Business

Manchester agency Banks Digital launches pre-built online store for sports and fashion brands

Banks Ecom is packed with best-in-class features which are normally out of reach of smaller companies.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 8th December 2020
Banks Digital

A Manchester-based independent digital agency has launched its own pre-built online store aimed at sports and fashion brands.

Banks Ecom is the brainchild of Banks Digital – which is based in co-working space WeWork Dalton Place in Manchester city centre – and is built on the agency’s years of experience providing one-of-a-kind digital retail solutions for companies and brands such adidas, The Couture Club, and Rangers FC.

Banks has packed its online store with best-in-class features which are normally out of reach of smaller companies.

The initiative was born out of the desire to help small retailers survive the pandemic.

But to be viable, the platform had to be affordable, powerful and deployable within a few days, which are all prerequisites the company is proud to have met.

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A public demo is now available to access via the Banks Ecom website here.

Banks Ecom

The concept of Banks Digital was first created by identical twin brothers, Alex and Paul Banks, when they were just 15 years old after quickly discovering a passion for creating websites and designing various types of marketing material.

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After graduating in May 2012, the brothers founded Banks Digital with no investment.

To this day, the company is still running as an independent digital agency and has flourished through working with global sports giants and many local clients across diverse business sectors over the past nine years.

Speaking on the launch of Banks Ecom, Paul Banks – Director at Banks Digital – said: “We’ve packed our online store with the kinds of features you could only afford with budgets of £15,000 and we’re selling it at a fraction of that cost.

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“What we’ve built over nine months is something that can be adapted to suit the needs of any sports and fashion brand and launched within only 5 days.”

You can find more information via the Banks Ecom website here.

Make sure to follow Banks Digital for all the latest updates on the new online store and more via Instagram, and LinkedIn too.

Business

City Football Group strike landmark deal with Sony for series of TV shows

Danny Jones Danny Jones Manchester City Football Group agree TV deal with Sony

Manchester City’s owners have struck yet another big commercial deal ahead of the 2024/25 season, announcing a new collaboration with Sony to produce a number of original TV series.

Confirmed on Wednesday, 23 July, the deal between the City Football Group (CFG) and Sony Pictures Television will see the entertainment corporation create various TV productions for Man City and the other clubs owned by the limited company as part of a new global partnership.

This comes not long after City revealed a new industry-first collaboration with the popular online game Fortnite, with the club and CFG as a whole continuing to establish themselves “as a growing entertainment company”.

While it marks the third multimedia crossover of its kind they’ve had with an entertainment-led brand, having first worked with Amazon on their All Or Nothing series and then Netflix for the Treble Winners documentary, this deal will see Sony become an official partner of Man City.

Although exactly how lucrative the deal itself is yet to be disclosed, as per an official statement from the club, the partnership will see Sony “co-develop and produce new original scripted, nonfiction, and kids’ television projects for worldwide audiences.”

The announcement goes on to state that “as well as scripted and unscripted series, projects can also include one-off documentaries, animated projects, or children’s programming.”

Given that CFG has stakes in 13 clubs across Europe, South America, Asia, the United States and Australia – most notably Girona, New York and Melbourne City, French club ES Troyes AC and Italian side Palermo – TV shows created could ultimately go on to feature teams other than just City.

With the holding group also currently developing the Etihad Campus even further by expanding the stadium capacity and adding new leisure additions such as a hotel, museum, rooftop bar and stadium ‘sky-walk’, this is just the latest step in a series of big commerical steps for Man City.

Moveover, as the CFG are also heavily invested in the recently opened Co-op Live arena – which is inextricably linked to the football club located just a stone’s throw away – the City franchise looks to be moving closer and closer to becoming not just a football club but fully-fledged lifestyle brand.

Manchester City start work on next phase of stadium expansion, hotel, museum and more
Sony chronicling the expansion of the Etihad complex, for instance, could feature as part of the new City x Sony TV deal.

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Commenting on the launch of the collaboration, CFG’s CEO Ferran Soriano said: “We are incredibly excited to be collaborating with Sony Pictures Television [SPT] in this joint initiative.

“City Football Group is already a global entertainment company, and this initiative builds on our long-standing track record of innovation in the content space and the growth of City Studios in the last years. We will now take an even more dynamic approach to content production, and we are already developing several scripted and nonfiction series that will delight audiences globally.

“Bringing together the expertise of both CFG and SPT will enable us to create brilliant shows and remain at the forefront of football-led content production.”

SPT’s President of International Production, Wayne Garvie, went on to add: “Football is the great global game, no other sport produces so many heroes, tears and laughter, joy and heartbreak as football […] but the game always evolves and over the last decade City Football Group have become an unprecedented innovator and global leader.

“Our aim is to be part of the next evolution of the game, creating a new generation of innovative football-based entertainment to thrill the world.” It’s still unclear as to when the first of these new football-related TV shows will start rolling out but given the success of previous ventures they’re sure to prove popular.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group/ykanazawa1999 (via Flickr)

Business

Popular coffee chain Blank Street to open third Manchester site at the Trafford Centre this weekend

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Popular coffee chain Blank Street is gearing up to open its third Manchester site at the Trafford Centre this weekend.

After becoming a common feature down in London, with sites now serving coffee lovers in all four corners of the capital, Blank Street went on to take Manchester by storm earlier this year as it opened doors to two cafes in our city centre – one in Piccadilly Gardens, followed by one on the corner of Cross Street and King Street.

It’s fair to say that Blank Street has earned itself a pretty loyal customer base since opening the doors to its first site back in 2022.

And those loyal customers will soon have a new Greater Manchester location to head on down to.

That’s because the chain will be welcoming the public to its newest site in the Trafford Centre, opposite the newly-opened Sephora store, from this Saturday.

Popular coffee chain Blank Street is opening its third Manchester site at the Trafford Centre / Credit: Trafford Centre (via Facebook) | Blank Street (via Instagram)

The stunning new Trafford Centre site means Mancs will have another place to get their Blank Street coffee (or matcha) fix from, and not only that, but they’ll also be able to try out the new summer menu too – which apparently includes some of the brand‘s most “refreshing” offerings so far.

The new summer menu sees Blank Street move away from the classic milky base of its renowned Matcha Lattes and experiment with new flavours and lighter textures to provide an “instant hit of sunshine” regardless of the classic Manchester weather.

The Mango Passionfruit Matcha, Watermelon Matcha Spritz, and Yuzu Matcha Spritz are just some of the new menu additions, while the best-selling White Chocolate Matcha also remains.

Ignacio Llado, who is Blank Street’s UK Managing Director, says the company has been met with “such a warm reception” in Manchester already, and has been “so excited to hear that Mancs want more Blank Street locations. 

“We’re so proud to announce that our third store will be at the iconic Trafford Centre,” Ignacio added.

“We’re excited to hopefully be fuelling shopping trips and hangouts with friends with our famous matchas and classic cold brew.”

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Blank Street will open at the Trafford Centre this Saturday (27 July) from 6:30am at Cafe Outside 40 Regent Crescent.

Featured Image – Blank Street (via Instagram)

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