Background

Red Box Design Group is one of the UK’s leading architectural and design practices.

Based in Newcastle upon Tyne the company is behind some of the north of England’s most remarkable buildings including the National Renewable Energies Centre (NaREC), the Northern Design Centre and the revolutionary Sunderland Aquatic Centre. Red Box Design is also the practice behind the FA’s national football centre, St George’s Park.

Red Box invited Cool Blue to develop its communications strategy to help with business expansion both within the UK and overseas, with a particular emphasis on China.

Strategy

The process began with a consultation period with key partners and stakeholders including domestic and international trade bodies, including UKTI.

Despite Red Box Design group’s wide range of work in a variety of sectors we felt that we needed to hone the focus to create three key pillars to the communications and marketing campaign. These were identified as sport, education and sustainability.

Thereafter we spent time researching these themes in the national and international media in order to develop a deep understanding of the narrative angles, and key target journalists, which would form the basis for our media relations campaign.

We also re-built and re-purposed the client’s website from ground up to enable integration of social media and a blog, as well as presenting the visitor with prominent eye-catching imagery. The resulting site is simple, elegant and allows the client’s buildings to take pride of place.

We then liaised closely with the client’s in-house Chinese advisor and UKTI to develop a Chinese version of the site.

Result

The client has already hosted its first Chinese trade delegation and undertaken two visits to China. As a result there are several new business opportunities in progression.

Feedback on the international PR campaign and the Chinese version of the website has been extremely positive with the ensuing publicity and materials creating excellent awareness of our client’s practice and its range of expertise.