You might remember that we blogged a few months ago about the busy time that our sister agencies have been having.  Now that spring has blossomed into summer, the long sunny days have bought with them a whole load of new projects and announcements across our group.

First up: Marlow based packaging agency Holmes and Marchant have unveiled a brand new shiny website which you can check out here. They’ve also been busy recently with the launch of a new design for iconic British water brand Buxton. Find out more here.

Over at full-service digital agency Twentysix, a project for Epson portable projectors has kept them on their toes. The viral is a follow up to the ‘Extreme Gamer’ project that Twentysix produced which generated over a million engagements from the target audience and delivered 9% CPR. You can watch the video here. Twentysix have also recently been appointed by market-leading portrait photography specialists Venture to design, create and maintain a complete online strategy.

The Gate have been very busy too:  Towry, one of the UK’s leading independent wealth advisers, have appointed the London based agency to handle a major advertising campaign following their re-brand from Towry Law. Watch out for the campaign, which is due to launch this Autumn. The agency have also recently opened a brand new Fundraising Direct Marketing Unit in response to demand from clients including The Royal British Legion, Diabetes UK, Crisis and Scope. You can find out more here.

B2B specialists IAS have come up trumps in the global B2B marketing industry awards, the B2 awards, coming home with 7 trophies to add to their cabinet. Well done IAS!

Finally, research agency Illuminas have produced an interesting new white paper on ‘the future of networking’ which explores the rapid growth of enterprise networks within global organisations. You can download the white paper here.

Phew! So much news, and summer’s only just begun!

It’s been a busy few weeks in Media Square land: we’ve been celebrating collaborations, acquisitions and anniversaries!

The Design Council have this week unveiled a new website, successfully showcasing the excellent redevelopment work that has been undertaken by Fourninety’s Mediasquare sister agencies Lloyd Northover and twentysix.

Euginie Biddle, head of marketing at the Design Council, worked closely with full service digital agency twentysix and branding consultancy Lloyd Northover to deliver a website with a richer user experience. She comments:  “twentysix and Lloyd Northover demonstrated the understanding and creativity needed to make our website better.”

Meanwhile in Media Square world, twentysix are also celebrating after learning that leading department store House of Fraser have appointed the agency to optimise the department store’s ecommerce channel.

Sister agency CMW are also in the mood for celebration after reaching their fifteenth anniversary this month, and are being kept busy with the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign which features none other than Miss Kylie Minogue, amongst a plethora of other famous faces.

Elsewhere, research agency Illuminas have been settling into some brand spanking new offices in Shanghai, whilst POP solutions agency Arken have been showcasing a new display solution which has the capacity to offer some great savings for their customers. You can investigate the Purelite LED light boxes here.

Finally, we’re welcoming a new sister agency to the group! CST is a top 50 Advertising Agency with a strong creative and planning heritage  reputation. Their clients include NS&I, COI, Subaru, Crusha, Douwe Egberts and Enjoy England. CST have just moved in to their new offices in St Katherines Dock, London, where they  are co-located with another sister agency, The Gate. Welcome to the family CST!

Fourninety are sending congratulatory vibes to two of our Media Square sister agencies this week. Cadbury have appointed communications agency CMW to develop and execute the Trebor digital strategy across its portfolio of gums and mints. This new appointment is a sign of CMW’s burgeoning relationship with Cadbury, having launched a new digital playground for Whispa at the end of Janurary. Janine Blakeway, Trebor Brand Manager, said:

“We are thrilled to be working with CMW on our Mint People digital campaign taking Trebor to the next level.”

Well done CMW!

Meanwhile, design consultancy Holmes and Marchant have launched the packaging and identity for Monster Puffs, a new cereal bar from Honey Monster Foods. John Price, Marketing Manager at Honey Monster Food said:

“Honey Monster is an iconic and well-loved character…Holmes and Marchant’s work is fun and mischievous and will really appeal to Mums, Kids and Kids at heart.”

As the snow continues to fall thick and fast at Fourninety Towers, it’s been a wintery walk to work for members of our team as you can see by this picture! While we fill up our mugs with hot chocolate and comfort eat for 10, we thought we’d take this opportunity to wish you a very happy new year and give you the lowdown on what happened at the end of 2009!

December saw Fourninety gracing the front page of the Yorkshire Post’s business section. The article celebrated a positive year despite the ongoing pressures of the recession that have been felt throughout both the region and the creative industries. Indeed, the springboard that 2009 provided currently sees Fourninety pitching for work with three of the top five retailers in Britain this year and partnering with national agencies to build innovative solutions that cross many industries. To read the full Yorkshire Post article, click here.

At group level, the end of 2009 also proved to be a rewarding time for our sister agencies. CMW came second in Campagin Magazine’s direct agency of the year award, having added an impressive number of high profile new wins to their portfolio whilst retaining 100% of their clients during 2009. IAS was crowned best B2B agency at both the B2B marketing awards and the MIN (Marketing Industry Network awards), whilst twentysix announced the launch of a new affiliate marketing division to compliment its existing range of online marketing services.

Throughout the group, it is clear that 2009 marked a period of significant development. We’re incredibly exited and exhilerated by what we can achive in 2010!

Here’s to a happy and healthy new year.

It’s an exciting time to be part of the Media Square group. So far this week, three of Fourninety’s sister agencies have announced new wins and appointments.

Firstly, Breakthrough Breast Cancer have appointed CMW to handle their Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign. CMW will create an outdoor, digital and social media campaign as well as a PR drive, which will break in March next year. The campaign has been running since 1996 and has raised in the region of £10 million for the charity.

Elsewhere, Holmes and Marchant have unveiled a revival of the Grossmith perfume brand. Our sister agency has created the entire visual identity for Grossmith, with work encompassing logos, colour schemes, glass bottles, lids, boxes, edging patterns and type. The agency are also welcoming a new Managing Director this week, John Mathers. John will take over from Jon Davis, who is leaving to pursue other business interests. Welcome to the Media Square group John!

Finally, twentysix are celebrating this week after being appointed to develop a website and e-commerce platform for Yarwood Leather. Matthew Nichols, managing director of Yarwood, commented that ‘we have a bold digital strategy and our website will play an integral role in making it happen: twentysix has the right credentials to make our new site something for the entire industry to admire’.

November has marked an exciting time for Fourninety’s Media Square sister agencies Arken and IAS.

IAS B2B announced earlier this month that Opal, the UK’s largest communications network operators, have appointed the agency to devise a new customer contact strategy. The aim of the campaign is to help strengthen Opal’s relationships with its customer base and provide an improved customer experience for the B2B telecoms giant’s 140,000 customers. Rob Morrice, managing director at IAS, commented: “This is a very exciting account win for IAS and adds another string to our extensive B2B bow.”

IAS also had reason to celebrate after winning the ‘Best Website’ award at this year’s Built Environment Marketing Awards (BEMAs) for their cutting edge design developed for fastener manufacturer SFS Inc.

Arken, who create point of purchase solutions, also took home three awards this month. The POPAI awards ceremony 2009 saw our sister agency go home with gold in the overall display of the year display category for their unit designed for Logitech. They also won a silver award for their work for Filofax and bronze for a Scholl display.

What a busy week it’s been at Media Square this week, and it’s only Wednesday!

We’ve just heard that Fourninety’s sister agency Wax, who specialise in sales promotion and experiential marketing, have picked up two awards at the Integrated Marketing Communications Council bash and two orders of merit at The Globes in Boston, USA for their work on the Waterstone’s Big Book Bank campaign. They won silvers at the IMC awards in the Retail or Trade Marketing category and the Innovative Idea or Concept category, joined by Orders of Merit awards for Digital Communications Campaign and Trade Marketing or Account Specific Campaign at The Globes. Wax have now won an impressive total of 11 awards for the campaign.

The Big Book Bank is an initiative to encourage school children to read for fun and to share their love of reading with their friends. It has three distinct target audiences; children, parents and teachers.