Cogent Beekeeping: January 2019.

Time flies when you're having fun

January has finally come to an end, which can only mean one thing – the month of love, and Aquarius season is upon us! Before we welcome (or artfully dodge) cupids arrow and overindulge in chocolate, we reflect on what a month it has been here at Cogent HQ.

We started the month with some smashing news and wonderful new additions to the team. January saw Cogent’s acquisition of NC Creative, a Solihull communications agency. The B2B focused team have settled in well and bought lots of new passion and knowledge to Heath Farm. With our headcount now at just over 100, the acquisition also welcomed lots of new clients to the Cogent family; some of which popped in to see us. Our new Sandvik client flew over from Sweden and was very impressed with the new team and surroundings. Volvo Bus UK & Ireland also dropped by for their first meeting and tour around Cogent HQ, with many more pencilled in the diary!

Our PR team have been super busy again this month. They conducted a survey for Lintbells which has found how many miles dog owners walk per year. Turns out, the average dog owner claims to walk 870 miles per year, just by walking their pet alone! Almost half of the dog owners surveyed also stated that their dog had helped improved overall mental health and stress levels… So if you needed an excuse to get a puppy… you’re welcome.

We helped Kwik Fit to launch their partnership with the British Touring Car Championship at the Autosport show at the NEC this Jan. We were proud to design their stand for the big event and had a blast attending alongside the client. It was a jammed packed few days with lots of BTCC team announcements, car unveils and driver interviews.

Kwik Fit

We’ve also been celebrating 29 fabulous years with our longest retained client, Network Q. We created the Network Q brand back in 1990 and to celebrate all the great work we have done together, we’ve created the showreel below… after all, who doesn’t love a bit of nostalgia?

In partnership with Marston’s, we also launched their big January campaign. The ‘40% off mains’ promotion ran across a whole bunch of channels including social media, paid media and email. We created both organic and paid social content, alongside a landing page, in-pub digital screens and emails which made for a super successful winter campaign. We even cashed in on the deal ourselves with a deliciously yummy burger… or two!

In other news, Lucy and Ahmed guest presented at Warwick University earlier this month about agency life and working at Cogent. They were joined on stage by top speakers from the likes of Condé Nast and Birdseye, which made for a really inspiring day! Both commented on how great it was to see lots of students from all different courses (not just marketing or business) being enthusiastic and showing a keen interest in the industry!

Lucy at BCU

Congratulations are in order as Art Director, Leanne Ainsworth, was shortlisted for the Future Leaders Award hosted by Women in Advertising and Communications! Great to have inspiring creative thinkers in the team, leading the way for the rest of us. Well done to Leanne!

Members of our Relationships Hive also headed down to London to record some voice-over work for the new GoGo SqueeZ TV spots airing throughout the year. A great day down in the big smoke.

This January we also kicked off 2019’s wellness programme with a yoga session, a visit from our in-house masseuse, a session with the nail lady and an afternoon drop-in session with the Cogent barber. While our CEO had his curls chopped, others cashed in on a bit of well earnt ‘me time’.

Yoga at Cogent

To top it all off, January (the 16th to be exact) saw little Jonah James enter the world. Our HR Manager Michelle is now a proud mum of three and the rest of the team is jumping for joy at the idea of meeting him. Here he is, in his Cogent baby grow (Account Exec in the making if you ask me).

Cogent  baby grow

So that’s it, January in a nutshell. It’s time to ditch the new year’s resolutions and bring on Feb! Check back next month, to see what the hustle and bustle of February had in store for us. For now, it’s over and out.