2015 was an unforgettable year for Polaris, writes company director Ben Pinnington. We have been fortunate to work with many fantastic clients and travel to some glorious ports around the world thanks to our specialism in maritime. Trade winds have blown us from our chilly River Mersey home in Northern England to the sultry climes of Muscat (twice), Duqm, Niswa, Barcelona, New York, Philadelphia and San Diego. We have also stopped into the slightly cooler, but inspiring cities, of Gdansk, Gdynia, Warsaw and Oslo along the way.
For Polaris this is a vindication. We love what we do and feel it is a privilege to promote our many clients at home and abroad. Being in business to us is not just a job or a way to make money – it is a way of life, to be lived to the full. We hope this energy is reflected in our campaigns and we cannot wait to start cracking again in 2016.
JANUARY
January kicked off in fine style with our first trip of the year to Oman to promote Oman Drydock’s 300th drydocking the conversion of the Olympic Luck an OBO to a VLCC for the Springfield part of the Onassis Group. The event was handled with great skill by ODC and it was very evident the shipyard has matured since we first visited in February 2014. We joined guests from all over the world for the presentation and evening ceremony where a traditional Omani band played late into the night among the palm trees blowing in the sweet fragrant breeze of the Arabian Gulf.
Polaris job was to write the story to a professional standard of journalistic English and catapult the news to the international maritime press which is mainly written in English. We generated more than 25 articles reaching an estimated 500,000 readers worldwide.
MARCH
Barcelona was warming up nicely as Polaris joined the Swiss based ship management company Promar Shipping Services at the port’s World Trade Centre. Here we joined another international group of guests for the naming ceremony of the Mamola Reliance – a new offshore support vessel built by Damen. The emotional blessing and smashing of the champagne bottle was followed by a wonderful lunch of paella overlooking the marina. Polaris was again charged with tackling the difficulty of writing to a professional standard of journalistic English. Using our training and our background as one of the few maritime specialist PR firms in the world we generated publicity worldwide as Reliance, resplendent in orange, made its maiden voyage to the oil and gas fields of West Africa.
May
In May we joined the Society of Maritime Industries for a tour around Southampton Docks. This was a fascinating few days with many knowledgeable maritime professionals from across the UK. We were also fortunate to see one of the world’s biggest ships the CMA CGM Kerguelen, which can carry up to 17,722 20ft (6m) containers, is 398m (1,305ft) long and 54m (177ft) wide.
June
Polaris jetted out to the bright blue midnight skies of Oslo for Nor Shipping in early summer. Here three of our clients Cammell Laird, Oman Drydock and Roxtec were exhibiting and we saw the debut of our Polaris branded shirts, jumpers and attack flyers. It was fantastic again to see the vibrancy of the maritime industry on mass. We spent highly convivial evenings with clients including a wonderful meal with Oman Drydock’s team on the beautiful waterfront. Publicity wise we issued some strong news from Oman Drydock unveiling its new deal to convert two more OBOs to VLCCs for Onassis as well as the appointment of ODC’s new dynamic Deputy CEO Ahmed Al Abri. The news hit the show newsletter which is vital for profile raising as well as the international maritime press.
August
Polaris went stateside in August touring the port cities of Philadelphia, New York, San Diego and Chicago. Visiting these great ports and seeing their infrastructure and heritage was fascinating. We joined editors at America’s biggest maritime publisher Marine Reporter for a Big Apple breakfast. There were so many highlights but undoubtedly making the trip to New York is one of deep meaning for anyone from Liverpool which has such an affinity and maritime bond with the city which justifiably calls itself the greatest place on earth. The maritime museums of Philadelphia and San Diego were impressive too with the Manx built Star of India taking pride of place in San Diego. As for Chicago, this powerhouse of industry towers over Lake Michigan with a breath taking glittering elegance and pulsating energy. If the architects of Europe’s great cities could visit they would surely be astonished by the beauty, ambition and innovation of modernity.
September
The last days of summer saw us blown to the great port city of Gdansk for the Baltic Expo trade fair. We joined our Polish partner the British Polish Chamber of Commerce for a series of meetings that continued into the following weeks in Warsaw, Gdynia and Gdansk again. Polaris continues to see great potential for working with Polish maritime companies helping them solve the difficulty of raising awareness to the international maritime community. As we often emphasize the language of the maritime industry is English. To raise awareness globally one of the most impactful and cost effective methods is by generating publicity in the maritime trade press. The trade press is virtually all written in English, a lot is based in the UK but it is distributed and read internationally.
October
The end of September beginning of October saw us return to Oman for the Infrastructure Oman trade fair in Muscat. Here we joined the UK pavilion and launched our new publishing title www.OmanGBnews.com Polaris strives to be an entrepreneurial business remembering our roots as a company which started with a desk, phone and overdraft. OmanGBnews.com fills a gap in the market as it is the only news website reporting all the news between the UK and Oman – whose trading relationship is immensely strong dating back 400 years. We had a great time in Oman meeting many UK and Omani businesses and making new friends with the British Business Forum in Oman and visiting the Omani British Friendship Association, the British Embassy and a reception for Taiwan national day. Plus, we had a lot of fun tracking down hotels showing the Rugby World Cup without a sat nav ….
November
November was a big month for us. We managed the media for the naming of two newly built tankers for Oman Shipping Company (OSC) in Korea. OSC is the third biggest shipping company in the Gulf and the new ships are part of a major expansion of its fleet. We also helped British shipyard Cammell Laird announce it had beaten off global competition to win the £200million contract to build the new Artic survey vessel, the biggest commercial ship building contract in Britain and one of the biggest contracts Lairds has won in decades. This really was great news for the Merseyside region and received global media attention across TV, radio, regional and national press and international maritime press. This is what PR is all about. Building brand awareness positively and informing a mass audience about your momentum and growth in popularity.
Also in November our ship engine client James Troop received a visit from Government Minister Philip Dunne. Mr Dunne wanted to thank Troops personally for the work it had done supplying engines for the Royal Navy mine hunters. Hearing Mr Dunne tell the assembled workforce how pleased he was with them and that they had ‘a very happy customer’ was tremendous. This morale boosting visit and subsequent publicity shows the role PR can play in raising awareness. As Richard Branson says ‘No matter how good your product or service is no one will hear about you unless you do something to stand out.’
We ended the month by promoting the 20th Maritime Media Awards at the IoD in London. The MMAs celebrate the very best in film, books, journalism and social media covering the maritime industry. Polaris undertook this work for the Maritime Foundation whose core purpose is to raise awareness of Britain’s reliance on the sea. With the awards steeped in Britain’s glorious maritime past and present, our great personal and professional interest, this was another moment to reflect on why we do this. It is a passion for Polaris, our life, not just a job. It was very satisfying to see the media report widely on the MMAs and we very much look forward to building the media momentum of this event next year.
