Accomplished wildlife artist Tony Karpinski whose paintings are available in galleries and sells for upwards of £20,000 a piece asked mi to design and build a website to promote his work. Whether it is his wild animals, nudes or paintings of Venice they are so colourful, vibrant and lifelike that we were determined the images on the site should be the heroes. We designed a brand logo and muted background for the site which complements Tony’s work and looks suitably exclusive. Visitors can find out more about the artist, his style and background in addition to browsing some of his work. You can take a look at the site here.

Today, Platignum has reinvented itself as a stylish, fresh and invigorated brand, boasting superb value for money whilst offering the finest British quality. These are top class, all-metal pens at targeted price points. All feature stainless steel or tungsten carbide nibs and tips. Pound for pound, there are no finer engineered pens available.

Enjoying a rich heritage, having produced the world’s first self-filling fountain pen back in 1919, we will be looking to re-establish Platignum once again as a market-leading product and position the brand as a ‘must have’ writing accessory.

Our strategy is a campaign, seamlessly associating Platignum with bringing pleasure and a sense of fun to writing; establishing it as an on-trend accessory, backed by high quality at a reasonable price; and instilling the brand values in younger people through socially responsible initiatives.

Look out for eye-catching displays of Platignum pens in better stationers and accessory retailers near you.

In order to retain our Consultancy Management Standard accreditation through the Public Relations Consultants’ Association (PRCA), we’ve just completed our biennial reassessment which involved another intensive inspection of eight of our business activities, ranging from Campaign Management and Client Satisfaction to Business Planning and People Management.

With average scores of 88% in each of the eight areas, we’re reassured to know that our clients continue to receive the highest quality service and extensive expertise from each member of the MI team.

What does this mean for clients?
Our clients are assured of sound business planning, proven best practice procedures and a robust management system, which we believe sets us apart from many of our competitors. Ongoing reassessments focus us on ensuring the highest standards are maintained.

And for our staff?
Continued accreditation means that we are able to attract and retain high calibre staff. And the ongoing empowerment of team members in decision-making enhances the way we work and demonstrates our commitment to the personal development of each team member.

Getting our clients’ messages across in a creative and impactful way has always been our aim to secure the best possible return on investment. A little known, but rapidly growing aspect of our business is PR and we’ve recently created a new microsite to promote it, which you can view here.

The mi PR microsite focuses on some recent PR challenges and achievements, to support the other disciplines that we provide to our clients ranging from design and advertising, to branding and digital communications.  Using this healthy blend of traditional and new media strategies, demonstrates our proven measurable results, whether we’re launching a new service, transforming a brand, or simply growing our clients’ bottom line.

And our successful re-assessment last week by an independent auditor confirms our continued accreditation of the Public Relations Association Consultancy Management Standard. The CMS comprises elements of ISO9001 and Investors in People to ensure that we continue to deliver top-class PR services.

We asked our clients to rate us across a number of important criteria and all responses were either ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’. See the single page summary here.

With clients perceiving MI as ‘Vibrant’, ‘Innovative’, ’Creative’, ‘Professional’ and ‘Fun’, we’re keen to maintain our reputation for high quality creative.  We were rated most highly on our Professionalism and Expertise as well as Service Levels, testament to which is this year we celebrate 10 years working with one of our clients. 

Ranked next in our survey were Quality of Work and Project Management, neither of which were felt to be compromised by delivering good Value, something we maintain without diminishing our core product.

A great start to the year …  but no time to rest on our laurels. We continue to strive for 100% satisfaction with our clients throughout 2012, and welcome ongoing feedback.

Points of View, written and designed by Soha residents, was chosen by Corporate Communications Magazine to be amongst five finalists for the best Annual Report by a non-profit organisation. We now go head-to-head with the likes of the BBC and St John Ambulance at the awards in London on 23 November. It’s a big ask, but it would be the icing on the cake after scoring 5 out of 5 in the NTOs report. We do enjoy working with Soha’s tenants each year even if it can involve climbing on to the roof of maintenance vans and storytelling!

Resident Involvement and Marketing Manager at Soha, Lisa Morris, said: “This is a huge accolade for the 25 residents who started the project as largely untrained amateurs. We commissioned Marketing Impact, to translate residents’ words and photography into a fully-fledged Annual Report, but without the residents’ ideas there would have been nothing for them to work on. 2011 is the fourth year that residents have led on the report – we believe firmly that an Annual Report shouldn’t be a ‘company makeover’ – residents need answers to their questions, not a report of what Soha wants the world to know.”

We’re excited to see that many of the John Lewis stores have taken on the new range of sewing craft kits produced by our client, Paper & String, and these are being rolled out nationally and online.

We designed the packaging for the current range which includes six easy to follow kits for creating such things as woodland friends, tree garlands and colourful cupcakes. Targeting a broad age profile, the designs were created for instant appeal to the young and not so young.

These popular kits with eye-catching designs and attractive packaging have made the sewing kits hugely successful. Plans are being discussed for exciting new varieties for next year. Watch this space …

There’s a lot of talk today about sustainability and environmental best practice, so it’s great to be acknowledged as an innovative leader who truly is ‘walking the talk’.  We were thrilled as Radian, one of our established housing clients, scooped the UK Gold Award at the 2011 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy.  This outstanding achievement recognises Radian’s success in retrofitting hard-to-treat homes to save energy, and the building of new homes to high environmental standards.

Like so many, housing providers have a huge environmental responsibility, with immense commitment to providing sustainable homes to tenants, which are affordable to heat – through renovating existing properties and developing new homes.  The awards are a great way to showcase practical solutions to combat climate change, rewarding outstanding and innovative low-carbon schemes in the UK and developing areas.  Radian has done just that; not only piloting new technologies which protect the environment and potentially improve people’s lives, but sharing its experience with others – which is what it’s all about.

Judges were impressed with Radian’s top-to-toe retrofits to older homes and high-grade eco builds, some of which are achieving the highest level of sustainability possible.  At the heart of its organisation, residents are benefitting from lower fuel bills since having their homes retrofitted with energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies – resulting in up to 88 per cent reductions in CO₂ emissions.

An occasion of sheer elation and overwhelming pride to receive this top accolade at the world’s leading green energy awards; Radian Chief Executive Lindsay Todd, and Sustainability and Innovation Manager at Radian, Paul Ciniglio, collected the award from Grand Designs presenter, Kevin McCloud.

And it doesn’t stop there.  Radian will invest its prize money on expanding their research and experience in implementing carbon efficiency measures in new and existing housing stock, to further benefit more and more residents.

A real inspiration!

As an agency with clients across many sectors, we’re continually working on a whole host of diverse projects and campaigns, which are independently exciting and inspiring.  We really get to spread our creative wings, so to speak, as each brief is different and deserving of fresh, unique consideration.

To ensure we deliver the ideal solution to best answer the client’s aims and objectives, we use our process driven approach, Think – Create – Deliver.

Think – Without quality thinking time spent at the initial stage, the creative and implementation recommendations will not necessarily be the best approach.  It’s important to get to know the client, their marketplace, customers and competitors, as well as the specific project challenge(s).

Create – Armed with an intimate knowledge of the clients’ requirements, allows for the creation of winning and successful solutions that exceed the objectives.

Deliver – The best thinking and exciting creative is nothing without solid, detailed delivery.  Thorough planning and account management ensures that every element has been considered from initial brief to implementation.

Simple, yet effective!