Our News

A Decade of Success for 'New Business of the Year'

Marketing Projects based in Chester is looking forward this month to celebrating ten successful years in business. The former Chronicle Newspaper ‘New Business of the Year’ has gone from strength to strength.

Marketing Projects, a Chester and London based PR and Marketing Consultancy, was set up in 1995 by Managing Director, Jane Harrad-Roberts. Since then, the team has worked for a vast range of clients including The Institute of Directors in the North West, Chester Food & Drink Festival, Californian based Keynote Systems Inc. and Midlands based IMS. This month, Jane and the team have won a contract to work with an Ellesmere Port based engineering company, UEC Group.

Over the years Marketing Projects has celebrated many achievements, including an e-commerce award from the DTI for its use of technology and in 1997 ‘New Business of the Year’ from Chronicle Newspapers in their first ever business awards. More recently Marketing Projects has been ranked thirteenth in the top thirty PR Companies in the North West by EN Magazine for entrepreneurs. This annual survey took into consideration client views and the opinions of editors across the North West. Marketing Projects came top of the agencies in Chester and West Cheshire, alongside and above many better-known firms.

After employing a new member of the Marketing team at the end of last year, the PR Consultancy continues to grow. The last few months have been particularly busy handling the press relations, and particularly the BBC and Granada filming, of the Chester Festival of Romance. This month should see the results of their work for the Food & Drink Festival including a feature for the Festival on Granada’s ‘Grub’s Up!’ and UKTV’s food programmes.

To continue and celebrate its success, the company has just launched its new look web site, www.marketingprojects.co.uk that contains many helpful hints and tips for companies including useful downloads.

Managing Director, Jane Harrad-Roberts, is thrilled at Marketing Projects’ recent success: “Many people don’t know that I began as an engineer and joined Pilkington in St. Helens, vowing to stay in the North West. I gradually migrated towards marketing and public relations in information technology before starting up Marketing Projects in a small study at home. Since then the business has become much more demanding. We had a particularly tough time during the dot com ‘bomb’ in 2000, you need a supportive family and flexible people to survive and we now have a much broader range of clients. It also helps if you don’t regard work as work and you really enjoy what you do. I’m lucky to have that luxury. Our motto is ‘help, not just advice’ and this means we go just a little more distance for our clients. Here’s to another ten successful years in business!”

For more information on Marketing Projects and their services, please visit www.marketingprojects.co.uk or call 01244 330000.

Ends – 226 Words

Marketing Projects ‘fired-up’ in May 1995. In 1997, the business was named ‘Chester New Business of the Year” for “its growth, reputation and use of new technology”. In 1999 it won an award for its use of technology and its e-commerce web site from part of the DTI. An award sponsored by BT, NatWest, Compaq and others.

In February 2000, Marketing Projects opened a London office in St George’s Street, Mayfair in London. This office is a convenient meeting point for clients, editors and journalists. In the August they moved to larger premises in Chester and in 2003 doubled the office space used there.

‘Milestone’ clients have included local companies Martec Systems, now part of Anacomp Inc. (document management systems), Digital Exchange Communications Ltd. (telecoms services), Thames Valley Controls (lifts) and also Californian based Keynote Systems Inc. (web site performance). Clients include IMS (Software and IT), The Institute of Directors in the North West, The Queen’s School, and Chester Festivals including Chester’s Food and Drink Festival and The Festival of Romance.

Image Library