Putting the Media in the Spotlight

We were delighted to be a part of the 2013 Coca Cola CIPR Media Awards last Friday night- celebrating the cream of our local print, broadcast and online media. Sponsoring the Broadcast Journalist of the Year Award, Morrows attended the buzzing event at The Mac Belfast basking in the evening sunshine.
Hosted by Eamonn Holmes, the theater style event was a fresh approach on the 20 year old awards ceremony. It was fantastic to see new talent such as Sara Girvan and the Cool FM breakfast team winning gold on the night as well as seasoned reporters such as Anne Hailes who claimed the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Special congratulations go to Claire Savage from the BBC who picked up our sponsored category for Broadcast Journalist of the Year. The judges said Claire was a 'polished reporter who always finds the connections' - we couldn't agree more and were delighted to present the gong to her on the evening.

Congrats also to the CIPR NI committee for hosting another great night allowing our local media to be recongised, applauded and, most importantly, let down their hair to celebrate!

Practice Made Perfect!

We would like to welcome TM2 to the Morrows fold!

Based in East Belfast, TM2 is a leading practice management software company, specialising in the rehabilitation sector. In layman’s terms, they are the creators of the computer systems at your local physiotherapist!

They are however more than just a ‘systems’ provider – the software can help with bookings, invoicing and data capture along with assistance in patient note taking and reports. The 35-strong team at TM2 are in fact so well reputed that they’re strategic partners to a number of industry leaders including physiotherapy, chiropractic, healthcare and more throughout the UK, Ireland and Australia.

One of the recent projects we have worked on has been to announce TM2’s record customer numbers as they celebrated their 10 year anniversary. As part of the campaign, we arranged for the DETI Minister, Arlene Foster to pay the TM2 offices a visit – she took a tour of the office and talked to Director Kyle Lunn about the 1200 clinics worldwide that use TM2.

In the months to come we hope to be announcing a rehabilitation industry first, which will bring together key players in the field....watch this space!

Stepping Out for Walk to School Week

For over four years we have been working with Travelwise NI, the sustainable transport team within the Department for Regional Development, to promote Walk to School Week. We are delighted to announce that once again the initiative, which took place from 20^th to 25^th May, was a huge success with thousands of children from across Northern Ireland choosing to make the daily journey to school on foot.

Getting children out of cars and onto their feet is the driving force behind the initiative, which aims to encourage school children to adopt sustainable travel behaviour habits and experience the health, environmental, social and financial benefits of walking.

To encourage children, parents and teachers to get involved, we teamed up with Paralympic gold medallist, Michael McKillop. At the 2012 London Paralympics, Michael was awarded the prestigious Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award in recognition of his work with the youth of Northern Ireland in promoting healthy living and paralympic sport. Michael was a real inspiration to the children by helping them to consider the benefits of walking –the perfect choice for the 2013 Walk to School Week ambassador!

The launch event at the Ballymoney Footbridge in Co. Antrim was a real highlight when Transport Minister, Danny Kennedy, Michael McKillop and pupils from four schools in the Ballymoney area came together to mark the official start of Walk to School Week 2013. Throughout the week thousands of pupils also engaged in fun-filled classroom activities that helped to raise the importance of making smart travel decisions. 

The key aim of the campaign was to help reverse the trend for children to travel to school by car and we are delighted that so many schools took part in this exciting event!

Top chefs, rugby players, chicken wings and a celebrity bake off...it could only be Balmoral Show 2013!

The Morrows team were out in force for the eagerly anticipated Balmoral Show 2013 at the new Balmoral Park – and the most important event in Northern Ireland’s farming calendar certainly didn’t disappoint!

We enthusiastically donned our wellies to work alongside our agri-food clients over the three days of the Show. Here are some of our best bits...

Winging it with Moy Park...we worked with Moy Park to bring a huge two storey stand (with stairs...it will be an escalator next year) to the NI Food Pavilion. Visitors’ taste buds were tickled with a range of delicious hot and spicy chicken wings and succulent breaded chicken goujons which were sampled on stand. Moy Park’s Group Executive Chef, Aaron Dixon, was on hand during the Show and hosted a series of cookery demonstrations on the Moy Park stand to show visitors how to make a selection of mouth-watering chicken dishes – we have no excuses now!

Ready Steady Bake! What could be better than an Olympic legend, three rugby stars and mountains of cupcakes? We worked with Dale Farm to deliver a celebrity bake off – which pitted Dame Mary Peters against Ulster Rugby’s Paddy McAllistair, Roger Wilson and Adam Macklin to see who would produce the most perfectly decorated cupcake! True to form Dame Mary Peters emerged victorious to rapturous applause in the marquee.

We also partnered with James Street South’s head chef Niall McKenna, who offered daily Masterclasses on the Dale Farm stand to educate show-goers in the art of home baking – using the finest Dale Farm products of course!

Our Ainsley...The Asda marquee was the place to be with new and exciting products being sampled by Asda’s top suppliers across the three days. Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott was also on hand to entertain the crowds on the stand - serving up delicious dishes alongside Asda’s expert chef – as well as choosing the winner of the Farming Life ‘Farmer’s Little Helper’ competition for 2013.

Bagel Boom! Irwin’s Bakery delighted the crowds with its new range of pre sliced bagels...available in cinnamon and raison, plain and brown – the hungry crowds couldn’t get enough of them and we even found some apprentice bakers!

These are only a few of our highlights from Balmoral Show 2013! It was a fantastic event and we even got some sunshine - roll on Balmoral Show 2014!

George Storms the Catwalk at Belfast Fashionweek!

We love it when a plan comes together..especially when it involves gorgeous clothes, models and the opening night of West Coast Cooler Belfast Fashionweek. Having worked with George at Asda over the past three seasons of Fashionweek - we took our partnership to a whole new level this year, helping the team put together its first standalone show.

It was a real privilege to work with the George House and Asda House team, as well as the event organisers at CMPR, on this project -  and we loved sharing in the passion and excitement (as well as the many weeks of planning, hard work and perspiration) that went in to making the show come to life.

During the pre-show build up we had the chance to meet with three of George's most influential and inspiring colleagues - Helen Low,  Helen Connolly and Jo Whitfield - and had the pleasure of introducing the ladies to some of Belfast's leading fashion journalists and bloggers.

Braving the arctic conditions on Thursday night, we made it to the gorgeous Ulster Museum for the main event. It was fantastic to take in the eager faces of fashionistas and bloggers in the audience, and hear the excited murmurs from the crowd as the models showcased the best of George's Spring Summer and High Summer looks. It might have been cold outside... but it was definitely hot on the George catwalk!!

George Spring Summer 2013

George Spring Summer 2013

George Spring Summer 2013

Seona and Kelly from Morrows 

Are you the full Irish?

Long-standing Morrow’s client, Irwin’s Bakery and top Irish Chef, Paul Rankin are encouraging the public to join in a unique St Patrick’s Day fundraiser by downloading a new app, which asks users a series of quirky questions to work out their percentage Irishness or their “Paddy Proof.”

The Paddy Proof campaign, created by Morrow Communications, capitalises on the GB public’s desire to get involved in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and to become – even just a little bit – Irish for the day. The app leads a wider GB focused campaign promoting the Irwin's Rankin Selection range of Irish breads and aims to give Rankin Selection “ownership” of the interaction non-Irish people have with St. Patrick’s Day.

Paddy Proof is a light-hearted, fun app and for every free UK app store download, Irwin’s Bakery will make a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support - so it’s all in aid of a very good cause. The app can also be played on Facebook and is expected to go massively viral as St Patrick’s day approaches and the Gaelic Diaspora clamours to declare their Irishness!

To download the app from the app store or play on Facebook

 

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Morrows Events Team on top of their game at Croke Park.

Morrows event team successfully delivered InterTradeIreland’s Venture Capital Conference entitled “securing investment in 2013” at Croke Park in Dublin.  Now in its 12th year the event is the only venture capital conference in Ireland and is designed to facilitate networking between Ireland’s leading venture capitalists, business angels and start up companies seeking funding.

Over 300 delegates from across Ireland attended the conference which was hosted by former RTÉ presenter and Storyful founder Mark Little and formally opened by Minister Seán Sherlock TD. Speakers also included Paul Adams, Global Head of Brand Design at Facebook (pictured), Johnny Walker, founder of Global Diagnostics and Thomas Davis, Head of Investment at Seedrs. Delegates also heard from active venture fund panellists and the experience of companies that have been through the angel funding process.

Awarding Excellence - Morrow Events win contract with CIM

Morrow Events Team

Morrow Events team have recently secured a contract with The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) to manage and deliver the Ireland Marketing Excellence Awards for the next three years.

Our work will include revitalising the awards programme, recruiting entries from companies across Ireland, securing sponsorship and delivering a world class gala awards event later this year.

We are very excited and honoured to be working in partnership with CIM to deliver this prestigious and well respected awards programme. We are currently in the initial planning stages - so watch this space about how to get involved!

Next week, CIM are hosting a seminar in partnership with CIPR on Tuesday 19th February in Titanic Belfast at 12noon - Business Change in a Digital Age - with keynote speakers Múirne Laffan, RTE's Managing Director for digital and Krishna De, an award winning communications strategist, commentator and mentor.

Places are still available to book (from £10 - £20) and is a CPD category 10 event. Find out More.