Member Article

EE relationship sparks growth and new PR department for Digital Next

Mobile network EE has collaborated on a viral campaign with Manchester’s Digital Next full service agency.

The campaign video, due to launch at the end of September, was filmed at their Manchester based headquarters within The Sharp Project, which also houses their new PR department – this expansion being a direct result of the success of the collaboration.

The origins of this partnership date back to the humble beginnings of Digital Next, when their HQ was a small, multi-purpose space – within the family home of two of the co-founders, brothers Justin and Mark Blackhurst.

From conception, the mobile network of choice had been EE (formerly Orange and T-Mobile). The success of this partnership is due in no small part to the tariffs they offered.

Said Justin Blackhurst: “I needed to use international calls because of the global locations in which we were establishing roots”.

Fast forward to 2014 and the synergy between the two companies was realised by the EE marketing team.

Justin added: “They liked the fast growing pace and the story behind our company which led to us being selected for interview.

“We then competed against several agencies and similar companies, completed a rigorous interview process and were successful in being put forward to McCann Erickson, their advertising agency.’

After due diligence on both the company and Justin, Digital Next was selected as a case study to feature in a viral advertisement for EE.

The successful procurement of this campaign sparked the launch of Digital Next PR, an addition to their existing portfolio of SEO, Social Media, Branding and Web Design services.

This was a seamless and natural progression for the company, as Justin explained: “With several journalists already working in-house for Digital Next, it made sense to amalgamate the social, content and internal outreach teams together into one larger PR department.”

Heading up the PR department is 24-year-old Emma Pearson, whose experience comes from Manchester fashion agencies, Label and Avant PR.

She said: “This is an exciting time for Digital Next and I look forward to collaborating with the other departments in order to offer a comprehensive service package to new and existing clients”.

Digital Next PR is set to launch in October 2014.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .