What a great year it has been at Pitch. As we sail towards office closures and start preparing to welcome in 2018, we decided to look back at everything that we've accomplished in the last year (a great career detox exercise).
As a team, we reflected on some major moments and compiled a list of our most popular content that you can go back and look at again.
Pitch Turns 10
From a spare bedroom and two people to two beautiful offices in the centre of Birmingham and Manchester and a team of 14, a lot has changed in ten years. You can read all about the journey Pitch has had from MD Rob Markwell here.
As a decade in business is a pretty big milestone, Pitch took everyone away to celebrate, Eloise describes the trip:
"Pitch turned 10 years old this year and to celebrate we were all taken to Palma De Mallorca for a long weekend. We were all very thankful even if it was an early flight, but hey, Friday and drinking Prosecco on a plane by 7am - could be worse!
The trip was filled with unbelievably good food, a bit of alcohol and a lot of dancing and laughter. For the Directors to be able to sit back and realise how far the business has come, you could feel that this was a special celebration. A highlight for me has to be the second evening, eating amazing steak, drinking gorgeous red wine and playing silly games such as, ‘If you were a vegetable what would you be?’, ‘What name do you look like?’ and ‘Which celebrity would play you?’
Thank you for an unforgettable trip and memories to remember forever. 'One more beer?'"
New Starters
This year saw Pitch grow once again with three new starters; Steph, Becky and Jess.
Steph joined as a Digital Marketing Executive, Becky as a Principal Consultant with a specialism in FMCG (read more about Becky and her journey to Pitch here) and Jess joined as a Resourcer, this is what she had to say as a new starter at Pitch:
"Pitch has a genuine care about giving the very best service to both their clients and candidates. This is something I can already clearly see from my short time here. Having recently joined the Pitch team as their new Resourcer, I will be helping to support the Midlands Consultants in sourcing the very best candidates for permanent vacancies across all things PR, digital and creative from design to agency account handling.
So far my journey in Pitch has been nothing but exciting and the entire team has been incredibly welcoming offering all the support I could need. I have also been able to join in the festive celebrations at the Christmas work party, from hole in ones at Ghetto Golf to mimicking Mariah at Karaoke Box, it was a wonderful evening of team bonding and maybe too much prosecco!
I look forward to what the New Year bring’s for the Pitch team!"
Award sponsorships
What an awesome year 2017 has been! Something that makes it even more enjoyable is the involvement that Pitch Midlands and North have with industry-specific events that we are lucky enough to attend and sponsor.
It gives us an opportunity to get away from our day jobs, socialise with our amazing clients and candidates and let our hair down by having one or two drinks, but most importantly to celebrate the work that both our clients and candidates produce on an annual basis. This year Pitch has attended events like Prolific North, Northern digital awards, Cream awards and are very proud to have sponsored to CIPR Midlands awards for the 10th time, CIPR North West and the Prolific North awards. Every year we bring the fun with a Photobooth and raffle which has seen the audience win some lovely prizes with all proceeds going to the Birmingham Children’s hospital. This year we managed to raise an amazing £1000.
Attending these awards are so important to us, it allows us to be massively involved in the industry, which is essential for our recruitment partnership with clients and candidates. It also ensures we’re taking every opportunity to truly understand not only our clients’ and candidates’ needs but the industry as a whole.
As you can probably tell, we have had a great time celebrating and really look forward to doing it all over again In 2018!
Another great year of B-Hive
Another Pitch birthday this year saw the B-Hive scheme turn 9! One of the main drivers in getting the scheme out to the students and graduates this year was Priya, who describes this year's event here:
"Back in March, 40 shortlisted finalists were invited to ‘pitch’ (see what we did there) their ideas to a Dragon’s Den-style panel of judges based on a great brief (thanks, McCann Birmingham), that was adopted across the categories of PR, Marketing, Design and Advertising. With winners awarded a variety of placements, stakes were indeed high and the quality of presentations certainly did not disappoint.
Once again, it was the very best thinkers who emerged triumphant and with a total of 89 weeks of placements offered to the winning students by our fantastic clients, the judges' assertion that this was some of the best quality they had ever seen since the scheme’s inception, was very evident. This year's B-Hive was arguably our most successful to date, the generosity and support of our amazing clients combined with the effort and ability of the incredibly talented student participants, enabled us to play our part in helping the next generation of creatives and marketeers kick-start their careers in style!"
Manchester Move
Another major milestone saw the North team move homes from Piccadilly Gardens to a brand new development in the centre of Manchester. You can read all about the new office here and Stephen from Pitch North describes what it is like to work at the new office:
"After 2 years in our old office in Piccadilly Gardens, Pitch North upgraded to our incredible new offices in April this year. We moved to Bruntwood’s new Neo development, just off Portland Street next to Manchester’s Chinatown. Neo is one of Manchester’s most high-tech office spaces and is definitely an upgrade. Described as a space for collaboration, helping businesses to grow as part of a vibrant community of creators, Neo has definitely lived up to its billing. With neighbours such as communications agencies Markettiers and Notch, creative agencies such as BGN, as well as tech giants Microsoft who have taken an entire floor for their Manchester operation, we’re in good company!
There’s a real community feel at Neo, and we are well looked after by Jenna, Bruntwood’s Community Manager, who regularly hosts events for us to have fun and get our neighbours - Caribbean themed summer parties, Oktoberfest, and what promised to be a top Christmas do! The move to Neo has been a great success, here’s to many more years! "
YouTube Channel
This year has seen Pitch create more content than ever with the introduction of our YouTube channel. Through the awards we have attended, client relationships we have and our very own talent in the office, we have created several video series and one-offs offering industry insight and recruitment advice.
Check out all of that (and give us a subscription) through the links below of this year's top content.
2017 has seen us reach some major milestones, we’ve been able to continue to work with old friends and create new relationships. We couldn’t do what we do without you so a massive thank you to clients and candidates alike. We look forward to doing it all over again with you next year!
