The Business Awards 2007 finalists - Services

Apr 22 2008 By The Journal

Regional final sponsored by Sunderland City Council

TEES VALLEY

Winner: Cool Blue Brand Communications

The PR and marketing company Cool Blue Brand Communications also specialises in branding, graphic and multimedia design, web TV, video journalism and digital film.

Managing director Tanya Garland set up the Middlesbrough firm in 1999 – expanding to a team of 16 today.

The company is already far down the track of converging digital technologies with traditional forms of campaign delivery.

It has developed and delivered web-streamed TV programmes, online voting and a social media site for furniture company Barker and Stonehouse.

It has created a fully interactive webcast-based recruitment website for Garlands Call Centres – allowing direct access and ‘real time’ conversations between Garlands’ staff and prospective employees.

And it has developed a highly targeted international blog and web-based campaign to promote the Centre For Process Innovation’s newly developed applications of fuel cell technologies.

Runners-up: Garlands Call Centres. TAS Engineering Consultants.

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TYNESIDE AND NORTHUMBERLAND

Winner: Eclipse Translations

LAST year Eclipse celebrated its 10th year of providing specialist translation support to the MoD and defence manufacturers.

The company has helped a number of defence sector companies with their tendering and export activities and helped to support international partnering arrangements.

It works on a wide-range of defence projects and currently services several large translation projects for the MoD. The company has been a prime contractor to the MoD since 1998 and has steadily extended the services it provides under these contracts.

The business, which operates out of Alnwick in Northumberland, has more than 350 employees throughout the world all helping the defence sector to communicate from the North-East.

Runners-up: The Tyneside Economic Development Company. The Write Research Company.

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DURHAM AND WEARSIDE

Winner: Meridian Marketing Ltd, Sunderland.

MERIDIAN Marketing is a telemarketing and market research company based in Sunderland, with partner operations around the world.

The business was launched in 1998 and employs up to 30 full-time staff at any one time working for clients including JobCentre Plus, Connexions and business support agency Business Link.

It is expanding to China by entering into a joint venture with the country’s largest privately-owned energy company Xinao Gas, based in Beijing. Meridian will provide management input to help strengthen Xinao’s data collection methods.

Meridian also has satellite offices in the US and the Czech Republic.

Runners-up: Elphaba Business Solutions Ltd, Newton Aycliffe. Harluk Associates, Peterlee.