Your Creative Partner

M Media & Design Ltd (mm&d) were celebrating last week having being crowned ‘Creative Industries Business of the Year’ at the Hartlepool Business Awards.

Hosted by Hartlepool Business Forum, the prestigious event held at Borough Hall, was attended by over 300 people from a wide-range of Hartlepool-based companies.

Sponsored by Cleveland College of Art & Design, the ‘Creative Industries Business of the Year’ was a new award for this year’s event, attracting entries from a range of media disciplines. Mark Skirving, Director, mm&d:

It’s great to be recognised by the Hartlepool Business Forum for the work we do in our industry.

The nature of our business sees us working with clients from all corners of the world but Hartlepool remains a key part of our plans for the future. We gain particular satisfaction in helping local companies grow.”

mm&d relocated to the Innovation Centre in Hartlepool in January 2014 and have built up a growing list of clients based in the town. Specialists in working in the engineering sector, mm&d recently started working with JDR Cable Systems, one of Hartlepool’s most successful businesses. Mandy Marriner, JDR Cables:

We were delighted for the team at mm&d to win the award. In a short space of time we have worked together, they have gone above and beyond our expectations. They are a great example of a local success story and we look forward to working with them going forward.”

With several clients of mm&d shortlisted for awards and many more in the audience, it proved to be a great night for the agency.

Footprints Nursery, who have been working with mm&d since the turn of the year, picked up the Service Sector of Year Award for their innovative approach to childcare. Advanced Retail Solutions, another mm&d client and Innovation Centre resident, claimed two awards as they were named Best Small Business and Most Promising Business.

Deepdale Solutions, neighbours of mm&d at Queens Meadow Business Park, were the big winners on the night, picking up the Manufacturer of the Year Award and the Hartlepool Business of the Year title.

Hartlepool Mail Review 

Your Creative Partner

Over the past four months M Media & Design (mm&d) have been working with Pro-Active Safety across a range of marketing services. Formerly known as PASS Safety, the Hartlepool-based training providers went through a full rebrand, with mm&d developing a new logo and a range of additional design and print work.

The second stage of the development was to create a website to cater for the growing demand of their training courses and consultancy services. Given their target audience, it was crucial that the website was responsive to mobile phones and tablet devices. Brian Hanson, Director, Pro-Active Safety:

The guidance – and more importantly, the great advice – suggested by mm&d has turned our old, out-dated website into a modern, sparkling, ready-for-business site.”

Working alongside the website is an innovative ‘passport’ system which allows building site supervisors to instantly access the qualifications of tradesmen. mm&d are already working on further developments for this feature, with the aim of considerably reducing administration time and the reliance on paperwork.

There are lots of ways we can grow the passport system in the future, including text messaging and app development. The days of carrying around paper documents are numbered and it is important that we react to this.”

Having recently signed a contract to become a major training provider for 16-to-19-year-olds, the next 12 months promise to be exciting times for Pro-Active Safety. Through their sister companies, Pro-Active Training and Brickwork Services Ltd, the business is now actively looking for over 60 school leavers to sign up for bricklaying apprenticeships at their new training facility in Hartlepool.

This is a massive 12 months for the business. We want to be different to other providers in that we can provide real hands-on training to the youngsters. They will end up with a series of qualifications as well as invaluable on-site experience.

We look forward to working with mm&d in the future and have already started work on an aggressive marketing strategy for the new training centre which opens its doors in July.”

For more information visit www.pro-activesafety.co.uk