Deacons are a Life Fitness distributor based in Kenya who supply Life Fitness equipment and merchandise to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan and Rwanda. Their showroom is located in the Sarit Centre Mall in Nairobi Kenya.

In order to promote the showroom and business in general, Deacons purchased some dual branded merchandise and clothing from the Life Fitness e-shop (www.lifefitness-shop.com). The items are going to be used for a number of different purposes:

Publicity- Enhance brand awareness within the markets Deacons operate in by giving away dual branded items to prospective and current customers in the home and commercial gym arena. Deacons partnered with a local TV station in Dec 2011 when they run a series called “Slimpossible”, a weight loss contest that aired every Thursday with contestants competing to win prizes for the most weight lost. The finalists received the dual branded items in a live television event that generated huge publicity for the company.

Sales promotion and advertisement- Deacons plan to incorporate the dual branded products as giveaways during sales promotion in our showroom and in other remote/mobile promotional events within the market e.g. golf tournaments and sports events.

Direct and personal selling- Deacons also plan on giving away dual branded items when their sales people make contact with potential customers in order to increase brand awareness and recall.

Items ordered from the e-shop included t-shirts, towels, bags, caps, pens and mugs. All items were dual branded Deacons and Life Fitness. They have proved popular with customers who are particularly impressed with the quality of the items and their durability.

Jeddidah Thotho, Group Director at Deacons said “The items were received from the Life Fitness e-shop were produced to a very high standard with customers proud to use or wear them. The dual branded aspect assists customers in understanding the relationship between the distributor and the Life Fitness brand. It gives us a real competitive edge as we are able to differentiate ourselves in an extremely crowded marketplace.”

For more information on dual branding contact one of our Account Managers today on 08707 500057

This year we have decided not to send out any Christmas cards or presents and instead make a charitable donation on behalf of our customers to two charities close to our hearts.

The first of these is:

Walk the Walk

Walk the Walk is a charity dedicated to raising money for the treatment and cure of breast cancer. The charity does this by raising money through walking events, the most famous of these being the “Moon Walks”, full marathons that begin at night and finish at dawn! Walk the Walk is a grant giving charity so all money raised is given to breast cancer related causes. To date the charity has raised over £75 million! For further information on Walk the Walk please visit www.walkwear.org

Why we chose them- Walk the Walk is a fantastic charity dedicated to raising money for the cure and treatment of breast cancer. The fact that they are grant giving means they are able to give money to underfunded projects throughout the UK and reach people effected by breast cancer who might not otherwise have direct access to alternative therapies and treatments.

Secondly we have donated to:

Make A Dream

Make A Dream is a Leeds based charity making “Dreams” come true for sick and terminally ill children throughout Yorkshire. “Dreams” have included meeting the Arsenal Football team, going to Disneyland and meeting Ant and Dec! To find out more about Make A Dream please visit www.makeadream.org

Why we chose them- Make A Dream enables us to support a local charity with a national reach- helping ill children throughout the UK achieve their dreams and giving them respite from their day to day life. A great charity to be involved with and one we wanted to recognise this Christmas.

May we take this opportunity to wish all our customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we look forward to working with you in 2012 and beyond!

We were recently awarded a framework contract by CEPOL- the European Police College, for the supply of promotional merchandise and corporate gifts. This involves producing a number of key items for them including pens, pads, USB’s, pin badges, folders and bags. The maximum duration of the contract is four years.

CEPOL brings together senior police officers across Europe with the aim of encouraging cross border co-operation in the fight against crime and maintenance of public security and law and order. Established as an agency of the European Union (EU) in 2005, CEPOL organise between 60-100 courses, seminars and conferences per year. The activities usually take place at the senior police training institutes in the different EU member states.

The merchandise produced for CEPOL will be used at these training institutes throughout Europe.

The contract involves supplying corporate gifts- something we have a lot of experience in, contact one of our Account Managers today on 08707 500057 to discuss your corporate requirements.

As regular readers of our blog will know, each Creative Emporium staff member gets one day paid annual leave each year to volunteer for a charitable or community cause. This runs alongside annual holiday leave so employees can take one day a year to partake in voluntary work and/or give something back to their communities.

Over the past two years, several members of our team have used their volunteer days for a wide range of different activities from cleaning up the local community to organising galas!

Our latest volunteer, Dave Lister, assisted his local community and environmental group to undertake free home energy audits for people in his area.

The project involved visiting houses and using a thermal imaging camera to detect points where heat is being lost through gaps in areas such as insulation. Once detected, Dave and the rest of the group gave advice on how people can plug leaks and insulate their homes better.

Overall the team managed to visit a number of properties with plans to expand the project further as the winter months progress!

For those of you that don’t know, Dave is our company Environmental Officer demonstrating not only does he take his environmental responsibilities seriously in the office but in his local community as well!

Above: A thermal camera image highlighting heat loss from a property

On Sunday, 6 members of the Creative Emporium team completed the Great North Run! A big thank you to everyone that sponsored us to do the run with over £1500 raised and still some money coming in!

All the money will be going to St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds- for more information on St Gemma’s click here

The team finished in the below times- well done to Darren on beating us all!

Darren- 1:46:06

Christos- 1:58:57

Richard- 2:09:18

Gavin- 2:24:58

Lesley- 2:35:26

Hannah- 2:40:25

There is still time to sponsor us so please donate! http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/creative-emporium 

Discussion in the office now is which run to do next?! Any suggestions welcome!

We’re running! Yes Creative Emporium have decided to attempt the Great North Run! Darren, Gavin, Richard, Lesley, Hannah and Christos are representing Creative Emporium on the 18th September 2011 to raise money for St Gemma’s Hospice, Leeds.

St Gemma’s provide specialist medical and nursing care for people with life threatening illnesses, along with support for their families too. For more information on St Gemma’s please visit www.st-gemma.co.uk

We would really appreciate your support in raising money for this fantastic charity and every penny counts so please donate- no matter how small your contribution, it makes a difference!

To make a donation please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/creative-emporium 

Thanks for your help and remember to visit our blog next week to see how we got on!

We began working with Specialized in 2009 producing a range of ad-hoc promotional merchandise including branded t-shirts, pens, wristbands and keyrings. The success of this relationship has now led to the creation of an online merchandise store enabling Specialized dealers in the UK to purchase promotional merchandise for product launches and events in the UK.

Specialized rely on a dealer network in the UK to sell and distribute their products and accessories. For this reason, it is extremely important to constantly look at ways to improve the service offering to dealers so that their dealer network could easily order a wide range of promotional merchandise, all from one place. The promotional merchandise range was selected by Specialized by working closely with one of our Account Managers, Lesley, to ensure the right products were chosen.

Emily Hamilton, Event Manager at Specialized, said “The site has created a great marketing tool to support our dealer network, helping them to provide great merchandise for their own store events and store giveaways. The site has helped to create a high level of service to all our dealers in the UK.”

Above: Selection of Specialized merchandise

About Specialized:

Specialized Bicycles was founded in 1974 by riders for riders. Headquartered in Morgan Hill, California, with global distribution, the company focuses on making everyone’s time on a bike better by delivering functional and technically advanced equipment that provides a performance benefit.

For more information on Specialized, please visit http://www.specialized.com/gb/gb/bc/home.jsp

After an 8 month tender process which included a number of presentations and a full sample range, we were recently announced as the new supplier to Warwick University for all their corporate wear requirements for the next three years.

This includes five departments within the university including Accommodation, Conferences and Exhibitions and the Warwick Arts Centre. This project includes the design of an online ordering system for Warwick University so that employees can go online and place an order for all their uniform needs. We will be working closely with each university department to ensure the right clothing is selected to suit individual requirements, a consultative approach which we undertake with all our clients to ensure a practical and consistent approach to uniform supply.

To discuss your uniform requirements with one of our Account Managers please call 08707 500057 or alternatively e-mail info@creativeemporium.co.uk

We recently designed a new online ordering system for GL Noble Denton in order to simplify the process of ordering promotional merchandise for their employees throughout the UK.

The site, built by our in-house web design team, is a completely secure online ordering system that has a wide range of promotional merchandise available to choose from, designed with the GL Noble Denton logo and branding. Only selected GL Noble Denton employees have access to the site with a landing page that requires a username and password in order to enter the main part of the site. All products have been produced by Creative Emporium and are housed at our warehouse facility in Leeds. Payments are taken via purchasing cards or credit cards offering GL Noble Denton employees a convenient and flexible way to pay for any goods ordered.

Above: The GL Noble Denton merchandise store

Neil Slater, European Marketing and Market Insight Manager at GL Noble Denton, said “I have been extremely pleased with Creative Emporium. After a thorough tender process they were selected and have certainly delivered what we wanted. From the very start they have been very proactive, fast to respond and easy to work with. The final website is simple to use and the quality of the merchandise is great. The whole system has streamlined our procedures for both marketing and the finance department. I would have no hesitation in recommending Creative Emporium.”

Information on GL Noble Denton:

GL Noble Denton is a global independent technical advisor to the oil and gas industry. Part of the GL group, with a presence in more than 80 countries, they offer expert advice and practical assistance onshore and offshore to help ensure that regardless of scale or complexity- projects and ongoing operations are both safe and profitable. Working across the entire asset lifecycle they enable their clients to plan, design and develop, operate, optimise and assure their assets. They use their unrivalled experience, together with their world leading software tools to help clients reduce risk, meet increasingly stringent regulations and to improve efficiency from the seabed to the city gas main.

For more information on GL Noble Denton please visit:

http://www.gl-nobledenton.com/en/index.php

It looks like Spring has finally arrived and for Creative Emporium that can only mean one thing- FIBO!

FIBO is Europe’s biggest trade show for the Health and Fitness Industry with over 560 exhibitors from 38 countries. The event held in Essen, Germany is on for 5 days during which approximately 58,000 visitors make their way around 12 halls covering 75,000m2!

Darren, Gavin and Richard travelled to Germany last Tuesday to meet with the Life Fitness sales team before the show to showcase a new and innovative product- a Portable Merchandise Display Unit (PMDU). The unit is ideal for gyms and health clubs to install in their facility to display the range of products available on the Life Fitness e-shop (www.lifefitness-shop.com)

The PMDU generated lots of interest particularly from the Life Fitness team in America who had never seen anything like it!

On Wednesday, it was time for the CE team to visit the show itself. Over the next two days, the team met with a number of Life Fitness Distributors to discuss the e-shop concept and present the PMDU to them as a way to display merchandise in their showrooms. In and amongst these meetings, the team also had a chance to walk round the show itself and see how big it is!

Overall the show was a great success with lots of interest in the e-shop and the merchandise and clothing available- We look forward to returning again next year!