We’ll be promoting this year’s Wildscreen Festival, the world’s biggest wildlife film festival, and WildPhotos, a major national symposium for wildlife photographers and enthusiasts.

As well as helping organisers attract the world’s best natural history film makers and photographers, Spirit will also be working to draw wildlife enthusiasts from across the region to Wildscreen’s first-ever fringe festival.

Spirit’s client Fosters are commemorating the Jubilee with a range of specially made office party picnic hampers available from 28 May.

Inside is everything a workplace needs to enjoy the event, from delicious food and drink featuring Union Jack cup cakes, to themed bunting, flags and napkins, all perfectly presented in a traditional British wicker basket.

The Jubilee hampers are the first in a series of creative concepts that we have developed with Fosters to help set them apart in this highly competitive market.

Spirit has been working with Fosters to reinvigorate their communications and develop a strong identity that reinforces their heritage and passion for food. Throughout the year we will celebrate the Diamond Jubilee and this great British year with a ‘Dine like Royalty’ theme.

Full menus for the Jubilee Hampers are available from the Fosters website, www.fostersevents.co.uk.

We will be using its 150th anniversary to showcase the School’s strengths and achievements to prospective pupils, their families and the wider academic community.

Behind its beautiful Victorian façade, Clifton is a modern forward-thinking school that has benefited from recent major investment in its facilities and is celebrating record academic successes this year.

We will be developing a PR strategy and media relations programme to underline Clifton College’s position as one of the leading private schools in the region and across the United Kingdom.

Within a few weeks of starting work, we have already begun receiving excellent coverage for the school, with articles appearing in The Post, Clifton Life, and Bristol Magazine, as well as Independent Education Today.

The Northcliffe group has also decided that listings magazine Venue will be published online only. Listings and reviews will continue to feature in Friday’s Post, along with the local edition of the Metro and the Bristol Observer. Folio continues as a free, monthly lifestyle magazine.

Monthly magazine South West Business has been replaced by Agenda, distributed free inside the Western Daily Press to its 30,000 circulation. The website www.southwestbusiness.co.uk is featuring business stories from across the region again.

But as some media contract, others expand. The Bristol Magazine publisher has launched a new monthly lifestyle glossy covering the West and award-winning news and features website Bristol 24-7 has just been re-designed.

Beth Hargest has been brought in as a Senior Account Manager and Lucy Doyle has been appointed as PR Assistant/Office Manager. Dani Marlborough is now a Senior Account Manager, following five years at Spirit and having won the coveted title of the region’s Young Communicator of the Year Award in 2011. Max Boon, who has quickly taken to the world of PR consultancy, has been promoted to Account Executive.

Beth has 10 years’ PR and Marketing experience, most recently working at The Splash Partnership in Bath on a range of clients including Nestlé Professional and the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS).

Lucy joined Spirit in January on an internship but quickly became a permanent member of the team and now provides support across a number of accounts.

After graduating from Loughborough University with a degree in Politics and Economics in 2010, Lucy worked in financial recruitment for 18 months before a short stint in the events industry in London.

Click here to meet the team..

Three of our clients feature in South West Business Insider’s latest ’42 under 42′ programme, which celebrates the rising stars that are helping to get the cogs of our economy moving again.

Alex Lockton, founder and CEO of Wiltshire based Freesource Energy was recognised as one of the region’s rising business leaders, together with Vicky Fraser of Hype Agency. Part of Fosters Event Catering, Hype runs a host of events around the city including Narnia themed Christmas parties at the Passenger Shed last December.

We also raised a pint or two with Bristol Beer Factory late last year when it was announced that they had won ‘Best Drinks Producer’ in the BBC Radio 4′s Food and Farming Awards. As well as PR work to maximise exposure for the coveted title, we helped ensure their Head Brewer Chris Kay was also featured as one of the region’s ’42 under 42’.

As a finalist the Fiesta is guaranteed to receive the Gold, Silver, Bronze or Highly Commended Award at the prestigious VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2012.

Spirit PR manages all media relations, online PR and social media for the event and is proud to be a key part of the Fiesta team.

Our work is vital to the success of the event since half of the Fiesta’s visitors are attracted by media coverage. Over the past two years we have worked closely with all the regional press and attracted the likes of The One Show, BBC Breakfast, The Guardian, Times, Independent, Telegraph, Daily Mail, I and Sunday Mirror, to name a few.

We are looking forward to finding out which national award the Fiesta has won later this month.

The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta takes place from Thursday 9 to Sunday 12 August in the rolling hills of Ashton Court.

Our focus will be on raising awareness of the brand and highlighting the broader international reach it offers, since its merger with major regional player King Sturge last year. We will also be promoting the strength and depth of the teams across the Bristol, Bath and Exeter offices.

We’re already spotting plenty of opportunities we can harness to demonstrate Jones Lang LaSalles expertise. For example, we recently issued a comment on the Government’s new mortgage indemnity scheme which resulted in widespread coverage in the regional business press.

Jeremy Richards, head of Bristol office, Jones Lang LaSalle said: “Spirit stood out during the selection process for their creative and carefully considered approach, ‘can-do’ attitude, and their very well proven track record in property across the region.”

“The team also came across as approachable and easy to work with – an asset that can’t be underestimated when representing three offices and more than 200 busy professionals.”

Brought in just before Christmas to promote the third series which started on 3 January, we had a very limited window to raise the profile of the ‘extreme angling’ series.

Dividing the programmes between the team, we headed home one evening to watch back to back episodes and identify the ‘killer story’ for PR and social media purposes.

The ‘Ball Cutter’ (the clue is in the title) soon won out, telling a dramatic and gruesome tail and delivering that all important ‘talkability’.

Through direct pitches to national newspapers, radio stations and TV chat shows as well as the tactical use of a news agency that provides copy to national news desks, we drew in over 150 items of coverage.

The series featured in The Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Mirror, Daily Mail and MailOnline. Jeremy appeared on ITV1’s Daybreak, ITV West Country Tonight and Live with Gabby on Five.

This was despite a very recent ‘PR run’ by Jeremy Wade, who was promoting his new book in late autumn, and the early publication of shots from the series in one of the tabloids, before Spirit were taken on.

Spirit’s Twitter campaign also proved a real success, generating over 2,000 followers and a steady increase in conversation about the programme, including a great response to a live Q&A with a soundman who was struck by lightning.

The campaign has delivered big results; the national and regional print coverage has reached over 18 million people across the UK and with the addition of broadcast and online coverage, a total of over 60 million people. The campaign generated a 100-fold return on investment generating £300,000 worth of coverage.

Icon were delighted with the viewing figures which were consistently in the Broadcast top 100 network programmes and steadily rose as the series progressed, eventually hitting the three million mark for the final three episodes.

“This general press campaign led by Spirit was a first for Icon. We were delighted by its obvious success manifested by wide coverage and great ratings”

Laura Marshall, Managing Director, Icon Films

We used the stunning artwork, much of it created especially for the auction, to harness an exclusive, full page article in the Sunday Times Culture magazine, supported by an interview with Nick Park, plus online image galleries on the homepages of both the Guardian and Telegraph online.

Through agreed web links, readers were encouraged to go to the Grand Appeal website to view the full list of lots and in turn the eBay auction site to start bidding.

Extensive coverage was also secured in the regional media including television, radio, Bristol entertainment magazine Venue and several pieces in the Bristol Evening Post.

Nick’s specially created sketch of Wallace with Feathers McGraw sold for £5,100 at auction, while other original drawings including those of Pete Docter, Richard Williams and Simon Tofield (Simon’s Cat) went for more than £1,500 each.

A total of £20,000 was raised, with all proceeds used to support the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children’s Cardiac Unit, including a new state of the art echocardiogram scanner that detects and monitors early heart defects in children.