One of our charity clients, Refugee Action, asked us to help them raise awareness, grow their supporter base and boost donations.

Together we developed World Food Night which is about getting together with friends, family, colleagues and neighbours and ‘cooking up a recipe for change’ for refugees. The idea is to host a dinner party, cooking food from around the world and asking your guests to donate for their dinner. The campaign is even backed by Mr Reggae Reggae Sauce himself, Levi Roots.

We’re holding our own World Food Night launch event on Thursday 23rd February at HEART Arts & Enterprise Centre in Headingley.

We’ve enlisted the support of local restaurants, bars and catering businesses to donate international dishes for our event, including Salvo’s, The Olive Tree, Jino’s, Wok On and Leeds Outside Catering.

John Damnone, from Salvo’s, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with other local businesses in our community to add a taste of Italy to World Food Night.”
Other local businesses are getting involved by donating prizes for the charity auction. These include Emma’s Kitchen, R&J’s, Prashad, Sarah Gordon Home interior design company and Jackdaw picture framers. Other interested parties can show their support by making donations at Intermarketing’s reception on Alma Road or emailing WFN@intermarketing.co.uk.

As well as all our team, we’ve invited local businesses and marketing agencies to come along, enjoy the food and make a donation to Refugee Action. Managing Partners, Jamie Allan and Steve Sowden, and the management team, will be donating world drinks and rolling up their sleeves to wash up afterwards.

Jamie Allan, said:

“We’re very proud to be based in Headingley and to be working with the local business community to raise awareness of Refugee Action’s cause and raise valuable funds. Steve and I are also very keen to get local marketing businesses working together again, as part of our commitment to supporting regional networking we’ve extended World Food Night invites to members of Leeds Media. Hopefully they will dig deep and help us to raise funds for charity too.”

If you are interested in coming along, please email your name, business name and contact details to WFN@intermarketing.co.uk.

Intermarketing have developed the identity for the World Food Night campaign along with supporting materials such as a magazine insert and a fundraising pack that includes recipe cards, thank you cards for guests, a money box and donation form. They’ve also created a Facebook app and a microsite site www.refugee-action.org.uk/WFN

Alison Gregory, Fundraising manager at Refugee Action says:

‘We’re really excited about Intermarketing putting all their creative ideas into action by holding a World Food Night event for Refugee Action. They’ve supported us through every stage of the design and production process and it’s great to see them taking that support even further by getting out into their local community and putting on what looks like a brilliant event!’

Refugee Action have been helping refugees settle in the UK since 1981, giving them support and advice and helping them to rebuild their lives. Many refugees have fled persecution, survived armed conflicts and left everything behind. Refugee Action reach out to these people and support their resettlement.

Leeds based Intermarketing is celebrating its inclusion in the Recommended Agency Register Top 100 agencies outside London list for 2011.

Intermarketing has made the top ten at number six in the list, which makes them the highest ranked Yorkshire full service creative agency and one of only two ‘Top ten 2010’ companies to make it into the top ten again. A great achievement from a list of over 700 UK agencies.

The RAR rating looks at how profitable agencies are, how well they are growing and how efficient they are in terms of turnover per head of staff.

Steve Antoniewicz, Managing Director, The Recommended Agency Register, said: “This year the competition was intense so inclusion is testament to the fact Intermarketing are running a very successful business”

Newly appointed Managing Partners, Steve Sowden and Jamie Allan said:
“This is another amazing performance, a truly awesome achievement and recognition of our performance and client feedback in what is a difficult market. Thank you to everyone yet again for all your hard work and support in helping us to achieve this.”

To add to the team’s success, the £11 million turnover agency was recently named Yorkshire Marketing Business of the Year at the MiNetwork 2011 Awards. Intermarketing has also been awarded for Best in Professionalism by the RAR this year, and hold awards for digital, design and marketing strategy.

The Headingley based full service creative agency, founded in 1988, has evolved and expanded with many loyal clients working with them for years, some from the very start, and has a stream of new clients from recommendation and year on year business growth.

Jamie Allan, our Head of Media, and Steve Sowden, Client Services Director, have recently completed a management buy-out of the Intermarketing Group supported by Creative Directors Paul Mountford and Michael Harris, and Group Finance Director Andy Watson.

It’s not all change though. Our existing senior management team have all committed their futures to the Group with Glenn Patterson taking up the role of Chairman in the New Year and Chris Henry taking on a business development role. This ensures our award-winning approach continues. Even more exciting, it allows us to develop innovative new ideas to drive the business forward.

And while the future looks bright, it’s very much business as usual today. The teams working on your activity are firmly focussed on your success and all contact details remain the same.

We wanted you to be one of the first to know about our investment and the team’s long-term commitment to the Group.

The new Intermarketing board is Glenn Patterson, Chairman; Steve Sowden and Jamie Allan, Joint Managing Partners; Chris Henry, New Business Director for Liaison; Andy Watson, Group Finance Director; Paul Mountford, Group Creative Director and Michael Harris, Creative Director.

There is also a new management team in place which includes Nickii Gray, Scott Gordon, James Henry, Sarah Wiles, Simon Jones and Paul Philips.

We hope you share our enthusiasm for this news, and of course, we look forward to our on-going relationship moving from strength to strength.

Finally, if there’s anything you’d like to know, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Jamie or Steve will gladly answer your questions.

Welcome aboard Thea Henry and Chris Newell, who have joined name to work with the adidas team, who having worked with adidas UK for over 15 years, have recently become a globally rostered agency.

Both Thea and Chris are from West Yorkshire, Thea from Leeds and Chris from Heckmondwike, and thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such a great brand.

Thea, who graduated from Newcastle University this year, starts as Junior Account Executive. Her role includes liaising between clients and the team here. She’s responsible for aiding in all aspects of a project from taking briefs and sourcing materials to costing and budgeting and checking the final product. Thea said: “It is such an exciting time to join the team with the Olympics coming up, I am already very busy but it is really interesting.”

Chris is an award-winning designer who has previous experience at several agencies and client companies. He has a creative role which includes brainstorming concepts for product launches and driving store footfall, designing window and retail displays for various high street stores, setting art direction styles for photography and designing any other form of printed or digital media applications relating to the brand.

Chris said: “I am thrilled to be working for a well respected and established agency with good people who have a broad range of experience. Not to mention working on a global brand like adidas. Regardless of the client though, the best thing about my job is the feeling when you have creatively cracked the brief! Happy client, happy customers and happy ROI.”

Katherine McCormack has joined our Client Services Team as a Senior Account Manager responsible for Benenden, RSA, Jet2.com, EveryChild, Damart, Farnell and Ideal Home Shopping.

Another graduate from Newcastle University (a popular choice with the staff at Intermarketing), Katherine has worked for several agencies including JDA for seven years prior to coming here, and is experienced in both above and below the line advertising.

Katherine was attracted to Intermarketing because; “it is a new challenge, new people and I get to work with some great clients!” She loves her job because;” every day is different and you have to cope with the unexpected. Plus I need to be organised which weirdly is something I enjoy!”

She lives in Meanwood, has a Grade 5 in classical singing and is a member of Leeds Amateur Operatic Society.

Following a successful pitch, the team at Intermarketing are delighted to be working with Tie Rack, a global retailer of mens and ladies accessories. Tie Rack’s recent brand repositioning includes a new premium product launch, Black Label, aimed at stylish men and women who like to buy luxury products. The product launches in store this autumn and we are working with them to develop the brand look and feel and the marketing of the range. This includes art direction, a photo shoot to create the press shots, online press pack, launch event, brand partners for press and in-store POS. The product will be available in key stores around the world with a focus on travel locations.

Keata Murray, Head of Marketing, Tie Rack said:

“I am extremely impressed with Intermarketing. The staff are not only professional and talented but the turnaround time for our project was the quickest I have yet to experience. They took an inside look at our company and created a marketing launch plan for our premium label Black Label. They have created work that truly represents the look and the image of Black Label. They have also been proactive in suggesting a variety of initiatives, including online developments, partnerships and graphic design that we feel will be integral to the success of the label to market in October.”

Glenn Patterson, Intermarketing’s owner and Managing Director said:

“Keata and Raff have come up with a fabulous new product range and I am proud of the work that we have done on the brand. Our teams have communicated really well and I am sure that Black Label will be a success.”

adidas briefed us to develop a campaign to raise the profile of adidas Originals at 23 Champion Sports stores in Ireland. The target market being male and female 16-25 year olds, we suggested an integrated campaign led by social media as an appropriate route to reach this audience.

The proposition was a competition to become the face of adidas Originals @ Champion. Entrants had to upload their picture to a Facebook app, featured on Champion Sports’ Facebook page, and invite their friends to like their photo to be in with a chance of winning. The person with the most liked photo won a photoshoot for themselves and their friends, and got kitted out top-to-toe in adidas Originals outfits. The photos form the basis of a billboard and window campaign giving us a second wave of activity.

We also designed, produced and installed a full in-store point of sale and window campaign for all 23 stores to support the campaign, alongside targeted Facebook adverts and email communications to the Champion database.

The campaign reached thousands of teenagers via Facebook generating over 70,000 new users to the Champion Sports Facebook page and 103,034 likes to the competition entries. It also delivered a higher than planned increase in sales.

Following the success of recent campaigns for the British Red Cross charity, Liaison, the print management division of Intermarketing, have been appointed to manage and organise another door drop mailing to over seven million homes nationally for the British Red Cross Society. The print, fulfillment and distribution to Royal Mail hubs for delivery of such a large volume of packs, including two greetings cards, a bookmark and a pen, has been meticulously planned and managed and will hopefully provide a high volume of donations to the International charity.

Following the success of recent online projects for Reebok we are continuing to work closely with them to develop new Facebook apps. Campaigns for Reebok sponsored boxer Amir Khan and Reetone for Women featuring Kelly Brook have attracted huge amounts of followers and dedicated fans. Competitions to win photo shoots and apparel with Reebok Reetone and personal training challenges with Amir Khan have proved popular amongst advocates of the Reebok brands.

Sandafayre is one of world’s top stamp companies and they offer over $25million of stamps annually through their website and catalogues. Following a referral, Exstatik have been appointed as Sandafayre’s online brand guardians to redesign and build their new website and email marketing campaigns which will go live in February next year. The world’s biggest online mail-bid auction site, www.sandafayre.com, has an average of over 10,000 lots of stamps for sale every month containing millions of stamps.