Outdoor advertisers support Olympic Games

A major outdoor advertising sales company has signed a deal with London 2012 to exclusively supply outdoor advertising media space to London 2012 between now and the Olympic Games. CBS Outdoor, which has advertising space on the London Underground including the Docklands Light Railway, buses and tram systems nationally and rail stations across the country. CBS also has advertising space in the relatively new and upmarket shopping centre, Westfield, in London.

CBS will provide London 2012 with media space across these environments for all their major marketing campaigns in the run up to the games, including the recruitment of volunteers, gathering a fan base for the games and generating awareness of tickets and launching the sales for the events.

CBS will be a Tier Three provider for the Olympics, including the Paralympics – Tier Three [Read more]

Consumers crave promotions in Banbury

Kantar Worldpanel reports that supermarket giant Asda is continuing to face some difficult times as they drop in market share for the fifth consecutive month. Their sales are growing, but slower than the market average compared to the likes of Morrisons or Sainsbury’s. Neilson also published data to show a similar trend.

It is concluded that shoppers still require encouragement to spend and remain quite fickle in terms of where they will spend their money. Retailers offering savings will see a shift in consumer loyalties in the current trend. Asda offers an ‘every day low prices’ initiative but perhaps this is not connecting as well with consumers looking for promotions.

Other types of retailers should consider what can be learnt from this. High Street stores in Banbury could [Read more]

Banner stunt goes wrong

An advertising stunt by Ukip to garner last minute support for the election went badly wrong when one of their candidates was involved in a light aircraft plane crash. UKIP candidate Nigel Farage was in a light aircraft that was towing a large advertising banner showing the slogan “Vote for your country – Vote Ukip” when the banner is thought to have become tangled in the tail fin and the aircraft came down and crashed, with Farage and a pilot inside. Both men escaped the wreckage of the plane alive and Farage was taken, with minor injuries, initially to Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

The light aircraft would have been used to target residents in this area of the country as they [Read more]

Banbury pub widens business model

Even post recession, times are hard for businesses and many enterprising business owners have been forced to think outside the box in order to keep their company afloat. One business that has had to branch out into new areas is the Brasenose Arms pub in Banbury.

The owners of the pub, Karen Banks and Alan Tattersall, are into their music festivals, and Tattersall used to live on a boat and run a live music venue, something which would require promotion though posters and flyers. Now the couple own the local pub, but times are still hard and selling beer is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making a profit.

Tattersall explains that the owner of the pub, Enterprise Inns, forces them to buy their beer at a price they set, which makes it very expensive:

“There are pubs in Banbury selling pints for less than I can buy it for. The amount of [Read more]

Tourism boost for Oxfordshire, good for Banbury

Printing companies in Banbury could benefit from a new tourist initiative. There could well be an increase in demand for brochure printers and poster and banner printers in Banbury as the initiative takes effect.

The launch of a new organisation aimed at increasing tourism in Oxfordshire will take place on 1st April, if approved by the council’s executive board. Destination Management Organisation (DMO) has already raised £200,000 in pledges and has brought together local authorities and businesses to provide the start up funding for the new tourism initiative. The new body, which will be named [Read more]

Quality print services around Banbury

If you are looking for print services in or around Banbury there are several good printing firms in the area. If you require a Banbury business card printer or are looking for a more sophisticated print solution, you should be able to find a printing company to suit your needs.

Many printers now operate a digital department alongside their more traditional litho work. For example, commercial printers Banbury Litho, who have been in business for over 30 years, can now offer a total lithographical and digital print solution to their clients. The company pride themselves in being able to offer expertise in both single and [Read more]

Minuteman Banbury supports local and national charities with Christmas card sales

Minuteman Banbury endorses all the Corporate Christmas Cards they print with the logo of the Carers Centre (North Oxon) to raise awareness in the community of the important work the Carers do.  In return Minuteman provides free printing the following year of a percentage of sales.  This year the Carers Centre will receive free printing to the value of £218 and already need some letterheads urgently.  Funds are in short supply at many charities at this time so free printing is particularly helpful.

Bill Brown, owner of Minuteman, said,

We’ve supported the Carers for many years.  As well as theChristmas Card initiative we do free printing for the annual golf day in September which is the Carers biggest single fund raising event, regularly bringing in excess of £10,000.  This year we’ll be promoting the Golf Day to over 1000 people in the local area using the Minuteman email facilities, something we offer to a number of community events.  We also heavily discount the other work we do for them.  The Carers provide a great service to many people locally helping young and old alike.  The Christmas Card Blanks we buy from wholesalers also generate cash for Cancer Research which is our favourite national charity.

Banbury print company joins environmentally responsible Two Sides initiative

A printing company in Banbury, Banbury Litho, has joined the Two Sides paper campaign. The initiative was created in 2008 with members from the Graphic Communications Supply Chain including printing and publishing, pre-press, press, finishing, forestry, pulp, paper inks and chemicals. The aim of the campaign is to promote responsible print practice and to inform about the practicality and sustainability of print and paper as a communications medium.

Banbury Litho’s managing director Mr. Matthew Wise said:

“We support Two Sides because it’s important to all of us in our industry that we raise awareness of how responsible we are environmentally and what our industry has done over recent years to improve our environmental credentials.”

The Two Sides initiative now involves around 100 companies including, for example, Decapo Publishing, [Read more]

New cultural centre for Banbury

Following the success of the recent development of the new Spiceball Leisure Centre in Banbury, Cherwell District Council has agreed to submit a planning application for a new Cultural quarter to be situated east of the Oxford Canal.

The local council has made £60,000 available to accelerate the scheme forwards. Many discussions have taken place over several months between Oxfordshire County Council and the Mill Management Committee. The aim of the development is to create a new cultural centre in Banbury. The main features of the scheme are the [Read more]

Litho plates make £10,500 at Banbury sale

Auctioneers, Holloways of Banbury, recently offered a portfolio containing 13 litho plates showing panoramic views of 19th century Bermuda. The plates were by lithographer W. Parrott after water colours painted by Edmund Gilling Hallewell.

Young Hallewell was a military man who was posted to Bermuda in 1841. He was quickly promoted to lieutenant and by 1844 had become adjutant and went on to marry the governor’s daughter. His father in law, Colonel William Reid, encouraged his artistic abilities and he produced panoramic views, form different vantage points, of [Read more]