We worked on the development and launch of a new website for national veterans’ charity Launchpad.

We support them with national and regional PR and comms and we helped to redesign and relaunch their website.

Launchpad is the largest residential charity for veterans in the north of England. They provide accommodation and targeted support, with the assistance of specialist providers, to help homeless veterans stabilise their lives and make a successful transition from military to civilian life.

Since 2013, the charity has supported over 575 homeless and unemployed veterans at its houses in Newcastle, Durham and Liverpool. Last year, 95% of the formerly homeless veterans they supported moved on to new accommodation: 58% moved on to live independently, whilst 37% still required some support with their recovery.

For most veterans and referral agencies, the website is considered as one of the first points of contact and an important resource for people and organisations to find out more information about the charity and how they can support them via donations, fundraising and volunteering.

We facilitated the full production of the new site providing all tcopy, co-ordinating imagery and provided advice on the general design, look and feel. We engaged with partners, staff and residents to gain their feedback and ideas of what experience they would like to have from the website.

The new site has been designed to provide visitors with better functionality and to quickly and easily navigate and access the information they are looking for. This is particularly important, especially for the veterans themselves if they apply to live in one of the houses.

What is also heart-warming is all the individual stories of veterans who have been/are living in one of the houses. Their stories are poignant, highlighting their military background, putting their lives on the line to fight for our country and telling us their story and journey of how and why they found Launchpad. More importantly, it highlights how they have benefited from the support that has been provided and hopefully, resonates with other homeless veterans who could benefit from this fantastic charity.

We have provided PR and comms support to Karbon Homes’ in-house Communications and Marketing Team since it was formed in 2017.

Karbon owns and manages almost 30,000 homes across the North East of England and Yorkshire and aims to give all customers the strong foundations they need to get on with life.

Prior to its formation, we also supported three of its legacy organisations with strategic and operational comms and marketing.

We’ve drafted everything from press releases and features to award submissions, organised high-profile events for key developments, co-ordinated the production of customer newsletters, leaflets, flyers, organised promotional items, managed the website and social media channels, produced corporate documents such as the annual report and financial statements and customer handbook.

Some key highlights include project managing the marketing and communications of a number of housing stock transfers.

This included York Housing Association who joined Karbon as an independent group member and saw the transfer of 943 homes in York, North Yorkshire and East Riding. Karbon also agreed to purchase over 1,300 homes from The Guinness Partnership and more recently, when Byker Community Trust agreed the transfer of 1,800 homes to Karbon.

Craig now manages the communications and marketing for Byker Community Trust which retained its own identity and provides support to the team. He was also instrumental in managing crisis comms for the district heating system in December 2021.

Craig provides expert PR, marketing and communications support to all staff and teams across the business and sits on various groups including Cost of Living, Building and Customer Safety and Fraud. He also liaises extensively with Karbon’s designated design agency, photographers, printers and distribution companies.

If you need a reliable, professional consultant specialising in PR, marketing and communications for short and long-term absence, maternity or paternity cover, sickness or annual leave, then please get in touch to find out how we can help you.

We use our PR and communications experience to promote and raise awareness of our clients’ projects and work.

HUSK is the company behind a new innovative housing solution which converts unwanted and disused garage sites into affordable new homes. We worked with the company to raise awareness of their first prototype development in County Durham and our brief was to promote this through various channels targeting potential clients such as housing association’s and Councils.

The innovative concept redefines, redesigns and revitalises discussed garage sites which provide very little value into much needed modern affordable one and two bedroom homes in as little as 12 weeks.

The units are manufactured offsite, built and then transported onto site converting the existing garages into new affordable dwellings. The shell of the garage is retained and the terrace of garages are then remodelled to create a single space and restructured to comply with building regulations.

North East housing provider, Karbon Homes was the first to trail the new innovation at three of its garage sites in Tanfield Lea and Stanley in County Durham where HUSK converted unwanted lock-up garages into two-bedroomed homes.

The scheme has been recognised in a number of regional and national awards and we secured positive coverage in various online and offline publications including Offsite Magazine, Sustainable Homes, BQ Live and The Northern Echo.

Ouseburn Farm Charity in Byker, is a popular inner-city Farm attracting over 50,000 visitors per year and has been part of the community for the last 40 years.

In June 2016, its main funder of eight years, Tyne Housing Association (THA), announced it would be unable to continue to cover £100,000 of the Farm’s annual running costs post April 2017.

Fearing a negative reaction to this announcement, Up North Communications developed a PR and communications strategy to ensure key messages were delivered appropriately and to demonstrate THA’s commitment to helping the Farm find additional funding from alternative sources.

The PR attracted creative agency Drummond Central who agreed to part-fund 50% of the Farm’s deficit for the next three years, as well as providing services in kind as part of their ‘Takin’ Care of the Community’ strategy.

As part of the Farm’s funding strategy, Up North Communications and Drummond Central worked collaboratively to create the ‘Support Ouseburn Farm, Support Your Community’ Crowdfunder campaign, which ran for 28 days through the month of March 2017. Up North Communications developed a PR strategy for the campaign and targeted regional press, created and issued effective press releases, developed a newsletter and supported the social media campaign. We secured PR and media coverage in The Chronicle, BBC Look North, ITV Tyne Tees, Made in Tyne and Wear, BBC Radio Newcastle and NE Connected.

The campaign received support from people and businesses all over the country, including celebrities Dame Barbara Windsor DBE and Michelin chef Michel Roux Jr and subsequently the farm went on to feature in Channel 4’s Hidden Restaurants.

There was a notable increase in footfall to the farm, particularly during the last two weeks of the campaign and during the 28-day period, social media attracted 2,800 impressions per day.

The total amount of money raised (online and offline) for the campaign was £34,000 from 830 supporters.

 

Up North Communications was invited to develop the branding, sales and marketing literature for a new building which provides flexible managed office space to small and medium sized businesses.

Part of the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC), The Hub based in Washington, Tyne and Wear provides 17 modern offices with a provision for meeting space, communal facilities as well as advice and help to start-up and established businesses.

Our brief was to develop a modern logo / brand identity for The Hub that could be implemented across different marketing and advertising platforms. We developed a marketing strategy, created the logo and developed all the relevant sales and information leaflets for the centre including each individual unit, stationery, office signage and the website. We have also written and issued press releases and managed The Hub’s social media on Twitter.

The centre was at full capacity within twelve months and the centre manager and marketing team at
the BIC continue to manage their website and social media channels.

Up North Communications also decided to locate its own business at The Hub and was actually the first tenant to move into the building.

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