48320 Northstar Brighter Thinking 2022 A3_LR

48320 Northstar Brighter Thinking 2022 A3_LR

Working for a better future. We’ve adapted to a different way of working during the pandemic – but we’ve also made it work better for the environment!

Like many businesses, we’ve adopted a hybrid way of working post-lockdown, with some days in the office and some working from home. And we’ve adapted our office accordingly, making it much less formal, with a more chilled-out atmosphere, comfy sofas for relaxed meetings and catch-ups and a bank of hot desks to suit our newworking patterns. But in refreshing our working environment, we’ve also taken a more environmental approach and made changes to reduce our carbon footprint. Now you’ll find new energy-efficient lighting with zone lighting so we’re not wasting energy in areas we’re not using; we’ve introduced a new cloud-based admin system that means we can all work from anywhere; and we’re building our own intranet site so we can go fully paperless in the very near-future.

The overall result is less travelling for the whole Northstar team, with those living locally walking or cycling when they’re in the office, and a significant

reduction in the energy we use. So even though ours is only a small office, we’re doing our bit and making a difference!

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New Starters

RONNIE

A fresh start…

We’ve been happy to welcome a couple of new faces to Northstar Towers in the last month or two! Ronnie joins our design team having started out with a degree apprenticeship before finding his feet in the industry over the last three years. He’s an experienced art worker and illustrator who’s now looking to focus more on design and animation. Jasmyn’s experience stretches over 10 years on both client and agency sides, and she’s worked with international brands across the telco, travel and dining sectors. She brings her experience in brand partnerships, promotional marketing and digital project management to our account management team.

Make sure you say hello next time you visit our offices!

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WATCH THIS SPACE! We’ve had lots of brilliant moments in the last 12 months - here are some of the highlights...

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Introducing Boxworks.

There’s a new side to Northstar!

Earlier this year we launched Boxworks, our new specialist video division, and it’s already proved extremely popular – opening the door to clients who wouldn’t normally think of coming to us for video production. Boxworks is about more than just video – it’s about creating engaging content whether that’s for use on broadcast media, online, on social media or at exhibitions. We’ve long offered video as part of our integrated marketing campaigns, and Boxworks simply brings together our skills and those of suppliers we’ve worked with for years into a more formal package. To see what we’ve been up to, just take a look at the Boxworks showreel - just scan the QR code, and it’ll take you straight there!

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Gifts & Promotions

Making brandmagic!

If you want to cast a spell over your customers, physical marketing’s what you need – so says Matt Metcalf, the specialist behind Whizzard promotions who work in partnership with Northstar. Matt will tell you that 88%of people remember your brand when you put it in their hands – literally – and he should know, he’s woven his brand magic to help many a client get more out of their marketing budget through everything from branded products to bespoke gifts to exhibition stands.

It really is marketing with the magic touch…

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Events Themain event?

With the ever-changing circumstances of the last couple of years, industry events have had to adapt to many different forms – some physical, some virtual, many somewhere in between! Suffice to say, we’ve been kept really busy helping our clients maintain their presence however an event’s taken place!

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Givinganew name inpilinga solid foundation.

Or rather, a not-so-new name.

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Abbey Pynford

That’s because Pro Plant Services has actually been around a long time as part of the Abbey Pynford Group, but in 2020 was rebranded as Pynford Piling Services to integrate it more closely.

That meant creating a new website to reflect their quality and credentials and offer a more dynamic online experience – and that’s where we came in.

Certain elements needed to be carried over to the new website – such as any SEO authority and the wide and varied range of testimonials – the latter becoming the main focus. The design revolves around the home page, with much more engaging messages outlining the business’s purpose, ambition and brand personality and imagery and graphics that could easily be updated via the content management system.

To promote the new-look business, we also created a highly-targeted LinkedIn and email campaign which has proved extremely successful – putting Pynford Piling on a solid footing for the future!

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Contract Scotland Anew recruitment website? We’re the right people for the job!

Last year, Contract Scotland – Scotland’s construction recruitment specialists – tasked us with creating a new brand identity to reflect the way they do things differently. Namely, building long-term partnerships and being motivated by successful placements rather than sales targets.

Our Brand

Following their management buyout, they’d also been left with a website that not only failed to reflect that ethos, but couldn’t integrate with a number of their back office systems. So during 2021, we’ve been rebuilding their site for them from the ground up, restructuring and rewriting it to better represent the brand. But most importantly, making sure it fully integrates with their job posting and CRM systems, with the ability to send out job alerts, updates and more.

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Technically, it’s been a very complex build – but ultimately it’s proven to be a real success. A tough job…but you can always trust Northstar to do it!

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Addingnew super-heroes to theCowgills universe… Cowgills

Produced by our sister company Boxworks, we created ‘A Day in the Life of Cowgills’, showing what it’s like to work with the firm and focusing on their ethos and culture, the great work/life balance, career prospects and the social side of the business. In short, it shows how they do things differently to a younger audience – which is why the video’s been widely seen on social media (as well as the Cowgills home page!). It’s gone down a stormwith both the target audience and client too – especially as it’s already played a key part in several new hirings. Cowgills is one of the North West’s leading accountancy consultancies. But even with their excellent reputation – and of course, our Super Accountants campaign – they were struggling to recruit enough staff of the right calibre in early 2021 to cope with all the new business they’d attracted.

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Cowgills

…and taking the Super Accountants to the next level.

As well as producing recruitment videos to find new Cowgills super-heroes, we’ve been refreshing the existing ultra-successful campaign with a whole suite of new images! While the originals featured the firm’s staff shot around their offices, the new photography covers a wider range of business areas, showing the diversity within Cowgills; they’ve also been shot against a variety of backgrounds, giving the brand a modern feel to appeal to a younger audience via social media.

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Marshall Client Win

Progress in construction.

Towards the end of the year we started developing a newwebsite for Marshall CDP – a Yorkshire-based family-run specialist in commercial construction and development. The group consists of eight complementary businesses, from construction and development to building management and joinery, working across every sector of the UK construction industry on projects from retail parks to residential property. Our task has been to construct a new website to showcase not only their projects but their people, making a visit to their site a much more engaging experience, highlighting their ethos and further enhancing their already strong brand. Work is ongoing at present, so watch out for the launch of the new website later in 2022!

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Sto

Sofar, Stogood!

Last year, we told you about our campaign for StoVentec Glass that helped architects see glass in a different way – and which, having aimed to get 100 leads, ended up garnering over 450! Such was its success that Sto came back to us in asking us to ‘reboot’ the campaign, showcasing some new blast >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32

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