This is why we let Nicola have days off!

As the next day she brings in these delicious festive biscuits!! Yummy!

5 a side team romp to victory

Ian 'Lurpak Hahnemann' Jones's team Romper Stomper achieve ultimate success in their goal to reach the heady heights of the 2nd division at Playfootball.net in Poulton-le-Fylde.

Santa sprints to success

Simon and Ian were successful in their fund raising activities for Sue Ryder Care last Sunday in Morecambe. The duo raised over £200.

Not only did Ian finish in a respectable position (the services of St Johns Ambulance were not required on this occasion). Simon romped home to victory leaving all other Santa’s eating snow.

Well-done boys! Thank you to everyone who donated and showed their support.

Look at these two happy santas!!

Myself and Ian are taking part in the Sue Ryder Care - Morecambe Santa Dash on 07/12/2008 to raise money for Sue Ryder Care and we'd really appreciate your support - just go to our Justgiving page:

http://www.justgiving.com/simonandian_santadash

Justgiving sends your donation straight to Sue Ryder Care and automatically reclaims Gift Aid if you're a UK taxpayer, so your donation is worth even more. I hope you'll join us in supporting Sue Ryder Care.

Thank you.

Simon and Ian

Graphic Designer Wanted

ICG is a leading full service agency, based near Preston, Lancashire. Following new client wins, we are looking to expand our design studio and require a Graphic Designer.

You should be highly creative with a desire to produce your best design work yet.
• 3+ years experience

• Great Mac skills

• Strong portfolio

• Passion for great design

Send your C.V. and examples of work to:

Simon Couchman, Creative Director, ICG,
Windy Harbour Barn, Harbour Lane, Warton, PR4 1YB

or e-mail simon@icgonline.co.uk

life on mars in lancaster??

This ad has just been revealed outside the Regal cinema in Lancaster - they don't do straight talking ads like this anymore!!

SPARKS & GONGS

ICG and its clients came out smiling last night after scooping two gongs at the 2008 Communicators in Business Northern Region Awards.

We won a Certificate of Merit in the 'Newsletter of the Year' category for Touchline on behalf of League Football Education.

We mounted the podium for a second time to receive an Award of Excellence in the 'Agency Team of the Year' category for our work with Yorkshire Copper Tube.

We had an excellent night at the Magna Science Centre in Rotherham, Yorkshire.

The sparks flew and the wine flowed!

WHOAAaaaah!

Are you scared? You should be! These little devils are running amok at ICG.

Actually, don’t worry they’re only cakes – the fabulous handy work of ICG designer, Emily Windle.

Today it's the birthday of our PR & Marketing guru, Sam Butcher.

Happy birthday Sam, and well done Emily!

Posh frocks and Champagne!

Team ICG are puttin’ on the ritz!

We’ve been nominated for two awards in the Communicators in Business 2008 Awards (Northern Region) so we’re all off to a glittering awards ceremony in Sheffield on the 20th November.

CiB is the UK's leading professional body for in-house, freelance and agency staff involved in internal and corporate communications.

ICG has been nominated for ‘Newsletter of the Year’ for Touchline – a newsletter for League Football Education and ‘Agency of the Year’ for our marketing campaigns on behalf of Yorkshire Copper Tube.

Last year, ICG won ‘Best in Class’ in the CiB’s Northern Region awards for Review – an employee newsletter for major support services company, Enterprise.

Fingers crossed for success. We’ll keep you posted!

Speedy Simon!

Simon completed his Amsterdam Marathon last sunday at a personal best time of 3hr 27mins and 06secs.

Apparently it's a fun way to spend a day of your holiday?!?

The great cake stakes are raised

At ICG were mad for a bit of baking! 

After Nicola made Si a Lego cake for his birthday and Dave 'baked" a tesco cake for Nicola's, the bar was sent high for Ian's Birthday. Simon drew the short straw and Ian demanded a Welsh Dragon Cake. We didn't want to let the lad down so Simon got his best pinny on and spent the weekend baking the beast. The pics above show no cheating was involved bar a bit a marital advice from the wife, and a few calls to the in-laws!!

BLACKPOOL ZOO RESCUES TINY TURTLES

BLACKPOOL ZOO has taken in 50 Southern Painted Turtles from Customs at Manchester Airport.

The turtles were part of a larger consignment of reptiles which had been flown over from Florida and were intended for the pet market. Although the turtles were declared, the importers were unaware that this species needed a license.

The turtles are as small as a 50 pence piece and are called Southern Painted Turtles (Latin name Chrysemys Picta) because of the markings on their backs. The turtles will grow up to 10 inches and can live up to 20 years in captivity.

Keepers at Blackpool Zoo are carefully monitoring the turtles whilst they await instructions from Customs and Excise.

COPPERLAMBANANAS!

ICG PR’s client, Yorkshire Copper Tube, has successfully bid on a Superlambanana, the symbol of Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture.

Yorkshire’s figure, officially titled ‘The Monument to the Superlambanana’, is a large copper coloured version designed by Andrew Jackson from the University of Liverpool. The statue is due to be positioned outside Yorkshire’s new offices, which will be completed at the end of the year.

Representatives from Yorkshire attended the auction at Liverpool’s St Georges Hall. Yorkshire’s successful bid will go towards the Mayor of Liverpool’s chosen charities. Other bids on the evening came from television producer Phil Redmond and football legend Kenny Dalglish.

CONGRATULATIONS TO BLACKPOOL ZOO

ICG PR is delighted that its client BLACKPOOL ZOO is celebrating a successful summer with a rise in visitor figures.

The attraction has seen an overall increase of 10 per cent in revenue and a five per cent increase in visitor figures compared with last year, despite the current economic climate and the rain!

ICG PR has been working with the zoo since January 2008 and has gained a great deal of press coverage for the attraction. It has been an exciting year with continued investment in new facilities including the opening of Giraffe Heights and the launch of the children’s play barn, Aardvark Adventures as well as the introduction of lots of new inhabitants, including two aardvarks and Wallace the African lion.

3 weeks to go...

On 19th October, Simon will be running the Amsterdam Marathon. With three weeks to go and clocking up some serious milage in his Brooks GTSs, the aches are starting to show!!

ICG on www.logolounge.com

Here at ICG, we like to think of ourselves as Brandbuilders. You can now find a whole selection of logos that we have produced online at the world's premier logo directory - LogoLounge. This resource allows visitors to research brands, view the latest trends and view the best of branding from around the world. Check it out at www.logolounge.com

SCUBA-DIVING AND SEALIONS

It’s not every day you go to a networking event, only to discover yourself talking to a scuba-diver desperate to swim with sealions.

Having let slip that ICG PR work for Blackpool Zoo, I found myself agreeing to put in a good word…

I was on my first visit to a meeting of the Preston Exchange Network – a female business networking group that meets about six times a year.

PEN was celebrating its fifteenth anniversary so there was bucks fizz at the Holiday Inn followed by lunch and a talk from Stewart Heaton of Rock FM.

He chatted about a new multi-media project called Your Future aimed at helping young people in schools throughout Lancashire unlock their true potential. It was challenging and inspiring!

For just a couple of hours out of my day, it was good to meet some new people at PEN and chat about everything from sealions to the credit crunch.

The next meeting is a pre-Christmas dinner at Nigel Smith’s restaurant at Ribby Hall…it’s already in the diary!

Love is all around...

FORGET the credit crunch and the torrential summer downpours. The press want happy news and ICG PR came up with the goods!

Our client, Scott Rees and Co has been spreading the love after four lawyers simultaneously announced they were all getting engaged.

The likes of Law Gazette, Solicitors Journal and http://www.thelegalweek.co.uk/ soon came calling; the local press loved it too.



Happy couples: Chris Connor and Karla Kingston, alongside Lucie Illingworth and James Driscoll from Scott Rees and Co Solicitors in Skelmersdale. Scott Rees specialise in personal injury claims.

Spot Simon

Can you spot Simon, our Creative Director? He's in there somewhere, getting ready to run the Nike Human Race 10K - running out of Wembley Stadium. He ran it in 42min47secs - if you believe what he says!!

The mane attraction

Blackpool Zoo has welcomed a new arrival – Wallace the lion. Named after the monologue ‘Albert and The Lion’, which is a story about Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom taking their son Albert to Blackpool Zoo where he was swallowed whole by Wallace the lion!

Wallace, who is a two and a half year old African male lion, has settled in well. The zoo already has three female lions and the zoo hope to breed from him next year.

ICG thinks Wallace will be a roaring success!

Shiver me timbers!

ICG’s client, Blackpool Zoo, will be holding a swashbuckling Pirate Weekend from Saturday 23rd and Monday 25th August. Visitors in full fancy dress will receive a 20% discount on admission. So if you see anyone resembling Jack Sparrow wandering around Blackpool this weekend, you know why!

New ICG recruit

This is the first glimpse of the latest member of the ICG Design team.

ICG wanted to inject some more fresh new talent into the company so where better to start than with a 12 week old foetus.

ICG Designer Emily is pregnant with the young new recruit, due 28th February 09. Any (sensible) name suggestions are welcome and we'll keep you up to date with his/her progress.

Camp ICG

August 2008 saw the start of our annual ICG camping trip to Dent in West Yorkshire.

The weekend started off with a wet and windy trip up the M6. This didn't dampen the spirits of ICG and with the tents erected and a few pints of the local brew inside us we were ready for a weekend of walks, BBQs, beer, rain, birthday lego cake, farmers, sunshine and Larmas.

ICG announces Yorkshire winner

ICG were delighted to announce the winner of Yorkshire Copper Tube’s ‘Win a Van’ promotion last week. The lucky winner, Thomas Winterton from Northenden in Manchester, was presented with his brand new Ford Connect van at the company’s head office in Kirkby, Liverpool.

The ‘Win a Van’ competition was one of a number of successful promotions that the team at ICG have created for Yorkshire Copper Tube.

Congratulations. Winner Thomas Winterton with Yorkshire’s Jack Wallace.

Tall order

The ICG PR team have stuck out their necks to promote the arrival of the giraffes at Blackpool Zoo. The three beautiful creatures, Ciara, Caionhe and Sadbh, arrived in July and have settled in well.

The team will be attending the official opening of Giraffe Heights on Tuesday 29th July. Pictures to follow.

Check out some of the recent press cuttings:
Blackpool Gazette

Visit Lancashire

Let’s fly away!

This week, ICG were delighted to announce new flights to Menorca with Jet2.com for our client, Blackpool International Airport. This announcement follows on from the launch of new routes to Ibiza and Geneva.

Flights to the beautiful Balearic island of Menorca start in June 2009 and are available to book now along with all Jet2.com’s summer 2009 destinations.

So what are you waiting for…summer sun here we come!

Julie’s birthday celebrations

ICG’s PR Executive Julie Hackett celebrated her birthday today in true ICG style by tucking into a scrumptious birthday cake made by Senior Designer Nicola Chew.

Move over Delia!

ICG Wedding bells

ICG’s PR and Marketing Exec, Sam, has just tied the knot at St Chad’s Church, Poulton-Le-Fylde. The Bride and new husband, Daniel Butcher, were joined by family and friends, including the ICG team, for a fabulous reception at The Gibbon Bridge Hotel, Chipping.

The new Mr and Mrs Butcher arrived in style - by helicopter. Sam organised the chopper as a surprise for her new hubby.

ICG boosts the design team

ICG has appointed senior graphic designer, Nicola Chew, to strengthen its design team.

Nicola, from Preston, began her design career at Preston City Council working in the design and print department. She then moved to Woods Creative Marketing based in Croston, where she worked for three and a half years.

Following this, Nicola spent five months freelancing for Manchester based IF Agency, before joining ICG.

Nicola spoke about her new appointment: “I am really excited to be part of the design team here at ICG. I was really impressed by the high profile client base and the diversity of clients.”

Nicola is the latest recruit to join ICG’s six strong design and production team following a run of contract wins including: Blackpool Zoo and VIP Computers.

Denise Dawson, ICG’s Managing Director, said: “Nicola’s already tackled some pretty complex briefs, including a multi-language brochure for an international language school. So she has already proved that she has got what it takes to come up with great design under pressure. I am delighted that she is on board.”

ICG Scores with prestigious award

ICG picked up a prestigious design award at the Communicators in Business Awards 2008.

The ‘Award of Excellence’ was presented to ICG's Creative Director Simon Couchman and Peter Cobley, ICG’s Sales Director, for ‘Touchline’, a newsletter for League Football Education.

League Football Education (LFE) manages the apprenticeship programmes at all Football League clubs. Touchline was created to excite teenagers about the educational aspects of their apprenticeship and highlight career opportunities off the pitch, as many of them do not succeed as professional footballers.

Simon Couchman, ICG's Creative Director, commented: “We wanted to create a newsletter that would interest and inspire the apprentices. Touchline contains emotive photography and quirky illustrations, with clean and concise copy which emphasises the importance of education, whilst maintaining a strong football focus.”

The judges commented: “This is an excellent publication. It is vibrant, well-deigned and has pace that lasts the full ninety minutes. The result is an easily readable, exciting piece of work. One senses that this magazine is very much part of the readers’ lives and that they must feel that they are engaged by the publication. It is attention grabbing, it is easy to read, it is interesting and it is visually attractive.”