SPINNING AROUND: SEVENTY SEVEN THINKING OUT LOUD

BRIXELS ... RATHER CLEVER

Lego continues to be used for amazing and remarkable things. The latest is Brixels, who will make you a Lego portrait. Wonderful, weird, whacky and shows what a phenomenally social brand Lego has become, creating around it a constellation of fans that only add to its appeal, likeability and fame.

PROBABLY THE BEST ONLINE SHOP IN THE WORLD

Go here.

Don't touch ANYTHING. Let it load.

Wait.

A bit more ...

There.

Good, eh?!

WAITER, THERE'S ADVERTISING IN MY SOUP ...

Following on from dogvertising, cowvertising and indeed Seventy Seven PR's Lambient Media, we have Fly-vertising. A sort of marketing swat team.

THE LATEST, GREATEST FLIPNOTE FILM

Freddy Fibs is back this week in Nintendo's latest flipnote film.

THere's more about the whole thing here.

HATS OFF ... SPAR GOES REGIONAL WITH WINE

Finally managed to track the clip down and get it up online ... Jonathan Ross, Dara O'Briain and Dominic Cooper have a crack at the SPAR regional wine labels on the show last night. Loving it. A lot ...

THETRAINLINE.COM STORMS THE CHARTS

Many smiles on the faces of thetrainline.com team this week as their iPhone App stormed the App Store charts, clocking in as the second most downloaded free applications in the world.

Lovely stuff, we thought to ourselves.

So far, it's been favourably reviewed by many nice folk (thank you nice folk). And so it should have been, what with an offline timetable, as well as live and updated train times, a natty little "next train home" feature and a "last train home" thingy, too.

Well worth a look.

HATS OFF TO THE PR ... DOWN IN NULLARBOR

An absolute belter as yet another Aussie tourist authority scores what will, we predict, go on to become an international sensation ... the world's longest golf course.

Hmmm ...

Ostensibly a course spread across over 800 miles of outback, the golf course is reckoned to take five to seven days to play. Funny, though, how the greens would appear to be made out of astroturf and look like someone might've popped them down overnight.

The finest quote in the whole story (and this is from that most august of media establishments, the BBC), is ...

The fourth hole at Nundroo claims to have the largest population of southern hairy-nosed wombats anywhere in Australia - surely a golfing first

After the "Greatest Job in the World" scam, this marks another feather in the Australian tourism industry's PR cap. And hence we doff our hats to them. From Blighty ... good work, chaps.

IBUYECO BACKS (PARK)ING DAY IN THE UK

Much fun and many games in Seventy Seven this week as the ibuyeco team brought the San Francisco-originated (PARK)ing Day to the UK for the first time.

Basically, a one-day event that encourages people to legally and legitimately book out a public parking space and to create a little area of calm in it by creating a mini-park in the area.

In all truth, the whole affair is best-explained in this film-ette that was created by the team and seems to have been picked up widely by the eco-blogs. Which is lovely ...

For those who might be interested, the highlight of the coverage was BBC London, who managed to stick the story into their regional news loop on the day, along with plenty of online stuff. Nice work to a happy team of Jo, Izzy, Laura, Ro, Shaun, Emily and lots of others from across the agency.

CADBURY IS AT IT AGAIN ... THEIR FIRST SINGLE

Now this was interesting ... really interesting. For a start, I like the music. I kind of like the video too.

But I love the idea behind it. When Cadbury said that A Glass and a Half Full Productions was going to do more than make ads, I was sceptical, like so many others.

Well, they've only bloody gone and done it.

Their first single and film. From Ghana (more than a little bang on from a brand perspective, in a market that had done about as much as there was to do to shout about sourcing).

Absolutely marvellous piece of thinking, of creativity and a real demonstration of what a brand can do when it puts its mind to it, as well as its heart on its sleeve. Genius.

Oh, and profits from the sale of the single will go towards funding education projects in cocoa-growing areas of Ghana. So it's got a conscience too.

GUITAR HERO PUTS THE BOOT IN

Thought that this was a lovely collaboration: Guitar Hero x DM limited editions.

Classic 14 hole DM boots with an extremely subtle (so subtle you wouldn't know unless you were an "insider") guitar logo across the back.

But it also got me to thinking that if experiential might've been en vogue a couple of years back and that it's now all about social meeja, maybe PR agencies should be thinking more about taking a lead in putting together these kinds of partnerships for their clients.

As brands become more social and as so many have huge fan bases or communities (whether online or off), so a smart partnership provides a way of sharing those fan bases and a way for both brands to benefit as a result.

So, in this case, Guitar Hero makes DM contemporary and "now" and helps them access a younger generation of rockers, keeping the brand modern and transitioning it into Generation Y, so DM gives Guitar Hero an aura of rock legend credibility and endorsement.

It's a funny thing, but we seem to be working on a lot more of this kind of activity for a couple of our clients at the moment. But it feels to me like we should be doing more of it.

A smart brand partnership, where there is something to be gained for both partners, means that each can create and access the other's consumer base (whether online or off), new and surprising (and therefore newsworthy) things can be created and the world starts to look a happy place.

Sure, there have already been some stunners (Nike+ with Apple springs to mind, H&M or New Look working with designers and style leaders likewise).

But it also feels to me like PR agencies should be at the forefront of these kinds of partnerships. We're a bunch of people who are tactically minded, we understand relationships and how they can be forged to mutual benefit and we ought to know how to make these kinds of partnerships work hard for all parties.

I reckon that this is going to be an area that we really should be watching and developing our skills in, because done well, it ought to be one in which we have a lot to offer, skills-wise.

HATS OFF ... CASH IN COCKNEY

Enjoyed this a lot as I ambled in this morning ... a bank machine that does Cockney rhyming slang.

Bank Machine has introduced an ATM that uses rhyming slang in its menus in select machines across East London. Bloody marvellous idea, simple, effective and has gone global.

Top pieces that we've spotted (no doubt the PR team will be rifling through the papers) included The Times, the BBC - with a belting radio interview featuring Bank Machine's ironically Scottish spokesperson - as well as such titles at the San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Jamaica Observer and New Zealand Herald.

Blimey guv, a belter.

HATS OFF ... BRIEFS IN NEWS

Okay, Okay, so it's a bit PR 101 ... Idea Number 12: Ban Something.

AND, it's the second time that Alton Towers has managed to pull the same trick (they banned children wearing high heels in a bid to evade the height restrictions on their rides, which is actually a work of genius).

Anyhoo ... Alton Towers has claimed that it is to ban Speedos in its waterpark for not being family friendly. Or that it is considering a ban on Speedos, in all truth. But it's newspapers, so the "considering" bit of the whole thing was neatly dropped.

My favourite take on the story was the Melbourne Sun Herald: Budgie Smugglers Banned from British Theme Park. Budgie Smugglers? Only in Australia ...

But the happy story managed to make across the nationals as news: The Guardian, Daily Mail, Express, Times, SKY, METRO et al all picking up the story (for silly season has hit hard this year).

And, what's more, the torrid tale of a curtailing of male self-express managed to make it to the comment pages with a variety of the major commentators weighing-in to the debate with much pondering over the Gallic vs British approach to poolside sartorial elegance in the Observer, for example.

The Mirror, meanwhile, followed-up with Celebs in Speedos, an altogether lower-brow take on the debating aspect of the story.

All of which just goes to show us a number of things still hold true in the happy world of PR. That the silly season still exists, that sometimes a cute idea is worth rolling out even if it's been done before, that sometimes, it's about the media you know.

And that the best things in the world is a brave client willing to take a punt and have some fun ...

WHEN TOP GEAR MADE ADS

... they were actually rather amusing. Made me smile gently ... it's the idea that you have in the office, fall off your chair laughing about but know is too obscene ever to mention to the client. Hey ho ...

For those who might be interested, this was the effort that the boys came up with before Jeremy created the spot above and James "made" the effort below (which does actually look like a VW ad, to be fair to him and the team of people who helped him) ...

COMPANY BLOGS SHOULD BE LIKE THIS?

The World's Best Ever features a piece on all of the finest ads for off-beat fashion and lifestyle retailer, American Apparel. SEE, there IS a marketing-related reason for the image above.

Seriously, though, flicking through some of the ads, it got me to thinking that this is a brand that is utterly and remarkably of the moment. You can understand in so many ways, flcking through Dov Charney's almost-pornographic images, how the brand has gone global.

It's a business that wears its heart on its sleeve (sweatshop free cotton was where it started out), celebrates its people (many of those who feature in the ads are staff) and sells bloody good product at pretty reasonable prices.

But more, it's got a leader who feels like he still stamps a mark on a helluvalot that the company still does - including how it speaks to its consumers.

(PS. should agency blogs have posts like this on them - particularly with pics like the one above? Dunno, strikes me that if they don't have them, they should.)

LAUNCHING YOUTH MUSIC BOX

Seventy Seven has been working with Youth Music, the music charity, to launch Youth Music Box. Basically, a fantastic music-making installation down at the Southbank Centre open now (11.00 am-7.00 pm daily) until 31 August. And it is brilliant, as this piece from the Beeb explains ...

SOUTHWEST STEWARD ROCKS THE PLANE

Southwest (forerunner of all things easyJet) is a brand that is the stuff of legend in branding circles. Watching this, you can understand why ...

HATS OFF ... J'AIME BLACKPOOL (NOIR PISCINE?)

The BBC went bloody nuts for this today - Brekkie, the One and Six, Today, PM, the works. They must be delighted up Lancashire way tonight.

For those who may not have seen the quite brilliant coverage (nice work chaps), the claim is that Blackpool is trying to appeal to the French with an arthouse film pastiche. Really? Honestly?

Like f*&k they are ... But my God it makes a story, doesn't it?

So it was that they managed to roll out a couple of belting case studies - a modern B&B (complete with White Co toiletries, free in-room WiFi and flat screens in every "chambre". Lovely stuff. That and a French geezer who arrived some time ago and has never left. Now HE was a bit on the inspired side.

At that point, the story was made. It's got some cracking pick-up across the onlines, the YouTube film has got a paltry 5,000 views. But it's done the job. Bags of coverage showing British - that's BRITISH - holidaymakers the wonders of Blackpool.

Lovely stuff. Our chapeau are duly doffed.

SPOT THE BRANSON

An entirely un-fun new game ... spot where Sir Richard crops up in his own ads

On the cleaning truck at around eight seconds in this one, for example ...

Only slight problem is the backlash that the whole thing has attracted ...

This from the BBC website: "The billionaire Virgin boss appears with forearms covered with fake tattoos and blacked-out teeth as he empties bins at Glasgow's Central Station. The RMT rail union said it demonstrated a patronising attitude to staff who had worked hard to make him a fortune."

Now the man who has a made a lifetime of battling common enemies is a bit stuffed .. does he take on his own staff in a fight and try to defend it all, or does he accept that he's been a bit of a twat this time around? I'd go for the latter option, if it were me ... oops

HOTELS.COM TO LAUNCH ROOMS ON THE MOON

We've been working long and hard on the soft launch of Hotels.com's Lunar Rooms ... offering travellers the opportunity to book rooms for a mere £800 per night (though this doesn't include travel). Read all about it here.

PARENTAL ADVISORY: EXPLICIT LYRICS

Skittles got slightly stuffed over by the evil comic genius who is Rob Manuel.

This being an agency of blog of sorts, I can't really post what he did (it contains the C word).

SO ... if you don't mind a bit of sweariness, do amble over to his blog and see what he has been up to with the American confectioner as the butt of his humour.

It is really very funny.

SHARP(IE) PR IDEA IS WHEELY HOT ...

 

Sharp idea from the folks at either (or all of) Lamborghini, Sharpie Pens or a Miami car importer called Prestige.

For my money, Sharpie is coming out ahead by some long margin ... as someone has taken a bunch of marker pens and tattooed a rather pricey Lamborghini Gallardo.

Poking around on the web, it turns out that this Sharpie Lamborghini is well-covered across the internet and has acquired almost a cult status.

Not bad for a marker pen brand. Just thought that it was a lovely idea ...

RYANAIR SPOOF MADE ME SMILE ...

By all accounts, Michael O'Leary is apparently contemplating "charing a pound to spend a penny" installing pay-as-you-pee toilets on his flights (favourite line from his "spokesman" ... "maybe he was just taking the piss" ... seriously, the Ryanair PR said that to The Times). Brilliant.

Anyway, in the wake of said announcement, came across this on Gizmodo that made me chuckle gently to myself ...

HATS OFF ... LOVING THE DANIELS & MCGEE STUNT

Hats off to the good people of Closer magazine and to whoever is doing the publicity for Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee - who knows, perhaps they do their own.

These shots - of the couple spoofing Posh 'n' Becks' iconic Armani ad - hit Closer and the nation's papers today. A quick search on Google News, that well-known barometer of all things pop culture, has thrown up a bunch of scores for the story.

Oh, and I just saw it on both five News and C4 News, which pretty much spans culture high and low in anyone's book.

What is utterly lovely about it is that it's a great example of taking a risk ... and it paying off in really large style.

There's a bunch of people out there mildly impressed with how good Debbie is looking and putting any distaste about having to see Paul in those pants by thinking that the fella's done rather well for himself.

The only person who might be a bit pissed is Mr. Armani. The arch fashion publicity-seeker might draw the line at embracing his latest celebrity ambassadors.

I, however, was impressed. Lovely, lovely work

MORPH FOLLOWS IN GROMIT'S FOOTSTEPS ...

Bloody marvellous ... Morph has followed Wallace & Gromit into fashion photography ... He appears in the latest edition of Esquire magazine.

A bit of a coup for both brands and they're cleaning up, media-wise. The BBC, Telegraph and a host of regionals have all scribbled up the story. Congrats to both Morph (he's thirty it transpires) and to Esquire editor Jeremy Langmead for pulling off a blinding publicity coup for his charge.

And what a fitting tribute to Tony Hart that Aardman Animations created this shoot in the month that Morph's creator passed on to the great studio in the sky.

Piccies follow ...

HATS OFF TO THE PR ... BARBIE AT FIFTY

Spotted this one over Christmas and am now just coming back to it ahead of February when we'll find out if it actually worked ...

Barbara Millicent Roberts (born March 9, 1959) hits fifty this year. Most of us know the lady in question as simply "Barbie", the Mattel-owned global superbrand.

Now she has long had an association with fashion - as designers including those from Benetton and Burberry to Versace and Vera Wang along with Giorgio Armani, Christian Lacroix and Monique Lhuillier have designed for her,

To celebrate her half century, however, the IHT reports that her maker is really pushing the boat out with a Barbie themed show at New York Fashion Week.

Names including Christian Louboutin and Vera Wang have been confirmed as involved with the event at which fifty top designers will send Barbie-inspired designs down the runway. That alone is going to get the world's fashion media agog and engage a new generation of yummy mummies through the fashion pages of the world's glossy media. Genius.

But the fun doesn't stop there ... the brand has also signed Bloomingdales, which will feature the diminutive clothes horse across its Fashion Week windows, which will no doubt score yet more coverage for both brands.

And, in the spirit of putting something back, Mattel is offering bursaries and scholarships to a new generation of designers in a partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America, ensuring that the association with fashion continues into the next generation.

Genius, if you ask me.

Now predicting that something will be a media hit on the basis of rumours of a creative is always dangerous ... but my bet would be that this one is going to be internationally huge and that we will all be seeing a lot more of Barbie thanks to some canny partnerships ... This is one fifty year old who will be looking fabulous in the world's media this spring ...

HATS OFF ... TO THE TRAFALGAR SQUARE LIONS

Stunt of the year? I would say so ...

The latest VisitLondon stunt (they should be loving Cake as this one follows the turfing of Leicester Sqaure - even if the agency does seem to have an unhealthy obsession with the London landmark) is a gem ...

In essence, get an animator to create a projection that makes the lions that lurk on the square come to life and speak for - oooohhhh ... about an hour, maybe two.

But then get the film put together of how it was done and all of a sudden your out there on the interweb (just where visitors to London are going to be hanging out) and you have media gold.

Bank on a visit from BBC London (well, it was going to be them or London Tonight, wasn't it?) and you're made. The story made a series of websites across the land - the Mail and Telegraph amongst them ...

A really bloody sweet idea (the genesis of which was apparently a fable that if Big Ben chimes thirteen times, the lions will come to life - though that could be a spot of PR liberty-taking), neatly executed with some coverage that just looks easy.

Always does when the idea is a belter, though ... Hats off to you, fine folk of Cake.

GETTING YOUR FAMILY "ON THE CASE"

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 ...!

GAY TIMES WANTS ... YOU!

The Gay Times - in a swift publicity stunt that appears to have worked - has challenged a bunch of ad agencies to have a crack at advertising homosexuality.

The results are quite amusing - who knows, might even be effective. And they appear to be picking up some online comment left right and centre, with a whole bunch of blogs across adland popping them up on their sites, quite apart from their use by folks who are more naturally interested in the topic.

Cunning stunt from the mag, if you ask me ...

Credits go to ...

"Go Gay"
Created by The King’s Arms Creative, Manchester
Creatives: Paul Watson and Lynton Hemsley

"Guy Minds Think Alike"
Created by Saint@RKCR/Y&R, London
Creatives: Paul Graham, Simon Labbett, Jeeves & Pete and Kris SalibaAnything

"She Can Do"
Created by James & Joe, Leeds
Creatives: James Kiers and Joe Callahan

via CR Blog

HATS OFF TO THE PR ... FIAT ECO:DRIVE

A lot of the time, it's not about the volume of the coverage that you generate for your campaign, it's about the depth of messaging that you convey. The launch of Fiat's eco:Drive ticked that box big time, in my humble ...

We read about the new eco:Drive system in Contagious Magazine and thought at the time that it was an interesting thing because it was created by a marketing agency but goes to the heart of both product and brand.

In their words:

eco:Drive is a downloadable widget that can be transferred onto a USB stick and plugged into Fiat’s Blue&Me technology (a USB port on the dashboard).

The software then evaluates your driving and marks it out of 100. Tutorials then encourage drivers to improve their driving, their score and ultimately, reduce their carbon emissions.

The clever bods at AKQA have taken all the favourite bits from Nike+ and worked them into their cars which we think is pure genius.

Clever, huh?

So, to launch the service, the team pulled a bit of a PR blinder. They partnered with the AA to enter a Fiat 500 equipped with eco:Drive into the MPG Marathon: a 400 mile race in which the winner is the motorist who drives most efficiently and has the lowest MPG. Then they popped AA CEO, Edmund King into the motor in question.

The clever bit was popping the BBC's travel corrie, Tom Symonds into a similarly-equipped car.

So it was that on day one of the campaign, Tom was featured on Breakfast (and pretty much every other rolling news outlet) taking a lesson in fuel-efficient driving alongside an AA instructor (nice plug for the driving school).

But then, on each news outlet through the day for two days (day one here and day two here), Tom was featured driving his motor and giving updates on how he was getting on: how his driving style had changed and what impact that was having on both the eco-friendliness and cost of his motoring.

Which is just the kind of exposure Fiat needed, really. Cracking work, guys.

HATS OFF TO THE PR ... GOOGLE GOGGLES

Have to say that Google is not a brand that I ever thought that I would be writing about as a "hats off". Apart from anything else, Google only has to sneeze and it gets coverage.

But I do have to say that Google Goggles was a belting idea neatly PR'd by the team there (Laura in the UK, I believe, amongst others).

For those who don't know already, GMail can now be set up to ask its users a number of maths-based questions late night and early morning (those prone to lunchtime drinking can re-set this). It works on the basis that, if you can't work out the answers, you shouldn't be sending emails at all ... or should at least be double-checking and thinking twice.

As the Daily Telegraph puts it ...

The goggles were developed by Jon Perlow, a Gmail engineer who admitted he had been inspired by his own weaknesses. "Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send," he wrote in his company blog announcing the new feature.

"Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together."

The story got a mass of coverage (over 300 results for Google Goggles on Google News). But more than that, it added some humanity, personality and humour to what was becoming a bit of a characterless organisation. Good on you, Google ...

HATS OFF TO "BOTTLE BANKSY"

This story ... of the mysterious milk bottles that disappear from (and are later re-deposited upon) doorsteps around the country with peculiar images engraved ... has done stunningly.

Have no idea for certain whether it was indeed a Dairy Crest stunt, but if it is, it's a bloody good one and if it isn't, it should have been. Wonderful work altogether.

HATS OFF TO THE PR ... HARVEY NICS

Loving this latest campaign by BMP for Harvey Nichols featuring south west stalwarts Wallace and Gromit in a campaign to launch their Bristol store.

The work has gone mental with the online fashion and ad-land set and a quick glance through Google threw up several thousand responses to "Harvey Nichols" "Wallace and Gromit" as a search term.

We thought that we really ought to take our hats off to the person who came up with the idea - but also to the PR team who have managed to create a real buzz about a store opening.

Many's the store manager who would love to see this kind of excitement generated nationwide about a new opening: and for HN, you'd have to say that there are now a healthy number of non-Bristolian folk of a certain class who now know that there's a store they should be heading to if they're ever in town. Lovely, lovely work.

According to Creative Review, Wallace wears navy cashmere jacket and silk tapered trousers by Alexander McQueen, Dolce & Gabbana fitted white shirt and Giorgio Armani tie. Gromit wears navy silk Paul Smith scarf.

Once again, according to Creative Review, Lady Torrington can be seen wearing a black draped jersey ‘Acorn’ dress by Alexander McQueen, red patent ‘Triclo’ shoes by Christian Louboutin and metallic bronze ’Puffy’ bag by Zagliani.

That said - and while I think this is one of the sweetest print campaigns I'll see this year - it doesn't quite match my personal favourite HN campaign of all time - Sleeping Bags. And of those, I reckon the first is the best.

REALLY CUTE KRISPY KREME IDEA

 

How cracking are these? Alice popped the story around as a cute idea from a certain US donut brand ...

Krispy Kreme have created a pair of flip flops to soothe stressed office workers with real grass growing inside them.Neat idea from the folks at Mischief. Our hats off to you.

Will be interested to see what coverage they get. Do let us know if you stop by.

HATS OFF ... TO MADAME TUSSAUDS

It's been far too long since I did a "hats off to the PR ...", for which apologies. Not really sure why it has been away for so long, but I will try to rectify that post-haste.

Having seen the furore that Madame Tussauds managed to create as it unveiled its Amy Winehouse wax sculpture, I thought that it was well-worth saying how much their PR has impressed. And has done so consistently for the last four or five years.

For something that is just so bloody dull on paper - it's a museum with some waxworks of celebrities, after all - the team's creative thinking and the ways that they have used the one asset they have has rarely failed to impress.

The Amy Winehouse unveiling was a great piece of media timing: the story pushed out at the same time as her bf's court case rumbled on and there were yet more health fears.

Cue around 400 pieces of coverage (from a cursory search of Google News) from the tabs to the broadsheets. Stunning stuff: the presence of Mr and Mrs Winehouse snr was also a stroke of good fortune/great planning

But then there have been some belters in the past too.

My personal favourite being the stunt they pulled with the Beckhams as Jospeh and Mary in the nativity. It prompted the church to foam at the mouth about the whole thing: which fanned the flames of publicity just beautifully.

On a related note, there was the David Beckham on the fourth plinth ruse: they sneaked the statue up overnight, were then ordered to remove and - thanks to an upsurge in public support - got Westminster to agree to keep in the square. It was a trick that they repeated with Jonny Wilkinson a couple of years later ...

Then there was the unveiling of the Kylie waxwork that caused something of a stir - not least because a "member of the public" had a crack at groping it when it was unveiled. Oh, and of course the story about how they weren't going to make a waxwork of Ian Duncan Smith "because he was too boring". Lovely story, quick and easy.

So ... for quick thinking, lovely ideas and really strong execution, Madame Tussauds, we take our hats off to you. Cracking work that should get the recognition that it deserves.

WHERE TO PULL IF YOU'RE A BREAST MAN

M&S has sparked outrage from well-endowed ladies with their decision to charge £2 more for bras bigger than a D cup ...

Enter Facebook and Breasts4Justice group swiftly set up to campaign against the charge. According to the BBC, the retailer is defending itself by claiming that "the added cost - typically £2 - was 'standard industry practice'."

There is no point to this post, it just made the office giggle.

PR WEEK ... SCOOPING FLEET STREET?

Interesting piece in The Observer about PR Week's latest round of scoops. Worth a read.

Also worth a look is the interview with Sir Martin Sorrell in the Financial Times.

HATS OFF ... SADLY, WE DON'T KNOW TO WHOM

Created by "a chat room website" (we know not which), the topless women's football match between Austria and Germany ended in a 10-5 win for the Austrians.

Covered across the world (thanks to Reuters in no small part), the match scored some belting coverage, but sadly we have no idea who it benefitted.

Anyhow, the match was played between a bunch of lap and pole dancers, apparently. In Vienna, of course. The reports of the match contain some absolute gems ... this would be our favourite by some considerable margin ...

The Germans took defeat sportingly and joined their opponents for alcopops and dancing at a beach club alongside the Danube. "I was supposed to hold the balls but I really have no idea how to do that," said German keeper Jana Bach. "Maybe it is because I am not all that much into soccer. I am more into shoes to be honest."

Lovely idea - and we will happily take our hats off the person who came up with it - but of a shame about the execution.

It leaves me really cross to see work like this.

An agency somewhere has probably told a client that it's a fantastic idea and that of course they will get the brand across - through the photography if not in the copy. Or that they will get a great, unbranded shot and the editorial will have to mention the brand to justify the picture they will want to run.

Cobblers.

The photography that we have seen has had no branding in it (that you can read, at least) and the Reuters article that has been picked up worldwide doesn't have the brand in it because the picture is explained without the brand needing a mention.

As I say, what a shame.

HONDA: LIVE TV AD SKYDIVING STUNT

Honest, we'll stop writing about cars in a minute. But one last piece for the timebeing to take our hats off to the good folks at Honda, W+K and their PR agency.

These were the scenes on Channel 4 last night as the motoring marque proved that they really believe "difficult is worth doing" by performing a live advertising skydive, spelling the H O N D A through some formation flying (see the accompanying blog that has documented their training for more).

HOWEVER, while the ad was interesting, the PR around it has been stunning.

While the simple news of the live ad garnered attention across the marketing titles, it was the spin put on the stunt that gained the column inches: the totally spurious claim that the brand was doing it to reach the ad-skipping generation, who might otherwise TiVO and SKY+ their way past the ads.

The claim was clearly spurious, but did result in a belting piece on R4's PM Programme, and then articles across The Guardian, MediaGuardian, The Times, Daily Mail (twice) and most of the other nationals, SKY News, BBC, and blogs (8,000 results on Google blog search for honda skydivers ad" at the time of writing) and news websites across the world ... it cleaned up, in other words.

SO, while a couple of million may have seen the thing actually happen, the brand has reached many more millions through the coverage of the stunt. Lovely work ... our hats come off to you.

HATS OFF ... JELLY ARCHITECTURE

We've only actually seen this story in The Times (times2, page 2 if you're interested), but it is a thing of considerable marvellousness.

Bompas & Parr (the jelly mongers) have got involved with the London Festival of Architecture to create a charity jelly design competition - with the best entries being made into moulds and the jellies duly created.

Alan (who spotted the story) and the rest of us just thought that it was a lovely idea to promote the event.

FUN WITH LEGO MAKES THE NEWS

Mike Stimpson made the news this week so we thought that we should raise a glass and take our hats off to the PR.

Actually, the news hit thanks mostly to Bournemouth News and Pictures, the local agency for those parts. They found Mike, who recreates famous photographic images with LEGO. A very slightly mad idea, really.

Still, Mike managed to score some fantastic coverage across the nationals with his quirky images with as pieces appeared in the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, METRO, Daily Mirror, SKY News, and a host of others.

What's more, it prompted trendhunter magazine to create a gallery of 33 other odd projects that pay homage to the world's favourite Danish toy bricks.

Great work, Mike.

SONY "FOAM CITY" FOR CYBERSHOT OR HANDYCAM?

Looks like "Foam City" is going to be the next big ad to come from the Sony and Fallon stable. The greatest bone of contention so far is whether it is for their Cybershot or Handycam range. Or both, for that matter.

Anyhow, we thought that it was high time that we passed some early comments and thoughts on the marketing of the ad so far (and yes, we do realise that it is odd that an ad should be marketed, but this one has created all the excitement of a Hollywood blockbuster, so this ad (much like Gorilla II: this time with trucks) is being marketed as a thing in its own right).

Some lovely work being cooked up to support the launch. Katy Howell over at IF (who we are working with on a campaign for Kinder Kids, incidentally), has been working with the Sony guys to stir up some buzz ahead of the launch - with the Sony client Twittering from the set.

At the same time, Adland in Denmark and PSFK have both blogged from the Miami set where the ad is being made. See also Josh Spear, Shape and Colour amongst hundreds of others.

There have been some new flickr sets popped up - most notably from hawridger.

If all that we read is to be believed, should be a really great piece of creative work.

And "nice work" to all those who are putting together the social media campaign - it seems to be getting some real traction around the place (as I suppose this post demonstrates). A quick search on Google blog search is already throwing up over 7,000 returns for Sony Foam City and the speculation is rife about the ad.

Wonderful stuff and a really great piece of social engagement work.

QUICK UPDATE: Couple of bits that may be of interest are this YouTube clip of the making of the ad and this del.icio.us feed which captures the mentions so far of the ad. More social network loveliness.

What this really shows is that, far from threatening traditional marketing, a well-executed campaign across the web, using all the groovy tools that it offers us marketers to exploit a lovely creative concept, can support and amplify a campaign.

Trails being blazed, we reckon. One to watch and learn from ...

And a thank you to Eric for the piccie.

UPLIFTING IDEA, WHERE’S THE COVERAGE?

Often, we take our hats off to a really great piece of work. From time-to-time, we see something that we really do think should have worked, but where there doesn’t appear to have been quite the pick up that the thinking deserves. This one falls into the latter camp …

We thought that the latest piece of work for Harrods – their “senses” lifts – would get some cracking coverage (it’s a good idea – five lifts, each designed up to reflect one of touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing and a sixth themed around the “sixth sense”.

So far, so good, a cute idea indeed.

But the coverage (that we could see, anyhow, and someone from Harrods may care to correct us) has been a bit disappointing so far – some London websites and a couple of “what’s on?” listings. Nothing so far to justify the cost of making over the lifts, at least.  A real shame, that, we thought that this one really would do better.

Anyhow, will stick our thinking caps on and see what we can come up with on a using the lifts in a major retailer theme at our next “Wednesday Wisdom”. Seems like a good enough place to start for quite a fun brainstorm. Will report back shortly …

SHHHH ... IT'S CINEMA, BUT IT'S SECRET

Secret Cinema, which puts on themed evenings with classic films and a spot of performance to go with them, is likely to be something of a "next big thing", we reckon.

Basically, you sign up (spending a tenner) online at www.secretcinema.org.

Just before the event, you are emailed with details of the secret location for the film and performance (the Royal Academy was the setting for the most recent event).

At that point, you pitch up with a load of other punters and watch as actors themed around the film run about, some of the music is performed live by an orchestra and there is much related comedy and high jinx. Then you get to watch a film and toddle home.

It's going to be big ... you mark our words ... See you at the next one.

HATS OFF ... MARMITE MEETS RODIN

Thanks to Alan for this one ... who spotted the piccies in the Standard and was kind enough to share them with the office.

As we discussed in Seventy Seven towers, we haven't been able to move for coverage of the bloody Marmite with champagne (er ... 0.2% champagne, if you ever got around to reading the label, which we did).

They announced that they were planning to launch the stuff (which got lots of coverage), then they actually got around to launching it (which also got lots of coverage).

They scored belting pieces across the nationals for their Valentine's themed "lovers' Marmite" limited edition - METRO, the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times and even Glamour got in on the act. Oh, and BBC West Midlands did a piece visiting the factory where the product is made.

All so good so far, you might say.

But THEN they went and made sculptures (Rodin's Kiss, to be precise) out of the stuff and popped them around the streets of London. Which got them even MORE coverage.

What's more, the coverage all mentioned the fact that the scuptures were made of Marmite with champagne and most of them used the "love it or hate it" line.

The best piece of coverage (the double-page picture spread in the Evening Standard) doesn't really work online. But they also managed to pull off pieces in METRO, Marie Claire - oh, and TrendHunter. Neat work and, once again, our hats come off to you folks.

HATS OFF ... ALESHA, CAKE AND FORD FOCUS

From time to time, we take our hats off to a truly stunning piece of PR work.

Sometimes, the idea is pure genius (in a "fuck me, why didn't I think of that?" sort of way), sometimes the media relations is stunningly handled. And then, very rarely, something really brilliant shines through.

It comes from a great piece of advertising ... the new Ford Focus "beautifully arranged" ad, to be precise. An orchestra plays instruments made out of pieces of the car.

Alright, alright, it's a bit "Honda Power of Dreams" meets "Skoda Cake" meets Sony music.like.no.other". But somehow, it isn't as derivative as it might at first sound ...

ANYHOW ... getting to the point.

Taking this ad as their starting point, the rather clever boys and girls at Cake (who we've worked with on BT and sometime client Expedia) have taken the instruments and come up with a profoundly cunning stunt ...

Creating an ad-funded pop promo (the technical term for a music video, I believe) with Alesha Dixon (of Mis-Teeq and Strictly Come Dancing fame). The ad features the instruments from the ads along with the car - with Ford picking up the tab for the filming and bunging their new celebrity amabassador a hefty amount to boot, no doubt.

Anyway, for all the carping, this is a really stunning piece of work.

Hats off to the boys and girls at Cake, who are now setting about delivering the coverage that the campaign deserves. Great pieces in the Daily Star, the Mail, Metro, The Sun, Heat - and that was just on page one of Google.

The Alesha film is here ...

Meantime, for those who want all the technical details, here's the media blurb ...

The special edition Alesha Dixon video showcases a selection on the instrument including - Clutch Guitar, Door Harp, Fender Bass, Transmission Case Cello and Hatchback Kick Drum. In total 21 parts were taken from a new Ford Focus and turned into musical instrument that sound and look completely unique.

One of the instruments, the ‘Door Harp’ is made from a front door, a window, and a spring and uses harp strings. The ‘Clutch Guitar’ is made from body sheet metal, power brake booster and parts of the actual clutch.

It has real guitar tuning keys and real guitar strings with the strap made from a seat belt. The video shoot took place in one of the car manufacturer’s wind tunnels at its Technical Centre in Dunton, Essex in January. Alesha performs a classical remix of her track ‘For You I Will’ accompanied by twelve of the car part instruments.

Now, we could waffle on endlessly about how this is the future of content and that what the Cake boys have done is something stunning that points to the way we will all see brands behave. But that would be to cast a strategically rather dull observation over a great piece of creative thinking.

So we will just say that we think it's bloody clever, deserves all the praise that it gets and makes us start to think about the range of things that could be interestingly ad-funded and appropriately branded ...

GOOGLE CELEBRATES LEGO

The best piece of "coverage" in the world ... probably.

The lord alone knows how you evaluate the reach (and success) when Google celebrates your brand with its logo.

But the Lego logo that adorns the site today celebrates the former brand's fiftieth birthday. "How many millions of people has that reached?" one asks oneself. Remarkable stuff.

BLOGGING ABOUT FOR SKYPE AND 3 MOBILE

A belated "hats off" to the chaps at online engagement agency, 1,000 Heads. We've been watching their blogger engagement work on behalf of Skypephone - the product of a partnership between Skype and 3 - and have been, on balance, pretty impressed.

The work started with Skypephone itself getting "socially networked" (on which more in a second or three) with a weblog, flickr pool, the standard stuff of online engagement.

The bulk of the work, however, has been in mailing demo phones to a huge variety of bloggers around the web - from ad-land's finest to the major tech writers.

Nothing stunning about that, you might say, but the fact is that they have scored some stunning feedback from the biggest bloggers in the UK. While the opinion-forming tech blogs might be a bit sniffy about the 3 brand and a handset made by the company, those who have got their hands on the gadget have been deeply impressed.

So it is that Skypephone has been reviewed across Joël Céré's PRBlogger, Naked planner Faris Yakob wrote it up, as did Neville Hobson (of the iffy goatee). Girlwithaonetrackmind gave it a try, as did Rob Miles, Stuart Bruce, Laurence Helene, London Ninja and all manner of others.

Impressive stuff, altogether. Great reviews for the handset amongst some top bloggers. So far, so hats off to all involved.

However (and we do have a however), there are a couple of things about the programme that we would take some issue with.

First of all, we haven't been dramatically impressed with the platforms that have been set up to support the campaign.

The 3mobilebuzz weblog is pretty unexciting, in all truth: a heap of links to various reviews of the phone (handy if you're buying one, pretty dry as an average punter). And the flickr pool is, frankly, as dull as it is possible to get - surely something more creative could have been done than the bunch of product shots and a tiny handful of user's own pics that are up there now.

Secondly, as Amelia Torode (of "life moves pretty fast ...") points out, the team's relationships with the bloggers they have been reaching out to has been, at times, strained. As she says on her blog ...

The emails that I received felt a little dull ... I wonder whether brands are starting to set up Web 2.0 things like Flickr groups because that is what expected of them, rather than it being of any real interest to the consumer ...

So far, not so good.

What's more, the emails that Amelia received: "if you were to link to the article from your blog, mentioning the skypehone (perhaps with a picture), I might wet myself," are the words reported (although later apologies were forthcoming).

So a mixed bag, it would seem.

Still, we will still, on balance, opt to take our hats off. When it comes down to it, working with bloggers (and other social media PR campaigns) is relatively new to most of us. The guys at 1,000 Heads are doing some interesting work and are ahead of so many others in the field. A brave client too, to take on the campaign.

So, all-in-all, the collective Seventy Seven hat comes off to you ...

Oh, and for those who are interested, Amelia did go on to pop up her "five rules of blogger engagement". Worth a read - although the truth is that they are the sort of common sense that should be applied to any communications.

1. Have something of genuine value to the bloggers that you are contacting (a product, a site, an idea etc)

2. Stay in communication, but not too often

3. Please don't do a "one size fits all/copy and paste" approach, it just feels odd and like a bad PR way of doing it. Think about the blogger you are communicating too, you should have a good sense of what they are like and what they are interested in - if not, spend more time on their blog!

4. Ask for feedback (not just on the product) but also on the way that the program was carried out - stuff like this should be in a constant state of Test, Learn, Refine for any future initiatives.

5. Be totally upfront about expectations and obligations.

INCR-EDIBLE SHOTS

Good work by Sainsbury's for its mention in a Daily Mirror piece showcasing photographer, Carl Warner. He makes up landscapes of vegetables, meat, fish and dairy - all sourced in his local supermarket.

The Broccoli Forest and Salmon Sea caught our attentions. Apparently, Carl calls his creations Foodscapes and takes days to make up the images layer-by-layer. Hats off to the PR, Carl ... lovely work.

Meantime, those pics in full ...

With thanks to m'learned colleague, Jess, who pointed these out.

THE QIK-ENING

Just as CES - the world's biggest tech show - happens, live, streaming video service, QIK, gets talked about across bloggers' pages worldwide.

Coincidence? We think not. Rather, QIK has managed to pull off a spot of buzz at the same time as the world's biggest tech fair, where it is most likely to be used - bloggers and geeks streaming live presentations from the show to their blogs and QIK channels.

Great stuff, hats off to you.

For those who are interested in it, QIK looks set to take the tech world by storm over the next few months. It enables most Nokia phone users to stream live films from their mobiles.

Early in on the action was Scoble, who sums up the service pretty neatly - and ignores the basics of road safety with this clip. Since then, it has started to feature across blogs - TechCrunch and Gizmodo were swiftly on the bandwagon. Just had a look and Boing Boing has yet to feature it - sort of thought that they might have done, c'mon chaps.

We in the merry world of Seventy Seven PR have signed up to the service - it was on closed trial, it is now somewhere between alpha and beta testing, so accounts are up for grabs - and will be having a play in the course of the next week or so. First stab is this video tour of the office ...

Meantime, expect to see most of CES broadcast live by bloggers using this new service.

HATS OFF TO THE PR ... WAITROSE

Our first "hats off" of the year goes to Waitrose and their MD, Mark Price.

Well, sort of ... it's more of a hats off in anticipation as they have only got one piece of coverage for the campaign so far. That said, we reckon that the tales of Mark "the chubby grocer," and his diet will become much-watched over the course of the next three months.

As reported in today's Guardian, Mark was dubbed "the chubby grocer" when he took up his post as Waitrose's MD in 2007. Now, he has commited to shedding 10cm from his waistline.

He has been pursuaded (by the supermarket's head of PR, of course), to document his campaign to battle the bulge on a Waitrose weblog - and to share the advice of nutritionist Moira Howie as he goes. Or as he puts it ...

You may ask why anyone would be remotely interested in my efforts - but then, people spend hours watching cheese, so who knows - however I do promise to offer at least a little entertainment and musings on current affairs of the day. Where possible, I may reveal who I break bread with (if I'm allowed any!), the places we patronise and what I would have preferred to eat!

What a cunning campaign to launch just as around 1 million Britons make new year pledges to lose weight and get fitter - and a great way to bring the grocer's personality to life through its management. We look forward to seeing how Mark gets on ...