Creating Magical Morrow Moments 2024
As 2024 draws to a close, we’ve highlighted some of our memorable moments in our annual Morrows Wrapped blog! From delivering exciting client campaigns to welcoming a new board member, it’s been an eventful year filled with Magical Morrow Moments.
1. Belong Programme: A Year of Wellness, Connection and Stories
Shaking off the January cobwebs, we kicked off the new year with a #Belong breakfast to energise the team for the year ahead, followed by a yoga and meditation session at Colektiv.
As part of our Belong Employee Wellbeing Programme, we also launched our inaugural book club to help the team unwind and connect over a shared love of reading. This year, our book club featured empowering reads including Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King. These books sparked meaningful discussions on wellness, self-care, and resilience.
Wellness is a year-round activity and throughout the year, we also enjoyed soothing massages from Therapies at Home NI, a boxing class with Jake McBride, and a variety of fun fitness challenges to keep us on our toes as part of Belong.
2. Cooking up success
We sizzled into Spring by helping our client NIFDA bring the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Awards to life and celebrate the products, processes, and people that make the industry great.
Across all our teams – PR, events, and creative – we worked hard to make this year’s awards bigger than ever. Our creative team produced a new refreshed brand look-and-feel, with the awards formally launched at a special sponsor launch event in January at the AC Hotel, Belfast before delivering a great show at the main event in March to celebrate the winners and toast the success of the food and drink sector. A record turnout of over 500 guests turned out in style for the gala awards celebration at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, presented by BBC NI’s Jo Scott.
3. PRCA DARE Awards – Four’s the Magic Number
Building on last year’s success, we won four accolades at the 2024 PRCA DARE Awards held at The Merchant Hotel, Belfast and hosted by BBC TV & Radio presenter Conor Philips.
Our Play it Safe campaign with Translink won Best Public Sector Campaign and Best Use of Digital & Social Campaign, promoting responsible behaviour on public transport. Our ongoing work with AIB earned Best Consumer Campaign and Best Event Launch for the Your Home with AIB campaign!
Throughout the year, team members participated in PRCA “Meet the Media” events to build media relationships and craft compelling stories that connect with audiences and drive impact for our clients.
4. Welcome Sean Duffy to the Morrows Board
In October, we were pleased to welcome experienced leader Sean Duffy to our Board as a non-executive board member. Sean brings over 30 years of senior executive and Board level experience within the profressional services market across Ireland.
We set ambitious plans to grow the business across the island of Ireland and the UK with our MC2 strategy. Like Sean, we share a passion for collaboration and connections that deliver real and tangible solutions to meet changing client needs.
Our combined skillset and big picture thinking will ensure strategic and integrated communications are valued and harnessed to not only meet current and future challenges but also to take advantage of the opportunities presented across all sectors.
5. A Day in the Woods Reconnecting with Nature
Finnebrogue Woods provided the perfect backdrop for our annual away day, with the Wild Tipi serving as our office for the day. Our New Business Development teams shared their ambitious growth strategies while reconnecting with nature, sparking creativity and fresh ideas across the teams.
We embraced team-building activities with survival expert Rob, who led us through bushcraft, foraging, and survival skills. The competition heated up during our team challenge to keep a campfire lit for 15 minutes!
The day ended with a delicious feast prepared by Chef Rory Gorman, who cooked up an amazing dinner using local, seasonal ingredients in the heart of the forest.
6. Our Mission to Ensure No Child Faces Cancer Alone
Earlier this year, we asked our team to nominate a charity close to their heart and were thrilled to reveal Cancer Fund for Children as our official charity partner.
This incredible local charity provides tailored services to over 1,500 children and young people each year, offering crucial support to families affected by cancer. As a company, we are committed to helping Cancer Fund for Children achieve their mission of ensuring no child in Northern Ireland faces cancer alone.
To launch our partnership, our Managing Director Kieran and his daughter Lucy took the stage at the charity’s Twilight Concert held at St. Anne’s Cathedral, a truly uplifting experience for all involved. Our charity team also had the privilege of visiting Daisy Lodge in Newcastle to learn more about the services offered to families – providing them with a chance to reconnect, recharge, and find comfort in a supportive and nurturing environment.
7. Maritime Power-to-X- Making Waves
While the journey to #NetZero might not always be plain sailing, it was full steam ahead for Maritime Power-to-X this year.
Working closely with an industry consortium led by B9 Energy Storage, our team of creatives brought this innovative project to life developing the brand identity, a series of brand assets and a communications programme. The brand identity embraces a maritime theme, featuring a ship seamlessly integrated with the M and X to form a wave-inspired mark. The colours are carefully selected to align with the ‘Green Corridor’ initiative, reflecting the vibrant tones of the ocean.
Maritime Power-to-X can make a huge different to the global maritime industry through scalable green methanol which can be used as a zero-emission fuel. At Morrows, we’re proud to be part of that journey, supporting climate change communications and it was great to welcome leaders across the energy, logistics and maritime sector to the Maritime Power-to-X business networking lunch in November.
8. Hit the Ground Running with Moy Park and Dale Farm
At Team Morrow, we love supporting our clients—especially when it involves pounding the streets of Belfast. In May 2024, the ‘Morrow’s Mighty Five’ took on the Moy Park Miles to support the brand’s first title sponsorship of Northern Ireland’s most iconic sporting event, the Belfast City Marathon. As a team, we completed 26.2 miles in 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 13 seconds—not bad for amateur runners!
Cancer Focus NI’s 5k Pink Run returned to Titanic Slipways in October, sponsored by Dale Farm Sukie. We worked in partnership with Dale Farm to raise awareness of the event and unveil the new Sukie Summer Fruits Drink flavour and Mascot. We supported this event with integrated comms including event management, PR, digital and experiential activations and our team volunteered to run to support the event and raise vital funds to allow Cancer Focus to provide services to local women suffering from breast cancer.
9. Road Trip to Event Success
We’ve had an action-packed events schedule this year with our team travelling the length and breadth of the country to deliver event, production and logistical support to our client Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
First up was the studio broadcast Forum on Food Waste, followed by the Green Public Procurement Conference and the Environmental, Health and Wellbeing Conference, both in Dublin; the two day National Water Conference in Galway in June and then in Dublin for the National Circular Economy Conference in Aviva Stadium in October. All these events were conducted in a hybrid format – so with in person audiences and an interactive livestream audience, with our team managing full event production from plan to performance.
These events provided the Morrow team with valuable exposure to important ESG themes affecting organisations and communities and how the EPA facilitate discussion and engagement on how best to tackle them.
As our award-winning team continues to expand, they are strengthening their reputation as a leading service provider across the island of Ireland.
10. Asda-tastic Fundraising: Cashing in for Schools Across NI and Scotland
We supported Asda in the successful launch of its Cashpot for Schools campaign across Northern Ireland and Scotland. To maximise impact, we engaged directly with local schools that excelled in fundraising through the scheme, showcasing their success stories as inspiration for others.
Our efforts included securing exclusive press interviews with the Asda team behind the initiative, as well as generating widespread buzz through radio, national, and regional media coverage in key outlets across both regions. The campaign was a resounding success, raising millions of pounds for local schools and generating 3.2M in coverage reach throughout the campaign period!
11. Investing in the Spotlight
Our production team has been busy filming and editing a series of videos played at the recent Invest NI Staff Conference hosted at Belfast’s iconic ICC. Invest NI’s newly appointed CEO, Kieran Donoghue was a keynote speaker. The two-day event was attended by staff from Invest NI offices across the world. Our production team captured a highlights video from the 2-day event and received great feedback from our client.
The production team also attended Invest NI’s new Dublin Hub to create a video showcase highlighting how NI businesses can use the hub to meet clients, develop new trading partnership and explore the Southern market. Economy Minister Conor Murphy, Invest NI CEO, Tourism NI CEO and Invest NI Head of Europe were all in attendance.
12. Crafting Creative Solutions
The Morrows creative team has been hard at work crafting creative solutions for our clients.
We’ve developed TV ads for Bathline, designed websites for Bryson, reports, animations and campaigns for Arts Council Ireland, and created new brand identities for several energy clients, including Higher Ground and Gemini.
We’ve produced a range of marketing collateral to support our communications and events clients, designing stands and event materials for the Balmoral Show and the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Awards, while also preparing social content for AIB and Dale Farm’s platforms.
From directing lifestyle photoshoots for Roe Park Resort, to creating engaging content and managing influencer collaborations for Sprucefield Centre, it’s been a full-on, fun and fabulously creative 2024!
As we near the end of another busy year we would like to wish all our clients, colleagues and friends a Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.