Congratulations to Sainsbury’s for winning Retail Development of the Year in the 2012 Sustain Magazine Awards. We were commissioned by construction company ISG to write the award entry for their development – Sainsibury’s new eco store at Dawlish in Devon.

Despite some stiff opposition from the likes of Marks and Spencer and Waitrose, the judges said Sainsbury’s Dawlish set a new benchmark against which future developments had to be judged. We’d like to think we played a part in making that clear.

Sustain Magazine Awards - winners celebrate at the end of the ceremony

Over the next few days we will put a blog post up about a client’s fantastic award win this week – and you guessed it, the submission was written my us!

But in the mean time so you don’t miss the boat, below are a handful of first class awards coming up that we can help you with:

• Green Business Awards
• Growing Business Awards
• Sustainability Awards
• National Sales Awards
• First Women Awards
• Personnel Today Awards

Winning business awards can be a very effective way to generate positive external exposure and to instil pride within your organisation. So to find out more about how we can help, please take a look at the matm award writing brochure: awards brochure

If you want to find out further information about the above awards, or would just like an informal chat then please do not hesitate to contact Andy Comber on email: ac@matm.co.uk or tel: 01952 883526.

Doing something special is one thing. Getting recognition for it is quite another. Business awards are a great way to boost your reputation, win more work and get staff recognition they deserve.

matm has the expertise to help make sure your company is a front runner when the judges cast their vote. We have a six step approach to winning awards for our clients. Our awards brochure explains more.

With matm, you have a better chance of winning.

A good reputation is worth protecting, especially in this day and age when it can be lost in an instant. matm can build your reputation in the minds of the people who count – your customers, your suppliers and anyone else who can influence your success. Please click on the link below to find out a little bit more about the PR services matm offers.

matm public relations brochure

This week we had the pleasure of persuading ITV Central Tonight to cover a story about the continued success of small food and drinks businesses and their growing importance to the rural economy.

At the centre of the story was Martin Moyden and his company, Mr Moyden’s Handmade Cheese. Martin was a farmer who started to make cheese six years ago as part of a longterm plan to diversify his business interests.

Late last year, that led to him giving up farming and concentrating fully on making his award-winning and utterly delicious cheese in a new dairy at the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre in Shrewsbury.

In my opinion, Martin’s achievements make a great story in themselves. However, to tickle ITV’s news taste buds, we had to develop the theme slightly and show how his success was just one example of how food and drink companies are the new tigers of the rural economy (nifty eh?).

Heart of England Fine Foods, which runs the food enterprise centre, helped by providing some compelling region-wide facts and news lines plus a strong interviewee in Karen Davies, their chief executive.

Ivan Watkiss, owner of Cooper’s Gourmet Sausage Rolls, also based at the centre, agreed to let the cameras in to see his great success story too – and Battlefield 1403 farm shop, one of Martin’s customers, agreed to be featured as well – so reporter Katy Fawcett could cover the consumer end of the story.

The complete package gave ITV Central Tonight the reason it needed to cover the story – and Martin got the publicity he deserves, along with, to varying extents given the vagaries of television news, the other participants. So a great team effort that proves even the business minnows can get noticed by the media big fish.

Thank you to everyone who helped.

Martin Moyden is interviewed by ITV News reporter Katy Fawcett

Reporter Katy Fawcett films Beth Moyden as she salts cheeses

“The figures speak for themselves. But, even without seeing them, this SEO campaign has clearly made an impact, with more customer leads generated. It’s definitely good for our business.” matm client.

It’s good to have a website – it’s absolutely brilliant to have a website that your customers and potential customers actually visit. Most people now always use search engines to go to information they need on the web – even if they know the precise web address they want to visit.

What that tells us is that, if you are in business, it’s vital your website is search engine optimised so when your customers use specific phrases to search for something they want – one of your web pages, promoting your service or product, pops up on the first page of search results.

Here at matm, we can help you optimise your website using carefully written web content and, if you choose, a web news service to ensure your services remain attractive to search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Click here or on the image above to see the results from a very recent example of our work. You can also view our Web Copywriting and Web News brochure.

Emails are a day to day necessity – but here is my top ten most ANNOYING emails list! Let me know if you agree…

Jamie at matm gets to grips with his latest email

1. Replying all when you really don’t need to

2. Sending me an email with nothing in the subject box

3. Marking it high priority with your red exclamation mark when it isn’t

4. Read receipts

5. WRITING IN CAPITALS

6. Using text speak

7. Sending me huge emails

8. Using emoticons

9. Using ‘LOL’, ‘ROFLMAO’ etc..

10. If you are a spammer – YOU!

Rant over,

Jamie

Lavendon Access Services was last night was one of the winners at the Construction News Specialist Awards.

The company won the Access and Scaffolding section at the awards held, as they often are, in a posh London hotel. We’re delighted for the great people at Lavendon, but we’re especially pleased because the company is one of our clients and we wrote the award submission.

Lavendon Access Services is the UK’s largest provided of powered access to a wide number of industries, including construction. By powered access, we mean cherry pickers, hydraulic booms and those fancy-looking scissor lifts we are seeing in use more and more now, where before scaffolding or ladders would be used.

matm PR Executive Jamie Doran said: “We’re very pleased for Lavendon Access Services. It’s an especially important award for them because, on the shortlist, they were up against mainly scaffolding companies that traditionally do well in the Construction News Awards. This win is telling the industry that powered access is growing in importance and influence.

“It’s also very nice for us to know that all the thought, insight and hard work that we put in to preparing the award submission has paid off. In our experience, winners deserve their awards but it certainly pays to make sure your submissions are as compelling as possible – and getting the support of a company like ours can make the difference between winning and losing.”

Jamie is already working on plans to help Lavendon capitalise on its success. In the meantime,  he would be very happy to talk to anyone else about how we might help them get the recognition they deserve!

You can email him by clicking here or give him a call on 01952 883526.

The British Hearth Foundation has launched its ‘Mending Broken Hearts’ appeal with a very subtle yet eye-catching TV ad. It’s a touching story in two parts – seen from the view of a woman and a zebrafish. That’s right – a fish!

Amazing facts about the zebrafish

• Their hearts mend themselves – if part of a zebrafish heart is damaged, it is repaired in a few weeks, just like mending a broken arm (human, not fish…silly)
• They are see-through – in their early development, they are transparent, allowing scientist to watch the development of their heart and blood vessels
• Zebrafish are commonly studied by genetics scientists, looking to develop new medicines and therapies

Mending Broken Hearts Appeal – British Heart Foundation

Nick Radmore, BHF’s Head of Social Marketing and Brand, said: “The idea was to bring the science to life. The zebrafish helps people understand how complex regenerative medicine [on human hearts] could bring hope to millions of people in the UK.”

It’s not very often an ad such as this makes me want to go and google about it, said Neil Dicken, a designer at matm, the marketing, design, web development and PR agency, at Jackfield near Telford, Shropshire.

But as it came to an end, I already had my Iphone out, reading up on this amazing fish!

Find out more about this BHF’s Mending Broken Hearts Appeal.

Find out more about matm’s transparently effective and affordable video service.

Three is a magic number.

As great communicators from Julius Caesar to Barack Obama know, good things come in threes. In fact, there is the Rule of Three.

Constructing facts, ideas or expressions in three parts just feels natural. It is a structure that is pleasing to the eye, easy on the ear and creates the biggest impact.

There – two uses of it in one paragraph. And I wasn’t even trying, says Andy Comber, PR Manager at matm, a marketing, design, web development and PR agency in Jackfield, near Telford, Shropshire.

That is why being aware of the power of the number three in copywriting is so important. You may use the concept naturally. Sometimes it is good to deliberately make use of the dramatic benefit it brings.

The number three appears everywhere: there are three-line and three character jokes (think Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman), three picture comic strips (think Dilbert), three act plays and, often in news media, the three line factfile.

There is even a name for the concept. A constructed phrase such as “Veni, Vidi, Vici.” that has three grammatically and logically connected elements is known as a Tricolon.

Speech-writing author Dr Max Atkinson has analysed many famous speeches and says three-part lists almost always appear somewhere. He includes the technique in a six part (that’s 2×3) list of successful speech-writing techniques:

• Contrasts
• Three-part lists
• Contrasts combined with lists
• Alliteration
• Bold imagery
• Audience analysis

The two most important, he says, are contrast and three-part lists. Here are examples from President John Kennedy’s inaugural speech in 1961:

• Contrasts: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
• Three-part lists: “Where the strong are just, and the weak secure and the peace preserved.”
• Combining contrasts and lists: “Not because the communists are doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.”

Adolph Hitler is one of the most notorious users of the Rule of Three. Winston Churchill fought back – with blood, sweat and tears. Only he actually said, “blood, sweat, toil and tears” but the Rule of Three is so strong, most memories have deleted his toil.

So, whenever you write any copy or make any presentation, think of the Rule of Three. And remember, the reader or audience will only ever remember a maximum of three things you ever say.