Spinning Around

Ideas of the Year: deadline extended for the stragglers

Right. So there are now nearly 100 entries for Ideas of the Year: the book. Which is great news.

However, due to popular demand, we have decided to give stragglers just a little longer to get their entries in (apologies to those of you who did such an amazing job of getting your stuff in on time - it's genuinely immensely appreciated as there's more time to get things written up).

SO if you still want to get an entry in, please get it in. The deadline was 8 February, but as there are some folk still scribbling and signing off their entries, if you want to get something in pronto, it will all go into the judging pool.

Really look forward to reading the entries that come in. If you want to know more, head here where you can read all about it ...

And remember: it's free, there is an almost infinite amount of space in the book to show off great ideas and it's a nice way of showing your work - and making your team proud.

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... Tyrrells Jubilee Crisps

Lead Agency: Spider PR
Client: Tyrrells Crisps
Who came up with the idea?: Sara Pearson, Spider PR
Who signed it off client-side?
David Milner, CEO, Tyrrells Crisps
Oliver Rudgard, Marketing Director, Tyrells Crisps
Who delivered it?
Sara Pearson
Jasper Rosenau
Rebecca Keen

Spider PR was asked to leverage Tyrrells’ distinct brand personality at the time of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.

The team conceived the idea of creating a special limited edition range of crisps for retail sale and use in the PR programme. Tyrrells Jubilee Crisps were a celebration of hand-cooked crisps and were made from red, white and blue potatoes.

Over a five day period 40 pieces of coverage were achieved across top tier titles including five national newspapers, reaching over 16 million readers What’s more, Buckingham Palace called asking for the Tyrrells Crisps to be supplied for the Diamond Jubilee Concert.

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... Westfield Derby's Head of Fun

Lead agency: WAA Ltd
Client: Westfield Derby
Who came up with the idea?: Jeremy Merckel
Who signed it off client-side?: Marsha Forster-Brass
Who delivered it?
Jeremy Merckel
Natalie Wignall

Westfield Derby shopping centre has a seasonal calendar of family-focussed activities. WAA was asked to ignite interest in – and drive traffic to – the activities within the centre’s catchment, whilst also making noise beyond.

The aim was to capture the attention of regional broadcast, print and online.

To do this, the team appointed a child to be the shopping centre’s “Head of Fun”.

A job advert was placed in a local paper and children were interviewed by both centre management and media. A Head of Fun and four Deputies were appointed.

Over 30 pieces of coverage were generated within two months, including national coverage with brand mentions on BBC Radio 2 and Daybreak. Activities are still on-going, resulting in continued coverage. 

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Don’t Get Down, Get Down-Under: Study Adelaide

Lead agency: Journalista
Client: The Government of South Australia
Other agencies: Rathbone Digital and Bright Star Digital
Who came up with the idea?
Lorna Gott, Journalista
Daniel Saunders, Journalista
Who signed it off client-side?: Matt Johnson, Deputy Agent General, The Government of South Australia
Who delivered it?
Lorna Gott
Oscar Holland
Holly Sutton
Honourable mentions
Melissa Hay, The Government of South Australia

Journalista was asked to raise awareness of Adelaide, South Australia as one of the best places in the world to study, with the aim to increase enquiries from British students and drive traffic to Facebook.com/Getmetoadelaide.

The team launched cheeky digital adverts targeting UK students during university clearing with a “New Plan A!”. The focus of each advert was to entice young Brits by comparing cramped UK halls with sun-soaked apartments, surfing and BBQs in Adelaide.

The campaign was timed to provide the UK media with interesting content during a repetitive, annual cycle of news.

A feature with Matt Johnson, South Australia’s Deputy Agent General, appeared on Sky News’ Sunrise, alongside national print coverage in The Independent, The Daily Express and BBC Online and over 320 pieces of radio coverage across consumer and regional radio stations.

The digital adverts achieved 749,000 impressions driving nearly 1,000 UK students to Facebook.com/getmetoadelaide and studyadelaide.com

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... The Meadowhall Big Read

Lead agency: MK Ltd
Client: Meadowhall Shopping Centre
Who came up with the idea?: MK PR agency
Who signed it off client-side?: Marketing Director, Richard Pinfold
Who delivered it?: MK PR agency
Honourable mentions
Hazel Moss
Alice Roughton

When you shoot for the stars in PR, you better hope you do it with panache, gusto and aplomb. MK certainly ticked all three boxes … and broke a world record in the process.

In order to drive footfall in Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield – creating impact with local and regional media and driving online traffic whilst demonstrating “big brand behaviour” – the Yorkshire-based PR agency attempted to break the World Record for “the largest number of children reading with a single adult”.

This enabled the Centre to engage the “Happy Family” market during the important Summer Holiday period.

To achieve the feat, they joined forces with Celebrity Dad of the Year, Peter Andre and local children’s author, Peter Murray.

Coverage garnered from the stunt included 20 pieces of broadcast coverage and five pieces of national print. A total EVA of £587,019 was achieved, making this one of the most successful PR campaigns ever implemented by Meadowhall.

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Photo credit: Ant Oxley

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... Get Ahead of the Games

Lead agency: M&C Saatchi PR
Client: TfL / Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)
Who came up with the idea?
Chris Hides
Rachel Millington
Jessica Turner
Simon Branney
Leigh-Anne Leonce
Jonny Stanton
Who signed it off client-side?: Terri Lynam, Stuart Ross
Who delivered it?: M&C Saatchi PR
Honourable mentions
Fred Williams for his 5.00 am start and live tweeting from the square

M&C Saatchi had to alert London drivers to planned road closures during the Olympic Games, ensuring focus was not drawn to the potential negative impacts.

The team took inspiration from an amusing news story early in 2012 reporting that beach volleyball was the government’s favourite sport.

Consequently, TeamGB beach volleyball stars were placed in Parliament Square to literally “stop traffic”.

Sky Sports News filmed and broadcast live from the square, whilst national coverage hits included Daily Mail (full page), Daily Express (half page), Daily Star (half page), Metro and Evening Standard. Online coverage included The Sun, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, and ThisisLondon.co.uk.

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... The “A Possible Life” Emotigraph

Lead agency: Unity
Client: Random House
Other agencies: PAN Studio
Who came up with the idea?: Unity
Who signed it off client-side?: Laurence Festal
Who delivered it?: Unity and PAN Studio
Honourable mentions
The world’s Twitter and Instagram users

Unity was briefed with creating a buzz campaign for the latest book release from world-renowned author, Sebastian Faulks. Entitled “A Possible Life,” Unity focussed on the book’s core themes of shared emotions and experiences.

Echoing the book’s subject matter, they designed, built and launched a live, digital barometer of emotion or “emotigraph” (at www.apossiblelife.com). 

This aggregated and displayed in real-time millions of updates from Twitter and Instagram users based on five hashtags – #love, #fear, #hope #happiness, #longing – visually expressing how people are connected through their individual stories, thoughts and musings.

The campaign generated huge buzz with scores of online conversations and – largely due to its originality – considerable media interest.  Coverage around the website and interviews for Sebastian about its launch ranged from The Independent and Stylist, through to Culture Compass.

The site was also featured on The Guardian Online’s datablog. 

And the book was launched to huge commercial success.

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... Rhythmix “#CowellMustPay”

Lead agency: Unity
Client: Rhythmix
Who came up with the idea?: Unity
Who signed it off client-side?: Mark David, Rhythmix
Who delivered it?: Unity

“How do you protect a tiny charity that’s being bullied by a global mogul?”

That was a question Unity had just three hours to answer when they offered pro-bono support to a charity which happened to have the same name as the X-Factor group Rhythmix (now of course known as Little Mix) and found themselves embroiled in a David and Goliath trademark battle.

Borrowing the language of the X Factor – through #CowellMustPay – they asked the public to vote for the charity instead of the pop group on the show, donating £1 to the Rhythmix’s legal fee fund rather than to the show and, effectively, to Cowell.

The campaign immediately caught fire, amassing over 700,000 social impressions in just 48 hours and generating support from the likes of Stephen Fry and Russell Brand.

The national media also agreed that it was Simon’s “TIME TO FACE THE MUSIC” with coverage appearing on the BBC, The Sun, The Independent, The Mirror and many more.

The noise created was simply impossible to ignore – and Simon finally stepped in. Simco Ltd withdrew its claim on the name and made a significant monetary contribution to the charity.

And to think: four days previously, Rhythmix and Unity had been perfect strangers.

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... Ribena Plus Play Report: The Pocket Playground

Lead agency: Unity
Client: Ribena
Who came up with the idea?: Unity
Who signed it off client-side?: Caroline Fredj
Who delivered it?: Unity

Ribena and Unity wanted to help mums keep their children entertained during the August Bank Holiday for less than the cost of a tube ticket.

Enter the Pocket Playground – a travel-sized treasure trove of eight low-cost items (costing £6.12), and 50 ideas for how to use them, crowdsourced from the members of Netmums.

Statistics from the “Ribena Plus Play” report were also included, revealing the cost of modern play, the rise of screen based play, and the decline of traditional open play.

The pack gained 45 pieces of coverage in a week, including 8 nationals, 8 broadcasts and 7 pieces with the target audience themselves: mummy bloggers.  The highlight was a double-page spread in The Daily Mail of a journalist trying out the Pocket Playground with her kids - who absolutely loved it.

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... The Launch of Shwopping

Lead agency: Unity
Client: Marks & Spencer
Who came up with the idea?: Unity
Who signed it off client-side?: Dominic Fry, Director of Communications
Who delivered it?: Unity
Honourable mentions
Fraser MacAndrew, Centre for Sustainable Fashion

Unity was asked to land the “Shwopping” concept in the hearts and minds of the UK public by highlighting the problem of clothing waste. The aim was to show that M&S has a solution and to inspire people to take part, normalising a “buy-one-give-one” culture.

The approach was to give the problem scale and context and capture imaginations around what can be done with old clothes.

Using just 5 minutes worth of waste items (9,513 items of clothing), the team clothed a London street to create a powerful visual for launch day and to effectively show future uses for old clothes.

By 4.00 pm on launch day the stunt had generated 4 million social impressions and had three Twitter trending topics: Joanna Lumley, Marks & Spencer and Shwopping. There were also 50 blog pieces on launch day alone.

The public “Shwopped” in their thousands, with a tally at the end of week one of 36,000 donated items, growing to 100,000 by the end of week three.  

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.

Ideas of the Year Showcase ... Destination Conwy launches “Warm Ice Cream”

Lead agency: Weber Shandwick Manchester
Client: Destination Conwy
Who came up with the idea?: Seb Thompson, Weber Shandwick
Who signed it off client-side?: Gwen Roberts, Destination Conwy
Who delivered it?: Weber Shandwick
Honourable mentions
Baravelli’s of Conwy for the ice cream
Martin Lyons for stand-out photography

Weber Shandwick was asked to create news and noise at a key time (summer 2012) for Llandudno.

The idea had to bring the seaside town to life and create standout media coverage at a time when the weather was unpredictable.

To showcase Llandudno as a place to visit whatever the weather, the team created a “Warm Ice Cream” for the public to enjoy whilst visiting the town.

The idea was conceived as a photo news story to tap into August “silly season” and so was launched on the beach to media.

Twenty two pieces of coverage were generated targeting the key audiences of day trippers, local residents, travel and news media.

The ice cream flavour was so popular it was listed over the summer in several ice creameries

If you would like to get work in to IotY2012, you'll simply need to download this form, fill it in and spin it back to me with an image (or more than one if you fancy). The deadline was 8 February 2013, but there's still a bit of time if you want to get something in pronto.