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We pride ourselves on providing our clients with excellent and friendly customer service and enjoy working flexibly to meet needs and get great results.
We like producing effective, intelligent and creative solutions for marketing and communications challenges. From organising a launch event and media relations campaign, to developing an integrated strategic plan, or creating marketing materials for a new project, our professionalism, commitment and client-focused approach ensures inspired solutions.
Read on to find out a bit more about the results we have delivered for a diverse range of clients.
Arts & media
The brief: With a planned move back to community news, The Argus appointed East to create a bespoke community relations strategy that encouraged engagement with the hearts and minds of the newspaper's readers so that relationships could be rebuilt.
"The Argus started working with East Communications to tackle concerns about how effectively we are reaching the valuable communities who have traditionally made up our readership. East helped us in the first instance to recognise the issues and to understand where our weaknesses lay. At The Argus we continue to work on our strategy within these communities and will always turn to East Communications for their advice and knowledge."
Pam Birkby, Brand and Marketing Manager, The Argus
The brief:
• To raise the profile of Brighton Carnival
• To support the carnival to achieve sustainability so the parade can continue to grow and get more exciting every year
• To focus on Brighton’s diversity and encourage community involvement
As a young entrepreneurial organisation, Brighton Carnival found East’s approach just right. You were flexible, dynamic and resourceful. We look forward to working together again in the future.”
Paul Jarvis, Brighton Carnival
The Art Plus Award Scheme for art in public places is a joint initiative by Arts Council England, South East, and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) to commission and deliver public art of the highest quality, celebrating the place of art and artists in improving the environment. The scheme aims to develop the commissioning skills of organisations and cross-disciplinary learning as well as individual artists’ skills for the benefit of local sustainable partnerships.
The brief: To raise the profile of the award scheme and the Art Plus brand amongst a variety of diverse audiences across the South East region.
“East Communications produced our 2007 Art Plus Awards ceremony. I was impressed by how smoothly run, how professionally managed and what a fantastic networking opportunity it was. Many thanks for all your hard work.”
Richard Russell, Director of External Relations & Development, Arts Council England, South East
Business to Business
The brief: The Directors of Aspire were looking to develop a more strategic approach to their marketing. In particular they were keen to ensure their range of consultancy services met the existing and future needs of their customer base and differentiated their offer from competitors.
East worked with the Directors of Aspire to create a B2B marketing strategy that was feasible for a small business wishing to expand. The result was a more focused service offer and a focused strategy targeting specific sectors.
EZ Doors
EZ Doors imports Swedish designed pre-finished doors into the UK for faster and more cost-effective construction.
The brief: To ensure EZ Doors was strategically positioned to launch successfully in the UK and to create a marketing plan. The implementation of the plan created greater sales activity and supported the securing of an export contract with a Swedish manufacturer.
East created a B2B marketing plan that included an analysis of the benefits of EZ Doors products for the company’s different markets and strategic advice concerning the company’s positioning. The implementation of the plan created greater sales activity and supported the securing of an export contract with a Swedish manufacturer.
The brief: To continue to raise the profile of Martin Searle Solicitors through the provision of a media relations service.
The campaign generated media interest in and coverage of a range of issues with current legal relevance, including disability, age discrimination, community care and volunteering.
The brief: To prepare a strategic marketing plan in order to support the organisation’s business objective of increasing turnover.
East co-ordinated the development and implementation of a marketing plan with business objectives in mind and including full customer, competitor and product/service analyses. Market research was also undertaken to provide a focus for areas of future business development.
Housed on a former industrial site in the regeneration area of Moulsecoomb, the energy efficient Westergate Business Centre, owned by the East Brighton Trust, aims to combine affordability and environmental sustainability. Key features include, solar panel heated water, bore-hole heated central heating and a wind turbine generating electricity, promoting the use of renewable energy. The centre is home to a number of social enterprises, including East Communications.
The brief: To create a corporate identity that communicates the centre’s unique position in the market.
Community and Voluntary Sector
The brief: To design and produce cost-effective promotional materials and appointment cards for this East Brighton-based substance misuse project that target young people.
"Great service, top people! They listen to my needs and always deliver."
Alistair Morten, Addaction
Care Co-ops offers a range of services to learning disabled adults, adults with mental health support needs and adults returning to the labour market.
The brief: To undertake a perceptions audit of Care Co-ops’ services and image amongst key stakeholders, followed by the preparation of an integrated communications plan for the organisation.
“Care Co-ops commissioned East Communications to do a sizable piece of work looking at the organisation's internal and external communications strategies. East engaged with us and our stakeholders in a positive and empowering way, reflecting the value base that Care Co-ops operates from. This approach created a high level of trust and a strong working alliance between the two organisations, as well as between Care Co-ops and its stakeholders. The recommendations in the final report were therefore well grounded in the reality that Care Co-ops currently operates within, and have been adopted in full.”
Neil Holmes, Deputy Chief Executive, Care Co-ops
Engage is a membership organisation that supports and coordinates employer engagement activities in Brighton & Hove. Membership is comprised of supported employment agencies that directly engage with businesses to identify work placements and job opportunities. Engage has successfully identified and disseminated good practice; improved the success of sourcing and sustaining work placements and improved networking and partnership working.
The brief: To develop a brand for Engage and to produce an Employer Engagement Handbook/toolkit for organisations supporting the recruitment of people from disadvantaged groups.
MACS (Money Advice and Community Support)
The brief: To undertake a branding exercise for MACS’ new social enterprise, macs-plus, which provides a cost-effective financial advice and support service to vulnerable people.
The brief: To develop a strategic marketing plan for SCIP, which provides IT services for charities and communities at a key a key stage in its development.
East produced a marketing plan which focused on achieving SCIP’s regional expansion plans and provided a balanced implementation strategy for marketing both the organisation’s funded and “paid for” services.
The Valley Social Centre is a community-run social and leisure centre in Whitehawk, East Brighton.
The brief: To promote the café within the centre to the community in order to increase local patronage.
Youth Inclusion Project
The brief: The project wanted to communicate its services via a cost effective promotional leaflet to a number of stakeholders including parents, young people and service providers in Brighton.
Education
Learning Performance: National Students of the Year Awards
The brief: To manage media relation for the awards in order to maximise exposure of the ‘National Students of the Year’ competition and to position and promote Learning Performance at the heart of the awards.
Sussex Careers – a social enterprise – provides information, training and advice for young people, teachers, businesses and adults of all ages so that they can meet their full potential and find their ideal career.
The brief: To plan and implement an integrated communications strategy – covering both internal and external stakeholders – to strengthen the Sussex Careers brand and identity in an environment of ongoing change. To provide ongoing PR support.
'Sussex Careers has worked closely with East Communication during the last year. We found that their social values, outlook and approach to business were very much in accordance with our own. They are an organisation that is extremely easy to work with and relate to: very friendly and approachable, committed to high levels of customer service, sensitive and responsive to our needs as a client. We valued our partnership with them greatly and appreciate the contribution they made to the development of our communications, PR and marketing. Many thanks, East!'
Richard Housden, Deputy Chief Executive, Sussex Careers Ltd
Brighton & Hove City Council
(School Governors’ recruitment campaign)
The brief: The School Governor Support Team was looking to challenge the perception of School Governors and encourage recruitment from hard-to-reach groups.
“I have been impressed with the professionalism of East Communications and their dedication. They are responsive to my needs as a client and take enormous care with background research to make sure that the message they put across is the right one.”
Rose Wisdom, Brighton and Hove City Council
Health
East Brighton Healthy Living Centre
The brief: To create an informative graphic for a poster presentation by the HLC at the 2007 National Public Health Forum (the UK’s largest public health conference) in Edinburgh, to share with other public health practitioners how the HLC addresses health inequalities in East Brighton.
"This was a really important opportunity for us to raise our profile nationally. East’s knowledge of the health sector, together with their creativity and commitment to tight budgets and deadlines made them a pleasure to work with. They also consulted with the whole team so that everyone was happy with the final concept."
Helen Graham, Team Leader, Healthy Living Centre
The Brief: The production of a creative, engaging invitation to a strategic planning event for Portsmouth-based professionals working with children to combat obesity and increase healthy eating and physical activity.
East produced an engaging invitation to the event, which contributed to a successful and well attended occasion and which was well received by delegates.
Housing and Regeneration
The brief: East’s photographer, John Roberts was the main photographer for regeneration projects led by CDHA (Chichester Diocesan Housing Association) in east Brighton. Many of John’s photos have appeared in specialist regeneration publications and local magazines to help promote the projects in east Brighton.
John [Roberts] has been our commissioned photographer at events for our Building & Environmental Projects. We are always impressed with his ability to capture such a diverse range of people; He develops a good rapport with people and never fails to get the kind of images we ask him for.”
Alice Smyth, eb4U
East Brighton New Deal for Communities Partnership (ebndc - formerly known as ‘eb4U’) is the organisation which manages and delivers the New Deal for Communities regeneration programme; a ten-year, £47.2 million government-funded investment in the east Brighton area.
The brief: to develop and implement an effective communications plan for the final nine months of the ten year ebndc programme, using a variety of media to encourage greater awareness, understanding and support for the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme from key audiences at a crucial time.
"East Communications has provided us with invaluable strategic advice, and effective implementation of our PR and Communications plan. They have approached each aspect of the work in a professional and creative way – and with good humour! The East Brighton New Deal for Communities programme (ebndc – formerly eb4U) is one of the largest NDC regeneration programmes. East has interpreted often complex information into jargon free, compelling copy ideally suited to our key audiences."
Paul Allen, Director, East Brighton New Deal for Communities Programme (ebndc, formerly eb4U)
event organization
We manage bespoke programmes and events of sizes to enable your organisation to engage with your stakeholders. We can assist you to define event objectives; develop a programme or agenda; manage the production of promotional support material; create and manage the invitation list; arrange professional audio visual support; source good caterers . . . and look after all the other details that create a great event.
corporate social responsibility (CSR)
CSR is about measuring and reporting a company’s impact on its stakeholders (including employees, customers, suppliers & partners) and making a commitment to reduce any negative impact through implementing positive changes. CSR is an integral part of business and marketing planning processes. We can help manage the development and implementation of an effective CSR programme for your organisation.
issues/crisis management
Most organisations face issues which, if not properly handled, could seriously damage their reputation. We train your key spokespeople to handle hostile media interviews appropriately. The training also helps to develop practical strategies for turning potentially negative news into positive media exposure. We create tailor-made manuals that set out the communication systems you need to address issues positively.
new media
Key decision-makers and influencers are increasingly conducting a lot of their networking and research online, and it is crucial that your organisation's online presence felt by your target audiences.
East can advise on the most effective strategies for your organisation, harnessing web2.0 technologies where appropriate.
advertising
We offer a full advertising service, covering everything from copywriting, the design and production of advertising materials and purchase of the most appropriate, cost-effective media space.
