With the arrival of a new year comes the opportunity to pause and reflect on the past.  And what a year 2023 has been for The Strong Agency.

We were delighted see our work recognised in not one but three industry-leading awards, with The Strong Agency crowned:

• PR Agency of the Year at the 2023 Prolific North Champions Awards
• Small Consultancy of the Year at the 2023 PRCA Dare Awards (North)
• Judges Choice Award at the 2023 MEN Business Awards

We were equally thrilled to see Strong founder Julie Wilson acknowledged and awarded Professional of the Year in the 2023 PRCA Dare Awards.  It is the third consecutive year that Jules has received the prestigious accolade and is an achievement of which we are incredibly proud.

October saw a move into new premises for The Strong Agency with us delighted to join the Bruntwood Works community at Bloc.  It’s an incredible office space located in the heart of Manchester and provides Strong’s clients with access to a suite of state-of-the-art facilities.

The move coincided with us welcoming fantastic new talent to the agency, expanding our ever strong PR and marketing communications team.

And it’s not just the team that has grown over the last 12 months.  We’ve been delighted to expand our portfolio of clients in a wide range of sectors.

We’ve launched and promoted some of the UK’s most exciting new hospitality venues including Liverpool’s highest alfresco bar, 360 Sky Bar; Gino D’Acampo’s latest outpost, Gino D’Acampo Boar Lane, in Leeds; and announced Upmarket Leisure’s acquisition of Radio Rooftop, one of London’s most iconic rooftop bars located at ME London hotel.

We were also thrilled to continue our work with the north’s most prestigious art fair, Manchester Art Fair, as it celebrated its 15th edition in the city.  It’s a story we were delighted to document on BBC Northwest Tonight.

We’ve been proud to contribute to the continued growth and success of all Strong’s clients with  Groobarbs Field Kitchen celebrating a hat-trick of food and drink accolades in the 2023 Taste Cheshire awards, Astra Group awarded Wayfinding Project of the Year at the 2023 UK Sign Awards, and Mint Property Finance crowned Best Short-Term Lender in the 2023 What Mortgage Awards.

We’ve navigated the continually evolving business and media landscape and delivered a 100% increase in linked YOY coverage for one client alone.

We move into 2024 with exciting plans in place and look forward to sharing more over the coming weeks and months.

Should you be looking to build your brand, launch a new product, drive increased sales, reach new audiences, or elevate your market position we’d love to discuss how together we can make your business stronger.

Here’s to a wonderful 2024.

The doors to Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester may be temporarily closed as we navigate the second national lockdown but that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop.  To the contrary, it means there’s an even greater requirement for it.

With the majority of Manchester’s festive celebrations cancelled due to the pandemic, we’ve been pleased to sprinkle a little seasonal magic on the city working with the leading family attraction to harness the media agenda and recreate many of Manchester’s much-loved Christmas events in miniature LEGO form.

The incredible build, created by Master Model Builder James Windle and including the iconic Christmas markets, Santa Dash, and ice-rink amongst other features, was unveiled to the public on Thursday night in an alternative, virtual Christmas light switch on.  Over 3,700 fans joined in online counting down with LEGO Santa to the official launch.

The response was fantastic, not just from the attraction’s A-list media who provided widespread feature coverage on the event and highlighted it as their ‘pick of the week,’ but from young families across the region who flooded Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester with thanks for “creating a wonderful bit of magic.”

It certainly provided us with a warm festive feeling.

You can read about it over at I Love Manchester or join over 85K people in viewing Manchester Miniland on The Manc, just two of the campaign’s highlight features.

Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester is scheduled to reopen in December, subject to government restrictions.

The pressures of lockdown have seen many a relationship tested and its been no different for Sea Life Manchester’s giant green sea turtles, Cammy & Ernie.

Introduced in 2017 the leading family attraction’s star creatures immediately hit it off leading to high hopes that they would one day breed.  Recent weeks have, however, seen a noticeable change in their behaviour, with the duo developing a clear lockdown rift.

Not ones to miss a story opportunity we’ve been pleased to wade in, along with Sea Life’s expert creature welfare team, to help counsel the bickering duo and share how the deep-sea love doctors are working to reignite the turtles’ passion for one another.

A playful story we loved developing, leading to feature coverage on page three of The Times, The Daily Telegraph, BBC Radio 4, The Sun, The Scottish Sun, The Daily Star, The Manc, About Manchester and Inside Express amongst others.