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TMPR welcomes an international student: ‘Selamat Datang’ Mimi!

Written by: Mimi Deen

April is blossoming to a positive start with Mimi Deen joining us as our newest Marketing Intern. She was born and raised in Malaysia, but her family once lived in Cardiff in the 90s, making it a walk down memory lane when she decided to pursue her MA at Cardiff University.

As a postgraduate student, Mimi juggles her time between work while pursuing her International Public Relations & Global Communication Management degree at the School of Journalism and Media Communications. She was then connected to TMPR via the Career Confident programme, leading her to work for us where she will support the team with regular marketing, PR activities, and client projects.

Before TMPR, Mimi was heavily engaged with corporate stakeholder engagement while working within a CSR organisation’s planning team. Mimi is passionate about enriching life with a sustainable approach to things as she believes in the long-term impact of it. She starts from home by educating her family about the simplest green alternatives, such as DIY-ing nature-friendly household solutions. Moving forward, she hopes to instil the habit within the working environment at the office. We value her keen interest, as sustainability is a key theme for TMPR and its clients.

Mimi had the opportunity to join the team, visiting screen-printing company and TMPR supplier, Screentec, on her second day. Upon seeing the printing house, she was thrilled to witness something close to her heart. “We travelled to Ferndale and I was especially interested when the Managing Director mentioned their business recycling approach. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip as it was also my first time going the Welsh valleys”. Adding that her transition into the workplace went seamlessly, “I felt comfortable since the first day; the team were very friendly and ensured to give me that sense of belonging from the get-go”.

We look forward to working with Mimi and seeing her develop skills and expertise in the PR industry. On behalf of all the team, we wish her a warm welcome and congratulations on a great start!

Esteemed Charlene receives a well-earned promotion! 

While it’s all change for the weather as we enter a new season, it’s also time for change here at TMPR – starting with our Office Administrator Charlene Lau being promoted to Office Manager!

Since joining in November last year, Charlene’s unique skill set, and bubbly warmth has been the perfect addition to the team as she has supported the growth of TMPR.

She has been an asset to the business keeping everything running smoothly while injecting her witty humour into the office. Charlene’s adaptability, analytical expertise, and organisation have been second to none in her role as Office Administrator and this promotion is certainly well deserved. 

We asked Charlene the favourite part about her role at TMPR and she told us: “I have loved getting to know everyone in the team, in-house and extended, everyone is equally driven in providing a quality service while still maintaining an element of fun. From Mistress of the SmartSheet to Social Secretary and Chief Toilet Roll Administrator, the role is varied! I was very pleased to learn that I had received the promotion.” 

Louise Morgan, Director at TMPR, added: “Charlene is an essential part of our operations. Introduced as a brand new role at TMPR, the job covers a variety of responsibilities which  have been fundamental in helping our growth over the past 12 months. Since joining the team Charlene has been able to keep up to pace with administration in a fast-moving environment, all while maintaining an infectious enthusiasm for the role.”

As Charlene joined us from Singapore, we’ve taken pride in helping her sample the best that Western cuisine has to offer. We’ve already ticked off the more local Welsh cakes, sampled fine chocolates from the Rhonda valley and helped her to bake the perfect jacket potato… Now we’re looking forward to celebrating her promotion with Spanish tapas at none other than Bar 44, which offers up some of the finest tapas you’ll find outside of Spain.

A huge congratulations to Charlene on her promotion, from everyone here at TMPR!

Celebrations for Oliver’s one year anniversary at TMPR

This month celebrates one year of Oliver working with us here at TMPR. Oliver started with us as a Marketing Intern, was quickly promoted to Marketing Assistant and now commemorates his first full year with us and what an accomplished year it has been!

Oliver joined us as a graduate Marketing Intern back in July 2021 and has flourished as an exceptional member of the TMPR team. We asked Oliver what the biggest highlight has been for him over the past year, and he said that working closely with clients that offer innovative and genuinely fascinating services was a personal favourite. Specifically, visiting one of our clients’ manufacturing factories: “Seeing the manufacturing process helped better my understanding of the company’s product and their core values. It is always nice to meet with clients in-person and develop those relationships, it’s crucial to our service.”

Through his work here at TMPR, Oliver also noted how rewarding he finds the job in experiencing positive results from client campaigns that he has worked on. While Oliver has been able to fully utilise academic skills gained from his BA Marketing degree, he believes the practical experience has given him the most fulfilment: “The experience and knowledge I have acquired over the past year is vast, plus the fast-paced environment has enabled me to take on new responsibilities everyday and push my capabilities to their full potential. I can’t wait to see what my future at TMPR brings.”

Speaking to TMPR’s Director Louise, she is really proud of Oliver’s progress from joining the team as a Marketing Intern last year: “Oliver is a key, valued member of the TMPR team. Aside from being our accomplished barista, Oliver’s adaptability and passion to deliver quality services to our expanding clientele transpires throughout his work.”

We are looking forward to continuing to support Oliver as he goes from strength to strength at TMPR. Oliver completed his Leadership and Management qualification last December and has come full circle as he now supports our new graduate interns in the first steps of their own TMPR journey.

Happy one year anniversary here with us, Oliver!

TMPR recruits a new graduate: Welcome aboard Charlie!

This week, TMPR welcomes Charlie as a new member to our team as a Marketing Intern.

Charlie is enthusiastic to learn the operations of the business, she claims “the experience will be invaluable; I have always had a keen interest in the marketing industry and together with my enthusiasm for writing I cannot wait to take on new responsibilities with the support of such an accomplished team.”

Having just recently graduated from Cardiff University with a BA joint honours degree in Journalism, Media and English Literature, Charlie is especially thrilled to have secured a position so closely related to her degree. Charlie tells us “I am hoping to put my knowledge of journalism and media communications to good use within this role. It is a tremendous opportunity for me to develop my skills from experts within the industry.”

Charlie’s flare for communications and eagerness to learn will be a great help to the expanding team as Louise Morgan states; “We really believe in recruiting new talent and the graduate programmes are a key part of that, it is fantastic to bring it back in full force properly after COVID. Here at TMPR we pride ourselves on giving opportunities to graduates and with our support we look forward to strengthening Charlie’s capabilities.”

Outside of work, Charlie spends her time hiking around the beacons, trying out the best restaurant spots South Wales has to offer, and enjoying time with family and friends. Charlie is settling in well to the team and is especially looking forward to participating in the next team building activity coming up in August (stay tuned!).

Welcome to the team, Charlie!

Technical Marketing & PR: Nurturing New Marketing Talent.

We are passionate about nurturing emerging talent in the marketing and PR sector. After all, having the opportunity to hone your skills in the real world can make all the difference to a graduate’s career.

Last year we welcomed Alex Lambden to our team on a Student Placement. Alex was studying Politics and Spanish at Cardiff University and was looking to gain some industry experience within Marketing.

Alex made a real impact at TMPR. As a small team we work at a fast pace and are agile in our approach to ensure everyone is supported and that we get the job done collectively. Alex was on-board with this straight away and got stuck in with various projects across our diverse client portfolio.

Since finishing his studies Alex has gone on to secure a place on a Marketing Graduate Scheme with BT. He told us that the experienced he gained while working with TMPR helped him stand out from his competition and secure this new role.

Here’s what he said about his time with us:

“Graduates leaving university face an ever-challenging job market so it’s essential to have that standout ‘edge’ on your CV. Keen to leave my studies with a well-rounded experience, I reached out to the Technical Marketing & PR team where I gained some cutting-edge industry knowledge with a hands-on approach.

From the start, I dove into the day-to-day responsibilities of a boutique marketing agency and spearheaded important operations for our clients. While this was a new space for me, the TMPR team were true cheerleaders and supported me through how to make each piece of work my best, with a real focus on my self-development. A skillset I wanted to grow was to create inspiring copy, a new challenge for a starter like myself! The TMPR team allowed me to explore different forms of copy; co-ordinating the social media posts for one client, authoring press releases for another – I even got to see the behind-the-scenes of successful promotional video. I was so fortunate to have my first marketing experience with TMPR as I was given a wide range of responsibility which allowed me to figure out which part of marketing and PR I wanted to pursue going forward.

The team really captured the start-up culture in their office which is an ever popular theme in discussions for creating better workplaces. A constant hub of energy, the team and I constantly bounced ideas off one another to innovate the work we provided our clients. Regular check-ins and feedback further made TMPR a great place to work, I was always clear on how I could improve my performance while also celebrating both the team and my own’s triumphs. By the end of my placement, I had built up an impressive knowledge in the marketing field which I could go on and take with me to show graduate employers.

Since finishing my studies at Cardiff University, I have gone on to join BT’s Marketing Graduate scheme, with a current focus in commercial management. I often think back fondly at my time working at Technical Marketing & PR and I know the team set me with a solid foundation to become a rising star in marketing!”

TMPR is rapidly growing and we’re on the look out for an enthusiastic, experienced marketeer to work with us.

We’re a close knit team based in the centre of Penarth and we love what we do!

If you’re interested in joining the fun, we’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch via: hello@technicalmarketing-pr.com

 

10 Years of TMPR: the Origin Story, pt. 2

When Louise Morgan decided to go off on her own, it was simplicity that she had in mind. “The name, ‘Technical Marketing & PR’ wasn’t dreamt up trying to create anything funky. It’s the Ronseal school of business branding: it does what it says on the tin.” She laughs. Aptly, two small, branded paint-tins, filled with 10-year celebrations chocolates, perch on the coffee table of the newly refurbished Penarth offices.

In 2011 Louise’s niece was born, and she decided to move her offices to Derby to be closer to family. Business was booming, and while she held firm on her promise not to hire staff, freelancers were soon required for the overflow.

It was in Derby that she met a Welshman, who spurred the move of TMPR to Barry. And while ultimately not being “the one”, she does attribute their meeting to fate, as it is in South Wales where TMPR and Louise remain: “South Wales immediately felt like home. Living by the sea but only 15 minutes’ drive from Cardiff is very different to Derby or Manchester, and everyone is so friendly!”

But it’s not just the sunshine and smiles that kept Louise in Cymru, “Commercially, South Wales has proven to be an excellent fit for the business. It’s an industrial region where the construction and manufacturing sectors are buoyant, so I’ve really enjoyed developing our client base in these areas.”

In the Barry Business Centre Louise grew TMPR to new heights, though always with the help of freelancers. It wasn’t until she met her now-husband, Christopher, that she entertained the idea of hiring staff again. “He said you’ve got all these freelancers, ‘why don’t you just employ somebody?’ And I thought ‘why not? I am the only shareholder, I can make my own decisions about the future of the company.’”

With business booming and a growing sense of stability, Louise made her first hire, and then another. Soon enough the little industrial space where they’d set up shop was feeling quite crowded, and it was time to start looking for bigger and better offices.

“It was then that I first started to feel excited again about building something.” Louise reminisces, “With IVE it felt from the start that the goal was just to build it, whereas TMPR, it’s always been a part of me.”

Organic growth is a recurring theme in Louise’s management style, and one of her favourite aspects of owning an agency, “I like to nurture from within, growth of the business comes from coaching & training the team, so we grow by increasing capacity rather than headcount.”

When asked why she chose to focus on construction and manufacturing marketing in particular, Louise gives a wry smile, “The thing that made me fall in love with construction was Approved Document E of the building regulations, and that is no joke.”

She recounts the 2003 amendment to sound insulation requirements with the confidence and flow of a woman who has immersed herself fully in the world of technical literature and specifications for the last 18 years.

“In 2003 there was a change to the regulations which decreased the acceptable noise transfer between dwellings. So during a massive rise in people living in apartment blocks, you had strict limits on noise that could go between apartments, airborne and impact. It was quite technical because there was different routes to compliance, whether it was robust details or pre-completion testing, and I was just like ‘oh my god, let me just soak this all up!’”

In what is still a very male-dominated industry (women represent around 11 percent of the workforce in the construction sector), when Louise entered the construction and manufacturing world it was even more so. This only served to spur Louise on: “being able to go into meetings and hold quite technical conversations, dealing with technical directors and writing technical articles, I just really felt like I was on a path that felt right for me..”

Technical. PR. Marketing. The Ronseal academy of business branding. The nitty gritty, the get your hands dirty approach. That’s what TMPR has represented over the last ten years.

And what is Louise looking forward to most for the next ten years? “It sounds boring,” She admits, “but more of the same.” A lot of our clients we’ve worked with for the whole time we’ve been operational, so I’m looking forward to seeing if we still have those clients in the next ten years. Indeed, Louise’s first client at that first agency was Promethean, who remain a client of TMPR to this day.

TMPR has only ever grown from recommendations and referrals. Louise attributes this to her “clients come first” mentality that she had steadfastly adopted when getting the business off the ground.

“Because we work differently to other agencies, we become part of the team of our clients. We get the best of both worlds, the autonomy and variety of an agency, while feeling like you’re part of something bigger.”

Bigger seems to be the motto at TMPR this year, with new offices, new faces, and a big ten-year celebration on the horizon, it’s hard not to get swept up in the excitement of witnessing a company, and director, in their prime.

10 Years of TMPR: the Origin Story, pt. 1

Louise Morgan wasn’t sure what she wanted to glean from her university experience, but she knew she wanted to write. Starting in a French and European studies degree that just didn’t quite fit, she switched to psychology, having an interest in human nature.

So how does a psychology degree lead to a long, successful career as a Marketing and PR director? “It was a happy accident.” Louise smiles, “I did my third-year placement at a charity in their comms department. I discovered PR there, when I had always thought I wanted to be a journalist, and just fell in love.”

The charity kept her on after her volunteer placement, as a communications manager during the summer between her third and fourth year. By the end of her degree, Louise already had 5 months of real-life experience under her belt. Unsurprisingly, she was offered a job before she’d had a chance to graduate, at TDM, a PR agency in Macclesfield.

Everything moved very quickly then (literally), “I had my last exam on the Friday, had to buy a car, pack up and move all of my things from Birmingham to Cheshire over the weekend, and started my first day on the Monday. I never looked back.”

She didn’t slow down either. From there she shifted gears to an employer comms agency, where she was introduced to the fast-paced corporate life. “It was all big bonuses, champagne, and ‘oh we’ll take everyone up to the Lake District for a team building weekend, all expenses paid in a swanky hotel’.”

While Louise was impressed with the perks on offer, her heart just wasn’t in it. PR and marketing beckoned, as did TDM, and so she returned with a promotion to account manager.

Louise was happy to return, “I thought I would stay forever, I loved them and everything about them”. She was on track to taking over as PR director, when the unthinkable happened, and the company suddenly became insolvent, closing practically overnight.

Louise wondered whether she should go off on her own. Clients offered their support and loyalty, but she felt shaken by the company’s downfall, and under-prepared. To ease niggling doubt she went to another agency, bringing with her many of the clients she had worked with at TDM.

Still, the question of whether or not to start up a new agency became a frequent quandary, and all the while one of Louise’s clients in particular kept coming to her with a tempting proposition…

And so, client became business partner, as they joined forces to create IVE Global, a PR and Marketing agency for B2B companies. “Proactive. Creative. Innovative. That’s what IVE stands for.” – An ambitious motto to suit the company’s global ambitions.

Working day and night, Louise and her new associates built IVE from the ground up. By the end of two years they seemed to be going from strength to strength, having been shortlisted for the CIPR’s Outstanding Small Consultancy (North West), and gaining 3 more members of staff.

However, the company was not to last, as life got in the way, and the other partners sadly had to go in different directions. When Louise found herself burdened with the grim task of having to make her employees redundant, she vowed never to hire staff again.

She decided instead to make a fresh start as a freelancer, trading under the name TMPR…

 

What does TMPR stand for? Will Louise ever hire staff again? What is part E of the building regulations? All these questions and more answered next time on TMPR: the origin story…

Celebrating Tom’s two-year TMPR tenure…

This week, we’re marking two years since Tom Martin first joined the Technical Marketing & PR team!

The pandemic saw Tom’s second year with TMPR take place against a very different backdrop to the first, but he has carried on working closely and creatively with the team and our clients no matter the situation – and always with a smile!

Over the past year, Tom has carved out more of a niche within the team and his highlights include seeing a major client campaign through to launch after managing data analysis and copywriting, and securing a selection of exciting articles in the press. Tom has truly gotten stuck in to the TMPR spirit, becoming a subject matter expert on a range of technical topics and finding new ways to communicate manufacturing and engineering with flair.

Although team outings haven’t gone much further than Zoom recently, Tom can’t wait to meet up with the team again to have some fun and really start getting back to normality – and with more and more of Wales opening up again, it surely won’t be long!

From the TMPR team, we’re still so pleased to have you on board and can’t wait to see what the next year brings…

Technical Marketing & PR welcomes a new team member

South Wales’ specialist PR agency for construction, technology and engineering, Technical Marketing & PR, has once again invested in personnel. Having seen an upsurge of client activity both in the UK and internationally, Technical Marketing & PR has expanded its team, recruiting Tom Martin as Junior Account Executive.

An English Literature and Language graduate from Cardiff University, Tom Martin initially sharpened his skills working in a start-up environment. Deciding to seek a role focused more specifically on marketing and PR, Tom recognised that Technical Marketing & PR’s Junior Account Executive position would allow him to exercise his existing skills whilst developing towards a career in the marketing sector.

Discussing his appointment, Tom said: “I am hugely pleased to join the Technical Marketing & PR team. Not only is it a brilliant opportunity for my own development, I am confident my skillset can add to the agency’s offering. It can be tough to find a job in the right sector after graduating, so I am thankful to find a supportive agency willing to take me on!”

Louise Matthews, Director of Technical Marketing & PR, also commented on the appointment: “In a fast-growing agency such as ours, it’s important to have the right team to tackle new challenges every day. I’m very happy to have taken Tom on as part of the team – here at Technical Marketing & PR we have always been committed to helping graduates develop.”

Technical Marketing & PR is always open to providing work experience opportunities and would encourage anyone who is interested in a career in marketing or public relations to get in touch at, hello@technicalmarketing-pr.com

TMPR Lends a Helping Paw to Hope Rescue!

Here at Technical Marketing & PR we like to sprinkle a bit of happiness whenever we can, and that’s just what we did recently with Hope Rescue in Pontypridd.

The team work hard to re-home rescue dogs within the local community, and as a small independent team they rely heavily on volunteers and donations. When we heard that they needed help to they buy an information portal for their newly refurbished charity shop in Pontypridd, we were pawsitive that we wanted to offer some financial support – not least because technology is kind of our thing.

With the new portal in place, shoppers can browse their website and have a look at the Hope dogs available for adoption, it’s definitely a handy addition to the shop, make no bones about it!

Take a look at the Hope Rescue website to see how you can get involved with helping the charity, or to browse the list of dogs looking for new homes http://www.hoperescue.org.uk.