The Midlands office of communications agency Grayling is rounding off 2010 with a duo of new account wins including Midland vehicle research and engineering specialists MIRA.

The agency, based in Church Street in Birmingham, has also won a new contract with Rainbows Hospice for Children & Young People, a Loughborough-based charity which provides care for life-limited children.

Grayling has been appointed by MIRA to promote the firm’s cutting-edge engineering developments within the automotive, defence, rail and aerospace industries, as well as further communications around the £250 million redevelopment of its global headquarters, near Nuneaton.

The organisation is set to create up to 2,000 new jobs with the multi-million pound investment which will create a new technology park, office space and state-of-the-art workshops.

It is hoped the development will attract high-quality companies to the area over the next ten years and generate jobs requiring a variety of skill levels.

The Grayling Midlands team – led by Kate Macnamara since January 2010 – made a good start to 2010 by winning a contract with restructuring and insolvency specialists FRP Advisory.

It was also appointed to lead publicity for Northamptonshire County Council’s ‘You Choose’ public outreach campaign and handled media relations for the recent UKTI Technology World in partnership with UK NanoForum exhibition, which was event managed by its sister agency Grayling Live.

Grayling Midlands director Kate Macnamara said the agency was well set for 2011.

“The economic climate has made 2010 tough for all creative teams, but to come out of it so strong with year on year revenue growth of 16 per cent puts us in a great position for next year,” she said.

“We’ve also expanded the team with Stuart Haynes joining as senior client executive and Jade Devlin as client executive.

“Both have played pivotal roles in some of the fantastic campaigns that we’ve delivered for clients in 2010.”

Highlights from the Midland Grayling team in 2010 include its ‘Join the Jig campaign’ for O’Neill’s Irish pubs, which took traditional Irish dancing out onto the streets of four UK cities – including Birmingham – ahead of the brand’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Grayling also revealed the first iPhone app for trade association Canned Food UK at a media event in London with celebrity chef James Martin, and brought Professor David Bellamy to Highcross Leicester shopping and leisure destination to launch its Eating Creepy Crawlies exhibition.

Ms Macnamara added: “We’ve worked incredibly hard during 2010 to get the right results for our clients and bring new business into the agency.

“This team is exceptionally talented.”