Carol Vorderman Calls The Tune!

Montage’s latest new client, Remind4U.com, has launched a unique card service for mobile phone users which is set to revolutionise the UK’s £1.2 billion greetings card industry. Carol Vorderman launched this new service which enables customers to send personalised greetings cards to the mobile phones of friends and family.

Director Miles Clee said: “More and more people are embracing text messaging technology, which has become an essential communication tool, particularly for younger mobile phone users. Sending a customised greetings card to someone’s phone is therefore a great way to let people on the move know that you are thinking about them, especially if you have missed the post!”

A Whole ‘Lotto’ Luck

Over 100 National Lottery millionaires have been created in the South West since The National Lottery® launched in November 1994. To celebrate, an exclusive gathering of some of the region’s biggest lottery winners was held in ‘By The Bay,’ the Lyme Regis restaurant owned and run by Elaine and Derek Thompson, who scooped a £2.7 million Lotto jackpot on their wedding anniversary on 9 December 1995.

Overall, 275 jackpot prizes have been paid out in the South West, including 100 millionaires or multi-millionaires. £500 million has been paid out in major prizes of £50,000 or more in the region.

Securing A Safer Future

Geonix Tracking has secured £250,000 venture capital funding from the YFM Group. Geonix’s satellite and GSM telecoms hardware products track people and assets working in remote and insecure locations, mainly in the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

David Bland, Chief Executive of Geonix, said: “The funding from the South West Ventures Fund comes at an exciting time for our organisation as it will enable us to initiate our expansion strategy.”

Alison Briggs, Investment Manager from the YFM Group, said: “We are delighted to back the company’s experienced management team and look forward to being part of its successful future.”

Question Time

Bristol Watershed hosted the city’s first Entrepreneurs’ Question Time, organised by the Bristol Enterprise Network. Embracing state-of the-art new media technology to ensure that business leaders throughout the globe could access the lively debate online, the event was recorded by Montage Communications and turned into a podcast of all the key discussions and revelations.

The panel of speakers included Mike Bennett, co founder of E3, one of the UK’s leading internet and digital agencies. Providing in-depth analysis, pearls of wisdom and amusing anecdotes from the business coal-face, the edited version is now available to listen to online; please click here.

New Media Services: Videocasting

The video podcast is essentially a ‘video on demand’ video clip. You only have to think of the popularity and reach of YouTube to realise the potential offered by this medium. Online media such as this is revolutionising the way communication campaigns are devised and implemented. One videocast can be viewed or listened to by millions on the internet, time and again, for a one-off production cost.

This month Montage has formed a partnership with award-winning Bivouac Productions. They bring broadcast quality and stunning creativity to our online communications campaigns. Bivouac Productions’ Sacha Mirzoeff recently directed the high profile BBC documentary series ‘Lenny’s Britain,’ on BBC One. Read more>>

Stephen Parry is the Director heading up Virtual Practices, the latest innovation to be launched by leading software company Solicitors Own Software. The new web-based legal accounting and matter management service provides lawyers with their own virtual accounts department for a set monthly fee.

Virtual Practices is expected to expand rapidly over the next 12 – 18 months, and it is Stephen’s responsibility to drive the business forward. Overseeing big projects is something of a favourite pastime for Stephen – in 2000 he oversaw a £25 million project to convert a West Country manor house into a luxury hotel. Stephen said: “I’m really enjoying the challenge of growing this business.  Virtual Practices is an exciting new service for smaller law firms, and it’s attracting considerable interest.” Read more>> 

Future is Local

Rhidian Wynn Davies, consulting editor of The Telegraph, said localisation is the key in future news delivery, with local newspapers in a great position for future media success, already achieving key things which national titles are striving for.

Source: www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk

Parliamentary Enquiry

Parliament is to examine what impact the concentration of media ownership has had on the balance and diversity of opinion presented in news outlets, and is likely to re-examine the issue of self-regulation.

Source: The Press Gazette