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Couple of nice pieces today for the Federation of Wholesale Distributors "My Shop is Your Shop" campaign during National Independents Week, a celebration of the UK's local and independent stores. BBC Radio 4 Today and BBC Radio Five Live Breakfast will do nicely ...
Cracking stuff today as the My Shop is Your Shop campaign made the front-page splash of the Sun as part of a new partnership to celebrate National Independents Week, which celebrates the role in communities across the country of the local and convenience store. An absolute belter for the campaign as the week kicks off ...
Amanda has also popped up in PR Week today as she gives a second opinion on a campaign to ensure that childcare becomes an option for chaps.
A high risk strategy, she concludes, but one which ultimately paid off with some cracking coverage for the activity. Nice work by the Children's Workforce Development Council and Band & Brown, it would appear.
There isn't a version of it on the PR Week website, so will pop a link to the scan up here at some stage in the not-too-distant, so you'll just have to take my word that it is a lovely piece in the meantime ...
Nice piece in PR Week about our winning a bunch of work from retailer, SPAR.
Many fun things are to follow as we seek to raise awareness of the quality of the SPAR's wine offering across their wine aisles and turn them into something of a "challenger brand" when it comes to the grapey stuff.
Big congrats go to the team of Alan, Cazza, Nicki and James. All good ...
Read all about it ... here.
More lovely work from the In Harmony team with this stunner on Look East ...
They're like buses someetimes, new business wins.
You wait a while for one to arrive then three arrive at once.
So it has been in Seventy Seven.
Sadly, we can't yet say who they are but news reached us over the last couple of weeks of wins for an Eco-brand, a soon to launch online music service, a major national retailer and a youth charity campaign.
Oh, and new work from Gallo Family Vineyards and Hamleys has also landed. So that should keep us happily busy for the next few months.
Happy days ...
Quite fun ... we've taken thetrainline.com into advertising on sheep. Or Lambient Media, as we have chosen to christen it. Some piccies below of some of the finest sheep that can be bought (or found thanks to some well-placed advertising in Farmer's Guardian).
For those who want to see the "making of lambient media" film - it's true that NOTHING can be done now without a "making of ..." film - we stuck a quick report of the antics on YouTube. Rather pleasantly, the Daily Express decided that it was worthy of a place on their website, too ...
This week was a loud and exuberant one for In Harmony - the English community development programme that is based on the widely acclaimed Venezuelan, El Sistema programme.
The Venezuelan programme, responsible for providing some of the country's poorest young people with instruments, training and ultimately a different way of life, has produced the most exciting young conductor of our time, Gustavo Dudamel and subsequently the most celebrated youth orchestra ever, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra.
This week, the Orchestra is in residency at the South Bank - the actual concerts were sold out over 10 months ago but the DCSF gave out hundreds of free tickets to young people around the country to watch the rehearsals. The residency provided a prime opportunity for In Harmony to demonstrate just how far the UK's own project has come since the concept that was announced at the end of 2007.
The young people of Lambeth, one of the pilot areas chosen to pilot the In Harmony project, performed at the South Bank Centre on Friday April 17th, and the projects leader and champion, Julian Lloyd Webber sat on the panel of the Saturday symposium, discussing the role of programmes such as El Sistema and In Harmony, alongside the revered founder and director of El Sistema, José Antonio Abreu, chaired by James Naughtie of BBC Radio 4's TODAY programme and the Guardian's Chief Arts Writer, Charlotte Higgins.
In order to hit the media while passions were running high about the residency and also take advantage of having the various projects in London, we contacted key national media targets prior to the residency to ensure that In Harmony was recognised and referenced as the English programme.
As a result, the In Harmony programme was included in general reviews and features in The Times, The Guardian and the Independent.
Working with the South Bank press office, interviews were also set up for Julian Lloyd Webber and Brendon LePage, the leader of the Lambeth In Harmony project, with National Geographic Kids and the Evening Standard. Music Teacher Magazine attended the event along with the South London Press and further features have been lined up with The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and the Independent.
Nice case study in PR Week on our campaign for Royal Blind (click image to enlarge).
Nice piece in Marketing Week in which Wolff Olins are quoted on the Coke and innocent deal that was announced this week. Interesting stuff indeed (click the image to enlarge it). They did another interview with the Sunday Times, so will pop a link to that here when it's out.
Part client-related, partly just plain interesting, this one.
Google, YouTube, London Business School and the Daily Telegraph have partnered together to create an interesting business channel on the video site: Survival of the Fastest.
On the one hand, it demonstrates the fact that YouTube is interesting beyond animals falling off stuff and babies eating things. Which is a good thing in itself.
It's also interesting because of some of the people who are involved - one of whom is Ije Nwokore at Wolff Olins (Seventy Seven's very own clients). He does a piece on whether brands matter in tough economic times. And we think that it's jolly interesting ...
Also of interest is the IPA and Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland talking about customer service in a downturn ...
There's a LOAD of other good stuff on the channel - it's well worth a watch. Variously, they are on the themes of Speed, Marketing and Insights.
Isn't this a lovely piece?
Alice sorted it out with ITV Meridien and it is a BEAUTY ...
Thought that folks might like to know that we have revamped and relaunched our MediaWatch weblog.
Taking a look at it, we realised that it'd got a bit behind the latest moves (too much real work to be blogging for the last couple of months). So we've stripped it back and are relaunching it.
Lots of good stuff, including the latest journalist moves (the useful ones, not the fact that Needlework and Cross-stitch Monthly has got a new editor), as well as relaunches of mags, supps and websites.
Oh, and the odd piece of commentary on the media news that we think matters.
Cracking interviews with CNN ...
... and BBC News 24 ...
Would you look at that ... our offices on Google StreetView ...
Those with Elephantine memories will remember that we are doing some work with Youth Music on the impact of games like Guitar Hero on the take up of real instruments?
Well, the campaign that kicked off in December last year (but which has generated national coverage on and off ever since), scored its final major piece this week as the BBC World Service Digital Planet programme covered the report with interviews with Richard Stilgoe and Andrew Missingham of the campaign.
What a lovely evening it was settling down to listen to BBC Radio 3's flagship music feature programme Music Matters last night. No fewer than three Seventy Seven clients featured in a music education special recorded at the Manchester MusicLearningLive!2009 event.
Christina Coker (chair of Youth Music), a Sing Up schools music education programme and an interview with Julian Lloyd Webber about the In Harmony programme that we PR on behalf of DCSF all feature in the show. Lovely stuff for a laid back Saturday night listen ...
It's lovely to do some storming client work (and there have been some really sweet campaigns from Wolff Olins, Royal Blind, some lovely stuff on Hotels.com and Sing Up). But it's also nice to win new stuff.
So we were delighted when we heard that we'd won thetrainline.com PR business.
For those few of you who might not know, the site is the UK's biggest independent train booking site and we've picking up their UK brand promotion work. Really lovely stuff.
Expect to see all manner of train-travel related stuff from the team in the nation's newspapers shortly ... We kick off with them mid-month.
Sweet work from a team that includes Jo, Nicki, Izzy, Chris, Kathryn and James.
PR Week have scribbled a piece on the news here.
Sometimes you triumph in adversity in PR ... challenges become opportunities and sound media relations turns a story that might go against you into a chance to tell a positive tale ...
So it has been in the case of the Sing Up team and the report on music-making in schools by OfSTED.
The report looked like it might lead to a rash of negative reporting, critical as it was of school music – largely based on the inspectors’ findings in secondary schools, rather than at primary level, which is Sing Up’s concern.
However, some fast digesting of chunky reports, swift assembling of responses and some sound media relations from the team of Jess, Alice, Lucy and James led to some broadcast coverage that would have done a proactive PR campaign proud – let alone a piece of work where we were in a potential firing line.
Particular highlights include the agenda-setter as Sing Up ambassador Howard Goodall took to Radio 4’s Today Programme to put the case for the music sector, complete with children singing drifting across the airwaves at 7.45 in the morning.
That was followed by a belting piece skilfully marshalled by Alice and Lucy as BBC education editor James Westhead headed to a Sing Up school to do some filming for the One O’Clock and Six O’Clock TV news bulletins. We were rather pleased with the branding in this one ...
Other highlights include another Howard interview on LBC as our singing ambassador went out once again to champion music in schools. No doubt there will be more to come, but we’re well-pleased to be getting our point across in ways that are compelling and engaging for parents and teachers listening-in.
Good work from Alan and James this ... With a bit of help from the Beeb's Rory Cellan Jones, no less.
Facebook hit the ripe old age of five today ... Spotting an opportunity, our erstwhile Wolff Olins publicists swung into what passes for action where they are concerned.
The opportunity to use the birthday coverage as a reason to talk about Wolff Olins' "Brand Next" thinking - that brands must now create platforms for their users to do useful things, that they must free themselves to be defined by their users rather than trying to push their own myths and images and that they must become links for people and organizations to come together rather than organizational islands - seemed a natural fit.
They first scored an interview with BBC west coast corrie Maggie Shiels, who popped quotes into her News Online piece.
A swift follow-up with RCJ led to him pinging our pitch note across White City, a call from News 24 and an appearance by director Robert Jones to do a live in the studio (he did us proud). Lovely work altogether ...
BBC News24 piece below ...
Nice piece (we thought) for Wolff Olins as their CEO, Karl Heiselman, chats to Tyler Brûlé about "brand America" in the wake of the inauguration of Barack Obama. Sweet angle, nicely delivered. And some really interesting commentary on the whole area ... New Stars and Stripes, anyone?
Our work for Royal Blind in showreel form ...
We launched our campaign for charity Royal Blind this week as they marked the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth during National Braille Week.
At the same time, we launched an appeal to raise £2 million to save one of the UK's leading braille "printing" presses - which ensures that blind people have access to the written word.
To bring the campaign to life and give it media currency, we recruited Scottish author Ian Rankin (whose son attends the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh) as an ambassador for the campaign.
And we cleaned up in the media.
The Times covered the story with our pictures (we brailled part of Rankin's Fleshmarket Close and created an installation on the walls of the street of the same name for a photocall).
The Guardian has put its weight behind the campaign with news coverage (and more to come), as well as an editorial in praise of braille.
STV, GMTV Scotland and the BBC all covered the story for TV, while You & Yours weighed in with a piece on Radio 4 and Radio Five Live also covered the story.
Across the regions, there were pieces across BBCs Radio Scotland, York, Solent, Bristol, West Midlands and Three Counties (amongst others) and another 60-odd pieces from the various interviews co-ordinated with our chums at MarketTiers.
And - what with a Scottish charity and a Scottish author, the nationals north of the border also weighed in with lengthy pieces across the Scotsman (twice), Record, P&J and Herald.
The team of Alan, Nicki and Amy are justifiably proud of what has been a fantastic campaign. And thanks to the work, Royal Blind should be well on their way to hitting their fundraising target.
One of the secret Santa gifts (Lucy's, as it happens) was this fabulous set of cups ... Pick Your Nose cups, they're called. And very fetching Alan and Alice look with them too!
James got involved in judging the Panasonic Next Generation Talent contest this week ... as they searched for new ideas from young creatives to advertise their new TV.
Some
of the shortlisted work (there were six pieces that a panel of judges,
including James shortlisted) was stunning and well worth a look.
For
James' money ... Messing Around was a bit too Sony given the Play-Doh, but in
another media could work ... Boxes is lovely but perhaps a bit generic
... Tree could do with some work but is a lovely concept ... and
Memories was a lovely, lovely idea that I could see working well for the
brand ...
Anyhow, James judged, but then the people were asked to vote and, lo, they did.
"Boxes" came out on top in the advertising contest. Congrats to the lovely people who put together this rather lovely piece of visual communication ...
Anyone wishing to watch the judging process and get the thoughts of the judges (including me!) can do so by watching the couple of films below ...
One on the process overall ...
Another with some comments on the winner ...
We've been unleashing our inner rock gods for Youth Music as a team of Alice, Amanda, James and Jess were PRing a report on the influence of video games on kids' propensity to take up real instruments.
The campaign was an odd one ... we needed to hit parents who might be buying games at Christmas, the hard-core gaming community AND the educational and music establishments.
So a combination of national and regional radio and some serious pitching to the online gaming and trade websites seemed like the natural answer.
We're just waiting on the final tally, but we reckon that we managed to hit a little of 60 regional radio stations offering a combination of Andrew Missingham (author of our report, which established that around 1 million people between 12 and 18 have been inspired to take up an instrument thanks to games) and Richard Stilgoe for some musical gravitas.
SKY Radio delivered the bulk of those fellas thanks to a cunningly sold-in news package that was neatly syndicated out, but BBC radio stations chipped in to the tally in large style.
Hitting the gaming crowds, meantime, a couple of well-placed features did the trick. A piece with TimesOnline delivered the depth and gravitas that we wanted, while a news piece in the Daily Telegraph's gaming section meant that the rest of the gaming world would sit up, take note and copy and paste - reaching far and wide across the world's online gaming community.
And pick up they did, with pieces on ... MSN, WiiGamer, Kotaku, GamesDog, C&VG, PCFormat, GoNintendo, WiiParent and TechRadar. The education sector coverage is coming through more slowly, but is coming ... so far, pieces on EduNews and Music4Games ... more to follow on that front.
All-in-all, however, we're showing that Youth Music ROCKS!
Just to mention a fun thing that we have done with our Hotels.com client ... Picture Pillows!
Basically, we all know how unglamourous business travel is, don't we? Anonymous hotel meeting rooms, anonymous hotel lobbies and, apart from the drive from the airport, the only thing you see of the city is perhaps a Euro-bar that could be anywhere?
Well. that may be dull, but worse is being away from loved ones. Now, the Picture Pillow may not replace a wife/husband/child/lover, but at least it's a reminder of them.
You can get yours (if you are one of the lucky 100 people selected, as this is just a trial at the moment) by emailing pillowphotos@hotels.com with your chosen image.
Lovely ...!
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 ...
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.
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.
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 ...
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!
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.
The website is a piece of work that I am loving quite a lot ...
We also carried the new work onto the weblogs ...
Then there is there are the various applications of the logo and new photography across the offices - including new graffiti-painted meeting room ...
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 ...
The In Harmony team scored this week with a cracking piece sbout the campaign on Radio4's You & Yours ...
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 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 ...).
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 ...
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.
Looking forward to this ... COME ON TEAM SEVENTY SEVEN!
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.
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.
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!
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 ...
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
