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Tom Stewart talks to Neil Purcell, MD of NMR's major sponsor, Talent Works International

Tom Stewart, Editor of FullBore, Nicholas Mee & Company's quarterly e-magazine, caught up with with Neil Purcell, MD, Talent Works International, to discuss the partnership with Nicholas Mee Racing.

Following its backing of Nicholas Mee Racing for the 2010 Britcar 24hr race, Talent Works International extended its partnership by becoming the team’s major sponsor for the 2011 season. With the first two races of the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge completed and NMR currently at the top of the standings, on the eve of the double-header third round at Donington Park we asked Talent Works’ MD Neil Purcell about his company and its involvement with NMR.

Q. What is Talent Works and what does it do?

A. We’re a talent resourcing business rather than a conventional recruitment business. We focus on delivering talent acquisition through market mapping and talent pooling. We work with a number of global, Fortune 500 companies and create pipelines of talent for our clients, not necessarily for immediate hiring but for prospective future employment too. Our main areas of specialisation are retail and FMCG, but financial services, banking, automotive, manufacturing and engineering are also among our main markets.

 

Q. What are the marketing/strategic objectives of Talent Works’ partnership with Nicholas Mee Racing?

A.Our strategy is pretty simple – to raise our profile and our brand, and not just in the automotive sector. NMR has the right target market and audience, and we use NMR as a great entertainment vehicle for our existing clients, many of whom get pretty excited when the race calendar is released and we have them queuing up to attend the races with us!

 

Q. What similarities/synergies to do you see between your company and the world of Aston Martin racing cars and Nicholas Mee Racing?

A. Talent Works is positioned as a high-end premium brand and we’re fairly different to the norm in our field. We’re above and beyond our competitors, so I guess you can already see the similarities – Aston Martin is a high-end brand and NMR is the team that’s leading the Aston Martin Challenge at the moment. They’re a team that’s developing too, and they’re an extremely talented bunch of guys, both the drivers and those running the team, and it’s clear that our similarities and associations are very much in tandem with who and what we are in our market and to our clients.

 

Q. How do you plan to use your NMR sponsorship in 2011?

A. As mentioned, it’s to raise our profile, but it’s also so that we can give something back to our client base. We already hold a number of corporate events in different areas, but being able to take guests as VIPs to race events, to see the team up close – something that normal fans aren’t able to do – is pretty exciting. I have a list as long as my arm of people wanting NMR/TalentWorks caps and shirts, and they’re all really interested in the team and follow its progress. We’re not yet in a position to assess its effectiveness from a new business perspective, but it’s certainly helping to enhance relationships with existing clients. Also, the NMR team is very open and engaging; the NMR guys make sure that our guests have a great day – getting to meet the drivers and the crew and so forth – and they take the time to do this despite their busy schedules on a race days. It’s working fantastically well.

 

Q. What are your plans for the future of the business?

A. The business has been established now for four years but over the last 12-18 months we’ve been in a high growth phase and have opened offices in Hong Kong and China, in eastern Europe and in Italy. Our latest venture, which opened last week in Miami, marks Talent Works’ first entrance into the USA. So, we’re going to continue to build, develop and support our clients globally and ensure that we have a really strong global coverage.

 

Q. What's your earliest motorsports memory and who are your motorsports heroes?

A. My earliest memories are watching the Grand Prix on the TV with my Dad – Saturday’s qualifying and the races on Sunday. I’m still fairly young, or at least I like to think so, so my earliest memories are of people like Senna and Schumacher. I was a big rugby fan and my interest in motor racing developed a bit later, but Senna and Schumacher both seemed to have the extra flair and a determination to win that others didn’t seem to have. Senna’s life was tragically cut short, but he was an amazing driver. I must make the time to go and see the new Senna film.

 

 

For more information on Talent Works International, please contact Neil Purcell on +44 (0) 1327 320 980 or Email: info@mytalentworks.co.uk

Web-site: www.mytalentworks.co.uk

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/mytalentworks