Connecting Element meets The Apprentice

Our client services team love nothing more than a good challenge – and we love nothing more than surprising them. Unbeknown to his team, head of client services Matt Bowell enlisted the help of BBC Apprentice contestants and local entrepreneurs Nick Holzherr and Gary Poulton to bring a surprise competitive edge to the quarterly client services conference.

Instead of the usual set-up, the team were invited to the ‘boardroom’ at CE Towers in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter where they were greeted by the two Apprentice stars, who were each assigned a team to mentor. The challenge? To go head-to-head in a competition to drive as much traffic to our blog as possible in a tight timeframe using a mix of email, social media, creative and content.

The stakes were high – the winning team would be treated to a Michelin-starred meal in Birmingham, while the losing team would be ‘treated’ to lunch at the local chippy.

Gary made it to 4th place in this year’s BBC show while Nick was a finalist in 2012. As well as promoting a sense of entrepreneurship, the exercise was an enjoyable change of scene for the client services team, who thoroughly enjoyed their interactive session and learned how to work under pressure and commit to tight deadlines while producing maximum results.

Before being roped into a few selfies, Gary Poulton said, “It was great to be able to use the skills I developed throughout the Apprentice process to help mentor a young digital team.”

The winners are yet to be announced, but you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for the big announcement, plus more photos from the day, or subscribe to our fortnightly blog emails to make sure you’re always up to date.