Partner Article

A long way to travel for a cuppa

A RUSSIAN student is about to embark on an epic journey to Tyneside to share his ideas in the region, thanks to a social networking site and an interest in age-old North East brand Ringtons Tea.

Dmitri Moruz, a student at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow, tweeted his rebranded design of the Ringtons Tea & Coffee label on a design website, and has now been invited to Newcastle to discuss his ideas.

Orange Bus - the Newcastle company which developed the e-commerce website for Ringtons - has now urged businesses to embrace the internet, having discovered Dmitri’s dissertation work online.

Founder Julian Leighton said: “The fact that we can listen into conversations about our brands from the other side of the world on such networks as Twitter demonstrates the power of social media and the web.

“Dmitri’s concept and interpretation of Ringtons Tea packaging was so fresh and beautifully designed and with the eco-friendly packaging, he really showed an understanding of the product.

“I hope this is one of many brand conversations we find through Twitter and other social media platforms for our customers, and this story encourages all businesses to keep their eyes and ears open online.”

The innovative packaging design was discovered as a result of data mining activity for Ringtons, a concept used to analyse masses of information to discover trends, conversations and brand mentions throughout the web.

Dmitri will be travelling to England in the summer to pitch designs.

Ringtons director Jon Malton added: “It is amazing to think that something like Twitter would have brought such young talent to my attention from the other side of the world and we are very much looking forward to meeting the young man who has dreams of redesigning our established brand.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .