NB Communication

Our 2019 in review

We look back on the past 12 months of activity at NB.
December 18, 2019

It’s been a bumper year here at NB, with some big client wins, plenty of fantastic web design and development projects, and excellent results for our ongoing marketing clients.

Rather than list every campaign we’ve worked on, we thought we’d pick out some of the highlights of our year month-by-month. This list showcases the variety of services NB has to offer, from web development and user experience to content management and ecommerce solutions.

We’ve also continued to establish ourselves as specialists in destination marketing, working with tourism organisations and a range of provenance brands. We’ve broadened our reach too, working with inter-governmental organisations at a global level.

January

One of our biggest destination marketing contracts is with Shetland Islands Council. We deliver all the marketing activity for Promote Shetland, selling Shetland as a place to live, work, visit and invest. One of the highlights of the annual visitor calendar is Shetland’s fire festival season from January to March. This year we delivered a coordinated promotion campaign across multiple channels, including a dedicated microsite, YouTube videos, and live streaming on Instagram and Facebook. This allowed us to promote the fire festivals in real-time and to give our audience a first-hand view of what Up Helly Aa in Shetland is all about.

February

Continuing with our Viking theme, we worked with the Shetland Amenity Trust alongside the Destination Viking Association (involving 24 partners from across Europe and Scandinavia) to redevelop the Follow the Vikings project website. The aim was to create an inspiring, informative website promoting the story of the Vikings, which would reach a wide audience and stimulate interest in the Viking Cultural Route. The site includes a wide range of functionality, including a secure members’ login area with access to galleries, documents, membership renewal and social groups.

March

North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme (NILPS) is a National Lottery Heritage Fund project that supports life in Orkney’s North Isles, while conserving and raising awareness of their distinctive identities, heritage and culture. We designed and developed the NILPS website, which gives a clear overview of the islands and the community projects that the scheme supports.

April

Beyond Orkney and Shetland, April saw the launch of two major websites. The first for Marine Environment Protection of the South-East Asian Seas (MEPSEAS), an inter-governmental organisation (IGO) which aims to improve the ocean environment in South East Asia. NB has been working in the IGO field for some years now. In this time, we've struck a close partnership with the International Maritime Organization’s team in London, who recommended us for this particular project. We also launched a new website for Peterhead Port Authority, broadening our client base across Scotland.

May

Shetland Recreational Trust operate eight leisure centres throughout Shetland and we have managed their website for a number of this years. This year, we gave the site a refresh and redesign, integrating it with an online booking facility, which allows people the convenience of pre-booking for upcoming exercise classes and events.

June

Drever & Heddle (D and H) is an established legal firm and estate agency in Orkney and Thurso with a history dating back 160 years. NB redeveloped the existing website to improve its design, functionality and user experience. A requirement of this project was to create a more user-friendly website interface, alongside robust tracking tools to monitor customer leads. The redeveloped website has given the site a complete brand refresh and a more contemporary design.

July

One of our long-term clients is Shetland-based engineering company Ocean Kinetics. They work with some major clients in the North Sea oil and gas industry, including TOTAL, BP and Petrofac. NB redesigned their website to showcase the breadth and scale of their services. The site also includes an online tool shop built in Shopify.

August

Another big destination marketing project we manage is Orkney.com, a single, all-encompassing online resource for promoting Orkney as a destination to visit, live, work, study and invest. This year, we added an integrated jobs board functionality to the site, which updates the website dynamically with the latest island vacancies and a clear route to application.

September

Ava Innes is a provenance brand we work with, based in Elgin, that produces luxury cashmere duvets and pillows. We created a simple, aspirational website and online shop for the business, powered by Shopify.

October

This was record month for NB, as we pushed live seven projects, including website launches for two London-based clients, Arrow Media and the IGO Bonn Agreement. There were also site launches in Shetland for the charity Mind Your Head, The String restaurant and bar, the Community Development Company of Nesting and Shetland Tourism Association. Meanwhile in Orkney we launched an interactive journey planner for Orkney.com.

Read all about these projects on this dedicated blog.

November

Once again showcasing our destination marketing expertise, we launched a new site for West Highlands Peninsulas. The website focuses on tourism and the many things to explore, see and do in this picturesque part of Scotland.

December

Finally, this month we’ve been looking ahead to 2020 and planning for a busy year ahead. NB team members Lauren and Amy went to Helsinki to attend the Digital Tourism Think Tank, a thought leadership event for the tourism industry promoting best practice in destination and digital marketing. Watch this space for their revealing insights on destination marketing in 2020.

If you’re interested in speaking to NB Communication about a project for 2020, we’d love to hear from you. You can email [email protected] or call us on +44 (0) 1595 696155.

December 18, 2019

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