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Brand is the identity your customers connect with

Your brand is your identity and your identity is what your customers relate to; that is why it is so important to consider whether your brand is connecting with the people you want to connect with.

As markets evolve and the customer experience becomes more sophisticated, it is important to consider whether the marketing assets you currently have at your fingertips are still doing the job they were intended to do. This includes everything from your virtual shop window – website – to printed materials and how you undertake your publicity.

Wessex Media Group (WMG) did just that for Platinum Care Solutions and consequently by bringing to the table highly creative individuals they were able to update their image, website and marketing, moving to a warmer more uplifting look to reflect the quality of care they provide.

Platinum Care Solutions Logo before its refresh

Platinum Care Solutions Logo before its refresh

It was important in a highly competitive market, to be able to stand out from the crowd and to communicate the values that drive what Platinum Care Solutions do.

Often people within the business are so preoccupied with service delivery that they forget to step back and look at how the market is evolving and to check if they are adapting in order to pick up new, or different business opportunities.

With a strong strategic focus and experience of working across a number of sectors and industries, WMG is well placed to provide expert advice in ensuring your business is connecting with the market it needs to in a cost effective fashion. Encapsulating values and aspirations and matching these to current and future trends provides a sustainable base for any business to proceed. For a complimentary initial marketing gap assessment, contact WMG quoting wmga.

Platinum Care Solutions Logo after its refresh

Platinum Care Solutions Logo after its refresh

31st December 2015

British High Commissioner supports child protection

On Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 November a workshop was held at the Protea Hotel in Kampala on preventing Child Sexual Exploitation.

The workshop, sponsored by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), in partnership with the British High Commission, brought together a broad range of delegates responsible for child protection in Uganda, including representatives of government, the criminal justice sector, schools and local and international NGOs. The workshop delivered by Wessex Media Group (WMG) in partnership with Bramshill Policing Advisers (BPA) addressed important issues relating to child sexual exploitation, including identifying and supporting vulnerable children, developing collaborative approaches to protecting children and addressing the growing threat of online child abuse.

Child Protection Workshop in Uganda

Child Protection Workshop delegates with trainers Lena Samuels & Steve France-Sargeant

As part of the course, WMG (Lena Samuels) and BPA (Steve France-Sargeant) were able to provide live case studies from young women in Uganda who had been exploited. The young women had found safety and security as a result of the intervention of the Ugandan Youth Development Link who actively patrol the streets looking for children and young people at risk. The young women outlined how their vulnerable circumstances had rendered them open to exploitation and talked about how difficult it was for them to escape.

Sir Peter Fahy, former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and current CEO of street child charity Retrak, also spoke and gave examples of how organised crime works to target and retain children and young people for the purposes of exploitation.

Sir Peter Fahy

Sir Peter Fahy

In support of the workshop, on Wednesday 4 November at the British High Commissioner’s Residence, the NCA also officially launched the UK’s International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC). The ICPC allows any organisation in Uganda which is considering employing UK nationals, or persons who have lived in the UK, to obtain a UK police check to assess whether that person is suitable to work with children.

British High Commissioner, Alison Blackburne, said:

“The sexual exploitation of children, in all its forms, is completely unacceptable and the UK Government is determined to do all we can to help eradicate it at home and around the world. As with many other global issues, Uganda is an important partner. The NCA Child Protection Workshop, the launch of the International Child Protection Certificate and the UK’s support to UNICEF on preventing Online CSE demonstrate our commitment to tackling this terrible crime.”

Paul Stanfield, the UK National Crime Agency’s Regional Manager for East & Southern Africa said:

“The International Child Protection Certificate was developed as a way to ensure that no one from the UK with a conviction for sexual offences could get a position in another country where they would have access to children. We hope that the workshop will raise awareness of the ICPC and create a forum to share ideas on stopping child sexual exploitation in Uganda and the UK.”

Ugandan media interview Steve France-Sargeant

Steve France-Sargeant being interviewed by the media

For information on the work of the child welfare charities mentioned visit: Uganda Youth Development Link and Retrak.

6th November 2015

Victim Support develops Victim Awareness Course

 

Victim SupportVictim Support, a charity that supports people affected by crime, have developed a new programme to tackle criminal behaviour at the earliest opportunity so as to prevent further offending.  The course entitled the Victim Awareness Course (VAC) works with first time low level offenders to help them explore the impact of crime on a victim and develops thinking surrounding making better choices.

The VAC is part of a conditional caution and provides an option for anyone aged 18 and over, who has committed a low level volume crime, an alternative to court prosecution. The course lasting three hours explores attitudes to crimes, victim and community impact as well as the impact on the perpetrator.

Positive results are already being seen. An independent evaluation was undertaken by Portsmouth University and found that 89% of attendees said that the course had been of benefit to them, 86% said the course helped them to think about how the victim felt, and 70% said that they would “definitely” behave differently in the future.

The pilot is being rolled out across the UK and in Hampshire, Lena Samuels of Wessex Media Group (WMG), is delivering the training. To find out more about the course and how it works watch the video below.

14th October 2015

Picture This, Picture Us, Picture You

Portchester Castle

Days out at Portchester Castle

The expression “Use a picture. It’s worth a thousand words” appears in a 1911 newspaper article  and the power of the image is even more relevant today in the digital age when avid users are consumed with the emotions, thoughts and values that a picture evokes. It isn’t a case therefore of using any picture but of using one that communicates what you want it to. The same is also true when selecting a photographer. Every photographer will have their own strengths. Some will know how to bring still objects to life, others will brings a radiating smile to even the shyest of faces.

At Wessex Media Group, we help you decide what images you need for your website, newsletters, publicity materials and all other marketing collateral. We also have photographers who are top in their field of specialism and can provide you with the images you need to promote yourself.

Carer with disabled teen

The right care can bring happiness to a life with many challenges.

This month we held a photo shoot for Platinum Care Solutions, for whom we are providing marketing and brand development services.  It was a unique chance to visit the people that Platinum Care provided support to in their own homes as well as a lovely teenager who despite being disabled was able to radiate warmth and a positive outlook as well as have a better quality of life as a consequence of the care she receives.

Rebecca & Victoria IndoorsRebecca & Victoria Indoors

It was a blustery day and despite this, it was a great deal of fun and we managed to capture the breadth of what Platinum Care does, including taking the people they care for on visits to local attractions such as Portchester Castle. To find out more about the services provided by visit Platinum Care Solutions

23rd September 2015

Prosecution of British Paedophile leads to proactive prevention of child abuse in Uganda

National-Crime-Agency-300x180

In December 2014 Simon Harris, a British former public school teacher, was found guilty in the UK of child abuse offences undertaken in Kenya. The offences only came to light as a result of a Channel 4 Unreported World documentary and which led to a British police investigation.

Harris had set up a charity (VAE) to ostensibly give young British people in their gap year the chance to teach local children. The charity also acted as what looked like the umbrella to assist street children by providing them with shelter and food. Instead, he used this as a vehicle to both find victims as well as to operate without challenge.

As a consequence, the National Crime Agency (NCA) saw the need to prevent other similar incidences taking place in Africa and commissioned Wessex Media Group (WMG) with Bramshill Policing Advisers (BPA) to work with them in east Africa to develop a programme of training to raise awareness, as well as to promote the International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC). The certificate works along similar lines to the UK Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) enabling any organisation to undertake a criminal check for UK nationals or non-UK nationals who had previously lived in the UK, before either employing or allowing them to set up an organisation working with children. Harris had previously been convicted of indecent and sexual offences in the UK. He therefore would have been picked up had the ICPC been activated.

In August 2015, Lena Samuels of WMG travelled to Uganda and working alongside a team from the National Crime Agency undertook an initial scoping exercise in order to determine the feasibility of running a workshop and to meet key stakeholders with whom one should engage.

Working in partnership with the British High Commission in Uganda, meetings were facilitated with British international schools, the British Council, as well as members of the newly formed Prevention of Online Child Sexual Exploitation Group. Members of the latter were drawn from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, CID, the Cyber Crime Unit, the Ministry of Justice, Interpol, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Uganda Youth Development Link. As a consequence WMG in partnership with BPA designed a specialist two day child abuse prevention workshop which they named “Hiding in Plain Sight” and which provided the foundation from which to launch the International Child Protection Certificate.

Harris was subsequently jailed for 17 years and 4 months and it is understood that one of his victims took his own life before the jury at Birmingham Crown Court reached its verdict. For more information on the case see the following C4 report.

11th August 2015