Hi !

Continuous improvement

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a necessity for most but vital in the fast changing PR & marketing sector. The profession has changed beyond all recognition in the 16 years Marketing PRojects has just celebrated.

MD, Jane Harrad-Roberts’ links to learning were strengthened as she finished the 10 month LEAD programme at Liverpool University last year and her 15th year of CPD with the Chartered Institute of Marketing alongside her Fellowship. She is now serving on the Cheshire committee ‘giving something back’ and has been asked to return as a guest lecturer and member of Chester University’s ‘Creative industries panel’ later this month.

Marketing PRojects likes to offer local opportunities to students. 22 year old Claire Gibbs arrived in May last year on a five week placement from Chester University and has since become PR & Marketing Executive. Jamie from Liverpool JMU is currently on work experience with us.

Last October we proudly sponsored a Cheshire lunch for marketing VIPs in conjunction with Marketing Cheshire. World-wide advertising legend Sir John Hegarty (photo right) gave us his expert opinion spanning 5 decades from the world of branding and advertising. We have also sponsored the Property Breakfasts for Place Northwest around Cheshire and the Freelance Fairs in Liverpool, Manchester and Warrington.

New office facilities in Liverpool on Colquitt Street add to our offices in Chester and London and we are celebrating being selected by Food Northwest for a further two years on its Supplier Framework for PR, events, CSR, consultancy and research.

As part of our Corporate Social Responsibility actions our 3 charities this year are nationally the NSPCC, regionally Aftermath Support and locally Children Today.

Finally, if you need help or reassurance for your own PR and marketing activities, it would be worth contacting us for a FREE review. YOUR contribution to continuous improvement!

Jane Harrad-Roberts, Managing Director

Hot Topics

25 Unusual Interview Questions

Many people would be envious of Alan Sugar’s recruitment budget for The Apprentice. Most of us don’t have that luxury or the time. How do you get to know someone in depth quickly?

“During a second interview I would always put the candidate’s CV out of arm’s reach and spend time talking about random stuff,” said Sara Jones, co-founder of Hiring Hub. “That’s when you really find out what a candidate’s like.”

Here’s a list of Top 25 Unusual Questions designed for insight.

CLIENT NEWS

One of the biggest developments affecting the sector has been the growth of social media, hardly new as we’ve been tweeting since June 2009 and a member of LinkedIn since January 2007. We are seeing more and more demand for video based services too. Marketing PRojects has supplemented existing activities by setting up a branded service specialising in social & multi-media. Souber Tools is using social media to develop sales for its locksmith tools with us as are existing clients.

We were lucky enough to be at the awards when client Modern British Taverns won ‘Best Pub’ in Chester and proud to be able to announce their Top20 pub listing in the country.

Other clients are asking for more work from us. We’re continuing our 8 years of PR consultancy and services for the Queen’s School Chester but adding advertising strategy, planning and placement services to continue its success as a UK Top 100 school.

Another client of ours for PR and social media support, Cucina has just passed the £7 million turnover mark since we started up with them 6 years ago. They now serve quality, healthy meals to 50,000 pupils at 37 restaurants up and down the country.

In our next newsletter we are looking forward to announcing additional ‘snapshot survey’ contracts that we do for startups and established businesses on customer relationships or market growth. We completed work for Modeuro and Top Cat Research recently. Both involved contacting senior level decision makers and conducting market research to determine their Market entry plans. Modeuro is involved with employee engagement and Top Cat Research is developing more intelligent solutions for animal pregnancy testing.

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