five” range of family homes which combine traditional period styles and modern technologies. The team arranged for a Times journalist to visit the client’s development at Papplewick Green, just north of Nottingham, where she was given a guided tour and interviewed a happy buyer, sales director Philip Lacey and managing director John Reddington.

Then today’s ‘Bricks & Mortar’ supplement features excellent coverage of the journalist’s visit to client Barratt Mercia’s extensive regeneration project in Camp Hill, Nuneaton, which aims to create 813 new homes over the next 12 years. The piece features extensive quotes from Andrew Dauncey, project manager at Barratt, and local resident Ann Corbett. You can learn more about the development, named Bluebell by visiting www.bluebellnuneaton.co.uk - a website created and designed by our web division, US Digital.

Well done to Bethan, Tom and in particular Hannah for all their hard work with this!!

Click HERE to go to The Times website, however you will have to pay the newspaper’s ‘delightful’ £1 subscription to gain access to the supplement.

Visitors to Fosse Park in Leicester last weekend may have noticed a familiar golden face as they went about their shopping - Wellington, the David Wilson Homes golden retriever!

The PR team had a full-size mascot costume of Wellington created, complete with David Wilson-branded collar and hard hat, for client David Wilson East Midlands. 

Wellington will now be making appearances at promotional events at its developments of brand new homes and elsewhere across the East Midlands over the coming months.

When I first learnt from client Raynsway Properties that the county’s driving awareness scheme had expanded into new premises at its Bridge Business Park in Thurmaston, all sorts of potentially disastrous newspaper headlines immediately started going through my head:

“INCREASE IN DANGEROUS DRIVERS IN COUNTY”

“DANGERS BEHIND THE WHEEL”

“NOBODY IN LEICESTER CAN DRIVE PROPERLY”.

Whilst some locals might argue the third headline has an air of truth about it, luckily a rise in dangerous or careless drivers wasn’t the reason behind the expansion. However our job now in the PR team was to ensure that a journalist reading our press release didn’t jump to the wrong conclusion and dive (or should that be drive?) off on a tangent.

The expansion was in fact due to the consolidation of driver education and improvement workshops into one location and the introduction of a wider variety of awareness courses. Add to that a £100,000 revamp of the new unit by landlords Raynsway, plus some good photography, and hey presto you have enough facts for a strong press release.

And what’s more the journalist agreed, resulting in this great piece in today’s Leicester Mercury.

A strong press release pointed the journalist on the road to a great article

After the success of its TV commercial, client The Earl Shilton Building Society has now taken to the airwaves with a new radio campaign.

The 30 second ad, which will appear regularly on Oak FM throughout January, February and March this year focuses on mortgages at the Society and how customers can talk to their friendly staff about their individual mortgage requirements, rather than relying on a computer to make the decision based on strict criteria as often happens in the robotic world of finance.

To read more about the ad and to find details of how to listen to it, please click here:

Think of December and what springs to mind? Christmas? Presents? Turkey? Decorations? Holiday?

What about getting dressed up in a drysuit and surfing in the freezing cold waves of Cornwall?

Because that’s what photographer Toby Savage found himself doing this month in Newquay in the second part of our adventure with Britain’s top surfer ‘Stokesy’ for client Schlüter-Systems. And not content with wading into the Atlantic upto his waist with a waterproof camera, he decided to take a surfboard, made from Schlüter-Kerdi-Board, and have a go himself!

Photographer Toby Savage getting in on the action

More shots and blog entries about this Cornwall visit will appear soon, but for those who need a recap about what we’re doing with ‘Stokesy’ click here.

A brand new, state-of-the-art building, which pushes the boundaries of environmentally friendly design and will be the first of its kind in the Midlands, is being built at the Watermead Business Park in Syston, owned by client Raynsway Properties. 

The £1.5m project is seeing a 6,000 sq ft regional office constructed for Interserve Project Services, one of the world’s foremost support services and construction companies, using the design principles of PassivHaus, a well established German based building standard which reduces energy costs by approximately 90%, compared to traditional build properties both in the residential and commercial markets.

The project is believed to be the first of its kind in the Midlands, with only two other PassivHaus offices completed in the country at present. Build work is expected to take until July 2011 to complete.

The Unsworth Sugden PR team secured the following coverage in this week’s Leicester Mercury business supplement about the project.

A CGI of the new Interserve office at the Watermead Business Park in Syston

Client Schlüter-Systems, the Coalville-based leading UK provider of tile solutions, has recently invested £100,000 in a brand new e-learning academy, the very first free online training facility of its kind in the industry.

As well as targeting the tiling and construction trade press with the story, the PR team also achieved the following great piece in today’s Leicester Mercury business section.

The team is also busy preparing an entry for the Schlüter Online Academy into the ‘Best Innovation’ category at the Tile Association Awards 2011. Keep checking the blog for more information….

The Schlüter Online Academy will help train people up and down the country from the comfort of their PC

Client Westleigh Developments is offering business across the region the chance to win £1,000 for the charity of their choice by playing its festive, online game.

Rather than sending Christmas cards to its suppliers and customers, Whetstone-based property developer Westleigh has again chosen the green option, in line with its GreenHouse environmental commitment and made its season’s greetings via email. Recipients are then invited to log on to play “Christmas Demolition”, a simple game where participants win points and complete levels by demolishing targets.

The game is also available at www.westleigh.co.uk and runs until 10am on Wednesday 22^nd December 2010.

Westleigh's 'Christmas Demolition' game