July: Fantastic finish for Huddersfield Criterium
After months of preparations and planning, the day arrived for the 2015 Huddersfield Criterium. As headline sponsors, Fantastic Media not only assisted in the promotion, organisation and on-the-day management of the event, but were instrumental in generating sponsorship and awareness of this now highly anticipated annual event.
The evening’s action showcased some of Britain’s most talented amateur and professional riders including Pete Williams of the OnePro Cycling team and Team GB’s Gabriel Cullaigh going head to head in a tense finale of the evening’s main event, the Elite race. The event was extremely well attended with over 700 spectators lining the streets and enjoying the cycling, generating a carnival atmosphere.
Andrew commented, “It has been an absolute pleasure working with Martyn Bolt and Dave Sowerby on bringing this event to life. The hard work and dedication of the sponsors, organisers, volunteers and team Fantastic, who worked tirelessly to bring the Huddersfield Criterium 2015 to life, is what made the event such a triumph and we should be extremely proud of our achievements.”
August: Red is the colour
To kick off the 2015/16 football season in style, Fantastic Media were delighted to announce their renewed sponsorship deal with Barnsley Football Club, as Man of the Match Sponsors and Official Club Partners.
Fantastic Media were appointed as marketing agency to the club in 2014 and provide a range of communications services, from web, email to strategy and design, all of which, have bolstered the commercial remit and significantly raised the profile of the conferencing and events offering. Ultimately growing sponsorship across the board as well as increasing match day and non-match day hospitality numbers.
Fantastic now have a strong presence at Oakwell with tunnel branding, match ball presentation stand branding, alongside man of the match sponsorship.
Sally Willis, Head of Client Services at Fantastic Media commented, “We are thrilled to be working alongside the club for another season and to continue a solid relationship with Ben Mansford and the commercial team.
Visit the BFC Commercial website here.
September: Setting the wheels in motion
September saw the launch of an innovative new website and refreshed brand identity for leading European bicycle distribution company, Avocet Sports.
Working in close partnership with Avocet throughout 2015 enabled Fantastic to gain a deep understanding of the business and the European bicycle market that Avocet operates within before offering their proposition. The result of the Insight culminated in a complete repositioning of the business and its sub brands brought together under a completely new corporate identity.
The new and improved Avocet website has been built using Fantastic’s bespoke Sirius platform, which will allow products to be managed and uploaded quickly with orders fulfilled simply yet effectively through the content management system, which speaks with the internal Avocet Opra system. All of this sits behind the front end of a beautifully designed website giving the customer a seamless online experience.
October: Growth Mindset
Louis Collins, Bekki Richardson, Ali Shah, Stephen Lubbock and Alisdair Straughan all joined us in October as part of the rapid expansion of our creative and client services teams.
After a successful placement, Louis Collins joined the creative team working across email, websites and collateral design. Ali Shah, a Bachelor of Science and Applied Computing, is a senior web developer and works predominantly across web-based projects for a range of clients. Stephen Lubbock also joined the creative team – a successful designer for six years, his skills across web design, graphic design and developing bring a fresh dimension to the agency’s current offering.
Bekki, a recent graduate from the University of Nottingham, joined the client services team, working across PR and social media. Alisdair, a Former Huddersfield Town Head of Communications, joined Fantastic’s senior team as Head of PR and Content Marketing. He has spent over 10 years working in strategic communications in the UK and the middle East and brings valuable know-how across a range of marketing disciplines.
November: Joyful and Triumphant
Head of Client Services, Sally Willis scooped the esteemed Employee of the Year award sponsored by Towndoor at the Examiner Business Awards in November.
The prestigious event held annually at the John Smith’s Stadium recognises outstanding achievement in all areas of local business. Categories include Business of the Year, Business Person of the Year and Employee of the Year.
Speaking at the Examiner Business Awards, Sally said: “I am absolutely delighted to have won this award. It would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the very skilled people that I work with at Fantastic Media.
“It is such a great place to work. I am immensely proud to be part of such a dynamic, progressive company and I am looking forward to many more years of success with them.”
The celebrations continued later this month with the senior staff and a number of clients attending the James Milner Foundation Charity ball.
And speaking at the ball the midfielder praised the role of Fantastic Media in helping take his charity, to the next level. Fantastic has, for the past three years, handled the design, creative and new media work for the Foundation and earlier this year launched the charity’s new website.
James Milner: “It is thanks to the support of people like Fantastic Media that the charity continues to go from strength to strength. Their expertise in marketing has really helped us take the charity to the next level over the past three years and we are delighted with our continued relationship with them.
December: New Signing for the Agency
England women’s football captain Stephanie Houghton joined forces with the agency to create a personal website where fans and sponsors can find out more about the football star.
The website will deliver up-to-date news and information on the Manchester City player’s life both on and off the pitch. The site will be a one stop shop for all her social media accounts and will feature free and exclusive behind the scenes content, competitions, charity news and a host of other exciting features, keeping fans and sponsors in the know.
Since bursting onto the England scene in 2007, 27-year old Steph has been a leading figure in promoting women’s football. She became a household name during the London 2012 Olympics when she scored the winner against medal favourites Brazil.
Her commanding style and strong personality meant she was soon made captain of the national team whom she led to the a third place finish in the 2015 World Cup in Canada – the highest placing of any England football team in an international competition since 1966.
Steph currently has over 73,000 followers on twitter and her growing profile has seen her feature on BBC’s Question of Sport and a number of different TV adverts.
“I am delighted to be working with Fantastic Media on this project,” said Steph Houghton. “Women’s football is the fastest growing sport in the UK and, I hope that by creating this website I will give Manchester City, England and football supporters in general greater access to the women’s game”.
View the full story here.
Due to the hard work, skills and dedication of the team, the leadership and management of the board and the spirit in which team Fantastic and our clients work together, 2015 was good, but 2016 will be epic!