Brand group adopts Nike adviser – and opens charity sweet shop

The crew at OneBestway are in overdrive at the moment. They are a stable of brand marketers developing some very innovative campaigns…

They’ve launched the NorthEast’s only pure-play brand consultancy and christened it Violet Bick. Michael Owen and Mark Tinnion are joined by Nike finance veteran Roger Blight.  

It’s a real coup for Violet Bick that Roger Blight, previously the Financial Director of Nike UK Ltd and also Nike (Europe) helping to lead their 2.5 billion dollar footwear division, will be working with our clients.

Roger will provide insight into how organisations of any size can build brand from a financial perspective.

Roger’s wealth of experience includes working with the teams that fought brand wars with other global giants such as Reebok and adidas. I reckon we should send him over to our very own SoleHeaven, the online trainer retailer based at the yard… they are seeing an increase in local footfall to seek out their trendy shoes (and are now stocking rucksacks and caps).

Check out their pitch here: www.violetbick.com

And, they’ve opened themselves up to all sorts of ‘kids in a sweet shop’ gags to raise money for charity. As if all the activity at Kiln Studio 6a wasn’t enough to get any marketer salivating at the thought of SEO, brand design, analytics, pay-per-click, campaigns, ROI, click-thru’s and audience response… If you a bit peckish in the next month or so, and Clocktower Cafe isn’t sweet enough, how about popping over to Kiln Studio 6a, where Angelfysh has got a Retro Tuck Shop selling all the old favourites from childhood.

We’re talking: humbugs, gobstoppers, sherbert pips, cola bottles, black jacks, fruit salads, flying saucers, dolly mixtures, fizz balls, chewing nuts, wham bars, double dips, liquorice wheels, strawberry shoelaces, drum stick lollies.

The Retro Tuck Shop is open for anyone to pop along and help us raise money for St Oswalds Hospice.

Ad award for onebestway

When I worked in hard core advertising, the Holy Grail was to produce adverts that create a ‘Smile in the Mind’. I think the judging premise of the Chip Shop Awards is to create a ‘smirk in the mind’.

I won’t give it away, but you really will enjoy clicking on the disgracefully un-politically-correct advert that gave onebestway a gong at a recent London award ceremony:

http://www.chipshopawards.com/categories/1326/Postbox.html

Is it politically correct nowadays to use the word ‘snigger’? Go onebestway, push the boundaries of taste…

HYBY’s influence reaches far beyond Byker

One of our big themes at Hoults Yard is how much national and international reach we have collectively in the work of our client businesses. It is important for each of us to be breakthrough players regionally. And, collectively it will also raise the stature of the yard and give further momentum to the growth of the OuseburnBykerNewcastleNorthEast media industry (and Gateshead too! .

HYBY reaches worldwide

Hedgehog Lab has just launched its first iPhone app.

Mere Mortals is winning awards for its game development – even a version of the French game ‘Boule’ or Petanque.

Jack Lowe continues to produce artwork for galleries in London – but also high-end retouching for clients as far away as New Zealand. He helps regularly at Baltic, including the Delhi collective on show at the moment.

The Tony Blair Sports Foundation is beginning to work on the ‘Decade of Sport’ around the Olympics. For instance, they have created a new training scheme to help start jogging groups at the workplace, aiming to 50,000 new people to running. Click here for info.

Mark Westaby has been recognised as one of the top advertising photographers in the world.

Northern Film & Media are pulling international creatives to work on film projects in the region – with a host of funding options coming onstream. Most recently, artist Gillian Wearing produced her film Self-Made in HYBY studios, offices and locations.

TV producer Northern Upstart is working on a number of commissions, off the back of success with series like Grumpy Old Women.

Likewise, TV producer Standing Stone, run by Tom Gutteridge, has exciting commissions in the pipeline. Watch this space, I’m told!

Artists, like Georgia Murray or Dan Holdsworth, have taken studios in the yard to prepare work for major exhibitions (Georgia is currently showing at the Royal Scottish Academy’s New Contemporaries show – Dan at Gergosian’s JG Ballard tribute Crash alongside the greats including Damian Hirst, Eduardo Paolozzi and Jeff Koons, no less)

Poetic Gem, fashion designers, have a big influence on the taste of the nation as they produce clothes for increasingly edgy supermarket clothes brands.

West Indian cricketers were here on a onebestway photo shoot to launch a Yorkshire cricket equipment supplier on the Asian market.

Photo shoot in The Kiln - high ceilings and natural light

…and many more…

ps. Thanks to Reid Ingram Weir for the HYBY/Hollywood snap. We’re making a competition out of getting the stickers into wierd and wonderful places. Send your pics over!