Band & Brown sets Twitter trend Band & Brown scored a real coup on Twitter last week, turning comments made on a client website by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg about the controversial Digital Economy Act into a Twitter trending topic.
B&B client The Student Room (@studentroom), the country's largest student-only social network, is holding general election Q&A sessions between its members and the main party leaders. More than 400 questions were received, which B&B sieved for the most newsworthy to put to the leaders, before PR-ing the responses.
Nick Clegg, whose star was already riding high following Thursday night's ITV debate, called for parts of the controversial Digital Economy Act (#deact) to be repealed. B&B's release was picked up and tweeted by the likes of TechRadar, whose followers, and followers' followers, re-tweeted. From there, the campaign snowballed, with other online media picking up the story from Twitter, leading to yet more online coverage for The Student Room and retweets.
The story became the seventh biggest trending topic on Friday, with tweets including links to online news coverage - all of which then linked back to The Student Room, showing how socia media can be used to drive serious traffic.
Band & Brown has appointed Head of Public Sector, Simon Francis and Associate director, Mark Lowe to its board.
Francis will continue to shape the agency’s voluntary and government practice whilst Lowe will focus on driving growth in the commercial sector.
Commenting on the appointments CEO Gill Brown said: “Both Mark and Simon have been integral to Band & Brown’s growth in recent years. I’m delighted to have them on our board as we enter this exciting stage in the agency’s development.”
Meanwhile, Andy Robinson has been promoted to Creative Director responsible for the agency’s design work and helping MD Graz Belli to shape the agency’s creative positioning.
The announcements follow Melanie Howard’s appointment last month as a non-executive director. Howard co-founder of consumer think-tank, the Future Foundation will advise on a number of corporate and strategic projects.
GfK NOP has appointed Band & Brown Communications to promote its position as a leader in market research, analysis and insight.
Band & Brown’s remit is to promote GfK NOP’s expertise in core sectors – consumer trends, financial services, technology and business – as well as supporting other ongoing marketing activity across all areas of the business. PR activity will focus on enhancing GfK NOP’s reputation as an international research authority and commentator on key business trends.
Richard Jameson, Managing Director of GfK NOP: “Our aim is to strengthen our communications across all sectors and we believe Band & Brown is the right partner to help us achieve this goal. We look forward to working with the team to reinforce our position as an organisation at the cutting edge of market insight.”
Commenting on the appointment, Valerie Weisenreder, Head of Business, Band & Brown Communications said: “GfK NOP delivers quality research and insight across all market sectors and has some of the most informed experts in their respective sectors which gives us a fantastic platform to engage them in pressing business debates in the online and traditional media. We are delighted to have been selected to work with one of the most respected market research agencies.”
The Student Room, one of the UK’s largest web sites for young people and the biggest student site, has appointed Band & Brown Communications as its UK marketing communications partner.
Band & Brown will deliver an integrated campaign to drive awareness among recruiters, brand managers and government bodies wanting to target and engage with The Student Room’s audience of 2.8 million young people. The campaign looks to reach corporate recruiters seeking graduate talent, colleges and universities recruiting students, brands selling products and services to a youth audience and government departments looking for insight into this demographic group.
Band & Brown secured the account following a four-way pitch. Reporting to The Student Room’s Marketing Director, Jamie O’Connell, the four-strong Band & Brown team will be headed up by board director Valerie Weisenreder.
The people’s voice is brought to life through the first ever election broadcast generated completely by the public, due to be unveiled today at the House of Commons.
Independent education foundation Edge has collated public responses through online messages, social media, videos and events over a seven-month campaign which encouraged people to have their say on education. The campaign makes the case that practical and vocational learning needs to be at the heart of education, alongside academic study, to enable every young person to fulfil their individual talents and have access to many paths to success.
The film, created by Band & Brown working with Neo Films, can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/EdgeFoundation#p/u/4/aIxe2nmHIqw
Following the delivery of all responses to the campaign to MPs Ed Balls, Michael Gove and David Laws at a reception in Westminster, the wider campaign (delivered by fellow Cossette UK agencies Brando, Elvis and MCBD working with PHD and Public Zone) will be seeded through social media, online advertising, through video-on-demand and supported by print adverts and media relations.
The supporting print and online creatives respond to the broadcast and research which shows 78 per cent of the population would like to see more quality practical and vocational learning on offer, by asking politicians “have you heard us?”
Additional research, launched to mark the first showing of the broadcast, demonstrates how important “the three E’s” – education, employment, the economy – will be in determining the vote for Britain’s first time voters.
David Lane, marketing director of Edge, commented: “We have been delighted with the response to our ‘Have your say’ campaign. With an election just around the corner, now is the time for us to amplify the public’s views on education by sending a powerful message to the politicians, ensuring they hear the people’s call for more practical and vocational learning.”
To view the election broadcast and have your say on the future of the education system visit www.edge.co.uk/haveyoursay
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