Birmingham Metropolitan College employed Big Cat to develop a campaign promoting their brand new campus in Kidderminster. The new campus offers specialist courses ranging from Fashion design through to Computer Game Development and so a fully integrated digital strategy was implemented in support of our offline activity in order to capture the young (and socially active) target audience.

The biggest challenge presented by the campaign was having a very short lead time until the open day, and the Big Cat team worked really closely with the college to ensure that the campaign was time efficient from the planning stages, right through until delivery.

The outdoor budget was focussed heavily towards transport media such as train station platform panels and both interior/exterior panels on busses. We organised activity on local radio stations, with presenters taking part on the day, and captured parents of potential students by featuring details of the open day on all arterial routs into Kidderminster. Competitions were run to aid our social media fan acquisition efforts and our contextual / geo-targeted YouTube adverts also proved really successful.

The footfall achieved on the day was 200% greater than the target outlined in the initial brief.

November is always a busy time for Birmingham’s creative, cultural and digital community and this year has been no different.

2011 hailed the launch of Birmingham’s Digital Week, a series of events which aim to educate and inform organisations about the use of digital and how it can be implemented in a number of areas to improve processes, turnover and audience engagement.

This year marked a new start for the city’s Digital Week with the launch of Hello Culture; a one day conference specifically targeted at the creative and cultural industries.

Featuring a mix of seminars, workshops and panel discussions the event explored how the cultural sector can exploit digital technology, innovation, knowledge and skills to improve audience development, organisational operating processes, raise the business profile and collaborate across sectors to develop new product practices and partners.

Big Cat worked in collaboration with Lara Ratnaraja and Birmingham City Council to develop both an engaging and informative event which provided organisations, no matter what their understanding of digital, a framework of how to improve their business through the use of digital technology.

Taking place at the Custard Factory, Digbeth, Big Cat were appointed as event managers for the conference and worked closely with the speakers to ensure all sessions ran as smoothly as possible. The team worked across four venues within the Custard Factory, preparing each room individually to meet the needs of the sessions.

In the run up to the event, Big Cat’s digital team managed the build and maintenance of the Hello Culture website which included the upload of session content, speaker biogs and blogs.

In order to raise awareness of the event, an e-marketing campaign was implemented, informing potential delegates of what was on offer, the latest speaker announcements and early bird offers.

On the day of the event, all four venues were filled to capacity. To enable global participation with the sessions, a microsite was set up with partner event broadcaster Event with Me who streamed live content onto the web. The sessions saw participants from as far away as the US take part through the live stream and interaction with the twitter feed.

Big Cat implemented an extensive social media strategy which combined tweeting with blogs, Vox Pops and Linkedin discussions. There were over 555 uses of the #helloculture hashtag on the day of the event, a significant increase on previous years.

October 2011 saw final preparations put into place for the grand launch of Bournville College’s new multi-million pound campus in Longbridge.

Encompassing services from across all departments, Big Cat Group were tasked with officially launching the new £66 million facility.

12 months in the planning, Big Cat were awarded the contract following a competitive pitch with a number of other agencies.

The launch event was to be held for 500 VIP guests from across the country ranging from local and national dignitaries, funding bodies and supporters of the new build. The aim was to showcase the stunning new facilities which provide educational facilities for 15,000 full and part time students.

The events team managed the complete set up of the evening which included a light show, flashmob, contemporary dance, ice sculpture and an exclusive keynote speech from TV personality Chris Tarrant. Capital FM presenters Dan & Katy were also brought in to compere the evening and DJ throughout. The evening concluded with a spectacular 5 minute firework display to music from Requiem for a Dream which could be seen from across the city.

The launch was fully branded with the words ‘AMAZING’ which had been designed by Big Cat’s design team who also created a 16-page memorial guide which was placed in gift bags for all 500 guests.

The PR team managed all regional press around the launch which included interviews on BBC WM and coverage in all local papers both before and after the launch.

To hail in the digital era within the new college, a Digital Time Capsule was also created, containing over 50 images, videos and sound bites starting as early as the 1800’s.

Reed MIDEM, part of Reed Exhibitions, the world’s leading organiser of trade and consumer exhibitions brought in Big Cat Group to raise the profile of its services and advise on internal and external processes and systems in order to deliver more profitable events.

Through market audits, competitor analysis, service audits and staff interviews, Big Cat Group were able to develop a change management proposal which re-focused the team and its operation, enabling the organisation to stay ahead of its European competitors.

2010 saw Big Cat Group partner with Digital Birmingham, Business Link and AWM to create one of the country’s largest digital conferences. Taking place at venues across the city including, the ICC and Zellig building at the Custard Factory, the conference saw speakers such as Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and European Digital Agenda, Alex Hunter, former Global head of Online Content at Virgin Group and Horst Hortner, founding member of Ars Electronica take to the stand and speak to 500 key decision makers and influencers from across the country.

Big Cat Group provided support on a number of levels including event management, PR, marketing, design and website maintenance. The events team managed the entire running of the 2-day conference, ensuring appropriate venues were booked, rooms branded correctly and that all speakers were prepared for their individual slots.

Big Cat’s design team developed all of the branding for this year’s digital festival which included emailers and posters and billboards. In addition to this they also designed the Hello Business 2010 website which was used as a ticketing platform and festival planner for guests.

The PR team managed all press inquires for the festival and established partnerships with local publications such as The Business Desk to raise the profile of speakers and the topics they were discussing.

Since winning the Olympic bid back in 2005, the UK has seen a dramatic increase in sports activity. To coincide with this 2011 saw Big Cat Group win a contract for the promotion of a brand new and exciting, alternative sports show entitled the Monster Energy Extreme Freestylers Tour.

Taking place at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, the Monster Energy Extreme Freestylers tour will see some of the world’s top motocross stuntmen take to track and perform a series of death defying stunts in front of a crowd of 40,000 extreme sport fans.

Big Cat Group have been appointed to provide PR, marketing, design and social media support with the aim of raising brand awareness and filling Millennium Stadium to capacity.

As part of the PR activity, Big Cat organised a press day down in London’s Docklands, inviting press to take a riding masterclass with the world champions and witness some of the stunts that they will be performing on the tour. Turnout at the press day included News of the World, Independent and Kerrang Radio with many more publications such as Nuts and Daily Mirror featuring stories.

Big Cat Marketing managed a direct marketing campaign which included organising flyer drops and competitions throughout the Midlands, Wales and South of England as well as outdoor billboards and other off-site promotion. Advertisements on local radio stations such as Capital and Kerrang were also briefed, produced and broadcast.

Big Cat Design worked alongside the marketing department with the design and production of elaborate marketing materials which included posters, flyers and stickers. All the materials were distributed at key events across the country, focusing on specific demographics which were relevant to the Extreme Freestylers event.

The social media arm of the campaign worked alongside all divisions, profiling the event, its riders and competitions that had been arranged with partners. Its main aim was to push volumes of interactive content such as videos to audiences within the UK.

The Innovation Advisory Service (IAS) is a new, free expert advice service from Business Link West Midlands designed to assist Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at all levels, abilities and stages of innovation readiness. The agency, working alongside Business Link West Midlands is working with the UK’s leading Innovation experts and advisors to help generate, develop and commercialise new ideas for more efficient processes and new products.

The 3 year project is designed to support businesses in becoming more innovative and to bridge the estimated £15billion productivity gap in the West Midlands.
The agency has been working with the BLWM to develop:

• A marketing and communications strategy for the IAS programme including the development of tactics (broadcast, print and web) and key messages for the primary target audience;
• A communications plan derived from the marketing strategy identifying key activities and milestones during the duration of the IAS programme;
• Proposals for the design of marketing collateral (print and web) taking into account BLWM brand guidelines;
• A campaign identity (logo, strap line/mantra) for the IAS programme;
• An event management strategy for the IAS programme taking due account of key elements including venue selection, liaison and hire, related hospitality and facilities, event programmes, delegate packs, delegate and speaker management;
• Management and control processes including monitoring the impact/effectiveness of the marketing campaign and any corrective measures in case of non-performance;

Results: The Ideation and Innovation Management events continue to be fully booked across the region. Current activity include promoting 2 day innovation diagnostic sessions and an innovation awareness is being rolled out. As a result of successes with IAS Big Cat has been selected to work on the Innovation Stimulation Service and another BLWM business support programme running until 2011.

Budget: £380,000
Recipients: Business Link, Advantage West Midlands, European Regional Development Fund
Dates: September 2009 – March 2013

Birmingham’s first digital festival celebrating the region’s leading screen and digital media practitioners and designed to help regional SME’s engage with digital media. The event also incorporated a conference which saw some of the industry’s leaders coming together from companies including Disney Pixar, Channel 4, Flickr and Myspace.

Big Cat was responsible for producing and implementing the marketing strategy and project managing the branding and production of all materials including 2 websites that incorporated an online booking system. Because of the nature of the event online and digital activity were key to targeting the diverse audiences which included regional SME’s, creative industries, families, students and businesses.

Over 4000 members of the public attended the 4 day festival and 1000 businesses from across the region attended the exciting range of workshops, seminars and exhibition.

Value: £180,000
Recipients: Advantage West Midlands, Birmingham City Council, Arts Council England, Business Link West Midlands, Screen West Midlands
Dates: March – November 2008

BODIES REVEALED is the incredible exhibition about the amazing and complex machine we call the human body. Using real human specimens, painstakingly prepared and respectfully displayed, BODIES REVEALED lets visitors of all ages explore deep within the human body

Having acquired success across the globe with an astonishing 15 million visitors, BODIES REVEALED made it’s UK debut at Birmingham’s Custard Factory under the management of Big Cat. Big Cat developed and delivered a broad marketing strategy and media plan, employing a wide range of media formats including broadcast (TV and Radio), outdoor (Large format, bespoke and Street level), print (national, regional and specialist) and online (regional and targeted).

With huge coverage across Birmingham and the Midlands region using some of the most prominent billboards, primetime spots between ITV’s most popular Christmas shows and visually engaging ads within the regions most read publications, word of mouth ensured that this unique exhibition had captured the minds across the Midlands.

The offline campaign was further amplified by digital and online activity where engaging digital content was regularly shared across a diverse range of social networking platforms. This was combined with ads on Facebook, Google and a variety of high traffic science and educational websites.

The UK’s most diverse city centre festival, Gigbeth, is now in its fourth successful year. Big Cat was employed to manage the marketing function in 2008, which included web management, marcoms, channel development, advertising (outdoor, print, online), web design and administration, digital marketing, and monitoring and evaluation. The marketing team worked in close partnership with the Festival Director and Big Cat’s other 3 teams: PR, Events & Creative. The 2008 event campaign fully integrated on and off line tactics and saw over 50% increase in OTS and a 35% increase in attendance.

Value: £40,000
Recipients: Birmingham City Council, Gigbeth Events
Dates: June – November 2008

San Carlo Group is one of the UK’s leading Italian restaurant chains. The group has 6 restaurants in cities including Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Knightsbridge London. San Carlo is about to open a new restaurant in Liverpool. Group turnover is approximately £28 million.

Big Cat has been working with the company for 4 years providing media auditing, planning & buying, negotiation, scheduling, contractual negotiation. The team recommend media selection from a focused rationale, through to effective development of a full deployment strategy. The campaigns are designed to provide minimal wastage and are underpinned by up-to-date media research and intelligence.

National, local and online campaigns work independently and across multiple branches. Campaign analysis comprises  of target audience reach and frequency estimates. A new Outdoor campaign titled ‘The People Behind the Brand’ was developed by the Creative Director in the Spring and is currently being rolled out nationwide.

Value: £180,000 per annum
Recipients: Harnbury Holdings
Dates: March 2006 – present