Wolfstar Social Media News Room

NHS Kirklees and Kirklees Council appoint Wolfstar for student obesity campaign

NHS Kirklees and Kirklees Council have appointed public relations and social media specialist Wolfstar to help deliver a social marketing campaign to tackle obesity amongst students.

NHS Kirklees and Kirklees Council have teamed up to create a local strategic partnership for Kirklees. The partnership brings together public sector agencies, voluntary and community groups and local businesses to discuss important issues to help improve the quality of life for people in Kirklees.

The new campaign will target students attending higher education and further education establishments in Kirklees. It will use social media and word of mouth to connect with students during the academic year with its overall aim to halt the year-on-year rise in obesity levels of students between the ages of 16 and 24.

The account team of three will be led by Wolfstar, account director, Chris Norton who said: “We know that for this campaign to be successful we can’t tell students what to do. That’s why we’ve adopted a nudge strategy to make it easy for students to do the right thing without thinking. We believe we must incite students to have fun and act of their own accord.”

Lynne Cliffe, project manager at NHS Kirklees commented: “We have come together to tackle the rising level of obesity amongst students in the area. We want to encourage students to want to adopt healthy lifestyles and exercise more frequently, but without lecturing or bombarding them with too much educational information and statistics. Bringing Wolfstar on board will bring our practical interventions to life by engaging with students via social networks and community-based, direct word of mouth communications to create a fun, sociable program that students will want to get involved with.”

Students can, on average put on as much as 15lb in weight due to their hedonistic lifestyles at university and college.

About Wolfstar

Wolfstar is a new specialist consultancy, based in Leeds, which offers its clients multiple way communications solutions combining traditional public relations with social media and word of mouth communication techniques.

ENDS

Notes to editor:

· The campaign will be particularly targeting those students who already have a BMI of 25+

· The Government introduced The National Obesity Strategy in Jan 2008

· Students can, on average put on as much as 15lb in weight due to the high calorie intake from drinking alcohol and eating fast foods

 

For further media inquiries please contact Wolfstar 0113 394 7960

Natalie Smith 07872 644790

natalies@wolfstarconsultancy.com

 Chris Norton 07932 864891

chrisn@wolfstarconsultancy.com

Technorati Tags: pr, nhs, social media, social marketing

Danish health food company picks Wolfstar to spearhead UK growth

Danish health food company Fuerza Vital has hired the online PR and social media specialists Wolfstar to manage the UK launch of its Rose Rich range of rosehip products

Wolfstar will run a digital, word of mouth and traditional media relations campaign to drive sales through independent health food retailers and direct online, following an initial trial in Waitrose.

The range, including capsules, powder, oil, shells and tea, contain high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C. The vitamins and minerals within the products have been proven to be extremely beneficial to people suffering from joint aches and pains, due to their anti-inflammatory properties.

The rose hips grow wild in remote areas of the Andes Mountains, away from any unwanted pollution and farming. They are hand-picked by local Mapuche Indians, for whom rose hips are an integral part of their culture. This ensures the products are natural and much purer than alternatives grown close to industrial areas.

To help service the new account Wolfstar has poached FMCG specialist Amy Johnson from supermarket Morrisons. She joins bringing significant experience consumer experience including previous consultancy roles working on accounts for McArthur Glen designer outlets and Co-op.

Pia Jespersen-Bramwell, managing director of Fuerza Vital commented: “Wolfstar’s digital pedigree is second to none and their offline ideas were genuinely impressive. The Rose Rich range of products is subtly but importantly different from anything else available in the UK today, Wolfstar showed an excellent understanding of this throughout the pitch process and as such we thought they would be the best people to articulate our message.”

Tim Sinclair, chairman of Wolfstar added: “It’s great to get the opportunity to work with a new and exciting brand and we are certain that we can create an impact and measure it!”

Image courtesy of www.wharf.co.uk

 

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For further media inquiries please contact:

Amy Johnston: +44 (0)113 394 7960

amyj@wolfstarconsultancy.com

Sony Ericsson launches global blog partnership programme for World View 2008

Sony Ericsson has launched phase two of its global blog partnership programme for its mobile camera phone competition World View 2008.

Bloggers across the globe were last week invited to become partners of one of the world's largest mobile phone camera competitions World View 2008. Each blog partner was invited to display a widget on their sites stating that they are an official partner of the global competition. For more details on the competition view the social media news release.

Each partner that joins the scheme will also be entered into two blog specific competitions. The first winner will be selected at random and the other winner will be the partner that has driven the most people to the World View website. The winner of both competitions will win a holiday of their own.[i]

The blog partnership scheme will run from September 22nd until the close of the World View 2008 competition on 31st October 2008.

Merran Wrigley, Corporate Vice President and Head of External Relations said: “We are really excited to be engaging with bloggers across the world. We hope that this partnership scheme encourages them to consider getting involved. Ultimately we want to inspire people everywhere to start taking creative and interesting pictures with their camera phones. ”

World View 2008 launched for its third year in July. The competition allows photography enthusiasts to test their skills and promote their best image with a global audience.

ENDS

For more information on the World View Competition 2008 www.sonyericsson.com/worldview

To join the blog partnership scheme click here 

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[i] The winner of the random prize will win a holiday worth £1,500 and the winner of the blog traffic prize will win a holiday worth £3,000

 

For further media inquiries please contact Wolfstar +44 (0)113 394 7960

Chris Norton +44 (0)7932 864891

chrisn@wolfstarconsultancy.com

Stuart Bruce +44 (0)7852 135456

stuartb@wolfstarconsultancy.com

 
Alternatively contact:

Lisa Canning  Email: Lisa.Canning@sonyericsson.com

Notes To Editor:

Sony Ericsson is hosting its World View competition for the third year running

The competition is worldwide; anyone, anywhere in the world can enter

World View is a photography competition with a difference; all entries must be taken using a mobile phone

If you would like to join the blog partnership programme, please send an email with your name, blog title and URL to sonyericsson@wolfstarconsultancy.com

 

 

Multimedia information:

Worldview Interview: Tony Briggs from Wolfstar on Vimeo.

 

  

 

Useful Quotes:

Merran Wrigley, Corporate Vice President and Head of External Relations

“There has been a massive growth in blogs and social networks over the last three years and we felt World View 2008 should use social media to share the best entries. We wanted to incorporate the ability to ‘share’ by inviting bloggers from around the world to join our partnership programme. This competition helps to unite the mobile camera phone community and photography enthusiasts and we want people to shout loud and proud about their finest photographs. The standard of entries has always been high and we expect this years’ to be even better. ”

Tony Briggs, Judge and photographer

“What makes a good image is something really unusual, something not too clichéd and obvious. Something a little bit different.”

“I suppose the classic tips for talking good pictures are composition, exposure and sharpness.”

“Camera phones have already changed the industry. Journalistic photography has been changed beyond recognition.”

 

Technorati Tags: Social media, news

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Are banks and currency providers breaking the law and exploiting consumers on foreign currency?

UK consumers, who send or receive foreign payments, could be paying well over the odds for their currency due to a lack of transparency in the foreign exchange sector. This coupled with the effects of the credit crunch, has caused a financial and currency specialist to highlight the issue of fairer pricing for British consumers.

The currency market (worth approximately $1,683 billion[1] a day in the UK) is completely unregulated and this could be leading to banks and foreign exchange companies failing to understand and comply properly with the Consumer Protection Regulations[2] which were introduced in May.

The regulations require all companies to openly tell consumers how a price will be calculated. Helen Scott, entrepreneur and managing director of 4X Currency Corporation, the world’s first online currency exchange company, believes that this should now be highlighted as an issue as the law may be being broken at the expense of the consumer. She is calling the Financial Ombudsman Service to look at this sector much more closely to try and bring some simplicity to currency pricing.

Helen adds: “It seems incredible in the age of the internet that consumers are able to openly compare the price of almost any other commodity except currency. Yes, rates move, but consumers should insist on asking how the rate will be calculated when they come to do the deal. Ask how much they will charge away from the rate given on the BBC website in percentage terms. Dealing rates vary enormously between providers, costing thousands on a simple overseas property purchase. We wouldn’t dream of buying a car, holiday or anything else without shopping around and getting the best deal - so why should be accept it with our hard earned cash.”

Jamie Hanley Partner at Leeds law firm Morrish and Co says: “Consumer protection is at the heart of government policy on regulatory reform. These Regulations simplify and standardise the law and are wide ranging. They outlaw unfair trading, and are designed to ensure that a consumer is able to make free and informed decisions. Transparency in business dealings is clearly at the heart of this. That the government is serious is illustrated by the fact that both the OFT and local trading standards are given wide powers to investigate and to take enforcement action. It covers all traders dealing with individual consumers. Banks and financial institutions are not immune from scrutiny under this regime.”

Helen concludes: “A lack of transparency just results in customers becoming more confused and ultimately they are unable to directly compare the costs of a transaction. I have found it hugely frustrating when speaking to people who have been confused by indicative rates provided rather than the dealing rate they finally receive. So I am calling on the Financial Ombudsman Service to look at this issue and ensure all providers are acting correctly. A truly transparent marketplace is good news for everyone including the consumer.”

4X (www.4xcurrency.com) operates in a unique and price transparent way, providing exchange rates that customers can actually obtain at that particular time, rather than rates that are merely indications based on the bank’s wholesale (interbank) rate. Dealing rates are posted clearly on the website and the exchange rate is updated up to three times a second, made possible by unique software.

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Notes to editor:

· 4X Currency is a registered overseas money provider with HM Revenue and Customs

· 4X Dealer™ is a registered trademark of 4X Currency Corporation

· 4X Dealer™ can process 2,000 trades per second and transfers can be made to any worldwide bank

· 4X Dealer™ has been designed especially with the business market in mind to enable companies to receive live, up-to-the-minute, market rates so that they select the most favourable ones available before making a transfer.

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[1] http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/forex/fxjsc/fxturnresults080728.pdf

[2] Clause 7.33 - http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/small_businesses/competing/protection

 

For further media information please contact:

Chris Norton 0113 394 7960 / 07932 864891

Jed Hallam 0113 394 7960

Email 4x@wolfstarconsultancy.com

 

Technorati Tags: currency, exchange, technology