Cutbacks in government funding led to a major requirement for the Agricultural Development & Advisory Service (ADAS) to increase sales of its livestock and arable advisory services throughout the UK farming community. To support this drive, the organisation’s Midlands and Western Region wanted to raise its local profile quite substantially, making farmers more aware of key staff and particular services available from the organisation.

For 18 years, LEAF has inspired and enabled prosperous farming that enriches the environment and engages local communities.

ICI Fertilizers had long taken a quality approach to nitrogen fertilizer manufacture on both cost-efficiency and environmental grounds. The company’s leading nitrogen brand Nitram was, however, coming under severe market pressure from significantly lower-quality ammonium nitrate imports. To combat this, ICI wished to demonstrate the clear value of its quality product against the competition.

The Roundup Biactive brand, an improved formulation of Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Roundup, had been launched in 1994. Monsanto wanted to see the sales increase faster than was forecast; it wanted a fresh marketing approach in front of distributors and farmers. 

FarmWeb – an insurance broker dedicated to the agriculture industry – had seen year-on-year growth since its inception three years earlier. With backing from a blue chip insurance firm, the company was looking to further strengthen its position in the marketplace by improving awareness among its end customers, and creating product demand from its member intermediaries.

Present in 58 per cent of the country’s cereal fields, cleavers is one of the primary threats in arable farming rotations in the UK. Infestation from the weed can have dire effects and result in yield loss and reduced grain quality.

Dow Agrosciences – a leading provider of crop protection and pest management solutions in the UK – developed and launched Boxer, a new herbicide for early-season control primarily of cleavers, but also of other weeds including chickweed and mayweed. It entered an established market but had to be positioned as complementary to another Dow AgroSciences’ herbicide – Starane – which is applied to crops later on in the season.

Dow AgroSciences has established itself as the leading supplier of herbicides to UK grassland farmers. It wanted to re-position the price of its two main products - Doxstar and Pastor - to grow volumes and market share even further.

The Applied Research Forum identified a cross-sector need to engage farmers with new soil regulations, and in particular highlight the benefits that improved soil management could bring.

The Royal Show has long been a feature of the summer season, ranked with Wimbledon, Henley and Chelsea Flower Show. In July 2007, the four-day showcase of farming and rural life at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire celebrated its 168th year and expected to attract over 140,000 visitors to see the country’s very best livestock, browse trade and retail stands and watch impressive farming and equine competitions and displays.

<p>The Royal Show has long been a feature of the summer season, ranked with Wimbledon, Henley and Chelsea Flower Show. In July 2007, the four-day showcase of farming and rural life at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire celebrated its 168th year and expected to attract over 140,000 visitors to see the country&rsquo;s very best livestock, browse trade and retail stands and watch impressive farming and equine competitions and displays.</p>

In its bid to attract top calibre law students, leading City firm Berwin Leighton (now Berwin Leighton Painser) needed to boost its reputation and image within the legal profession.

Water UK represents water and wastewater service suppliers at national and European level. The ‘voice’ of the water industry, it is directly funded by its 25 members.

Mistral was hired by Water UK (then the Water Services Association) to assist in communicating an emotive issue – recycling of sewage sludge, or biosolids, to agricultural land.

An EU directive meant that water companies could no longer dispose of sewage sludge at sea from the end of 1998. Recycling to farmland therefore became an even more important route for sewage sludge disposal.

Mistral developed a 10-year partnership with Bicester Village – an out-of-town ‘Chic Shopping Outlet’ – to increase awareness of the outlet as a good employer and to emphasise its position as an organisation that supports the local community.

Deciding the most appropriate location for a local equipped area of play (LEAP) is far more complicated than it may sound. With developers under pressure to incorporate such facilities within their sites, in place of maybe three or four income-generating units, and some people reluctant to buy houses close to them, they can end up much more costly than just buying and installing a few pieces of play equipment.

Fisher German is a nine-office partnership of chartered surveyors and rural property consultants. The company identified that there was considerable new business potential in the country house market and wanted assistance with its media relations in support of this.

Award-winning homebuilder, Linden Homes, contracted Mistral to carry out full community consultation as well as organise and publicise a public exhibition regarding its plans to redevelop a site in Dorking in the South East of England. The proposals were for a significant and potentially controversial development which included 88 apartments in a number of buildings (to include 30 affordable homes) and a 70-bed residential nursing home.

As part of its ongoing relationship with Oxford & Cherwell Valley College (OCVC), Mistral promoted its successful bid, in a consortium with six other colleges and schools, to run a groundbreaking engineering diploma pilot before a nationwide roll-out.

Oxford Brookes University is seen as one of the best of the ‘new’ universities but its ambition is to become simply ‘one of the best universities’. To achieve this, its ageing estate needs to be brought up-to-date inline with its academic aspirations.

Situated in the south east, Bicester has seen significant housing growth over the past few years but its town centre and associated facilities have not followed suit. Considerable investment in the out-of-town shopping outlet – BicesterVillage – has also left the towns centre looking tired and dated.

The ‘City of Dreaming Spires’ is notorious for having a two-tiered planning committee structure which is particularly difficult to navigate, with vociferous campaign groups such as ROX (Rescue Oxford) and the Oxford Preservation Trust having considerable influence on political stakeholders at all levels.

As the largest housing delivery vehicle since the new towns of the 1950s the government’s proposed eco-towns were always going to be controversial. Weston Otmoor is no exception. Situated on the Oxford-Cambridge knowledge arc, and promising to ensure the long-awaited development of the Oxford-Milton Keynes East-West Rail Link, as well as rebuilding the heavily-congested M40/A34 junction, the proposed development has many potential benefits for the local area which were being drowned out by myths propagated by local campaign group, the Weston Front.

Mistral has provided local political relations support to Pegasus Retirement Homes during a ten-year-plus programme of development to help it successfully build and market purpose-built retirement apartments on brownfield sites across the UK.

As a leading developer of retirement properties, Pegasus Retirement Homes has built more than 70 developments and sold more than 2000 retirement apartments nationwide. Mistral assists Pegasus with its media relations across all its selling developments – from communications at the pre-planning stage to promoting each location as the next big retirement hotspot.

NIAB is a charitable plant sciences organisation which provides technical research and consultancy services to its stakeholders. The institute occupies a unique position in the knowledge-based economy due to its ability and commitment to use science in its broadest sense to deliver practical benefits to agriculture.

2003 marked the United Nations International Year of Freshwater. The aim of the initiative was to raise awareness of the importance of freshwater, with each member country making a contribution to the campaign.

UK activities were organised by the Department for International Development; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Environment Agency; Centre for Ecology and Hydrology; WaterAid; Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust; and the British Hydrological Society.

Leading amenity weed control system manufacturer, Nomix-Chipman, wished to take advantage of the impending ban on triazine herbicide use for non-agricultural applications to promote sales of its more environmentally-friendly system based on glyphosate.

DONG Energy contracted Mistral to organise a series of public exhibitions as part of the formal consenting process for its proposed offshore wind farm, Westermost Rough.

Eco2 Ltd contracted Mistral to carry out a full community consultation regarding its plans to build a biomass energy plant on the site of the former British Sugar facility on the outskirts of Brigg in North Lincolnshire. The Brigg Renewable Energy Plant proposal is for a 40 megawatt electricity-generating facility, powered by the combustion of mainly straw, supplied by farmers in the local area.

Mistral was appointed by resource efficiency experts Envirowise to provide an ongoing national campaign. This included promoting a number of services including an advice line, various waste minimisation tools, efficiency workshops and a variety of topical PR ‘stunts’ throughout the year.

Mistral has been appointed by Faversham House Group for three consecutive years to manage the media relations and publicity for Sustainabilitylive! the UK’s biggest event for excellence and innovation in the environment, energy, land and water sectors. This includes running the press office during the event and providing review releases to the media.

Uncle Ben’s – the well-known food brand – undertook an ongoing sports sponsorship programme to raise awareness of the importance of a healthy diet and the role of carbohydrate (in the form of rice) within that diet.

Mistral was brought on-board to undertake the communications surrounding the programme.

The Home-Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) is the cereals and oilseeds sector of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). Formerly a government agency, and now an executive non-departmental public body, it supports the UK cereal and oilseeds industry in improving its competitiveness in the UK and overseas markets.

The prospect of a deregulated UK milk market prompted Northern Foods to establish a joint venture company – the Northern Milk Partnership – to source as much of its annual raw milk requirement as possible directly from farmers.

Part of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) remit is to ensure UK agricultural practice develops in line with long-term EU policy. In pursuit of this objective, MAFF publishes Codes of Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Water, Soil and Air. The organisation was keen to establish a wide awareness of these Codes throughout the farming industry as the basis for encouraging the wider uptake of their recommendations.

The Applied Research Forum identified a cross-sector need to engage farmers with new soil regulations, and in particular highlight the benefits that improved soil management could bring.

The British Potato Council (BPC) hosts a biannual event dedicated to the potato industry, held in Harrogate. Mistral was asked to provide the public relations for British Potato 2007 including pre-event press work and running the press room at the event.

The British Potato Council carried out a knowledge transfer review, involving internal heads of department, R&D representatives and Mistral.

The British Potato Council (BPC) seed and export division lacked a tool to communicate with overseas customers, prospects and influencers. Britain currently exports around 80,000 tonnes/year, or 60% of its certified seed potato production. The main overseas markets include Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Algeria, Thailand, Indonesia, the Canary Islands and Spain.

Established over a number of years as a local brand in the south east, Berties’ dog food product had achieved an excellent track record and an existing loyal customer-base. The company was keen to grow and increase its sales area by launching its dog food product into the competitive national market targeted at established blue chip brands.

Established in the 1950s, Spillers Speciality Feeds is the UK’s leading manufacturer of branded feed for horses, game and small pets. Despite its long-established position, and considerable and high-profile client base, a number of companies have emerged in the animal feed market in direct competition with Spillers.

Dechra Veterinary Products is a global market-leader in the development and sale of pharmaceutical products, veterinary-exclusive pet diets, pet care products and instruments and consumables.

Following the acquisition of a number of smaller pharmaceutical companies over the past few years, Dechra’s portfolio has increased in size and the company looked to Mistral to support and build on this.

Dechra Veterinary Products is an established global market-leader in the development and sale of pharmaceutical products, veterinary-exclusive pet diets, pet care products and instruments and consumables. The company wanted to branch out into the world of generic products for small animals and contracted Mistral to launch its new range.

National Riding Week (NRW) is a national awareness initiative run by the British equestrian industry, with the aim of encouraging new and lapsed riders to take up the sport and of generating interest in equestrianism, in all its forms.

Novartis Animal Health appointed Mistral to reinstate the business as a leader in the companion animal sector.

UKASTA is the leading association for the agricultural supply trade. It has over 350 members including manufacturers of animal feed, road hauliers and agricultural merchants, with a combined annual turnover of £5 billion.