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Newsbank |
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Issue
1, February 2003 |
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| Welcome
to the first Northbank newsletter |
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If
your first reaction to this newsletter is “who is
Northbank”
then your query is easily answered, just click
here.
For those familiar with the new brand on the block from those
guys that have been around the block, then welcome to the
first edition of our newsletter, Newsbank. |
As Northbank’s CEO it’s a great honour to lead
such a talented and enthusiastic team, and to have the
pleasure
of working with so many exciting clients. This newsletter
is a snapshot of topical news, client round-ups and case
studies, and aims to provide an overview of our services
and capabilities. Our website tells
you more,
but do not hesitate to get in touch to discuss how we might
be able to help you get ahead and stay ahead in these
difficult
times. With no signs yet of recovery from the longest bear
market this century, you need every weapon in your
communications armoury to be well honed and highly targeted.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sue
Charles, CEO
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| Contents |
Repositioning
Oxford BioMedica
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| New
identity for Cobra Biomanufacturing |
| What's
in a name? |
| Dolly
- RIP |
| New
business |
| Client
round-up |
| Procognia
win |
| atugen
win |
| Solexa
PR case study |
| New
appointments |
| Meet
us at |
| Keep
in touch |
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| In
brief |
| The
atmosphere at this year’s JP Morgan conference was
one of “cautious optimism”, reports Katja
Stout attending the conference on behalf of Northbank
and its
clients. More... |
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Reflecting
its commitment to the European biotechnology industry, Northbank
Communications has entered into a collaboration with Biotechnology
Investment Today to sponsor three of its Forums in 2003,
to be held in London and Munich. More... |
|
'Is
Anybody Listening?' Northbank CEO Sue Charles and Account
Director Fiona Brown assess the worth of PR in a bear market
when many public companies are victims of negative enterprise
value - more bank worth than market worth - and private
companies cannot raise money through flotations. More... |
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“We
need to raise our profile and the understanding of what
we are doing amongst our key audiences and ensure we appear
in relevant business and scientific press – but we
have no immediate news and our first prototype will not
be ready for 18 months.” This was the challenge
presented to Northbank (then Charles Consultants) when
it was asked
to pitch for the Solexa PR account in 2002. Nine
months on Solexa has gained significant coverage in National
and
trade press as well as International online sites which
has helped drive awareness and open commercial discussions.
How
did we do it? Click to read the Solexa PR case study. More... |
|
In
January Northbank Communications was pleased to win the
opportunity to provide PR support to Maidenhead, UK, based Procognia
Ltd. Initial PR work started with implementing the
announcement of Procognia’s acquisition of Sense
Proteomic www.procognia.com.
Coverage was achieved in many on- and off-line journals
and websites including BioSpace, BioFind, Tornado Insider,
Invest
in Biotech, BioCentury, Scrip, In Vivo Europe Rx and BioPortfolio. More... |
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atugen,
the Berlin-based biotech company with the GeneBlocs and KnockDown
patents for discovering the cellular signal transduction
pathways involved in disease, has returned to the fold via
an introduction to the London corporate PR team. More... |
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Over
the past few months Ellen Marriage has joined as account
executive in our London office... Fiona
Brown who had been working with Charles Consultants as
an Associate
also joined the London team full time in November as Account
Director... and
at board level, Mark Adams joins as non executive director
and representative of our venture
investor Pembridge, joining Sue Charles who had become
our CEO alongside Peter Colley as director. More... |
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Busy
repositioning Oxford BioMedica |
| When
Northbank won Oxford BioMedica’s scientific and
design-led PR in 2002 the brief also included the re-development
of the
Company’s corporate image to reflect their maturation
from a research orientated company into a mid-stage development
company with products in the pipeline.
Over
the past 7 months Northbank has generated new corporate
literature for the
Company
which includes a folder housing corporate profiles for
both the main company and its US subsidiary, 15 new
product sheets
for business development purposes, a new exhibition stand
and
corporate
website.
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Alan
Kingsman, CEO of Oxford BioMedica, commented on the work,
"The Northbank team has brought a very high level of
professionalism to the project. They are exceptionally talented
artistically and technically and they always deliver on time.
I am delighted with the 'new look' Oxford BioMedica."
Northbank’s
work on Oxford BioMedica’s new website and materials
can be viewed at www.oxford biomedica.co.uk
Creative
work was driven by Chris Fisher, with account management
and
copywriting by Katja Stout. Northbank’s work on Oxford
BioMedica’s interim report is now being followed through
to the Annual Report, which reflects the newly developed
corporate
image – this will hit the street in March, so more
next time.
More... |
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Northbank delivers
new identity for
Cobra Biomanufacturing |
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Following it’s
de-merger from their parent company, Cobra needed a new
look,
new direction and new identity. Having worked with Cobra
for many years Northbank was commissioned to review Cobra’s
corporate image. A brainstorming meeting with the Board
of
Cobra led by Peter Colley was held to decide key messages
and positioning statement. The creative designers at Northbank
have now worked up a new identity and strapline which has
been integrated into Cobra’s marketing materials
including stationery, a new website, folders, masthead
and datasheets.
In
2002 Cobra was floated on the Alternative Investment Market
and Northbank is pleased to have produced their first Annual
Report since listing.
CEO
of Cobra David Thatcher said “We are really pleased
with Cobra’s new identity. It is distinctive and
professional and can be used across our whole marketing
collateral. The
'new look' Cobra communicates our key messages and intentions
for the future, and will be used as a valuable
business development
tool."
Visit
www.cobrabio.com
to see our work. |
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Dolly
the Sheep - RIP
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It
is with sadness we acknowledge Dolly's passing. We have a special fondness for Dolly; it was our CEO Sue Charles who led the PR team that was responsible for the media relations around her announcement in 1997. |
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| What's
in a name? |
When
STMP Marketing Solutions and Charles Consultants announced
they had joined forces to form Northbank Communications,
many positive comments were received. Thank you for your
support and encouragement. However, we have had several
enquiries “why Northbank?”. So here’s
our secret. We followed the path recommended to our clients:
a review of our positioning followed by a brainstorm that
produced over 200 candidate names. This was whittled down
to 12, especially after domain name availability was
researched. Then we made the mistake we advise our
clients against: we invited the whole company to vote on
the names.
Polarised views emerged with no name that everyone was
happy with. Meanwhile, a search for potential new offices
for our London team led the CEO on a tour of office locations,
all North of the Thames: hence Northbank was born. After
all STMP originated in the North (of the UK) and the London
office has good links with the banking community (OK so
our Munich office is on the West bank of the Isar). Everyone
was happy. And a brand is what you make it,
so watch out for the launch of our 2003 marketing campaign.
Here’s a teaser; how many things can you do with
four coloured squares?
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| New
business wins |
Since
November Northbank has …. won the contract
to provide PR and communications support to ApaTech for
their fund raising…won Procognia as
a new client and implemented the first project being the
announcement
of their acquisition of Sense Proteomic… won
the contract to provide PR support to atugen,
who had previously employed STMP for their website design…been
appointed as PR consultants to the Benelux biotech investor
conference,
BioCapital Europe…and won a pitch
against three other agencies to create Tecan’s new
global advertising campaign. At least 10 ads spanning Tecan’s
product range will now be designed, written and produced
by Northbank. Following
this win, Northbank has also been commissioned to design,
translate, edit and produce Tecan's regular global
customer newsletter.
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| Client
round-up |
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Since November
Northbank has …won the contract to create a series
of posters in support of Cambridge Antibody Technology’s clinical
trials programme…completed a series of technical and
corporate datasheets for Morphochem and
supported them at an investor event in Basel…placed
articles in leading trade press for Solexa and 3D
Molecular Sciences…designed
and copywritten Oxford BioMedica’s new
corporate materials and website…produced MicroScience’s presentation
for the JP Morgan Conference…created Cobra
Biomanufacturing’s new
identity and implemented it across their marketing collateral,
including a new website...copywritten and designed datasheets
for Cenix BioScience…drafted a strategic
communications programme for Noxxon Pharma…copywritten
an article for Xantos which became the lead
story highlighted on the front cover of January’s Pharmagenomics… and
placed an editorial for IGEN in Healthcare
Equipment and Supplies…to
list just a snapshot of our activities.
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Meet
us at
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| In the next
three months members of the Northbank team are planning to
attend the following events. Just click on the attendee if
you would
like to fix up a meeting with us. Please visit our website for
updated information on events we will be attending throughout
the year. |
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| Keeping
in touch |
| Following
our merger and re-branding everyone should now be familiar
with our new e-mail addresses. The format is [first name
initial].[last name]@northbankcommunications.com. For
Congleton and London all other contacts details stay the
same. For Munich the merger coincided with relocation to
new offices
which are in the same building (Landshuter Allee 10). Eileen
and Stefan are now enjoying the view from the fourth floor
as well as many other advantages a fully serviced office
offers. The new phone number, which has answering service
is +49 (0)
89 1895 7057, and the new Fax is +49 (0) 89 1895 7361 |
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