One of our clients, leading Jersey estate and lettings agency Thompson Estates, recently received the Highly Commended award for Marketing at the hotly contested UK Property Awards in association with Bloomberg Television and Google…

The UK’s premier estate agents gathered at the Lancaster Hotel, Hyde Park, in London for the awards which, combined with other regional awards’ programs for Arabia, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia Pacific, form the globally renowned International Property Awards.

‘We are so pleased to have received this award, not only does it reinforce that our quality of service is equal to that of our mainland peers, but it also shows our dedication to communicating with our clients in the right way’, said Margaret Thompson, Thompson Estates Managing Director.

Thompson Estates entered the awards after appointing Oi to refresh their brand and marketing materials. This included a re-design of Property Monthly, Thompson Estates’ monthly property magazine which is distributed island-wide, as well as a new advertising campaign. The advertising was designed to focus on each of Thompson Estate’s unique selling points – from their quality of service, convenient office high street location, to longer opening hours. A new look Thompson Estates website and social media activity is being launched shortly.

‘Working closely with Thompson Estates over the past few months it is very evident that they are enthusiastic and a customer focused business,’ said Heather Townsend, Director of Oi Jersey.

‘We’re really proud to have produced work worthy of this prestigious award that reinforces the high standards Thompson Estates has across their business,’

Established 17 years ago, the International Property Awards are the world’s most prestigious property competition and cover residential as well as commercial categories. Judging is carried out through a meticulous process involving a panel of over 80 experts and covering every aspect of the property business.

Oi has won the digital marketing account for international airline Thai Airways UK & Ireland following a three-way pitch against London agencies.

The opportunity to pitch for the account came after Peter Grange, Oi Managing Director, travelled to Thailand with Thai Airways at Christmas. The major chaos at Heathrow Airport, due to severe snowstorms, meant that Thai Airways had to call all of their staff, including their sales and marketing team from the London office, to Heathrow…

‘While at the time the snow delays were bad, it meant that I met members of the sales and marketing team, got to chat to them over the few days which included talking about Oi and what we do,’ said Peter.

‘Several months ago, out of the blue, a member of the Thai Airways sales and marketing team emailed and asked if we would be interested in pitching for their digital account, to which I of course said yes!’.

Coming from what many may have said was a long-shot chance of winning against the incumbent and a large digital agency, both London-based, a strong team combining creative, digital, search engine optimization, and email marketing experts from Oi developed and presented a well thought out digital solution to the brief from the sales and marketing team at Thai Airways.

‘Working for such a prestigious international airline brand is very exciting and we’re looking forward to helping build their business across national and international markets,’ said Peter.

Oi’s first work for Thai Airways will involve redesigning and launching their UK and Ireland websites, undertaking a comprehensive SEO review and new SEO approach, developing a new digital marketing plan including database management, email marketing campaigns, ongoing analysis and strategic recommendations, plus promotional and campaign work.

‘As Thai Airways’ retained digital agency we’re looking forward to implementing a robust digital marketing program,’ said Georgea Frank-Tann, Oi Account Manager.

‘One of the great things about digital is you can measure everything as you move along on your online marketing journey, then adjust and evolve different elements for better performance.’

Oi works with a number of other large London-based clients including Taj Hotels (51 Buckingham Gate Taj Residences, Crowne Plaza, Quilon Restaurant), Laven Partners, Dexion Capital, Collins Stewart Wealth Management, and Investec Asset Management. It also works with Blue Islands airline across the Channel Islands, UK and Europe.

‘This new, international client for Oi goes to show it pays to think big even in the smallest of places,’ added Peter.

Cherry Godfrey is the first pan-island company to offer islanders an online motor and household insurance service through its new website www.711666.com.

The brand new Quote&Pay online service at www.711666.com enables islanders to get a quote and buy a great value new motor or household insurance policy with a click…
Oi was responsible for the redesign and build of the Cherry Godfrey website including programming the bespoke online Quote & Pay functionality. The marketing campaign across Guernsey and Jersey included a teaser element using social media platforms, then direct mail, advertising online, followed by newspaper  and TV advertising, email marketing, point of sale, and PR.

A major property developer has appointed Oi as its full-service marketing agency to work on some of Guernsey’s most iconic and important developments over the coming years…

Charles McHugh of The Strategic Development Partnership and the consortium of investors he represents has appointed the agency to work on a wide range of development projects including the redevelopment of the former Randall’s Brewery site in St Julian’s Avenue.

As design plays such an integral part of property development, we’re really excited about working on the different projects spanning up to 10 years, which will involve everything from brand strategy and creation to fully integrated marketing campaigns.

Due to the diversity of the various developments there’s a great opportunity to create some truly different and outstanding work, so watch this space.

Waitrose, the supermarket chain of the John Lewis Partnership, whose reputation has been built on the quality and freshness of their food, has appointed Oi to work as its Channel Island marketing agency…

“We are absolutely thrilled to be appointed to work with such a prestigious, quality brand. Everyone at Oi is looking forward to working with the team and using our local expertise to help Waitrose become the brand of choice for Channel Islanders,” said Heather Townsend, Account Director at Oi.

Waitrose recently acquired the Checkers stores at Red Houses and Rue des Pres in Jersey and Admiral Park in Guernsey, and the Safeway stores in each island. The stores will provide over 130,000 sq ft of selling space and open as Waitrose in a phased programme in early 2011.

The existing 480 employees in all five supermarkets will be offered roles within Waitrose and will have the opportunity to become Partners within the John Lewis Partnership. Waitrose is also creating additional jobs in each island and will invest in training and development for all employees.

“People in the Channel Islands have been telling us for years that they want a Waitrose. Our supply relationship with Sandpiper CI shows there’s strong demand for Waitrose quality food and I’m delighted that we will now be able to bring the full Waitrose offer to the Channel Islands,” said Mark Price, Waitrose Managing Director.

“The move is part of our strategy to make the Waitrose brand accessible to more people in more places and builds on our recent acquisitions from the Co-op and Woolworths, as well as our strategic partnerships with Welcome Break and Boots.”

In line with its commitment to local sourcing, Waitrose is planning to sell a wide range of food produced within the Channel Islands and will be working closely with local suppliers.

After a hectic Christmas it was time to launch the Aladdin’s Cave winter sale 2010-11. Using our trusty penguin friends we developed a campaign to accentuate the massive savings that were up for grabs….

The campaign ran across TV and press, take a look here…

The campaign was a huge success with many customers visiting the store for the sale extraordinaire!

Treasure Week is a great new marketing initiative from award-winning jeweller Catherine Best whereby customers can bring in their old jewellery and have it transformed in to a new treasure. They can choose to melt down and re-use the gold – making it in to any type of jewellery, or they can have the stone set it in to any type of metal, in any style…

All the customer has to do is give a brief of what they want, Catherine or one of her design team will create a new design, then they turn the old piece of jewellery in to something new which can be handed down to future generations. It also has the potential to increase the value of the item.

The campaign created by Offshore International Advertising includes radio, press advertising, direct marketing and in-store promotion. It is running in Guernsey from the 18th until the 25th July and Jersey from the 25th July until the 1st August.

A recent television advertising campaign created and produced by Offshore International Advertising for leading financial services company, Cherry Godfrey, resulted in a 31% increase in loan sales.

“For a business 17-years old to achieve such a high increase in sales year on year is exceptional,” said Dave Cherry, Managing Director of Cherry Godfrey.

“The team at Offshore International nailed the brief and their campaign delivered beyond our expectations, so it’s a big well done from us”…

The 20-second commercial on ITV Channel Television featured Cherry Godfrey staff saying ‘Yes to loans’. Nice to hear, when so many companies are saying no. The planning by Offshore International included securing prime spots during the final of Britain’s Got Talent. The campaign was supported by online banner advertising.

Offshore International Advertising are currently working on a brief for a new TV campaign, which breaks in August. No pressure then!

Since appointing Offshore International, award-winning jeweller Catherine Best has experienced record sales following a new brand and advertising campaign across the Channel Islands and nationally. Here is an example of one of the adverts that featured in the Flybe inflight magazine as part of a major integrated campaign…

Every year hundreds of people are killed and injured due to driving whilst under the influence of alcohol. Some get away with cuts and bruises and a battered car, others are not so fortunate. Offshore International Advertising took the idea of an annual publicity campaign, to highlight the problem and get drivers to change their ways, to the Guernsey Police, and since Christmas 2004 we have helped cut the number of convictions and helped to make the island a safer place to be with strong and thought provoking campaigns designed for maximum impact with minimum budget…

Over the years we’ve pulled out as many stops as possible to make the campaigns stand out in the public imagination and draw as much attention to the problem as possible; huge billboards (one with an actual car smashing through it), planes dragging the campaign message across the skies over the island, adverts, radio, posters and beer mats in the pubs, tee-shirts for bar staff, adverts on the urinals in pub toilets, direct mail pieces, organisation of PR, advertising on the buses, police cars and taxis…pretty much everything and anything that we could squeeze into the tight budgets. Take a look at the past 4 years hard work here…