AKA North has won a competitive pitch to manage all media buying and planning for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – the independent charity which cares for the five historic Shakespeare heritage sites in Stratford-upon-Avon and promotes the enjoyment of Shakespeare’s work, life and times.

AKA has created a bespoke strategy for the Trust based on its varying audiences and their different media consumptions. Consumer and business audiences will be targeted, both in the local areas and across the UK, using digital, out of home, specialist marketing, print and broadcast media.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust was formed over 170 years ago, following the purchase of Shakespeare’s Birthplace as a national memorial. The five Shakespeare Family Homes welcome over 820,000 visitors every year and the Trust holds the world’s largest Shakespeare-related museum, archive and library collection, with over one million documents, 55,000 books and 12,000 museum objects. It also runs award-winning education programmes for all ages, encouraging the understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare’s works.

David Wright, head of marketing at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, comments: “William Shakespeare is the UK’s greatest cultural icon and as guardians of his legacy, we’re committed to finding new and interesting ways to engage audiences with Shakespeare. Our historical sites, creative programming and educational courses appeal to people all over the UK – and further afield – so we were thrilled to see such a wide-reaching yet targeted approach from AKA. We’re really looking forward to working with the team.”

Louise Walsh, client services director at AKA, comments: “We’re delighted to be promoting such a unique organisation, to help grow its new and returning visitor base. Our campaign will kick off in March 2019 and is a fantastic addition to our culture portfolio.”

Manchester-based brand, web and digital campaign agency, Cube3 celebrates new client win, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).

TfGM owns Metrolink, the UK’s largest light rail network, and coordinates public transport and other types of travel – such as driving, cycling and walking – throughout the 10 district areas of Greater Manchester. It aims to make travel easier and more convenient through a better connected Greater Manchester.

TfGM required a company to manage and develop its social media account, Instagram, over the next 12 months.

Mike Mellor, Head of Commercial and Marketing at TfGM, commented: “We wanted to partner with a company that could help us to grow our Instagram account and maximise audience engagement on the platform.

“The team at Cube3 impressed us with their creative execution and ability to measure every aspect of their strategy against our campaign objectives.

“It was also important to us that in expanding our influence on this channel we didn’t lose sight of building valuable relationships between our brand and our followers – Cube3 demonstrated a real understanding of this.

“We are excited to see what’s to come.”

Cube3’s Managing Director, Mark Bailey, added: “After a competitive pitch process, we are delighted to be working with TfGM to develop a content strategy that will accelerate the brand’s growth and expand its influence on Instagram.

“This is an exciting project which involves building and nurturing an online community by celebrating Manchester with engaging, creative visual content and a carefully considered narrative.

“We hope that this is the first of many future partnerships together.”

pro-manchester, a business development organisation delivering unrivalled networking opportunities and events in Manchester has teamed up with Yorkshire Bank, part of CYBG, the UK’s leading SME challenger bank, to deliver events at their new B Works facility on Market Street.

Yorkshire Bank, part of CYBG, has established a series of new partnerships with leading businesses and Universities in Manchester to enhance its service offering for SMEs at its B Works store.

The flagship store will be home to two events areas, as well as a café, a co-working space and more. pro-manchester will deliver a program of activities at the facility, utilising its already-successful method of bringing together Manchester’s best business events, delivering invaluable insights to help SMEs learn better and work better.

For SMEs, often attending multiple events can be a drain on finances, time or resource. This is why pro-manchester and Yorkshire Bank are offering free events at a variety of times, to suit a variety of sectors, in a location where individuals can use co-working spaces, grab a coffee or both before or after attending the seminars.

Now in its seventh year, pro-manchester’s SME Club aims to help businesses to grow by providing information, resources and events in order to support small to medium businesses in the region.

In the past seven years, the SME Club has provided over 600 articles to more than 12,000 SME professionals, using pro-manchester’s vast network of experts. In the last year, these have varied from helping SMEs who employ migrants in a post-Brexit Britain, to helping SMEs who are looking to develop their SEO strategy.

Sean Williams, Head of City – Manchester, Yorkshire Bank said: “We’re delighted to be teaming up with pro-manchester, an organisation dedicated to spurring business growth in the North West.

“Their events in the B Works space will compliment the existing support we will be offering to the city’s SMEs in-store and provide them with extra value, helping them to grow their businesses.”

Nicola McCormick, pro-manchester’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “It was a great pleasure to hear our reputation in delivering slick events had proceeded us when Yorkshire Bank contacted us regarding this exciting new opportunity.

“Our SME Club has been something our members have widely enjoyed being part of in the last seven years, and we’re delighted that we can now begin to build on the expert advice we have already shared with our SME network.

“The partnership with Yorkshire Bank is something we’re delighted to be delivering to both our membership and the wider Greater Manchester business community. It’s a modern new space that will put a twist on other events we have ran in our programme before and we’re looking forward to our first one this month.”

Code Galaxy, has developed a significant partnership with Manchester events company, Convenzis, following a year of growth for both companies.

Convenzis provides fast, accurate and relevant political monitoring, campaigning tools and research services for public and private affairs professionals. The company’s events facilitate technical and practical debate through keynote presentations.  Contributors include UK and foreign ministers, senior civil servants, private sector experts and academics, discussing the latest initiatives and projects, alongside case studies and comments on best practice.

Over the last year, Code Galaxy has been very effective in raising the digital profile for Convenzis, as it built the firm’s e-commerce platform, allowing users to acquire event tickets, as well as creating and maintaining Convenzis’ branding and email marketing systems.

Daniel Snape, Owner, Convenzis, said: “Code Galaxy has been instrumental in helping us achieve a very successful first year. Since our inception, we have worked with several high profile international organisations, including Microsoft and the NHS.

“Code Galaxy’s great ideas and execution has allowed us to attain a healthy portfolio of clients, requiring us to strengthen our team, with the appointment of three new professionals.”

Nicky Speakman, Managing Director, Code Galaxy, added: “As with all of our clients, helping Convenzis grow as a successful business, is a privilege for everybody at Code Galaxy. We help a range of organisations across many sectors find solutions for their marketing problems, utilising our email marketing, branding and web design skills.”

Unveiling the secrets and advances in the technology behind some of the world’s most powerful data solutions, SQLBits, the largest conference for data professionals in Europe, is to hold its 11th annual conference in the heart of Manchester, 27 February – 2 March at Manchester Central.

The four day conference will explore the whole world of data from capture and transformation to the latest in data science and AI, looking at the decisions technology can now make without human involvement, offering groundbreaking, first hand learnings.

Building on this year’s theme of the Great Data Heist, sessions include exploration of the Big Data Boom, data privacy laws, the sky-rocketing use of cloud for data processing and artificial intelligence developments with data. Training sessions offer the opportunity to ask the world class experts and those behind the development of the leading data and AI solutions, the questions you’ve always wanted to know.

With over 70 sessions from global leading specialists, this is the only opportunity in Europe to learn directly from the people who make, program and influence the software, as data professionals from across the industry share best practice, and learn the capabilities of the product, solve problems and obtain future insights, developments and improvements, tips and tricks.

SQLBits, was born out of the hunger to share the latest developments, solutions and best practice, whilst forming a network of data professionals behind some of the most exciting developments on the Microsoft Data Platform.

The SQLBits team, work alongside the SQL community, running the conference in their own time. Director, Simon Sabin commented: “The conference is now in its eleventh year, which is a real achievement for the team behind it, who dedicate their own time to delivering one of the largest data conferences in the world.

“Each year, we introduce the latest advancements and trends from across the industry, direct from the people who build the technology. This is what really sets SQLBits apart from other conferences and training courses. Where else can you get the opportunity to ask the people that made the systems how, why and what?”