atrcapital.co.uk

Tag: Biscuits for Business

  • Team Appreciation and Happiness – A Case Study

    “I love this – such a great idea”

    CEO of the company of this case study.

    We have been working with quite a few companies looking at ways they can help their team members continue to feel engaged and appreciated with seem many of them working at home.

    In the current climate, with so many staff currently working from home, business leaders and managers are looking for ways to keep their people motivated and engaged. The sense of camaraderie and day to day relationships are missing, and the contact with the people seen every day is now only through a computer screen.

    Furthermore, everyone working from home is working in a very different set-up with some living alone, and others trying to manage home schooling before their work day begins.

    We have recently worked with a large energy company. As with most businesses, all of their staff have been working from home since March.

    Having spoken with the CEO, he was looking for a slightly different way to communicate with his team and let them know they are appreciated by him and the business. He wanted something unique, appropriate for everyone and branded to help the sense of belonging. He also wanted to raise a little smile and give people a well-deserved break!

    We created biscuit giftboxes for every team member that included logo biscuits, plus message biscuits saying “Thank You for all your hard work”, and “Apart but still one”. Each box also included a personal gift note “We are all in the same storm but not in the same boat” recognising that each team member was having a different experience and facing different challenges whilst working from home.

    And as an added element, and to add a little smile, we included a single tea bag with the note thanking everyone, and encouraging them to take some “much deserved time out and have a cup of tea and a biscuit”. Each box was posted directly to the team members house.

    The response was great with people emailing thank you’s (and the odd post on social media too!) The CEO said “For a small gesture, these biscuit gift boxes really do make a difference to reminding our staff we appreciate them and everything they are doing at such a challenging time. Thank You!”

    We were delighted to work on these for this company. Small personalised gifts showing people they are appreciated and remain part of a team are so important to maintaining morale at the current time. Biscuits can’t fix things, but they can make things a little bit better!

    To find out how we can help you, please get in touch info@enchantingbakes.co.uk

  • Looking Forward to 2020 (well a quick review of 2019)

    So here we are at the start of another New Year, and on this occasion, a new decade!

    We have had a truly wonderful 2019 and seen our little biscuit business grow and thrive. We have made some amazing custom biscuits for our existing clients, welcomed some wonderful new clients to our roster whilst creating some brilliant, clever, creative and tasty biscuits on the way.

    I’m not one for introspection (well not too much) but have been looking through the custom cookies we have made over 2019, and want to share a few of them here.

    One of our favourite orders in January was for the ad agency Hylink who are China’s largest digital ad agency. Their London office commissioned us to make handmade biscuit gift boxes to be sent to their top client to celebrate the Year of the Pig. We created these custom giftboxes containing 6 bespoke biscuit including pig emoji’s and their branding. We also created the packaging for each gift box with a unique design for the lid of each box and of course red ribbons for luck!

    These lovely business biscuits were quickly followed by an order for a group of senior Doctors at a large London teaching hospital. Who said Doctor’s don’t have a sense of humour…

    We have worked with lots of publishers over 2019. A personal favourite was for Your Mind is Like the Sky by Bronwen Ballard. (If you have children or teens, or even for yourself, this is such a beautiful book to gently introduce mindfulness). We covered book launches by Clare Balding, R J Palacio, and a new and beautiful version of Origin of Species. We also worked on the 50th (yes 50th) birthday of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

    We love working on biscuits for product launches and supported Chantecaille UK at a press event for a new product range. And when we were asked to make biscuits to support the launch of new business unit for one of our clients across a number of international markets, we baked and iced hundreds of flag biscuits for each of these countries.

    We also worked with the incredible charity Skylarks with their rebranding and created both colourful logo biscuits, and cookie pops (check out the Radio 1 breakfast team supporting this remarkable charity).

    When asked to create Pride biscuits, we worked with our client (an ad agency) to deliver colourful flags, rainbows and unicorns…they said to have some fun with it, so we did!

    We were delighted to be commissioned by BBC Studios to make a simple, branded biscuit for one of the TV shows they distribute…Sanditon! As huge fans of Jane Austen, the programme and biscuits, these were one of our dream commissions!

    The ongoing success of our ‘Biscuits Business Cards and a Cup of Tea’ direct marketing initiative continues to grow, so if you re looking for a creative, stand out and highly effective way to generate sales conversations, please let us know. (Agillic now factor this approach in as a fundamental part of their sales strategy because…it works!)

    And finally…you probably remember our excitement when we made the promotional biscuits for Becoming by Michelle Obama. Well, this year we made custom biscuit baubles for the PR launch of Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice. In her own words, “When they go low, we go high”.

    If you have read this far, then Thank You! We are a small business who are passionate about what we do. When looking at the past year, the clients, occasions and creativity we bring to our biscuits delights me. We genuinely feel privileged to make custom cookies and bespoke biscuits for our customers, and maintain the same degree off attention and passion to every biscuit that leaves the bakery.

    Thank you for a wonderful 2019, and here’s to a happy, healthy and exciting 2020 for us all.

    Griselda x

  • Three really good reasons to gift custom biscuits this Christmas

    So it is that time of year when the countdown is well and truly on. We love a bit of Christmas here at the bakery – not least as we get to make lots and lots of delicious Christmas biscuits, Christmas cookies and custom gingerbread. Having worked in both the corporate and small business worlds, I have seen that the gesture of a little something at Christmas really does go a long way in cementing relationships and showing a little bit of appreciation to the people and companies that support you and your business.

    As we enter our busiest time of year, we got to thinking about why biscuits are the perfect seasonal gift for your customers, suppliers and staff. So here are 3 really good reasons to send custom Christmas biscuits:-

    1. Biscuits make people happy!

    They really do! We are yet to have someone say “Thanks, but please keep your delicious, iced biscuits to yourselves as I don’t want them”. All we hear is people saying how much they love receiving our biscuits, how they love the look of them and most importantly how delicious they are! So if we know receiving biscuits make people feel happy and smiley, wouldn’t it be great if they were thinking of you and your business when they have all these positive feelings going on?!

    2. It shows you have put some thought into it.

    We have all received that gift that just makes you look and it and ask why! (I got sent orange nail varnish as a Christmas gift from a customer in a previous role. I still have no idea why, and wonder to this day if they were re-gifting, sent it by mistake, or thought I needed a manicure.)

    You can customise Christmas biscuit gifts and Christmas cookies to your business, or the recipient and set the right tone of voice, showing your customers that your have thought about them. Surely if you are investing in Christmas gifting, it is important to show that you have actually thought about the festive offering, and are sending something that works with your or their brand/culture. Whether you want to send something quirky and fun such as a gingerbread Santa, something classy such as a an all-white Christmas gift box, or something traditional such as some of the beautiful Victorian Christmas images (in edible form!), you can make a bespoke Christmas gift with your brand or Christmas message as subtle or bold as you like.

    3. Biscuits are not controversial. 

    They don’t give you a hangover, and it is very difficult to offend anyone with a well thought out Christmas biscuit gift. You can send enough to make sure everyone in a team receives at least one, or that your key client has a box to themselves.

    Now for the sales pitch – we have a selection of unique Christmas gift boxes – all of which can be customised for your company or the lucky people receiving them. You can add branding or seasonal messaging to the packaging, ribbons, labelling and biscuits themselves. Just click here to see our Christmas catalogue.

    We can take orders now and bake so they are fresh to go in December. And we can handle the packaging and posting from here, or send them to you to take or post to clients yourselves.

    Get In Touch to find out more! info@enchantingbakes.co.uk

  • Sanditon – Biscuits for the BBC

    Well you can’t beat a Sunday night period drama. Have you been watching Sanditon – the unfinished Jane Austen novel, finished by Andrew Davies and airing on our TV screens on a Sunday evening?

    We were delighted to be commissioned by BBC Studios (distributors of the show) to create Sanditon branded biscuits for the annual TV trade show MIPCOM this October. MIPCOM is a showcase of all the amazing TV being made across the world where TV executives and producers come together to celebrate and share the world’s best TV.

    We were asked by BBC Studios to create a branded biscuit for ‘Afternoon Tea’ at the event which promoted Sanditon and felt relevant to the TV programme and novel. We wanted to keep the design simple and classy, and opted for a plaque-shaped biscuits which felt in keeping with the period of the drama. The Sanditon logo was embossed into each biscuit on white icing, and the biscuits were presented on tiered silver biscuit stands at the event.

    The feedback from the event was that the biscuits were so well received. “The biscuits were absolutely delicious and looked amazing. We had so many people commenting on them, and coming back again and again for another one!”.

    Here at Enchanting Bakes, we understand that custom biscuits can bring so much more than a sweet treat to our corporate customer. We were delighted to be briefed by BBC Studios and apply our knowledge and experience in advertising, marketing and sales to our biscuits for business. We love making biscuits for promotional events, and can offer expert knowledge and experience in what works and creates the most impact for our clients.

    Visit our gallery to see other examples of corporate biscuits and custom cookies. If you have an event, enquiry, or just want to talk through what we can do, get in touch and we will aim to create delicious and relevant biscuits for your events, gifting, pitches, AGM’s, team thank you’s and any other biscuits for occasions!

    Enchanting Bakes is a boutique biscuit bakery specialising in making custom biscuits and cookies for events, parties, meetings, gifting, team thank you’s and more. Our clients include BBC, Bang & Olufsen, Penguin Books, Topshop, London & Partners, Foyles, Chantecaille, La Mer, Dorling Kindersley, YMCA, Tech Sixty Four, Unruly, Hylink, Agillic, Halfords and many more. Contact Us to find out more.

    Enchanting Bakes is a boutique biscuit bakery specialising in making custom biscuits and cookies for events, parties, meetings, gifting, team thank you’s and more. Our clients include BBC, Bang & Olufsen, Penguin Books, Topshop, London & Partners, Foyles, Chantecaille, La Mer, Dorling Kindersley, YMCA, Tech Sixty Four, Unruly, Hylink, Agillic, Halfords and many more. Contact Us to find out more.

  • A Cup Of Tea and A Biscuit. Generating Leads and New Business with Custom Cookies

    “Thanks for the very original direct marketing. I loved the idea of the tea and biscuit!”

    Agillic is a market leading omnichannel marketing technology company. We teamed up with Agillic to create a unique direct marketing campaign that has been very successful.
    Agillic were looking to increase engagement, stimulate conversations and drive new business after a recent trade event they were exhibiting at. They wanted to follow up with and engage with both the people they had managed to meet, and also those they hadn’t managed to meet at the trade event.

    A Cup of Tea and a Biscuit Business Card

    “Thanks for the biscuit. It was delicious and made my week. Perhaps we could set up a call?”

    Enchanting Bakes baked and iced business card biscuits with the name and details of the lead contact at Agillic. The individual biscuits were then packaged with a sealed teabag, and one of two message cards :-

    • one following up after meeting at the trade event, and
    • one saying sorry they hadn’t connected, but they would love to. Both message cards ended with the suggestion of meeting for a cup of tea and a conversation to see if their companies might be able to work together.

    Phenomenal Response

    The response to the campaign was exceptional. With over a 70% response rate – many of which were driven by the clients who got in touch with Agillic after receiving their biscuit business card. More importantly, the business development team at Agillic found that these potential customers were very open to conversations and meetings, and that the dialogues that started from this activity have been organic and positive. Even better than that is the number of large deals with target clients that are coming to fruition that started with a cup of tea and a branded biscuit being delivered to someone’s desk!

    “Thank you for the biscuit – very thoughtful!”

    Charlie Oldham, New Business Development at Agillic said “This is such a refreshing way of getting in touch with new clients, and we have developed many positive and relaxed conversations since we sent the biscuits out. The responses have led to significant new business, and also very open and interesting conversations with clients we didn’t actually manage to meet, as well as those we dd. We will be sending our biscuit business cards as an ongoing part of our new business strategy”.

    Griselda Soames, Enchanting Bakes said “We are delighted the responses to Charlie’s biscuit business cards was so positive. We pride ourselves not only on delicious biscuits, but also on our professionalism and flexibility to develop and deliver on creative biscuit ideas for our business clients.

    If you would like to find out what we can do for you and your business, please get in touch. We love biscuits, and we love being creative!

    Griselda x

  • Fun With Flags

    We recently worked on a truly amazing corporate biscuit order with Pegasus, a very creative, integrated communications agency.

    They were working with their client, a large international pharmaceutical company, who were looking to celebrate the launch of a new area of their business across a number of international markets. They were looking for an idea that would celebrate these markets, and would be part of an eye-catching display in their atrium reception on the day of the event. They wanted their employees to be able to see and taste relevant and memorable sweet treats in keeping with the launch of the new area of the business.

    We worked with Pegasus to define a few ideas. What was particularly interesting was developing not only the ideas for biscuits, but also for the way in which we were going to display them to create something visually striking, and still on-message.

    The final product was a range of hand iced flag biscuits for the countries the new business would be operating in. This included:-
    Germany
    France
    Spain
    Canada
    UK
    Italy
    Australia
    Denmark
    Netherlands
    Ireland
    Poland
    Greece

    We wrapped each of these in cello bags and then added a simple ribbon to allow the biscuits to be hung across a display stand. The final results were spectacular – hundreds of individually iced biscuits with flag designs on them, hanging across display stands within the large atrium at the head office.

    Here at Enchanting Bakes, we loved these biscuits as they were so different, and fun to create (and obviously tasted amazing!) The client company said that our biscuits were just what they wanted and everyone loved them”. And Pegasus said “We like working with Griselda at Enchanting Bakes. She works hard to think about a good creative solution and makes her amazing biscuits such an integral part of the overall strategy.”

    If you want to find out what we could do for you and your business, please contact us info@enchantingbakes.co.uk

  • Wellbeing Biscuits

    We were recently approached by a Doctor at one of the large London hospitals. They were running and Care and Well Being Day for a number of the staff at the hospital and were looking to see if there were any sweet treats they could add to their day.

    We had a think about what we could design, and wanted to bring something creative and different to their event. We presented the idea of white iced cloud biscuits plus edible ink felt tip pens. The clouds were to represent thoughts, ideas and a general sense of calm, and the edible pens were to allow participants to write their thoughts, feelings and general sense of wellbeing onto the biscuits.

    The benefits of mindful activities are well documented in improving wellbeing including helping to manage stress, increasing creativity in a screen-heavy digital world, and even decreasing negative thinking and increasing positivity.

    Here at the bakery, we are HUGE fans of the NHS and the amazing people that work there. We were so delighted to work on this event and deliver a unique and tasty idea.

    The feedback we received was fantastic. The organiser told us the workshop was great and very well received. We also had direct feedback from the participants including one who told us the activity was “so therapeutic just acknowledging the way you feel…& then getting to eat it”.

    This is such a great example of how biscuits can be more than an extra bit of sweetness to your events, away day’s or workshops. These biscuits provided a really different element of interactivity that was beneficial for the delegates.

    If you are interested in seeing how we can add engagement, interaction, a fun element and obviously a little sugar hit to your work events, away day’s and workshops, just get in touch for a no-obligation chat and ideas.

    We have an ever growing roaster of business we work with designing and creating unique biscuits for them. Whether it is for pitches, AGM’s, workshops, team rewards or client gifts, there are so many areas we can work with you. You can also lots of the amazing biscuits we have created for our business clients here. If you have something coming up, just get in touch, and we can offer a no-obligation range of ideas for you.

    In the meantime, have a lovely week!

    Griselda x

  • A Great Campaign for a Great City

    We were briefed by London & Partners to create a bespoke gift for their international clients. London & Partners is The Mayor or London’s promotional agency. They are tasked with promoting London to an international audience to bring business, investment and people to our capital city. With 120 international delegates arriving for a conference, they wanted something fun, on-message, unique and memorable as a welcome gift in each of the delegate’s hotel rooms.

    We worked with London & Partners to create a number of different ideas before agreeing on the final design. After a few taste tests(!), London & Partners chose our raspberry sugar cookie as the biscuit base, and we looked at a few different icing finishes before the final designs chosen.

    The final design was an A6 white gift box. Each box contained 6 hand baked and decorated raspberry sugar cookies spelling out LONDON. We iced the first ‘O’ with an edible printed Union Jack, and hand decorated the other letters with red and blue icing, finished with piped white icing embellishments. The biscuits were on a cushion pad and sealed into cello bags for freshness. We then added some branded literature from London & Partners inside each gift box, and added on-theme ribbons and labels to each box.

    Tracy Halliwell MBE, Director of Tourism, Conventions and Major Events at London & Partners said, “We were delighted with the gift boxes Griselda made for us. She ensured she understood what we needed to achieve and created something so unique, and so ‘London’ that delighted those who received them. We also had our first tweet within minutes of receiving the biscuit gift box, and so many thank you’s at the event.”Griselda Soames, Enchanting Bakes said, “This was such an amazing project to work on. We were so proud of the final design. Biscuits are such a cost-effective, efficient and happy way to communicate with customers, and the (almost immediate) tagging on social media also demonstrates their effectiveness when creating something bespoke for your customers. Thank you to Tracy and her team for such an interesting biscuit-based campaign!”

    Get in touch if you would like to see what we can do for you and your business.

    love and biscuits,

    Griselda x

  • A Happy Chinese New Year

    Hylink is a multinational digital advertising agency. It is China’s largest digital advertising agency and has international offices in Asia, LA, New York and London.
    With clients such as Mercedes, Chanel, Citibank, Shell and Google, this is a fast growing business with a very impressive client roster.

    Hylink contacted Enchanting Bakes as they were looking to create a bespoke biscuit giftbox to send to their clients to celebrate Chinese New Year. With it being The Year of the Pig, we wanted to create something simple, impactful and clearly branded that would raise a smile when opened, whilst also being relevant to the brief and the company.

    We worked with Hylink to design biscuit giftboxes with their branding and messaging both inside and out.

    Each giftbox had a custom lid design with a red sticker and gold lettering wishing the recipient a Happy Chinese New Year in both English and Chinese. Inside each giftbox, were 6 hand baked and individually iced vanilla sugar cookies – 5 decorated with an iced pig image and 1 decorated with the Hylink logo. The biscuits were sealed in cello bags for freshness and the giftboxes were completed with red ribbon.

    The overall effect was fantastic with the giftboxes feeling personal, relevant and on brand, and the biscuits inside being delicious, unique and fun.

    Here at Enchanting Bakes, we LOVED making these giftboxes. By making sure the packaging was as important a part of the marketing message as the biscuits inside, we created a truly bespoke gift that delivered real stand out for Hylink with their clients. We aim to spread biscuit happiness and know that these branded biscuit gift boxes certainly made Hylink’s clients smile!

    About working with Enchanting Bakes, Hylink said “Enchanting Bakes most certainly live up to their name. The cookies are delicious! Griselda is a delight to work with and followed the brief perfectly.”

    Custom biscuit treats, cookie jars and giftboxes can be such a clever and cost-effective part of your CRM strategy. Whether related to events or seasons, or as an ongoing communication, just get in touch and let’s discuss what we can do for you!