The Media Angel appoints new Business Development Manager and Media Planner

Award winning media planning and buying agency The Media Angel strengthens its resources

The Media Angel is delighted to announce today that Lucinda Horton-Willis and Sandy Camilleri have joined the team, filling the roles of Business Development Manager and Media Planner to help further develop the business and strengthen the agency’s offering.

Lucinda and Sandy join the team with a wealth of experience in media and marketing. These two new angels will be instrumental in acquiring new client accounts and planning award winning campaigns for businesses – helping each business over deliver on their objectives.

Lucinda Horton Willis has worked in media for nearly 20 years. As Business Development Manager at Media Wales, Lucinda was responsible for media planning and implementing advertising and marketing campaigns across the print and online portfolio for key clients. Some of these clients included both national and local media agencies, The Welsh Government and St David’s Shopping Centre among others. Her experience and knowledge lends itself to a consultative approach helping clients achieve their objectives. Lucinda joins The Media Angel as Business Development Manager.

Sandy Camilleri has worked locally as Area Marketing Manager for BMW and MINI in South Wales for the last 13 years. In her role with BMW and MINI, Sandy covered all aspects of marketing and advertising including outdoor, press, online, radio, sponsorships and events. Sandy was also responsible for organising new vehicle launches, dealership and offsite events both large and small. Sandy will be bringing her specialised expertise on marketing, media planning and buying to The Media Angel to further strengthen the service the agency provides.

Alison Debono, Managing Director at The Media Angel described the acquisition of Lucinda and Sandy as a sign of the company’s commitment to being one of the leading media planning and buying agencies in South Wales.

“Our growth and increasing demand led us to look for new additions to our team who fit our ethos of innovative expertise and exceptional standards of client customer service. We were very lucky to have finally found two recruits of Lucinda and Sandy’s calibre to fulfil these roles, and I’m confident they will both play key roles in providing and implementing high quality media planning and buying solutions for our clients”.

The Media Angel team are consultative experts in all areas of media including TV, radio, print, outdoor, cinema, online and digital. The Media Angel’s award winning team strive to stay at the forefront of latest innovations in advertising able to save their clients time and capital; maximising their return on investment.

The best of our 2015

We had the best time in 2015. It certainly was a fantastic year for us at The Media Angel.

The last 12 months were filled with so many highs it has been difficult to pick our favourites, however we have managed to select some of our best moments:

 

• At the very top of the list has to be our win at CIM Canmol Marketing Excellence Awards 2015. As the only media planning and buying agency to win across Wales at this event, we were extremely proud of our reward for helping client Ty Hafan achieve returns of over 300%. Our efforts in helping Ty Hafan obtain these returns on a limited budget were described as “simply brilliant” by the judging panel.

 

• We were delighted to help Cardiff Airport successfully launch Flybe, their newest airline to the south Wales market. We implemented a large campaign for Flybe securing sponsorship of the weather on all major South Wales radio stations. We also ensured Flybe’s message could be seen at many high footfall areas in South Wales including Swansea, Cardiff, Bridgend, Newport and Pontypridd train stations and St David’s 2 Cardiff among many others! Flybe is Europe’s largest regional airline, promoting 14-routes from Cardiff, including three brand new routes to Cork, Munich and Milan. With our assistance, passenger growth at Cardiff Airport has increased by 13% compared with 2014.

 

• Similarly, our campaign for Vueling which involved sponsorship of ITV Wales Cymru weather and Vueling Cardiff Bay Beach contributed to the success of the airline at Cardiff Airport. Such success has resulted in confirmed extra capacity for summer 2016. Following the best summer in four years for the Spanish airline at Cardiff Airport, Vueling has already announced extra flights on all four routes to Barcelona, Malaga, Alicante and Palma Majorca in 2016 offering, 31% increase in seat capacity between April and October for the summer ahead.

 

• We were also very happy to see our client Swansea University win a CIM Canmol award for a 2nd time with their Undergraduate recruitment campaign, Making Waves. We were delighted to be a part of organising this fully-integrated marketing campaign; seeing their new TV advert amongst programmes such as Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex were particular highlights for the team. We were also lucky enough to see the advert first-hand at London’s O2 Arena before One Direction came to the stage.

 

• We’ve loved helping Swansea University promote their beautiful new state of the art, multi million pound Bay campus this year with some bespoke targeted campaigns to ensure the campus stands out.

 

• This year was a particularly successful one for us on the tender front! We managed to secure contacts on a number of competitive tender pitches against several local agencies, winning the opportunity to work with Swansea Council and the Swansea City Tourism team on their ‘Swansea Bay Moments’ campaign (an exciting campaign extending into some of the UK’s biggest cities). We also won the opportunity to work with the South Wales Fire & Rescue Service on their summer drowning prevention campaign. We were delighted to welcome some brand new clients to our portfolio including Festival Park and ACT Training. We’ve made some lovely friendships with many fantastic organisations.

 

• We were involved in some inspiring human rights campaigns including The Children’s Commissioner for Wales ‘Beth Nesa’ project. We were asked to help the Commissioner launch the biggest survey on Children’s Rights in Wales to adults across the country after a successful campaign with them in 2014. The campaign created a fantastic response with large numbers, higher than expected, participating in such an important cause.

 

• We have also been helping to promote some very important health messages to the people of North Wales. Gwynedd Council approached us for some assistance in encouraging people; particularly youths aged 16 – 24, to quit smoking. To tackle this brief we made sure we made use of some highly targeted digital platforms around No Smoking day, ensuring the message appeared to the relevant audience at an especially relevant time.

 

• We’ve enjoyed helping to raise awareness of some great new skills organisations such as Welsh for Adults and ACT Training. Look out for their campaigns on learning Welsh and apprenticeships scheme across Cardiff, Bridgend and the Valley this January. Similarly, we continued to promote Coleg Y Cymoedd’s advice days throughout the year after carrying out student research to ensure the advertising was appearing in exactly the right places.

 

• Helping to launch GoAir, Wales’s largest trampoline super park has definitely been another very exciting project! We are so proud to say we were heavily involved in this launch implementing an exciting radio promotion alongside a successful VoD, digital and print campaign. Thanks to the success of this launch several more super park sites have been announced to open this year across the UK which we are busy working on.

 

• Every year we thoroughly enjoy working with client Spacefitting furniture, and 2015 was definitely no exception! As well as continuing to ensure Spacefitting receive coverage in targeted magazines around interior features, we assisted in the promotion of their bespoke event, where they were keen to flaunt their stunning new showroom displays, expertly designed by husband and wife team Steve and Claire Bloom.

 

• The National Trust also returned to us this year for assistance in promoting their brand and beautiful portfolio of properties across Wales during the busy Christmas period.

 

• We had great fun last year sponsoring the drinks receptions at some of the industry’s highest profile events including the CIM Canmol Awards and the Cardiff Life Awards.

 

• There were a number of new advertising opportunities arriving in Cardiff in 2015, and we chose to lead by example and advertise with some of these brand new formats. We were one of the first brands in Wales to run our own advertising campaign on the new quality HD digital screen on Newport Road; one of the very first brands to take advantage of this high impact new format.

 

• We also secured ourselves some targeted adverts in some high profile, relevant publications across Wales These publications included the Western Mail top 300 businesses in Wales supplement and the Business Insider’s Top 100 Welsh brands.

 

• Ending on a particular high at the end of the year was the news that our contribution helped Cardiff Airport enjoy a brilliant 12 months. They recorded October as their fastest month for growth in 2015 with an increase of 62% compared to the same month last year. There was also 21% passenger growth in September, 32% in November and 52% in December.

 

• Finally, we ended the year doing something incredibly rewarding for us. Our team took part in Ty Hafan’s Christmas Pantomime ‘Peter Pan’. Making the children at Ty Hafan giggle and smile was the perfect end to an amazing year.

 

We are really keen to say a HUGE thank you to each and every one of our clients for your continued encouragement and support throughout the year! We’re looking forward to continuing this work with you in 2016 and fulfilling your campaign objectives to make this year even better than the last!

So what’s next for 2016?

We expect 2016 to be just as exciting. We have just this week been announced as finalists in both the Creative and Professional Services categories at the Cardiff Regional Awards 2016, up alongside some prestigious Welsh brands. Thank you so much to everyone who voted to get us up there!

We also have lots of different projects on the horizon and will be getting involved at numerous different awards events throughout the year; Alison is particularly looking forward to being a part of the judging panel at the Cardiff Life Awards this March. We are also looking to expand our team with some new recruits; enhancing our offering existing and new clients with some additional skills! We love to select the best solutions for all kinds of marketing briefs, so make sure you get in touch with us. We’ll help you over deliver on your objectives and together achieve fantastic results.

Jonathan Davies leads ACT Apprenticeship Week campaign

This month we’ve been working with ACT – Wales’ leading training provider on a new campaign for National Career’s Week and National Apprenticeship Week.

ACT was keen to promote its fantastic apprenticeships schemes and services to businesses across South Wales, and wanted to raise awareness of the countless advantages that come with training an apprentice.

We at The Media Angel were delighted to be involved in the planning, buying and implementation of this inspiring campaign, particularly as ACT’s services not only provide life changing opportunities for apprentices; but also gives businesses the unique chance to train a skilled and valuable workforce. We focused on highly targeted and creative digital methods to place this important message in front of the right people, at the right time, cost-effectively.

It seemed we were not the only ones left impressed by ACT’s wealth of fantastic, motivational services as skills ambassador Jonathan Davies was eager to support this digitally led campaign. His message was simple; “help us in our mission to train a nation, improve your business and become socially responsible. With 100% funding available, apprenticeships make sense”.

ACT’s marketing and PR manager Jayne McGill was extremely pleased with this employer engagement campaign and and collaboration of our two marketing teams, commenting:

“The Media Angel responded excellently to the brief and came up with a range of targeted solutions within the budget. From the initial consultation, all the way through to campaign delivery, their level of service and communication was top class. We have formed a great working relationship with the team and can speak honestly and openly about ideas in the development stages. Not only are they experts in their field, but Alison and Megan are extremely hard-working, proactive, creative and a pleasure to work with”.

To find out more about ACT’s huge range of services for every business visit their website www.acttraining.org.uk.

Celebrating 25 years of Children’s Rights

20th November 2014 marked the celebration of Universal Children’s Day and the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The Media Angel teamed up with The Children’s Commissioner for Wales and his team to help raise the profile of this wonderful cause and this special day for children, particularly across Wales.

In 1989, governments all over the world adopted the UNCRC and its list of rights designed to ensure that every child and young person in the world lives a safe, happy and healthy life. Since the introduction of the UNCRC, children have enjoyed increased recognition and protection of their rights; 54 important Articles which include the right to be listened to and the right to a good standard of living. The Children’s Commissioner for Wales is responsible for ensuring these rights are promoted and correctly implemented across the country so that Welsh children live the best, the happiest and the safest lives!

The Media Angel and The Children’s Commissioner have been working hard to make sure awareness of this special occasion was widely raised in Wales through a strong online media, bilingual campaign, complemented by a commemorative and interactive event held in the centre of Cardiff.

The campaign was planned and delivered by The Media Angel to raise awareness, encourage wide participation and engagement from individuals, helping to build a ‘rights road’ both online and at the city centre event. Using #RightsRoad89 people could discuss the best things about being a child in Wales on Twitter, and at the Commissioner’s stand in St David’s children could help artist Huw Aaron draw a beautiful cartoon map of the rights road. The Media Angel ensured the campaign maintained a strong online presence over Universal Children’s Day, helping to drive large volumes of online traffic directly to The Commissioner’s website and helping to encourage more people to visit the stand and get involved with activities there.

The Media Angel’s director, Alison Debono says:

“We are delighted to be working with The Children’s Commissioner for Wales on The Rights Road Campaign helping to promote such a worthwhile cause. It has been so rewarding to see this campaign come to life and prove to be a real success for The Commissioner! Our team are so proud to have been involved in promoting such a fantastic cause – we have enjoyed every minute working with The Commissioner and his team. We are looking forward to working together on future campaigns in 2015”.

Sara Jermin, Communications Officer for the Commissioner stated:

“We are so grateful for all the work The Media Angel have done for us in marketing the Rights Road campaign to the people of Wales. The team managed to turn round a fantastic campaign in record time; we were extremely impressed with the excellent service they provided. We are very much looking forward to working with them on future campaigns!”

The Media Angel rapidly expands…

Manager Director and guardian angel, Alison Debono, is delighted and extremely proud of her latest recruits; whom she hand picked from an influx of applications, ensuring that she chose only the finest and most suited talent to join the team.

With these new recruits come fresh ideas, fresh solutions, varied skills and expertise and a growing client list to match! The new Angels will offer more hands to help existing and future clients and are set to help further enhance the agency’s already strong credentials in media planning and buying.

Experience and a keen enthusiasm separated the three new employees from the rest of the hopeful applicants; graduates Megan Evans and Zarrion Walker are just out of university with some fantastic and original ideas to help develop The Media Angel as a growing business and brand. Both are eager to deliver exciting, creative new projects and marketing solutions and delighted to be working with such a great agency with such an impressive list of clients.

Adele McCoy, the new Business Development Executive, and third to join the new team, brings with her a wealth of experience in sales, property development, financial services and event hospitality and is a truly special find at such a pivotal point in the expansion and development of The Media Angel.

This has definitely been an exciting time for Alison, who is proudly watching her business steadily expand and mature into a leading contender in media planning and buying in South Wales. Alison has every confidence in her bright new team’s abilities to continue to offer our clients an excellent, multifaceted service and support to address the needs of any marketing project.

When you are considering your next marketing campaign, don’t forget to contact the Media Angels for innovation, creativity and above all; expert and impartial advice for any of your marketing projects.

Secure Law’s Sky AdSmart TV campaign launches today!

Today, the Media Angel has helped Secure Law launch their first TV campaign, highlighting awareness, and seeking out victims of medical negligence…

The aim of the campaign is to help reassure individuals or family members of those who may have had problems with a trans-vaginal implant or hernia repair mesh implant, or those who have been fitted with a Metal on Metal hip implant, that Secure Law have a team of lawyers led by Dr Sarah-Jane Richards ready to help. All of whom are sensitive to the issues involved and experts at what they do.

We helped Secure Law to hand-pick their target audience using Sky AdSmarts unique audience selection technology. In order for Secure Law to reach their target market they defined their campaign not only by location, choosing a small micro region Cardiff and the South Wales Valleys and Bristol (so no wastage) but also by females aged 35 -55+ who are their key audience.

Alison, Managing Director at The Media Angel said:

“This is fantastic for our client, as they are only paying for their exact target audience to see their adverts.”

The TV adverts are part of a blended advertising campaign currently running for Secure Law including billboard and radio adverts.