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Band & Brown Group has made two major appointments to fuel the continued growth of its successful PR brands.
Graz Belli, is announced as the new Managing Director of Band & Brown Communications, with a focused mandate to build on the agency’s reputation for excellence and lead its future development into new markets. Belli already sits on the Group board and has been instrumental in growing the agency’s talent and client list as a key divisional director.
Gill Brown, co-founder of the Band & Brown Group with Nick Band, becomes Chief Executive Officer with a group-wide responsibility for both the organisation’s PR brands – consumer and experiential specialist Brando and Band & Brown Communications. Chairman Nick Band will step up his role leading service innovation across the two agencies and ensure the effective integration of the Group’s businesses into the Cossette UK network which comprises, MCBD, Elvis, Dare and Identica - and the Cossette International network which includes North American PR firms Paine PR and Optimum. .
Gill Brown said:
“We now have two thriving PR organisations in the Group and we need a management structure which recognises that. Both companies are trading buoyantly and we have reached a stage where they now need and deserve their own dedicated leaders to maximise opportunities. In the last three years Graz Belli has demonstrated her outstanding leadership skills, building up Band & Brown's consumer and public sector division into the Group's largest trading unit.
Graz Belli said:
“Band & Brown Communications is an agency of rare quality which holds to a strong set of values and works in genuine partnership with its clients. I am delighted to be its Managing Director. We have on-board a remarkable group of talented people whom I am looking forward to working with as we move into an exciting stage in our development.
Belli’s appointment to MD of Band & Brown Communications reflects the existing structure in Brando where Paul Lucas and Mandy Sharp are already joint Managing Directors. The group launched Brando in 2005 to meet the demand for experiential PR. The agency now has a staff of more than 30 and handles the group's largest account Sony Ericsson.
For more information contact Simon Francis at Band & Brown Communications on 020 7419 7340, simon.francis@bbpr.com
Band & Brown Communications added another award to its trophy cabinet at this year’s PR Week Awards.
BeMyInterviewer, Band & Brown’s ground-breaking project for Jobsite.co.uk, was highly commended in the Digital Innovation category.
Conceived by Band & Brown and developed with Brando Digital, BeMyInterviewer is the first of its kind. Aimed at jobhunters, the interactive, video-based site allows users to practise for job interviews with real business leaders, including Duncan Bannatyne, Ruth Badger and representatives of some of the UK's biggest brands, such as O2, BSkyB and Ann Summers.
Initially created as a public relations tool, BeMyInterviewer has become the lead creative for Jobsite, adapted for multi-channel communications including consumer advertising, CRM and corporate communications.
Launched in February 2008, the site has attracted more than 150,000 unique users, with over 1.4 million video clips streamed resulting over 22,000 visits to client vacancies.
Supported by a high-profile media relations campaign, it has been featured on BBC Breakfast and BBC Working Lunch, Sky News, Career Mail, Guardian Office Hours and The Independent’s Graduate supplement, generating £50,000 of coverage and helping the client achieve the number one share of voice online among its competitors.
More importantly, it has become a revenue-driving device, with current, lapsed or prospective clients signing new contracts with Jobsite because of BeMyInterviewer.
BeMyInterviewer was born after insight from Jobsite revealed that interviews are the area of most concern in the jobhunting process. B&B realised that an initiative in this area would attract the widest pool of candidates to Jobsite – and address a genuine jobseeker need.
The campaign was beaten into second place by the Bring Back Wispa campaign, which went on to win the overall campaign of the year gong. Reports of certain brands of chocolate bars now being prohibited from Band & Brown’s Camden offices can be neither confirmed nor denied.
London, 2nd October, 2008 – To support the launch of the Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot(TM) handset, Sony Ericsson and Academy Award nominated director Mike Figgis created ‘Life Captured’ - a short film made from still cameraphone images which was previewed at the 16th Raindance Film Festival in London.
Sony Ericsson invited members of the public from Europe, the Middle East and Africa to submit five cameraphone images that showcased their life. Out of the images submitted, Mike Figgis handpicked a national winner from each of the 14 countries to receive a personal brief and a Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot(TM) handset.
The national winners were challenged to use their new handset to take a series of images that said something special about them – where they live, who they are and what defines them - Mike used these images to create the ‘Life Captured’ short film.
The national winners were also competing against each other to be named as one of five outstanding achievers and win a trip to the VIP preview of ‘Life Captured’ in London.
The five outstanding achievers were named as Malena Martinez de Renzl from Austria, Ismael el Kosht from Italy, Job van Dijk from Netherlands, Sergey Nikitin from Russia and Carole Edrich from the UK. They joined Mike and a host of VIPs to view the film at an exclusive preview, where Carole Edrich from the UK was crowned as the overall winner of Life Captured.
Mike said of Carole’s images “It’s been a real challenge to select just one overall winner but Carole’s photos really caught my eye as being something special. They were well composed and presented quite ordinary subjects in a fascinating way. The use of text within the images was well-thought out, as were the image subjects themselves. It’s clear that Carole put a great deal of thought into her photographs and messages they convey.”
Carole said of winning the competition: "Attending the ‘Life Captured’ premiere and seeing my images on the big screen was such an incredible experience. It was great to meet Mike Figgis and a real honour to be named the overall winner of ‘Life Captured’ by him”.
"I’d like to thank to Sony Ericsson for providing me with the opportunity to take part in ‘Life Captured’.
Life Captured at a Glance
• 630 images were submitted to ‘Life Captured’
• The ‘Life Captured’ micro site received over 127,369 hits
• 14 countries took part across Europe, Africa and the Middle East
• The film is 7 minutes and 35 seconds long
• Mike Figgis composed the original score for the film, which was developed to match the images that were submitted.
‘Life Captured’ was a competition for still camera images to provide a platform for experimental film making. The use of camera rather than video opened the project to more people as a camera is a standard feature on most phones.
Band & Brown Communications supported the Department for Children, Schools and Families to launch the 'Out & About' package to encourage more learning outside the classroom. The Out and About package is designed to give schools much clearer information to organise effective learning outside the classroom activities for all pupils. It includes a new Quality Badge scheme to cut paperwork for teachers by bringing together existing health and safety standards under one badge.
The extensive coverage delivered today, including GMTV and most leading print and broadcast outlets, is part of an ongoing stakeholder and media relations programme operated by Band & Brown, working closely with organisations across the adventurous activities, natural environment, heritage and arts sectors . Band & Brown will continue to promote the implementation of the Learning Outside the Classroom as responsibility for it transfers to a new independent National Council.
Secretary of State, Ed Balls, said: “It is not right to try and wrap children in cotton wool as they grow up. Trips and getting out of the classroom should be part and parcel of school life and always give the most people’s most vivid childhood memories. Learning outside the classroom is not some optional extra. It should excite young people, deepen their understanding of classroom subjects and are a vital to make young people independent, confident and self-reliant. The vast majority of England’s eight million children go safely on school trips or learn outside the classroom at some stage. But we know that more can be done to make sure it is an integral part of every child’s education."
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