Season’s Greetings from Staunton Rook

The Christmas season is a perfect time to reflect on our blessings and find ways to make life that little bit better for those around us, which is why we have decided to support an extremely important and incredible local fundraiser - Babygrow Appeal at The Countess of Chester Hospital. The money we would usually spend on creating and mailing out Christmas cards will be donated to the Babygrow Appeal. This will help them to extend their Neonatal Unit and provide better facilities, such as vital life-saving equipment in a more spacious environment for babies and their families. We would like to take this time to thank you for your support and business through 2016 and look forward to working with you in 2017.

New Burritos on the block

Over the past two months we have been working our socks off at Staunton Rook to create the perfect Mexican inspired brand identity for our new client Mama K’s Burritos. Mama K’s is a new burrito kitchen based right here in Chester, delivering the very best Mexican food straight to your home or office. Mama K’s had a strong sense of direction for the overall look and feel for her branding – rustic, traditional and rich in colour which has remained the core value in both the online and offline marketing materials. Our talented team designed and built a superb website with online ordering capabilities and content managed back office functionality allowing the client to independently manage customer orders, pricing and products. We are thrilled with the functionality and aesthetic of the website which shows off the incredible home-made dishes Mama K’s has to offer.

We wish Mama K’s all the best and can’t wait for our lunchtime burrito delivery! If you want to try the best Mexican dishes delivered straight to your door, then follow the link below.

A Helping Hand to Hope House

When Hope House Children’s Hospice celebrated their 21st birthday in June with a gala for its remarkable care and support to extraordinary children, young people and their families we wanted to provide them with an outstanding event programme for the evening.

Our creative team put together an incredible 12 page A4 full colour programme for their milestone birthday fundraising gala complete with bespoke circus design which complemented their party theme. We worked hard to ensure the finished product exceeded Hope Houses’ expectations, reflected the hard work they do and to ultimately help to boost funds raised on the night.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with Hope House as it is a wonderful and important charity, which is why when they told us they were hosting their Chester Ball this month, we were thrilled to get stuck in with designing an 8 page A5 full colour brochure and guest invitations in the theme of the Wizard of Oz, Yellow Brick Road. We are delighted that Hope House are extremely pleased with the complete brochures and wish them the very best for their ball and hope they raise the roof on the night as well as the vital funds they need!

Website Launched To Drive Business Forward

We are delighted to announce the launch of MB Motors’ new website. MB Motors are an approved Mercedes specialist with over 40 years experience in providing outstanding service for a fraction of a main dealership price. They contacted our team and asked if we would design their website to include usability on all tablet devices and overall user experience. To achieve this goal we included plenty of up to date content and images, all of which will help the customer search and book one of MB Motors services. We are thrilled with the outcome of website – it looks sophisticated yet straightforward so the customer can focus on the product and services available for their Mercedes.

Visit Website

18 Facts About Google for Its 18th Birthday

1. Google’s birthday is actually rather questionable, as the company celebrates several birthdays, if not more throughout the year.  For the past 10 years Google have officially celebrated its ‘day-of-birth’ on 27th September.
2. Google has a pet – not a dog or a cat, but a T-rex named Stan. Stan resides in the California HQ and is a reminder to employees not to let Google go extinct.
3. The California HQ hires 200 grazing goats every year to mow the lawns and fields surrounding Googleplex. I think we would agree with the employees when they say “it’s a lot cuter to watch goats than lawn mowers”.
4. In 1998, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin created the first ever Google Doodle. Before heading off the Burning Man Festival, they wanted people to know that the Google team would be away for the weekend so added the festival’s logo.
5. Records say there are over six billion hours of videos watched each month on YouTube, meaning that’s almost an hour for every person on the planet.
6. Google has an unofficial slogan “Don’t be evil”.
7. The primary reason that Google’s home is simple is because Larry Page and Sergey Brin required a quick interface and didn’t know HTML.
8. A new Google employee is called a “Noogler”.
9. When Google introduced the ‘Did you mean…’ feature, their traffic instantly doubled.
10. Google owns the largest network of translators in the entire world.
11. The name ‘Google’ was actually an accident. Larry Page and Serge Brin made a spelling mistake when they were trying writing ‘Googol’.
12. Bringing your furry friend to the office is strongly encouraged by Google.
13. If a Google employee dies while working for Google, their spouse will receive half of their salary for the next 10 years.
14. Back in 2013, Google experienced a blackout which resulted in a five minute crash of all of their services. In that time the global internet usage was reduced by a massive 40%.
15. Google’s first ever tweet was: “I’m feeling lucky” in binary code.
16. In 1996, before Google miss-spelled ‘Googol’, the founders initially named the company ‘Backrub’.
17. If you Google ‘Atari Breakout’ your browser will transform into the vintage game from 1972.
18. Google has a nifty way for recruiting engineers. If you search for something tech-y in Google, the search results will offer users a test to see if they their technical skills match up to what Google is looking for. Once you’ve successful passed a number of challenges Google will contact you for an interview.

Outdoor Advertising With Impact

We were recently approached by our client, Minera Roof Trusses to redesign their outdoor advertising boards at Wrexham AFC. Before the football season kicked off the company had extended their 10 year sponsorship with the football club which provided an excellent opportunity to update their advertising boards around the stadium as well as the stadium scoreboard. The impressive design features Minera’s new, modernised branding which is striking within the stadium grounds. If you need to make an impact, outdoor advertising provides prime real estate to raise your profile by putting your message in front of potential customers. If you are interested in more details about outdoor branding call 01244 323250 and speak to a member of the Staunton Rook team today.

Perfectly Polished Stationary

We have recently delved into the world of beauty as we welcome one of our newest clients – Polished 2 Perfection. The petite, shabby chic salon located in the heart of Frodsham’s Main Street has just celebrated its 1st birthday following overwhelming success and popularity. The company approached us to discuss a re-design of their current business stationary which included a loyalty and appointment card, price list and gift certificate. The main focus for this project was to keep the client’s existing logo but create a suite of stationary that enhanced the branding and promoted a professional look and feel.

"I was really pleased with the various options Staunton Rook provided for me to proof and made the experience bespoke to my needs. I was extremely impressed with the correspondence between myself and the Staunton Rook team who supported me from start to finish."

Kelly, Salon Owner

We would like to wish Polished 2 Perfection many more years of success and look forward to working with them again in the future.

We Help New Client Get On Their Feet

Over the past few weeks we have been busy bees at Staunton Rook. We have been creating, designing and producing both on and offline marketing collateral for our new client - Hoity Toity. The luxury shoe boutique based in Tarporley, Cheshire approached us to discuss designing their branding, point of sale materials and company website.

We constructed bespoke business cards, invitations and receipts for the high-end boutique which required an elegant and classic appearance. Hoity Toity also requested a responsive website with easy-to-use navigation to encourage customers to learn more about the brands and the sensational shoes they have to offer. The website is packed with photography and each designer has their individual page making it as easy as possible for the customers to view the brands Hoity Toity stock.

We are thrilled with the outcome of the website and business stationary which illustrates how stylish and chic the boutique really is. We wish Hoity Toity ever success and look forward to working with them again in the near future.

Discover the world of Hoity Toity by clicking the link below.

Visit Website

New CRT Medical Website Now Live!

We are happy to announce the launch of CRT Medical’s new website. CRT Medical provide comprehensive first aid training courses from their facility in Powys, Wales and approached us as they needed assistance on redesigning their website for the mobile world and improving the overall user experience. The website is packed full of new content including course videos and photography which all help to make it easier for customers to research and book one of their many first aid courses. We think the professional designed website looks great and really helps to bring to life how unique their courses are but don’t just take our word for it – click the link below and see for yourself.

Visit Website

New Website Launched For Minera Roof Trusses

We are pleased to announce the new responsive website for Minera Roof Trusses is now live! We worked closely with the client to design and build a modern, clean website with improved functionality and user experience to make it as easy as possible for users to learn more about Minera’s products and services. The launch is only the start of the website development and work is already underway to further improve website usability with a number of interactive features. In addition to the website build we have also worked with Minera Roof Trusses over the last 12 months on a number of key marketing initiatives including customer profiling, strategy planning and a full rebranding exercise. Click the link below to take a look at the new Minera Roof Trusses website.

Visit Website

Stationery with style

We have recently completed the design and production of some corporate stationery for one of our clients, Ithon Valley who approached us recognising the need for branded stationery. In this digital age, it is important not to overlook your offline communication ensuring that all marketing efforts are consistent across all customer touchpoints. Whether you are a new start-up looking for branded stationary or in need of bringing your current business stationery up to date Staunton Rook can create bespoke, professionally designed business cards, letterheads, envelopes and compliments slips that will demonstrate your company’s professionalism and help to make your business stand out from the competition.

Lights.. Camera… Action!

Earlier this week Staunton Rook were on location directing a photoshoot for one of our clients, Greensleeves Lawn Care. We worked with a great team of professional photographers to get the perfect shots that will be used for both Greensleeves’ online and offline marketing materials. Using original photography helps to give your communications a personal touch and enables you to stand out against your competitors, who may all use similar stock photography images. If your current corporate photography has become outdated or isn’t showing your business off to its highest potential contact Staunton Rook who can storyboard the shots needed and liaise with photographers and models to produce high professional images for your marketing campaigns.

Staunton Rook Goes Stateside

Earlier this month Staunton Rook travelled to Chicago, USA for one of our clients, Rotex Global to assist with their attendance at International Powder & Bulk Solids Conference & Exhibition (iPBS). In addition to managing the logistics and build of the exhibition booth at the event our in-house studio provided Rotex with the modular stand design that gives the client the flexibility to reuse the graphics in various different formats at future industry events. Check out our time lapse video from the event and watch the stand come to life!

New Ithon Valley website goes live!

Ithon Valley Lodge Park is an exclusive development of stunning lodges, located in the heart of the idyllic Mid-Wales countryside. With this in mind we knew when we were approached about the project how important the new design would be to showcase the range of lodges in all their glory. We therefore designed and built the website to be image focussed to draw visitors into the lodges to really show off the quality of the product whilst the impressive responsive design ensures that the website is accessible to all users no matter what device they are using.

Luxury Lodges Wales

Apple turns 40!

This time 40 years ago, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple from within a garage; little did they know that they created a computer that would revolutionise the world. They launched their first computer, the Apple I, for $666.66; and now, in 2016, Apple is worth over $600 billion. Apple devices have become a necessity and often a preference for many people across the world. The company has now attracted more than 1 billion users making Apple the brand of choice for many people across the world.

Apple has always been renowned for its innovative products and features, and has gone on to launch products such as the iPod, iPhone, MacBook Air and the Apple Watch. They are also constantly updating their operating system, with iOS9 recently being released for iPhone’s. Features within this OS now include iMessage, Siri, FaceTime, Apple Music, TouchID and Apple Pay. These products and features are evidence of how Apple sets trends within the market and keeps itself ahead of competitors.

Apple is one of the most valued companies in the world, and its success is often thought to contributed to their creative marketing campaigns, which to this day continue to provoke us to ‘Think Different’. Apple simplifies the confusing world of technology through clear, concise products and features, allowing users to do things that they never thought they would be able to do using technology.

There is no other tech company that has created such a huge impact on our lives and culture over the last 40 years. So, happy birthday Apple! Thank you for pushing the boundaries to provide us with revolutionary products and making our lives better.

Twitter is 10!

On Monday 21st March Twitter celebrated its 10th birthday! The company will no doubt be the first to admit it has had some bumps along the way and recently user growth has slowed but the 10 year anniversary of the innovative tech company is definitely something worth celebrating.

Twitter is used far and wide with over 320 million users, including celebrities such as Adele, Oprah and Justin Bieber bringing them closer to their fans, encouraging users to follow their every move. Lewis Wiltshire, Senior Director of Media Partnerships at Twitter said “Whether it's the London 2012 Olympics, the #GBBO final, the General Election or the BRIT Awards, when big events happen, they happen on Twitter”. Due to the content shared by users during these significant events twitter has become the ideal social platform to view some of the world’s leading moments.

More and more companies and organisations are using Twitter as an instant marketing tool and a way to communicate directly to their target audiences. Starbucks interacts with their Twitter followers by participating in thread discussions about new their new offers. Online retailer ASOS manages several different Twitter feeds for customer service and fashion updates. ASOS’s Women’s Fashion account has over 470,000 followers and replies to thousands of mentions daily from overly excitable customers regarding their recent purchases. This type of conversation between the brand and user creates a personal relationship. It doesn’t hurt to have customers promoting how pleased they are with your product by encouraging them to tweet @ASOS, which acts as free positive marketing for ASOS.

The platform has been used to maximise exposure of marketing campaigns such as Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ initiative, which started life as an offline campaign but quickly gathered pace on the social site. Coca-Cola produced labels for their bottles and cans to read the phrase “Share a Coke with…” which lets you add a name at the end of the sentence. This marketing campaign was so successful Coca-Cola turned it into a hashtag #ShareACoke and encouraged hundreds of thousands of followers to tweet their own stories. This just goes to show the power of the #hashtag.

#HappyBirthdayTwitter you marketing genius!

A new string to our bow

We are pleased to announce the launch of our first e-commerce website for one of our long term clients, Rotex Global. Rotex initially approached us last year to provide an online environment that customers can access 24/7 to purchase replacement original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts for their screening machines as an alternative to their current telephone ordering service. Our solution was to build an e-commerce website that existing customers could log into and purchase new orders as well as tracking current purchases, previous orders and easily re-order parts. The customer was at the heart of the whole website design and functionality process. Each user was assigned a personal account that recognised all their customer billing, shipping and account information enabling Rotex customers to easily place orders online within a couple of clicks rather than calling their sales department, allowing the customer and sales staff time to focus on other tasks. The launch marks the initial stage of the website build and work is already underway to further improve the websites usability with a number of interactive features and product recommendations all designed with the end user in mind.

Welcoming Amy

Amy Harrison has joined our account management team as an administrative assistant. Having lived and studied in Japan and Qatar as well as here in the UK and having spent an internship at Imagination in London she has a wealth of experience to bring to the role. Amy owns has her very own miniature fur-baby – a sausage dog called Isla who she enjoys caring for in her spare time and is claims her guilty pleasure to be an obsession with bath bombs and Cinnamon Pretzels. We offer Amy a big warm welcome and are confident she is going to be great asset to the team.

Reaching New Heights

In August last year we were appointed by Minera Roof Trusses as their marketing partner. The company has a long established history within the roof truss industry but it was clear that their image required modernising and there was a large portion of the industry that they were not reaching. Customer profiling, strategy planning and a full rebranding exercise was carried out and launched with their new look leaflets due for distribution next week. Work on the brand new website is well underway – watch this space for further updates.

Staunton Rook go old school!

This week the team at Staunton Rook took a trip down memory lane and re-lived our school sports day, all in the name of team building. The whole team had a fantastic evening splitting into two teams to take on challenges such as the Egg & Spoon Race, Sack Race and Three Legged Race to name but a few. However, our ultimate favourite activity was Zorb Football where we were strapped into an inflatable zorb ball and had to barge into our opponents to win the ball, sending a few of us flying in the process! The night was great fun and we would recommend it to any clients looking for a fun team building activity.

Integrated marketing planning for iPEP

Towards the end of last year we were approached by a new start up business, iPEP, looking for assistance with their marketing. Following an initial meeting it became clear that one of our marketing retainer packages would be perfect for them. Their needs didn’t fit the outline of our standard packages so we tailored one specifically to suit them. They were looking to launch their product iPEPlanner in the new year and one of the first events they would be attending was BETT 2016. Over the course of three months we provided them with a fully responsive website, 2 demonstration videos, promotional literature, design and production of stand materials for exhibition and the sourcing and provision of promotional items.

We are only a few months into our relationship with iPEP but we have achieved a lot so far and look forward to helping this business grow to its full potential.

Longer tweets coming soon on Twitter

Earlier this week social media giant Twitter announced that it was to increase their 140 character limit to as many as 10,000 characters. The news has received much criticism from users stating that it will change the spirit of Twitter’s face-paced, short and snappy tweets and could grow into the longer style posts more widely used on other social media platforms such as Facebook. However, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is defending the development as merely responding to user behaviour stating that many Twitter users are already tweeting over the 140 character limit by creating ‘tweetstorms’ where users string a series of tweets together or by taking screenshots of text and tweeting it. The release date for the change is still to be announced but will likely be released in the first quarter of 2016. Watch this space!