October 2008

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contact: james.gm [at] 77pr.co.uk

October 30, 2008

SEVENTY SEVEN IN PR WEEK

Couple of pieces in today's PR Week from us, which is all lovely ...

James' Second Opinion on the launch of the New Football Pools appears in the Campaigns pages of the magazine, while our Youth Music win gets a mention on the charities pages.

More to come as there are a couple of recent wins that we can talk about soon ...

AND ANOTHER SHOWREEL ...

Sing Up this time, which we have been a bit behind in getting together ... LOVELY work though, no?!


Seventy Seven: Sing Up launch from Seventy Seven PR on Vimeo.

October 28, 2008

GET YOUR WALKING SHOES ON ...

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Another "My Shop is Your Shop" campaign as we took to the newspages and airwaves to encourage folk to walk to their local shop, calculating the savings to shoppers' wallets and the environment that could be made if we walked to the stores rather than driving.

The coverage kicked off with an exclusive in the Daily Mirror (above) and was followed by no less than 65 radio interviews featuring our very own Alan Twigg as the spokesman for the campaign. No less than eleven BBC stations and a crop of regionals secured through SKY News Radio.

Lovely work from the team of Jo, Amanda and Twiggy ... and Alan's dulcit Scottish brogue is to be heard on the interview below.

Walk to the Shop ... from Seventy Seven PR on Vimeo.

October 27, 2008

COUPLE OF NEW SHOWREELS ...

Given the re-branding, we had to re-do all of our lovely showreels. We also took the opportunity to make a couple of new ones to show off our work on the RSPCA and on the various E&J Gallo Winery brands that we work on ...

RSPCA's Good Business Awards work is here ...


RSPCA Good Business Awards from Seventy Seven PR on Vimeo.

The E&J Gallo work is here ...

E&J Gallo Winery from Seventy Seven PR on Vimeo.

There will be case studies up on the spanking new website pretty soon, so folks know what actually went on, as well as being able to look at all the pretty coverage!

October 25, 2008

SEVENTY SEVEN GETS A MAKE-OVER

There is a school of thought that says that re-branding generally is a bad idea and is something to be avoided, by-and-large.

I think that, on balance, it's a sentiment that we here in Seventy Seven would broadly agree with - but add that sometimes it is profoundly worthwhile.

Though we would say that after a week in which we launched a new ID and brand positioning. The work was done by our sister branding agency, FHD (who also blog here), along with the FHG Studio team.

We (Fred and I) thought that we would share some of the new look with those who have yet to have seen it.

First up, the reason for the work is that we alighted up the idea that is "we are ... Seventy Seven".

The focus is on who we are and how those different people that make the agency what it is: at Seventy Seven, we're all pretty colourful in our own ways and we're not afraid to express our individuality.

We have different skills, different contacts, different backgrounds and understandings of industries, sectors and media.  But we're also different characters - some of us are shy, others more exuberant, some of us dress conservatively, others are more flamboyant, some of us get stressed easily, others are unflappable, some of us like RnB, others 90s guitar pop.

One thing unites us – we really care about each other and we work really hard.

So Seventy Seven will never be an agency with a few long-departed founders' names above the door. Rather, it will always be an agency that has everyone's name above the door (or at least across the letterhead).

The logo sort of reflects that thinking: celebrating individuality, while still representative of the agency as a whole. The thinking behind it is that people on our team will be able to make their own versions of the logo: bringing in pictures, fabrics, textures, photos, whatever.

The left part of the logo represents the structure, our sensible part, the close-knit aspect of the agency whilst the right part of the logo is a choice of interpretation of our creativity, fun and of the individuality of the characters that make our team.

Our stationery and office reflects that too, with a mixed use of people’s names and photos on paper and on the walls.

And because one single logo couldn’t express all our personalities and likes, expect to see more logos inspired by our people come up in the future.

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The website is a piece of work that I am loving quite a lot ...

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We also carried the new work onto the weblogs ...

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Then there is there are the various applications of the logo and new photography across the offices - including new graffiti-painted meeting room ...

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There will be a longer piece on the whole process up on Spinning Around shortly as there is an interesting tale to tell. It will also include the fully story of the development: trials and tribulations on the way to triumph and all that ...

YOU & YOURS FOR "IN HARMONY" TEAM

The In Harmony team scored this week with a cracking piece sbout the campaign on Radio4's You & Yours ...


In Harmony on You & Yours from Seventy Seven PR on Vimeo.

October 24, 2008

CARBON MONOXIDE CAMPAIGN UPDATE

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We've been busy this week working alongside the Fishburn Hedges team and with the lovely Kirstie Allsopp to launch a new campaign - "Carbon Monoxide: Be Alarmed" on behalf of new client COCAA, to make sure that people are aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The aim of the campaign is to ensure people know that CO can kill, and that they get a carbon monoxide alarm and their appliances checked regularly.

The team had just over a month to create a new website; design a new campaign logo; commission some meaty research; draft, design and print a research launch report; get a celeb on board; create a UK wide case study database pretty much from scratch and draft 17 press releases. And that was all before speaking to the media…

Kirstie Allsop was our key launch spokesperson, alongside Stacey Rodgers from Yorkshire, who tragically lost her son to CO poisoning.

Launch day kicked off with a media tour, taking Kirstie to the BBC and to meet Phil and Fern and a ten minute live on This Morning - where Caroline was thrilled to see Kerry Katona's meltdown live! - followed by an afternoon session of live TV links and radio interviews.

Interviews included BBC Radio Five Live, four regional TVs including BBC Look North and ITV Yorkshire, plus five news and Channel 4 news. Print interviews included Express features, Closer and NOTW, and another radio session with BBC GNS was set up for the following day for those that were impossible to squeeze in.

A great job all round!

ALAN HITS THE HEADLINES ...

Alan does a lot of consultancy for the Federation of Wholesale Distributors, a confederation of brand-owners that sell through the independent shops sector.

As part of this work to support shopkeepers across the country, Alan found himself media training some of their owners: telling them about how to improve relations with their local media.

What's more, he managed to get The Grocer, Retail Express and Retail Newsagent down to the event to cover the session. The Retail Newsagent piece is below (click for a bigger version ...).

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October 22, 2008

FHG IN CARBON MONOXIDE WIN

Fishburn Hedges, ably supported by Caroline representing Seventy Seven, has picked up a campaign to make people aware of the risks of Carbon Monoxide for the Carbon Monoxide Consumer Awareness Alliance.

As reported in PR Week recently ...

Our brief is to raise awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and advise people on how to stay safe in their homes. COCAA brings together the victims’ charities, professional organisations and energy companies involved with the issue. Launch report to follow ...

October 21, 2008

MORE OF JAMES' TOP TIPS

More of James' top tips on strategy appear in the IPA's Top Tips for Fast Strategy deck.

Here are his words of wisdom. The other ones are much better.

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October 12, 2008

COMING SOON ... GROUP PUB QUIZ

Looking forward to this ... COME ON TEAM SEVENTY SEVEN!

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September 25, 2008

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND NINTENDO

Am dimly aware that we haven't posted anything in a wee while ... but we've been too bloody busy doing the work and winning the pitches to talk about it/them.

Anyhow, the first bit of news that we can reveal (and there are three other wins that will follow shortly!) is that PR Week reports that Seventy Seven and our chums in Fishburn Hedges have won the European creative agency brief for Nintendo.

How cool is that?! Story is here ... cheeky buggers don't mention Seventy Seven, but we've picked up the old Cake consumer element, basically.

August 06, 2008

SUPERBRAND REVIVAL ...

Spangles

Sometimes a big idea brilliantly executed is what it takes to get a client out there in the media.

On other occasions, though, it needs something smaller, on-agenda and newsy to get the message out - nothing dramatic, just effective.

It was the latter that was required for Superbrands this week as we managed to pull off coverage across the Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Independent, thelondonpaper, Radio Five Live, The Scotsman and a host of regional titles for our "quick hit" research on the brands that consumers would like to see revived: boiled sweets, Spangles came out on top.

The story was timed to hit as soon as Cadbury's made an announcement about whether Wispa had earned a permanent place in the shop shelves of the nation. Well-timed, sold in hard to the right journos. Nice work by Nicki particularly, but also by Alan and Gareth, the dynamic brand trio.

August 01, 2008

JESS THE JOB ...

Some nice news to report for the end of the week ... our very own Jess Tozer has been made and associate director. We're really chuffed for her.

Stunning work (we think) on Sing Up, Rupert Bear, Capital One, LYCOS, Hotels.com and various others meant that there was no question about whether we should be promoting her.

Nice one, JT!

July 24, 2008

MOTOR SHOW: REPORT THE SECOND

Popped up some photos from the British International Motor Show Celebrity Driving Challenge here. Being as we are an agency of the modern age, we've got some film (that our good friends at MarketTiers put together for us) of the event.


 

MOTOR SHOW: FIRST REPORTS

We launched the British International Motor Show this week. You might have seen a bit about it in the media ...!

One of the things that we dreamt up, event-managed, recruited charity and media partners for and convinced 12 celebrities to take part in, was the Celebrity Driving Challenge.

So it was that Nikki Grahame, Du'ane Ladejo (Predator to you and me) and Alex Wotherspoon gathered to take part and test their driving skills - keeping the egg on the roof of the car around a corner, avoiding running Jade Goody over in the emergency stop and having a crack at drifting.

The coverage has been cracking (as you would hope): but most important, it has taken the show well beyond the motoring pages and the petrol heads who read them and into the lifestyle and celebrity media.

Some shots from the event below and a video to follow shortly ...

July 21, 2008

SUPERBRANDS RIDES AGAIN

Bags of coverage for the launch of the latest Superbrands book - consumer superbrands this time around.

The challenge for the team was the fact that Google was top of the charts. You'd think that'd be hugely interesting, but for the fact that the same brand topped the chart of Business Superbrands (that you may remember we announced to media acclaim just a few months back).

Step forward the cunning folk of Seventy Seven who gave this latest table a hook based on the highly topical (as it turns out) fact that none of the big-four supermarkets makes the top-100 UK brands (despite their spending) and that the three of them that do make the charts at all have fallen substantially.

Coverage this morning has flowed through on BBC News Online, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, The Sun, Daily Record, The Guardian, The Scotsman and METRO. On the broadcast side, ITN, Channel4 News and BBC Radio Five Live have done pieces on the list.

Elsewhere, some the consumer tech titles are already writing the piece (leading on Google, as ever) with pieces cropping up on Web User and MacWorld. Meantime, the sector lists that we put out are being picked up in the trades with TravelWeekly, TTG, MotorTrader and TalkingRetail, all knocking in pieces.

As you'd expect, the marketing titles Marketing Week, mad.co.uk, UtalkMarketing and BrandRepublic have all covered the story.

The Superbrands team have been out and about this morning and afternoon doing interviews with broadcast left, right and centre and we're expecting a crop of tech pieces as the blogosphere wakes up to Google's top slot. Watch this space for more as it breaks.

July 17, 2008

SINGING FOR JOY IN SEVENTY SEVEN

We just found out that the Sing Up campaign has been shortlisted for a PR Week Award.

Which is really, truly lovely. We're all very, very pleased. Congrats go variously to Jess, Alice, Gareth, Caroline, Sarah and James.

Also to the lovely people at Sing Up (especially Clare, Michelle, Baz and Celi), as well as the teams at AMV and ArenaBLM, our partner agencies on the campaign.

July 16, 2008

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY FOR HAMLEY'S TEAM

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Stunning work just in from the Hamley's team (of Amanda, Caroline, Nicki, Fred, Jess and Alan). The Christmas in July event for the world's favourite toystore has cleaned up in today's papers and was everywhere on TV last night.

The event - the first of its kind that the store has held for some years - showcased the Hamley's buyers' top picks for the festive season.

Normally a bit of a session for the long leads (who also turned out in force), the team turned it into next-day news with a host of national print and broadcast journalists invited down.

Crews from BBC, SKY/five News and ITN scurried around (that would be pretty-much everyone then). Their teams were topped-up by folks from TimesTV, PA Multimedia and Associated Press.

Meanwhile, journalists from the Daily Mail, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, The Times, METRO, the Independent, Standard, Daily Express and Daily Mirror (who wrote the story twice) all pitched in to talk to buyers, retail directors and the ops director to get their takes on the top gifts for kids.

Our retro angle has seen the Teletubbies making a come-back, the Rubik's Cube tipped for greatness and a Dalek mask hit the headlines. Even office favourite, gnome bowling made an appearance. Stunning stuff.

What's more, however, the long-leads were out in force ... so the event achieved its dual purpose.

Journalists from Junior, Angels & Urchins, Stella, Essentials, Red, Cosmo, Prima (and Prima Baby), Practical Parenting, Good Housekeeping, Company ... amongst around 50 others all pitched up. Which means that we had over 80 journalists through the doors during the day and there is plenty more coverage to come.

It's feeling pretty festive in Seventy Seven this morning ...

(BTW, the picture is Seventy Seven managing partner, Alan rolling his sleeves up to don a Dalek mask for The Times.)

July 13, 2008

THE SHOW BEFORE THE SHOW

The Hamley's team launches its "Christmas in July" event on Tuesday this week. And with it, the top toys for this coming festive season. The event got a mention on Evan Davis' business magazine programme, The Bottom Line over the weekend.

July 10, 2008

JAMES AND HIS TOP TIPS

James' top tips on strategy appear in the IPA's Top Tips for Fast Strategy deck. Here are his words of wisdom. The other ones are much better.

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On a related note, we (the IPA Strategy Group) are putting together the next Fast Strategy conference and are starting to collect other people's top tips. If you have any, do pop them in the comments.

IDEAL HOME SHOW IN PR WEEK (AGAIN)

Ihs The Daily Mail Ideal Home Show team found its way into PR Week again this week.

Which is altogether rather lovely.

The team's "Innovation Nation" campaign was covered as one of the case studies in the magazine.

The search for Britain's best new home invention led to coverage across pretty much every broadcast outlet the BBC could offer us - from Radio 4 "Today" to BBC One's The One Show.

Most important, as the piece mentions, the coverage resulted in a 62% in pre-show ticket sales. Which is what really counts, we think.

July 04, 2008

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY FOR GALLO ...

We arranged a host of interviews for Gina Gallo, third-generation wine maker and director in E&J Gallo as she was in town for the London International Wine Fair. The final piece made its way through today and took pride of place as The Guardian's Friday interview. We're pretty chuffed with it, so thought that we would share.

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July 03, 2008

A WELL-OILED PR MACHINE

Seventy Seven launches the British International Motor Show in a couple of weeks.

Ahead of the opening, we managed to talk PR Week into doing a piece on the different agencies involved and how we all work so beautifully together - like a well-oiled machine, in fact.

The resulting piece is below (click for something that's read-able) and can also be read on the PR Week website (by those who have a subscription).

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July 01, 2008

SING UP AT GLASTONBURY

Seventy Seven took the Sing Up campaign on the road last week with a trip to the Glastonbury. The campaign got kids singing at the festival with professional vocal coaches giving lessons over the weekend.

The coverage was belting, with the highlight some stunning pieces on TelegraphTV, with one piece pre-event ...

... and another filmed at Glastonbury itself ...

There were also pieces on CBBC Newsround - both in their Glasto Press Packer online report and in a pre-rec piece that will air on the programme this evening (we think).

A wet and muddy Jess, alongside the team back at the office also sold-in interviews local radio - hitting BBC Somerset and BBC Bristol, amongst others.

However, aside from the coverage, the event delivered a fantastic experience for the kids who took part.

The weekend saw enormous enthusiasm for the music from the kids and their parents present were delighted to see their little darlings taking part, making friends and performing.

The team handed out over 300 branded T-shirts, branded microphones, bags and leaflets and feedback suggested that the children taking part would never forget the time they sang up live at Glastonbury 2008.

A very successful weekend altogether for the team.

June 30, 2008

JAMES AND THE AGE OF CONVERSATION

Turns out that James' piece for the next edition of "Age of Conversation" made the cut. So his words of wisdom will be appearing in print in the not-too-distant future. To find out more, see here and here.

June 27, 2008

LAST ERIC POST ... PROMISE

Great piece for the Partouche-Betting.com team in (and on - cover below with our boy pastered across the front of it) Sport Magazine this morning. No less than three mentions of the clients brand name and URL and inclusion of our photoshoot and ad still pics. You cannot get better than that, really (click the bottom pic to read the piece in full).

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June 25, 2008

PARTOUCHE SHOWREEL

We've popped together a quick showreel of our recent Partouche-Betting.com launch work with the legend who is Eric Cantona ... enjoy!


June 19, 2008

SING UP ... SHORT & SWEET

Quick one this. Lovely piece of work for Sing Up by the team (Jess, Caroline particularly, Gareth and Al) has resulted in a cracking piece in today's Daily Telegraph and a lovely piece about the campaign on TelegraphTV.

We're off to Glastonbury with the campaign to offer kids at the festival a chance at some group singing and this piece previewed what we are up to, as well as visiting a Sing Up project or two. Amazing work, team. Telegraph piece here and online TV piece here.

June 18, 2008

C'LEBS, STUNTS 'N' SPOOFS ...

As part of the FH Group Insider Knowledge sessions (stunningly organised by the lovely Bex), Alan and James gave the presentation below on "C'lebs, Stunts and Spoofs". By their own admission, nothing massively revelatory, but some good common sense that we thought worth sharing.

June 15, 2008

PR ... THE FUTURE'S BRIGHT?

We love wondering around ruminating on the state of the PR industry.

The lovely folks at the IPA invited Seventy Seven to speak at a Joint Industry day offering some pearls of wisdom about how to get into PR and what some of the trends are that make it such an attractive inudstry to come into right now.

The slides below don't make a huge amount of sense - yet, so we will be sticking up a summary of our thoughts in the next day or two

In the meantime, if anyone has any thoughts on major trends in PR, do please express them in the comments.

June 11, 2008

SEVENTY SEVEN PR ... AND FRIENDS

A shot from Monday's shenanigans ... From top, they are James, Anthony, Caroline, Fred, Alan, Eric, Jess, Lucy and Adam ... the Partouche Betting team.

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June 10, 2008

KING ERIC LAUNCHES NEW BETTING SERVICE

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The Seventy Seven team launched Partouche Online Betting to the UK this week.

The new service, launched over here to coincide with the start of Euro 2008, offers sports betting, but will (over time) grow to become a full-service onling gaming site. It's part of French company, Partouche, which is a billion-Euro plus French business.

SO ... the new company approached us to see what we could do to support their campaign, the ad for which featured one Eric Cantona as the King of England, exhorting Britain's fallen to pick themselves and get over their non-appearance in the Euros (full, two-and-a-half-minute ad here).

To support the launch, therefore, we have been working with Eric to secure coverage across the broadcasters (BBC Radio Five Live, talksport, SKY News and SKY Sports, BBC News 24 and News 24 online, amongst others).

We also sorted a photoshoot in Trafalgar Square, full-on with lions and throne (resulting in pieces in the Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph). Meanwhile, there were marketing pieces in Marketing Week and mad.co.uk.

From there, a launch event saw Eric doing a spot of comedy commentary as the French kicked off their Euro2008 campaign against Romania. The evening saw interviews with The Sun, Daily Telegraph, MoS, Evening Standard, Daily Mail Live, Daily Star (back page news     and a DPS feature), METRO - online here - The London Paper, Nuts and Loaded online, ZOO and FHM online, SPORT (should be a front-cover piece), Shortlist, the works.

So far, pieces have been rolling in nicely - particularly on the back of an interview with PA which has been picked up across the regional media - pieces on and in thisisNottingham, thisisExeter, icLiverpool, icScotland, icWales, Birmingham Post, Liverpool Post and others. There has also been trade coverage across TelecomPaper, Internet Poker, OnlineCasinoSuite, WinnerOnline, PokerPlayerClub, OnlineCasinoNews and others.

Lovely, lovely work by the team.

June 09, 2008

ANOTHER NEW FACE IN SEVENTY SEVEN

No, not another birth.

Jo Carr joined the agency today as our third managing partner. She used to work at teamSpirit (she ran the integrated agency's PR division) and was deputy MD at QBO.

She's worked on a bit of everything really (travel, food, restaurants, drinks, financial services, healthcare, the works). However, we were most impressed when we found out that she was the brains behind Sheila's Wheels' "blow up buddy" campaign a couple of years back.

She will be working on a handful of our existing clients and pitching like mad, we should think. The agency has got rather busy of late, so we're delighted to have her join after all this time.

She will be a managing partner and group board director alongside James and Alan. Welcome, Jo.

June 08, 2008

WELCOME TO SEVENTY SEVEN'S LATEST

James (and wife Anita) have just had a daughter. Welcome therefore to Imogen Rose Gordon-MacIntosh. And here's a little piccie of the wee sweetie ...

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May 30, 2008

FHG: ONE OF THE UK'S BEST WORKPLACES

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Fishburn Hedges Group (which comprises Seventy Seven, FHD and, of course, Fishburn Hedges), was named the eighth best place to work in the country by a survey in the Financial Times this week.

Which is really rather nice.(On the other hand, I'm off to join the wacky and crazy people over at Google: apparently, they have the best workplace in the country, a full seven times better than ours).

For those who might be interested (and have an FT user name and log-in), you might want to read up on the top-ten, learn more about how straight talking is key, about how self-management is also key (apparently), and know how we recruit and retain the best (except for me of course because I'm off to Google), as the FH Group is mentioned in the various articles on the FT's website.

Anyhow, with all that out of the way, it just remains to say that FHG is a lovely place to work and it's testament to all the people here that it hums and dings so well - this is the sixth time that we have made the top-20 in the past six years. Nice work, all ...

May 22, 2008

STUFF CROQUET, WE'VE GOT GNOME BOWLS

There are some perks to working on Hamley's. Like the toys that float through as samples.

Of course, we have to make sure a) they work and b) that we understand them fully as consumers in order to be able to pitch them to the media.

So it was that we had a lovely game of Gnome Bowls in the garden. Alan is getting quite good at it - as these before and after shots show.

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May 19, 2008

BOOZE ... "'LIKE, WOAH, THAT IS A LOT'."

Our chums over in Fishburn Hedges launched the advertising awareness campaign - Know Your Limits.

Ever the helpful bunch, Caroline agreed to act as a case study for the BBC News Online piece on the campaign. Apparently, she was "like, woah, that is a lot" when she found out that she had knocked back over 30 units - the recommended weekly amount being 14.

We're proud of our lass, so we are.

May 12, 2008

PHD ON CNBC

We do some consultancy work for PHD Network - the media planning and buying group and our sister company within the empire that is Omincom - to get them out of the trades and into the national media.

Spotting the rumours of a Microsoft/Facebook tie-up as a comment opportunity, we scored this piece for one of their managing partners on this mornings CNBC Squawk Box programme. A spot of opportunistic media relations that hit the mark, it seems.

April 15, 2008

IDEAL HOME SHOW 2008 SHOWREEL

Our work for the Ideal Home Show has seen a host of campaigns - from re-inventing the Good Wife Guide to creating "Innovation Nation" (which scored three pieces on BBC's The One Show) to updating the house of the future. Just some of the highlights ...

April 08, 2008

BRUNETTES HAVE MORE FUN ...?

LYCOS scored a hit this week with a spot of blatant news hi-jacking.

Carla Bruni's visit prompted us to start wondering whether blokes preferred a brunette lady on their arms these days ... an old story, but Carla sort of gave it a new twist (not to mention the host of former-blondes who have gone brunette).

So, a swift survey of the consorts of the world's most powerful men (actually, the world's 100 richest chaps) showed that over 60% were brunette - just 22% blonde.

A swift release in the name of top dating channel, Love@LYCOS later and we were in the Metro, Daily Express, Marie Claire, The Times and a handful of odd blogs (Newslite and ScarlettLetters amongst them.

March 28, 2008

JANE ASHER LAUNCHES THE IDEAL HOME SHOW

Nice piece that launched the Ideal Home Show, we thought. BBC Breakfast, Jane Asher, sofa, chat ... Loving the work ...


 

March 27, 2008

SEVENTY SEVEN ... AND THE AGE OF CONVERSATION

Just a brief note to say that we have been asked to contribute to the follow-up to the Age of Conversation - Age of Conversation: Why don't people get it? The Spinning Around team will be one of 275 writers contributing articles to the book. Looking forward. For a list of the authors, see Drew McLellan's site.

 

March 16, 2008

SHOWREEL: HOTELS.COM DOES IT AGAIN



HOTELS.COM DOES IT AGAIN ...

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The Hotels.com team has been having a bit of a week of it as we launched the latest installment of the Hotels.com Hotels Price Index.

Having spent the last couple of weeks writing and producing (thanks to the FHG Studio team) reports for the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, we launched the latest batch of stories across the continent. See the UK report here.

The HPI gives us a host of launch stories, along with fantastic features fodder. But as - if not more - importantly, it cements Hotels.com's expertise with the media themselves. We find that the report data is used months after launch and creates great relationships with the journalists who find it an invaluable resource.

Back to the launch, though, in the UK, we kicked off with a press conference attended by all the major trades, along with The Sun and Independent.

Announcing a raft of around ten different stories - from global analysis to reports on individual UK cities and from serious economic analysis to consumer-focused advice and information, meant it was all hands to the pumps.

So far, it's been a helluva haul. The nationals (both news and travel pages) have loved the story, with pieces in The Guardian er ... twice, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph er ... twice, The Sun er ... twice, The Times. There was also a full page "big question" op-ed in the Independent.

Broadcast news coverage came from Channel 4 News and SKY News.

Other national pieces came from regionalised pieces across the UK - Edinburgh News, The Scotsman, Western Mail er ... twice and Belfast News, amongst ten other pieces that aren't online.

Further afield, we've scored a clean-sweep across the Irish national papers, with pieces secured across the Irish Independent er ... twice, Galway News and Irish Times, amongst others.

As you would expect, the regional papers have lapped the story up with pieces across the York Press er ... twice, icCoventry, Birmingham Post and around 30 others to date - again, couldn't find the fellas online.

Across the continent, our European partner agencies (Marco de Communicacion, i&e Consultants and PublicLink) have been knocking in some great coverage of their own.

In Spain, Terra.es, El Economista, Preferente, EuropaPress, DiarioSur.es, Las Provicias, Publico.es, HostelTur and elcorreogallego.es, all covered the story. In France coverage came through leading newswire RelaxNews, Ctendance.com, LeQuotidienDuTourisme.com, Tourmag.com and LaRep.com, with more to come.

In Germany, meantime, they've had a bit of a headstart as the HPI launched a couple of weeks early at tour show, ITB. Amazing stuff across the trades and major regionals includes DPA, n-tv, ADAC-Reisen, Schweizertouristik, Pressetext.at, ahgz, Frankfurter Neue Presse, Berliner Morgenpost, Der Standart, Business-Travel, Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Aachener Zeitung, Saarbrücker Zeitung and Kölnische Rundschau.

Fantastic stuff from the whole team.

March 04, 2008

IDEAL HOME SHOW HAT TRICK

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It's been three in a row for the Ideal Home Show this week. Following the team's stories on the "home of the future" and the launch of "Innovation Nation" (which has got over 300 entries by the way, shortlist announced shortly), more coverage for the UK's favourite show ...

The creation of the "Good Wife Guide" for the Show - an update of the 1950s guide by the same name, has swept the nationals and has been widely picked up in both the news pages and by the comment writers.

The research - which showed that men want a "great cook, who argues" was released to the world (and its wife) as a Sunday-for-Monday this week.

Already in the bag are news pieces in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Metro. Lots of regional coverage followed - this pieces in the Aberdeen P&J and the Yorkie Post give a taste - as well as online, like this piece on MarieClaire.co.uk.

Following the news, Bryony Gordon in the Telegraph and Simon Mills in the Daily Mail followed-up on the research in their columns. And very nice it is to see them do so, too - particularly given that they mentioned the source of the work.

UPDATE: Ideal Home Show pieces following-up today in the Daily Telegraph (from our "home of the future") and the Independent (from the Good Wife Guide story above). Lovely!

March 03, 2008

CROSS-HITCHED

Some piccies from Jess' wedding featuring the Seventy Seven crowd in all their glory. Hmmm ...