We're hiring!

ICG is expanding following an exciting series of new account wins! We are looking for a Senior Graphic Designer and a Web Developer to join our team here in Warton, near Preston.

Graphic Designer
This role is perfect for someone that is passionate about design and has a desire to produce their best work yet in a fast paced, highly creative environment.

We are looking for someone with more than three year's agency experience who wants to take the next step up the career ladder.

The appointed person will work both individually and as part of a team on B2B and B2C creative campaigns. Strong typographic skills are vital and web and new media experience would be an advantage, but not essential.

Strong communication skills will be needed for direct contact with both clients and suppliers and a degree of project management will be required.

Anyone wishing to apply must be highly competent on a Mac, using InDesign predominantly as well as other CS5 applications.

Senior Web Developer
This person will be responsible for the development of major and minor applications and the maintenance of existing websites and internal systems.

The successful candidate must be able to develop, test and deliver websites and web applications, perform defect resolution and implement enhancements on an ongoing basis.

Experience with best practices and design methodologies to ensure the success of projects is essential.

Other required skills and experience for this role include:

• Involvement in all stages of project life cycle from the requirements stage through to integration and delivery
• Practical experience in developing with PHP5, (x)HTML, JavaScript, CSS and SQL
• Practical experience with CMS
• Familiarity with or a desire to learn and use new technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3
• Ability to implement web designs from briefs and layouts from our design team
• Excellent creative, technical and analytical skills
• Ability to communicate effectively both in technical and business environments
• A desire and willingness to work in a collaborative, innovative, flexible and team-oriented environment to deliver quality work, enhancements and fixes to deadlines
• Knowledge of developing social media applications will also be an advantage
  

If you have what it takes and you are looking for your next career move please send your CV and examples of your work to simon@icgonline.co.uk

Social media engagement strategy for IVECO & Realm

Engaging with customers on social media is the focus behind prize give-aways for two ICG clients.

Taking advantage of this summer's team GB and Jubilee celebrations, truck manufacturer IVECO is currently giving away Union Jack flags as well as Sat Nav system promoted through its Twitter and Facebook pages.
The profiles have been updated with competition branding to deliver maximum exposure while a competition app is being used to provide a simple platform for individuals to enter and boost engagement as well as generate useful data about the campaign's success.

Meanwhile retail client, Realm is currently running Facebook competitions for six of its shopping outlets to give away gift cards worth £150. In order to access the competition page entrants need to have liked the profile and once through, they answer a simple multiple choice question and input their personal details. Likes are being tracked to gauge the campaign's success.

ICG provides design and digital services for six retail outlets on behalf of Realm including Junction 32 in Yorkshire, Freeport Fleetwood in Lancashire, Clark's Village in Somerset, Freeport Braintree in Essex, Freeport Talk in Stoke on Trent and Lakeside Village in Doncaster.

Bumper coverage in Blackpool Zoo's 40th anniversary month!

July was a month of huge celebration at Blackpool Zoo and the ICG PR team gained some fantastic coverage of the festivities.

It all started with the zoo's landmark 40th anniversary, which attracted media coverage from across the UK.

Both Granada news and BBC North West news featured the story on its televised news bulletins throughout the day, with live links to the zoo and feature length reports on the tea time programmes.

The Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Evening Post, Manchester Evening News and Lancashire Telegraph were just some of the regional and local newspapers that ran in-depth articles on the history of the attraction and reported on the celebrations.

BBC Radio Lancashire and BBC Radio Manchester interviewed Blackpool Zoo's longest serving staff member Russell Catlow and the Daily Express featured the zoo as one of the top UK days out.

The fun continued on July 18th with the official opening of Wolf Ridge, a new £500,000 enclosure. The ICG PR team sent wolf teddy bears to key national and regional press with an invitation to the launch event.

National Children's Newspaper First News, Rock FM and Visit Blackpool were amongst many that tweeted, facebooked and reported about the unveiling.

Other July PR coups included an article about a career in zoo keeping, which was covered in a variety of regional titles including The Nelson Leader, The Colne Times, Clitheroe Advertiser, Lancashire Evening Post and many more!