Product Sourcing Archives - Bluestep Solutions

Our partnership with Kingswood has seen Bluestep get our foot firmly through the door of the e-commerce world.

After 7 months of development and testing of the Kingswood e-commerce shop, their online store is now live, allowing their customers to head online for Kingswood merchandise.

With a vast offering of branded products including cuddly teddy bears, stationery and camp kits, they were on the hunt for an external agency to source, store and distribute all of their online stock.

They reached out to Bluestep and loved what we could offer. Thanks to our expansive Grendon-based storage facility, we’re now storing and distributing over 100,000 items for their online and retail shops.

Kingswood are just one of a few outdoor & education centres we work with and see over 165,000 children visit their activity centres every year from over 75 countries.

With 10 locations across the UK and Northern France, they are one of the smaller activity centres in their industry, however, their growth in retail continues to grow year-on-year and we’re excited to continue our work with Kingswood as they develop.

We’ve all heard about it on the news & it’ll come as no surprise that there’s been growing pressure on A&E healthcare resources nationwide. NHS Coventry & Rugby CCG wanted to spread the word about how important it is for people to choose the right healthcare services at the right time & call the 111 phoneline. And so, they called on us to give them a helping hand.

We’ve been pretty busy spreading the word far & wide over the region & we’ve ran 3 separate campaigns this year alone to champion the message, ‘Call 111 when it’s less urgent than 999’
Back in April. Time we launched a big public engagement campaign where our team went to all corners of the city to talk with locals about Call 111 & why they should use the service. We even gave away some branded goodies & live-tweeted our whereabouts. Take a little look at the guys hard at work:

We’ve just finished off some social media promotions for the CCG too, they had a series of animations all about Call 111 and when’s best to call. We used our social media know-how to pull a plan together; our main aim was to talk to parents whose little ones were likely to catch chicken-pox, young women who were in need of the morning after pill & the Eastern European community who may have had a slip, trip or fall (we even had the adverts translated into polish). The ads went down an absolute storm, the videos were seen a staggering 400,000 times plus & more than 5,000 people visited the Call 111 website.

This winter time, our engagement team are at it again. They’ll be out & about, telling locals how they can stay healthy when the cold weather sets in. If you live in Coventry or Rugby, keep an eye out for the team, they’ll be dotted around in their lovely blue NHS hoodies!

As 3 Blue Steppers took down the 4 foot tall panels in the Manchester Central Convention Centre, we were able to breathe a sign of relief; the NHS Health & Care Innovation Expo went pretty smoothly (despite a few minor bumps in the road & a case of food poisoning).

We spent a fair few fun filled hours planning the creative, organising bits & bobs then making the journey from Northampton to Manchester & back, so we thought we would share a photo blog with you so you can see the kind of stuff we got up to over our 3 days up north.
After Becca had finished her designs for the 8 panels, we sent these to Studio 1, a great local printer who were kind enough to let us go down and take a look at our work being created in the flesh (it was ply board really).

It was a tense moment as we waited for the printers to churn out the boards.

After we loaded up the van with the panels and a mountain of sweets for the journey, we headed up the M6 towards Manchester, taking a few wrong turns on the way. When it came to the team putting up the panels, there were no tantrums or tears and we set up our spot in the convention with success.

Day 1

The team were up bright & early, coffee in hand ready for a day of networking & expo fun. Christy looking enthusiastic outside Manchester Central.

Here’s the team on day 1, looking fresh-faced on the stand.

The girls took a little time off the stand to nosey around the centre; get involved with a few of the exhibitions and trial some of the products on show.

The girls dropped by a shoebox which housed The Empathy Museums’ exhibition ‘A Mile in my Shoes’, read more about it here: http://www.empathymuseum.com/

The colourful Camp Expo space saw the walls illustrated with visual answers to one central question: “What is your dream for a healthy nation?”.

The team were able to catch the choir sing some pretty moving songs & were given some lovely cupcakes by the event organisers.

Maybe the girls had one too many sweets… sugar high much?

After a good sleep and were ready to rock & roll again for day 2.

If you saw any of the Healthcare team over the course of the two days, why not drop us a line. We would love to hear from you and find out how you found the expo.

For the last two years, Bluestep have been the go to agency for the FA, supplying match day merchandise ranging from banners and cheers flags to t-shirts and lanyards.

In case you hadn’t heard, this year sees the return of the Euros and we were called upon to produce and supply tens of thousands of t-shirts for the warm up games taking place at some of the biggest stadiums in the UK. With a three week turnaround and a monstrous quantity to hit, the FA put their trust in us and we designed, produced and delivered everything to spec. Our lorries set off from our factories in Europe and drove straight through to Wembley, the Eithad and the Stadium of Light to ensure deadlines were hit. Proof that no job is too big for any department at Bluestep.

To be a preferred supplier of the FA is an honour since they only work with ethical and sustainable companies. Not only that, but we are proud to be a part of moments that will go down in history.

Ben will be showing his support for England at some of the games this year. Let us know if you’re off to any of the matches this summer – we’d love for you to tweet us your photos @BLUE_STEP_S!

Last week, Ben, Hayley and Becca headed down to Hyde Park for the PR launch of the RSPCA Big Walkies event. Blue Step was lucky enough to be commissioned for the second year running to design and produce all of the merchandise and large format print. It’s always great to see our work in the flesh, and this year we were responsible for the gazebos, banners, flags, doggy bandanas (yes, they’re a thing!), dog rosettes, cuddly toys and cotton shopper bags all produced especially for the event.

With the doggies all kitted out and the sun shining down on Hyde Park, walkers could either walk the 2-5k route with their own furry pals (up to 4) or with a rescue dog.

Meet Harvey, team Bluestep’s companion for the day. Harvey had a brilliant time walking Ben!

Some famous faces were also present, including Youtube vloggers the Saccone-Joly’s and Made in Chelsea’s Lucy Watson, who is renowned for her vegetarianism and love of animals.

Safe to say we had a totally PAWESOME time and can’t wait to take part again next year! Thanks RSPCA…