skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The nation's first national celebration of vocational success was spear-headed by a Band & Brown lead event at the Royal Opera House, starring Strictly Come Dancing winner Alesha Dixon.
Alesha was joined on stage by Secretary of State for Skills John Denham and his opposition shadows David Willetts for the Conservatives and Stephen Williams for the Liberal Democrats. Also at the event were learners from across the country demonstrating their skills, including performers from Cambridge Performing Arts College and the Academy for Contemporary Music.
Simultaneously, over 50 regional events took place across the UK, including an event at the Royal Welsh show, organised by fforwm, the representative body for further education in Wales.
Set design was by Band & Brown's design arm Thirst, while event production was by Brando.
For more information contact Simon Francis: simon.francis@bbpr.com
To celebrate the opening of the new Somerfield store in Laceby Road on 26th June, hopeful shoppers entered a fishing competition with a twist – the water was frozen.
With Grimsby once heralded as the largest and busiest fishing port in the world and now a leader in frozen foods, Somerfield invited customers to try their luck at ‘catching’ a plastic fish by chipping away at a block of ice.
First in line was local trawler guide and fishing expert Sydney Wahwerit, who began his fishing career as a galley boy on board The Victricks in 1955, the heyday of fishing, and regularly sailed out of Grimsby until the late 70s as a deckhand and third hand.
Unlucky Sydney didn’t scoop the grand prize - £100 of Somerfield shopping vouchers and an annual family pass to Grimsby’s fishing heritage museum - but Karen Burns from Grimsby did. Talking about her catch of the day Karen said: “I was really pleased to win the grand prize. The Somerfield vouchers will come in handy and a day at the fishing museum will be fun for all the family.”
Other lucky customers who ‘caught’ a fish were presented with instant vouchers of up to £10 to spend in store.
The new Somerfield store will be open seven days a week from 6am to 12 midnight with a wide range of products, from fresh fruit and vegetables to an impressive choice of snacks and meals to suit all customers.
Conveniently located on Laceby Road, the store offers almost 4,000 square feet of retail space. It will feature hot food and freshly brewed coffee offering thirsty shoppers a refreshing break.
Regional Manager, Chris Gibbons, said: “Grimsby has a rich heritage of fishing and frozen food and Somerfield wanted to celebrate that in its opening weekend as well as rewarding its new customers. Somerfield is looking forward to joining the local community and aims to be everyone’s favourite local grocer.”
For more information email Susie Lee at Brando: susannah@brando-world.com
Masters of Sand
Sandcastles are not just for kids. No. Not when you get an expert coming up with the perfect formula for building, a professional sculptor on Great Yarmouth beach and then hundreds of families vying for a Masters of Sand title. And with over 17 million opportunities to see or hear about the campaign, competition was hot. We put Teletext Holidays on the map for UK family breaks by creating the UK’s first ever Sandcastle Building Championship. Intensive media relations, a leafleting campaign and partnerships with Haven Holidays plus tourist boards all got Brits down on the beach.
The nation's first Vocational Qualifications Day has taken place with Band & Brown driving the media focus on the success these qualifications can bring to young people and adults. An independent report released by Band & Brown's client Edge has revealed that over 3,250,000 vocational qualifications were awarded in the UK last year, a rise of 117 per cent on the numbers awarded five years ago.
Coverage in the run-up to the day has included The Sun, Mail, Londonpaper and That's Life, with live broadcast media slots from Chester Zoo on BBC Breakfast and the Leeds Aviation Academy taking place this morning accompanied by print editorial coverage across the country.
Full page national advertising also appeared to mark the day - created in-line with the brand developed by Thirst, Band & Brown's design arm.
The day was the culmination of a six-month stakeholder relations programme and saw over 50 events taking place across the country. In London, a high-profile event to celebrate vocational success took place at the Royal Opera House with Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham and his Conservative and Liberal Democrat shadows addressing over 250 specially invited guests.
For more information, visit www.vqday.org and www.edge.co.uk.
BeMyIntervewer.co.uk has been voted a finalist in the ‘Digital Innovation’ category in the PRWeek Awards 2008.
BeMyInterviewer.co.uk is a completely new concept and the UK’s first website to allow jobseekers to practise interviews with real bosses from leading companies via interactive videos.
Developed by Band & Brown and BrandoDigital on behalf of Jobsite.co.uk, it has taken interview preparation firmly into the 21st century and led to Google describing Jobsite as “the only board using video properly at the moment”.
Group Account Director, Suzie Barrett said:
"Since launching in February we have attracted over 110,000 unique users to the site, with over one million video clips streamed, directly driving over 6000 job searches, job applications and new registrations through to Jobsite.co.uk. As well as this it’s also increased the overall time that candidates now spend interacting with Jobsite.co.uk.
“We are delighted to be a finalist in this year’s PRWeek Awards and we feel this is a huge accolade for the team at Band & Brown, BrandoDigital and Jobsite.co.uk."
Unisys Security Index
To heighten awareness of Unisys' role as a secure business solutions expert, we launched the bi-annual Unisys Security Index across 8 countries in Continental Europe to provide a barometer on consumer attitudes towards national, personal, financial and Internet security. The results serve as a call to action for businesses and governments to develop or tighten their security policies and practices. With news stories, feature articles, a podcast, a series of bylined articles and an ebook, the first two Indexes have resulted in 250 articles, with strong coverage in business and national dailies, including DeMorgen La Vanguardia, El Mundo, Reuters, L’Echo and Bloomberg News www.unisyssecurityindex.com/Germany
Sony Ericsson B-Boy Championships
Sony Ericsson wanted a long-term partner to reach out to Britain's urban youth. Over 3 years, Brando has strategically taken them from support act to lead sponsor of the UK B-Boy championships. Media partnerships, merchandise, careful branding and community website www.ubattle.com has made Sony Ericsson an accepted part of the B-Boy community.
www.bboychampionships.com
Brando brought real dodgems to the British International Motor Show at Excel, London, this week as part of the brand experience it created for Zurich.
As lead sponsors of BIMS, Zurich is using the show as a platform to introduce their new direct insurance brand, Zurich Connect, to UK consumers.
Andrew Casher, Group Account Director at Brando said, “We’re excited to be involved with the start of Zurich Connect in the UK and the Motor Show sponsorship presents the ideal backdrop to introduce the brand in a light-hearted and accessible way. We have created a fun attraction for Zurich, a destination for consumers attending the Motor Show, rather than a simple two dimensional space. This will be a positive brand experience that participants will remember as Zurich Connect and entirely relevant to the environment at the show.”
In a show full of “can’t touch” exhibits, Brando has developed a family friendly driving experience that will stand out at the Motor Show - the Zurich Connect dodgems. Customers will be able to get behind the wheel of one of 10 Zurich Connect cars in a purpose built arena as part of their day at the Show.
Zurich’s UK managing director for Direct & Partnerships, Mike Quinton said, “As part of an integrated campaign, we want to make an impact amongst Zurich’s core target consumer audience and the interactive stand at the British International Motor Show provides the perfect platform for customer engagement while supporting our key brand messages.”
Brando was set up by Paul Lucas and Mandy Sharp in 2006. The agency provides PR, brand experience and digital support to clients including Sony Ericsson in the UK and EMEA, Haribo, Somerfield, First Direct and Tourisme Montreal.
For more campaign information and comment contact Andrew Casher at Brando:
andrewc@brando-world.com
Changing the image of teaching
A giant puzzle isn’t something you’d normally associate with maths teaching. But that’s exactly what Band & Brown used to combat the misconception that maths is dull, drab and dry and recruit people into teaching it.
A 3D 3 metre tall Sudoku cube was taken on a national tour to publicise the need for more maths teachers, grabbing the front page of the Times on the way. Carol Vorderman fronted the campaign which challenged the public to solve the puzzle and if successful to consider a career as a maths teacher.
The unique recruitment events were supported by intensive media relations to drive attendance, achieving £1.2m worth of coverage, reaching an audience of 18,822,800 and generating an 83 per cent increase in the number of attendees for the TDA’s annual online maths teaching forum.
www.tda.gov.uk
Top bosses put UK jobseekers in the hot seat
It’s one thing to find a dream job that matches your skills and experiences, but quite another to be able to sell yourself in the interview hot seat. To drive candidates through to Jobsite, Band & Brown created BeMyInterviewer.co.uk – a video based website offering interview practice and advice from top bosses like Duncan Bannatyne, Jacqueline Gold and Ruth Badger. The unique site hit the headlines with highlights including BBC Breakfast, Sky News, the Daily Mail, the People and the Independent. 110K unique users visited the site within its first four months, streaming 1m video clips and directly driving 6K job searches, applications and new registrations to Jobsite. BeMyInterviewer.co.uk has evolved from a PR tool into a revenue-generating product.
Band & Brown's campaign was highly commended in the Digital Innovation category at the 2008 PR Week Awards
www.bemyinterviewer.co.uk
www.jobsite.co.uk
Above and beyond
Exodus needed a break from the old routine. So they asked us to get them out of the travel sections and into lifestyle pages. And we did. A cricket match between locals and tourists helped save Indian tigers – and made The Daily Telegraph. Winning a Mini Gap Year stole acres of coverage in The Times. Our clever mixture of media relations and promotional activity has given Exodus its first exposure outside travel media and reached a whole new audience of holidaymakers.
Getting hold of your money
Nobody likes to pay for withdrawing their own cash from an ATM and it’s particularly hard to swallow if you’re living on the breadline. We worked with RBS to launch its corporate social responsibility campaign, inviting the public to nominate the areas most in need of a free-to-use cash machine and then installed 300 in Britain’s poorest communities.
The Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) has selected Band & Brown and the Central Office of Information’s (COI) News and PR team to promote the Early Years Professional Status (EYPS).
EYPS is a Status that graduates who work with children aged 0-5 years can attain. The first Early Years Professionals (EYPs) were accredited in February 2007 and currently more than 1900 people have successfully achieved the Status.
Band & Brown will be responsible for creating a national PR campaign to demonstrate the value of EYPS and encourage interest from existing and prospective childcare workers and employers. Those wishing to know more about EYPS will be directed to CWDC’s website www.cwdcouncil.org.uk for further information.
The activity will run in two phases to complement other advertising that will launch later this year:
- Phase 1 (May 2008 – May 2011) will communicate the benefits of EYPS to encourage people to apply, and encourage employers to recruit Early Years Professionals.
- Phase 2 (October 2008 – May 2011) will communicate the calibre and professionalism of EYPS. Parents will be targeted at a later stage in the campaign, from January 2009 onwards, to allow for demand and supply of the Status.
The agency will work in close partnership with COI News and PR, which will use its regional network to work closely with Local Authority (LA) contacts and Training Providers to secure regional media coverage.
The work will support CWDC’s large-scale recruitment campaign based on local recruitment strategies with advertising of EYPS across regional press and radio.
As a secondary objective the brief also requires Band & Brown, with support from COI News and PR, to promote diversity in childcare recruitment, and attract new people into the workforce, in particular 18-40 year old males from middle range socio economic groups and biased towards ethnic minorities.
Claire Hamilton, Communications Officer for Early Years, at CWDC said:
"The government aims to have an Early Years Professional in every daycare setting by 2015. Research shows that the earlier graduates are involved with children the better the developmental outcomes. This PR campaign is a vital component in helping us reach this target.”
Gill Brown, Managing Director, Band & Brown commented:
"Band & Brown is delighted to be working with a profession that has such a major influence on children's development and lifetime opportunities. Our campaign will be citing EYPS as proof of how the sector is transforming.
"We're particularly pleased that CWDC has bought into a range of creative approaches from traditional media relations to live celebrity events."
Helen Desmond of COI News and PR added:
'We are looking forward to working in partnership with Band and Brown and local stakeholders to ensure effective delivery of campaign messages at a local level.
“With a network of eight offices across the UK, COI has unique local intelligence as well as long-standing relationships with regional media and stakeholders."
Brando has won the brief to promote San Miguel’s 'Hidden Depths' series of music and media events throughout 2008.
San Miguel Hidden Depths aims to challenge consumers to look that little bit deeper as they are given a rare insight into the musical and visual inspirations of some of the UK’s most intriguing artists.
This year, the series will consist of five one-off events held in London and Manchester from June until September 2008. Each unique event will be curated by a different guest host from the worlds of music and visual arts.
Activity will start immediately to support the first San Miguel Hidden Depths event, hosted by Wall of Sound’s visionary founder Mark Jones on June 26th at the Soho Revue Bar. The launch night will be closely followed by four more events in London and Manchester, each curated in turn by The Glimmers, Secret Sundaze, Chromeo and It’s Pop It’s Art.
Brando Senior Account Director, Sian Evans, says: “We’re incredibly excited to be working with San Miguel and Amplify on such innovative and interesting events. The campaign will include talent publicity, establishing links with on-brand 3rd parties and promoting the events through secret teaser DJ sessions, media relations and by offering money can’t buy experiences to press and consumers.”
We hope that this will be the start of an ongoing and successful relationship with Spain’s definitive premium lager.”
Brando will be working alongside the concept creators, Amplify, to implement a 360° campaign including a digital hub, online seeding campaign and a Hidden Depths community, with the primary aim to increase the number of San Miguel adorers.
To further engage the right audience and give an additional dimension to the campaign, an illustration competition will be run throughout with support from a media partnership.
San Miguel Brand Manager, Elena Iborra, said: “San Miguel Hidden Depths is a series of unique collaborations between San Miguel and the guests invited to curate. By creating unique partnerships with the artists, we can gain their direct endorsement for Hidden Depths, which acts as a powerful communication tool.”
The win adds to a strong first half of the year for Brando, following successful pitches for the Dr Oetker food brand portfolio including SuperCook, Onken and Dr. Oetker Pizza Ristorante, as well as EasyCar, Sony Ericsson CEEMEA’s internal communications programme and Cirque du Soleil’s new show, Quidam.
Brando was set up by Paul Lucas and Mandy Sharp in 2006. The agency provides PR, brand experience and digital support to clients including Sony Ericsson in the UK and EMEA, Haribo, Somerfield, First Direct and Tourisme Montreal.
Posts
