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It’s been a very busy year so far for Cool Blue. We’vehad some great results for our clients and won severalInstitute of Public Relations awards for excellence, aswell as Trinity Mirror’s North East Business Awards‘Service Company of the Year’ for the Tees Valley.

THROUGH THE SUNSHINE AND THE RAIN

So, a lovely sunny first half to a year, that went on to become one of the darkest andmost challenging in a very long time, at least for some sectors.

It’s at such times when those clients really need us to get our sleeves rolled-up and getstuck in – their pain is our pain and we take it personally!

That’s where our special talents come to the fore: we’re known for wringing every lastounce of value from the budgets, burning the midnight oil to find fresh cost-effectivecomms solutions and managing communications reviews across the board to ensurethat clients are getting the biggest possible bang for their buck. In fact, we’ve alwayshad our minds focused on quality, results, impact and cost – it’s something that ourclients have consistently benefited from – but now it’s got a real added-value and we’redelighted to bring that reassurance to the companies we work with.

The great news is that some sectors such as IT, science, technology, telecoms andprofessional services are maintaining healthy growth – putting the focus firmly onambitious commercial and professional goals.

Here in our own team we’ve been investing in new people and new skills with thewhole of the PR team undergoing video-journalism training to ensure that we offer acompletely converged approach for best possible impact and cost to client campaigns.

In this newsletter we showcase the kinds of work we’ve been delivering to some of ourclients demonstrating great returns on their investment in our capabilities. As always,we’re thankful to all of our clients for allowing us to be a part of such interesting andimpactful work.

If you’re interested in how to get more impact from your own campaign we’d bedelighted to chat.

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out of the blue edition 7

Tees Valley Regeneration: Launch Event & PR Campaign

Traidcraft: PR Campaign

Sonhoe Oil Processing Plant: PR LaunchBarker & Stonehouse: Social Media Microsite

Centre for Process Innovation: Launch Event & PR Campaign

BNS Telecom Plc: Branding

The art of PRBringing investment of at least £15million and two of themost famous names in the art world to the region – it waspositively a ray of sunshine – providing enough light forthe Tees Valley to bask in for quite some time to come.

The Tees Valley Giants initiative was the brain-child of JoeDocherty, chief executive of Tees Valley Regeneration.When someone suggested the area should “borrow” oneof Anish Kapoor’s works of art he was incensed – the TeesValley would never – he declared – be anyone’s culturalsecond-hand Rose.

So he approached the artist and asked him to come upwith not one but five sculptures for the Tees Valley – aworld class series of installations that would be the envyof cultural hot-house cities the world over.

Anish brought on-board his long-time collaborator in theepic and monumental works that are his trademark,structural designer Cecil Balmond – and the Tees ValleyGiants were born.

We needed a PR campaign and supporting materials thatshowed the world the ambition and quality of theinitiative – and the skills and talents of the Cool Bluedesign team.

Dressed for successIt was full steam ahead to meet the tight deadlineswith a stylish brochure, invitations, postcards andevent branding from a stage set to mega imagesand banner stands – all influenced by the dynamicmetallic structure and its impressive scale. In turnthat led our designs towards high contrast, strikingblack and white photography and an overall‘monochrome with a twist’ approach – making useof deep blacks, silver greys and metallic foils.

There was also a weighty media pack withinformation about our client, the partners and theproject, as well as key questions and answersguaranteed to be posed by the public.

The results were fantastic – articles in the nationalbroadsheets and on national radio, as well as aclean sweep of the regionals – including a juicywad of coverage in the form of a wrap-round inthe Evening Gazette along with many columninches.

We like to make our mark – in this case giantfootprints in the PR sand.

The Tees Valley Giants publicart initiative went from thegerm of an idea twinkling in aneye to splendid reality via alaunch in a blaze of glory.

TEES VALLEY REGENERATION: LAUNCH EVENT & PR CAMPAIGN

cecil balmond, arup; Joe docherty, tVr & anish kapoor

STANDINGIN THE FOOTSTEPS...

• £1.6million in coverage• Launch event attended by regional and national media• Positive national coverage for Middlesbrough• Great feedback from VIP attendees • International awareness raising

5

the work of cecil balmond & anish kapoor

Job doneEven though we say it ourselves, (well no-one else isgoing to), we got some pretty great coverage -including The Independent, The Guardian, The BigIssue, Metro and PA News.

The campaign was a huge success. We distributedproducer case studies, products and strongTraidcraft messages and secured coverage inmedia which had not previously shown interest.

The feedback was great and we’re pleased toreport that the coverage did indeed have apositive effect on sales and from the interest we’vehad, we’re confident that the very niche Vietnamese‘Lady Pots’ will be a massive hit!

TRAIDCRAFT: PR CAMPAIGN

Fair trade is the latest thing in bigbusiness. Cool Blue is lucky enough towork for a client that doesn’t just pay lipservice to the ethos - Traidcraft is the realdeal - the daddy of fair trade in the UK.

Based just up the road from us inGateshead, Traidcraft is the UK’sleading fair trade organisation. Itpioneered the movement, helping toestablish the Fairtrade Mark, and eachyear raises millions to help developingcountries help themselves and standon their own two feet.

The company runs an amazingbusiness from its North East Englandbase, boasting the UK’s widest rangeof fair trade products and it all comeswith the bonus of knowing thatevery purchase made will have a direct impact upon the livesof their producers from around the world.

Fair trade is now high on the consumer agenda so it’s our job todifferentiate Traidcraft products from the others and make sure itsgood work is recognised.

ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND PR

• Delivered coverage to new audiences and media

• Delivered increased sales revenue• 50% increase in coverage in 2007• Fairtrade Fortnight campaign huge success

Fairly full-onFairtrade Fortnight runs every year and is the highlight of the fairtrade calendar. It’s a two week window in which the mediaspotlight turns and shines on the good and great fair tradecompanies in the UK - our remit is, of course, to get as muchconsumer product coverage as possible by running faster andsmarter than the pack.

We used targeted mailers, highlighting products for specificpublication types and distributed them to national and regionalmonthly, weekly and daily publications well in advance of theFebruary event. Features editors were contacted with inspirationalproducer stories and fantastic images. Most importantly, we spoketo anyone and everyone relevant to firm-up and strengthen ourFairtrade Fortnight push.

richard else for traidcraft

Millionaire club coverageWe worked to back-up the plan and give itcredibility and authority with quotes from peoplewho know a thing or two about great businessideas. We had a list of supporters and backers itwas hard to look beyond – everyone who isanyone in the North East‘s pool of movers andshakers, including Minister for the North EastNick Brown, Regional Development Agency One NorthEast, local councils et al.

The coverage spoke volumes – literally – we had to put it into two folders – the sheer weightkept bursting the bindings! More than £1m inadvertising value equivalents for just one story – pretty good going. The coverage spreadaround the world from Reuters and Dow Jonesto scores of websites, trade publications,broadcast channels and newspapers. Sonhoewas blown away by the quantity and quality ofreportage which far exceeded expectations.

So what is the value of great PR? In this casepriceless – it turned plans on a page into a bonafide project that had the backing of everyone whomatters and turned the attention of vital investorsin the direction of Sonhoe allowing the team tomove the plan on.

Sonhoe has now teamed up with some of thebiggest names in the oil industry and there’ll beloads more PR in the pipeline (see what we didthere?). So in terms of an on-going great storyand fantastic client – look out world we’ve got agusher!

WE’VE STRUCK BLACK GOLD

SONHOE OIL PROCESSING PLANT: PR LAUNCH

Grade A resultsone of the main outcomes sonhoe wanted to achieve via its launchwas to silence the naysayers and to stamp credibility on its ambitiousscheme. there were a few mutterings that sonhoe was a new companywith no track record. then again, how often in a lifetime do you build aone-off processing plant to produce usable fuels from dirty anddifficult-to-deal-with heavy crude oil taken from the depths of theseven seas?

It was our job to give the plan credence with even the most doubting ofThomases. Actually Sonhoe had been working behind the scenes firmingup the plans for several years. The homework was done and marked “A”,the Is dotted and Ts crossed. These guys mean business and that was themessage our campaign delivered.

Sonhoe was attracted to the region by the great work of the businessdevelopment team at Tees Valley Regeneration. The Sonhoe team hadseen the work we do for TVR and asked us to PR their launch.

howard simons & mike true of sonhoe

Okay, okay it’s a cracking story – a £2billion pound oil refinery to be builtin the area. Black gold we called it – and in PR terms it was pure gold...with a treacly thick vein of great follow-up stories running out of it.

• £1.3million in coverage• Achieved regional, national and international reach• Launch event attended by national and regional

print and broadcast media• Increased investor activity• Made Sonhoe a prominent name with key stakeholders

Trend settersThe Stylepup microsite moves B&S into a newarena with its online magazine-cum-socialmedia site offering something different to itsband of loyal followers.

Stylepup may be just a baby but it’s got all thefashion and trend growl a website could everneed – its persona a colourful canine frontmansniffing out the latest hot looks.

B&S wanted to keep its regular customersinformed and attract new browsers – not justthe latest arrivals in store - but also of thetrends and reasoning that brought them there.

Stylepup is a veritable Aladdin’s cave ofcuriosities and interests for the fashionconscious, from webvod interviews with keyplayers in national lifestyle, design and culturalspheres, such as Deadgood designers DanZiglam, Elliot Brook, B&S’s own Claire Jobsonand mima director Godfrey Worsdale and aguided tour around the oh so ‘di modo’ MilanFurniture Fair.

NO FOLLOWER OF FASHIONStylepup is the latestaddition to the Barkerand Stonehouse family –and ably demonstratesthe abilities of CoolBlue’s digital team. The pup may be a cutiebut he’s addinginvaluable marketingdata from his onlinefashion disciples.

BARKER & STONEHOUSE: SOCIAL MEDIA MICROSITE

• Over 9,000 direct hits on the site in the first month• Main B&S website seen 4% rise in traffic• Gathered the contact details of over 2500 unique users• Increase in online sales of products featured on Stylepup• Encouraged greater collaborations between B&S and suppliers

dan & elliot from deadGood

‘pap my pad’ user competition

stylepup sniffinG out the latest trends

Captive marketApart from being designed to be attractiveand easy to navigate the site is database-driven making capturing critical info a stylishwalk-in-the-park for the web team. The dataincludes names and addresses and sitemovement figures, showing which sectionsare most popular and how long people visit.

In its first month there were more than 9,000hits and 2,000 competition entries and loadsof encouraging comments and positivefeedback, a truly valuable marketing resourcefor our client.

Stylepup - like most fashionistas – is fairlyhigh maintenance with new interviews, tips,advice and features being added all the time.So it’s fresh and forward-looking no matterwhen visitors take a peek.

claire Jobson, creatiVe stylist

on-trend shoppersGet the heads-upfrom stylepup

CENTRE FOR PROCESS INNOVATION: LAUNCH EVENT & PR CAMPAIGN

It was CPI aye, aye captain as wetook to the water with a boat full ofjournalists to launch a global firstin fuel cell technology.

Orac eThe Centre for Process Innovation N

ews Issue 20

WHAT better way to demonstrate

the potential of fuel cell technology

than an application which helps to

save lives?

That’s just what we’ve achieved –

scoring a real world first into the

bargain - by designing a fuel cell to

power a lighthouse.

The historic South Gare lighthouseat

the mouth of the River Tees leads to

one of the busiest ports in the UK.It

is an exposed and hostile location for

a hydrogen powered fuel cell.

The Centre for Process Innovation,

based at Wilton on Teesside, has

designed and tested the fuel cell

technology which could play a key

role in meeting the world’s future

energy needs.’

CPI has worked with PD Ports,

marine engineers Pelangi and

Air Products, the world’s

leading producer of hydrogen

and a market leader in

hydrogen energy applications.

The South Gare project is

another demonstration that

fuel cell technology –

especially suited to remote

applications and locations - is

developing at a rapid pace

and will soon be ready for a

global role.

The lighthouse, built in

1884, is regularly lashed by

high winds and rough seas

and plays a pivotal role in

the success of Teesport –

one of the three busiest ports in the

UK with 6,000 ship arrivals each

year carrying 50 million tonnes of

cargo.

The fuel cell is an efficient low or no

carbon device that will be part of a

low carbon future. The cell in this

project, designed and made by

German engineering firm Schunk, is

housed in a cabinet attached to

South Gare lighthouse. It has been

powering the light - which can be

seen from 25 miles out to sea - for

several months. Graham Hillier,

Director of New Energy at CPI, says:

“If a hydrogen fuel cell can work

here, it can work anywhere.

“We have proved here at South

Gare that hydrogen fuel cells can

very much be part of our future

energy supply.”

You’ll see fuel cellsby the sea shore…

NIGEL PERRYCHIEF EXECUTIVE, CPI

Fuel cells will be an important

component of our future

energy supply along with the

likes of tidal/wave, wind and

solar powers, nuclear and

some fossil fuel, though we

know these have a finite

lifespan.

Due to the fact that fossil fuels

are limited and will run out at

some point, and because of

their possible contribution to

climate change, we must work

hard to find viable energy

solutions – from renewable

sources as much as possible.

We have proved at South Gare

that fuel cells can play an

important role in that future.

The use of the fuel cell at

South Gare constitutes a huge

step forward as we have had

to develop the technology

involved to withstand this

demanding location.

A world firstThe weather was kind – well kindish – and we stayed drybut a bit chilly to film the lighthouse against the sexiestof industrial backdrops complete with mega-hugecontainer ships slipping quietly by despite their size.

The result was loads of positive coverage and interestfrom around the world – including America, Sweden andGermany and a follow up call from national business TVprogramme, Working Lunch.

Very keen on new energy-related stories, they wanted toreport on the lighthouse because of its novel use ofestablished fuel cell technology. But, of course, they alsowanted to film at dusk from the mouth of the river!

So we were all piped aboard once again with a touch ofdéja vu. The result was an interesting and enthusiasticpiece on CPI, its lighthouse achievement and the area’srole in the hydrogen economy - great for the client andgreat for the Tees Valley.

An advertising value equivalent of almost three quarters ofa million pounds for the launch of a 40 watt bulb can’t bebad – albeit powered by the latest thing in sustainablesuper powers!

YOU’LL SEE FUEL CELLS

International coverageThe centre’s Fuel Cell Applications Facility became thefirst in the world to use a hydrogen cell to power alighthouse.

It’s not much use having the wherewithal and theorysown up if you haven’t got the backbone and bravery toput it to the most severe of tests. And that is what CPI’sspecialists are all about – finding practical uses for thisemerging technology.

South Gare’s historic and photogenic lighthouseprovided the ultimate trial – remote and regularlybattered by the cruel sea – time to see if the fuel cellcould prove it was harder than the rock it stood on.

The story proved a beacon for CPI, attracting theattention of the world’s media, as well as shining a life-saving beam 40 miles out to sea for ships enteringone of the world’s busiest ports.

They say a picture paints a thousand words so we knewhow vital it was to get the photographers and cameracrews out on the water at Tees Port to capture CPI’ssuccess first hand.

With the co-operation of CPI’s partner in the venture PD Ports, whose motor launch we used, it was a choppyand exhilarating ride, which all the visitors - including thePress Association, BBC TV media and national trade press – thoroughly enjoyed.

ON THE SEA SHORE...

• Nearly £1million of coverage from launch event

• National TV slot• Attended by national and regional print

and broadcast media• Blogging and online campaign goes global

Graham hillier, director, low carbon enerGy cpi & niGel perry, ceo, cpi

BNS TELECOM PLC: BRANDING

Creating ‘wow’that means creative marketing, branding, digital media, web, and graphic design – and occasionally we get to do a ground-up full-monty campaign that we can see changeperceptions of our client before our very eyes.

BNS Telecom is a fast growing company thatwanted to show itself in all its entrepreneurial, go-getting glory whilst creating stand-out from the crowd in the busy telecoms market.

Iconic designThe colourful and vibrant rebranding andmarketing campaign that came out of it is nothingshort of a badge of merit for our trans-disciplineapproach to getting the pop-out result we wanted.

The BNS campaign uses a series of mini icons in a lively and energetic way across a series ofmaterials from a smart new brochure andwebsite to recruitment ads. Using the iconsallowed us the ‘de-mystify’ some of the high-techproducts helping to improve and simplify howBNS talks to its customers.

A forward-thinking company, BNS even providestransport to bring in some of its workers and sowe branded up the minibus – it’s now anunmissable regular on the commuter scene anda great advert for the firm in its own right.

We even made the team a selection of ‘notice-me’button-badges just for fun – they went down atreat and reflected the effective, contemporary andseriously attention-grabbing new-look.

With all the fancy óh là là marketing stuff ready togo, and BNS loudly and proudly presenting itsunified brand identify to the world, the PR fun that’llfind us shouting above the crowds on behalf of BNSis set to begin.

We know how to push all the right buttons here at Cool Blue -it’s not all pure PR, many of our clients want an integratedservice across our fertile and fulsome set of skills.

BLUE PETER BADGE...BETTER THAN A

Connect to the future

www.bnsplc.com

• Developed a vibrant new brand identity• Delivered an exciting PR and marketing campaign• Endorsed by BNS partners - BT and Vodafone• Record-breaking sales performance in 2008

Cool Blue Brand CommunicationsGarland House

144-146 Borough RoadMiddlesbrough TS1 2EP

T: 01642 351011F: 01642 351022

E: enquiries@coolbluebrand.comW: www.coolbluebrand.com