30 Jun, 2008
Emma's blog - Healthy body...healthy mind
Two things you need to know about me - number one, I am not a ‘morning person' and number two I am not the fittest person out there. So imagine my horror when I learnt that for the next four days, as part of the Johnnie Walker Journey, I would be getting up at 6.30am and doing exercises with ex-Royal Marines in the middle of the Scottish countryside! Despite my reservations, as the sole member of 63G on the Journey, I realised I needed to throw myself into the experience and do my colleagues proud! But I needn't have worried, when my alarm cl...
26 Jun, 2008
63G News (June 08) - 3 events in 3 cities in just 3 weeks
Events one and two saw us playing host to a number of key European lifestyle journalists at Johnnie Walker Black Label Unseen events in London and Barcelona. The Black Label Unseen programme provided a unique insight, and exclusive access, into the world of Formula 1 and Johnnie Walker Black Label with a series of incredible experiences afforded to very few. By taking the media quite literally behind the scenes of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team during the Barcelona race weekend, and providing them with the chance to be a part of a pit crew for...
20 May, 2008
63G news (May 08) - Irish Rugby, Irish stew and Irish whiskey...a winning combination!
Following the success of our recent event with Irish rugby legend Keith Woods, celebrity chef Paul Rankin and the Bushmills Irish Whiskey Master Distiller, Colum Eagan, in the run up to the 2008 6 Nations, the subsequent media coverage is still rolling in, even today. The tally is now up to 37 media articles secured across sports & lifestyle press, plus the national and London free papers. Keith and Paul cooked up the classic dish of Irish Stew, with a Bushmills twist and served it to our guests - members of the London Irish Amateurs rugby team and selecte...
20 May, 2008
63G news (May 08) - Singapore joins The Pact
The latest addition to the FIA Formula 1 calendar is the hotly anticipated night race through the streets of Singapore. Seizing this opportunity, 63G brought two-time World Champion Mika Hakkinen, together with a McLaren F1 car on the streets of Singapore to promote the Don't Drink and Drive message. 63G worked with the regional client team, its in-market PR agency and the technical team at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to pull together a spectacular that drew a crowd in excess of 10,000 people to see Mika showcase the importance of always staying in control,...
09 Apr, 2008
Tim's blog - Sport and the Human Condition
The perennial debate on whether sport and politics should be mixed has been reignited in the past 48 hours with the protests at the Olympic torch relay in London and Paris. More protests seem inevitable as the symbol makes its way to China. Like many I suspect, the images set my mind running on an evaluation of the real issues at hand. This wasn't a collision between mutually exclusive agendas of sport and politics - this was a reflection of the human condition itself. Ironically, ‘human conditioning' is a vital part of an athlete's li...
01 Apr, 2008
James' blog - Briefing a PR agency
Good briefing is an obvious, but often neglected, tool of enormous mutual benefit to both client and agency. By supplying comprehesive and insightful briefing documents to your agencies, whether it be a pitch for new business or a response to an existing campaign/platform, a well thought out brief will give the agency the chance to flourish within the parameters set by the client and it will also provide a solid foundation in which to assess, measure or compare results against. The process of writing the brief will help you to identify why you need an agency...
14 Mar, 2008
Peter's blog - March, wrote Mr Macfarlane...
What a great month. Spring is in the air. The weather is turning (in spite of the warnings), the evenings are getting longer and there is more sport on the telly than you could shake a stick at. Back-to-back Six Nations Rugby saw Wales look good value for the Grand Slam whilst England capitulated and all but vanished against a heartened Scotland side, fighting to avoid the dreaded Wooden Spoon. You can be sure young Danny Cipriani will not be visiting any late-night establishments this Thursday!Unfortunately England's Rugby Union side...
13 Feb, 2008
Alexandra's blog - The power of the blog
Our industry has always been about two-way communication, through email, phone calls etc, and the emergence of Blogs takes this two way communication to a new level. Blogs are now being used to connect a brand with its stakeholders and target audience, build levels of trust, and foster and strengthen relationships. PR as an industry is continuously evolving and we must accommodate blogging as a valuable tool. When a new story is broken somewhere in the world it is often a blogger who has released it, and their challenge to traditional media has made the industr...
12 Feb, 2008
Steve's blog - 100% Consumer Centric
It rather surprises me that in this day and age that so many brands seem to be disconnected with their consumer. Companies are spending millions on data research without truly listening or understanding the results - they simply want the results to justify their most recent campaign, rather than learn from the results itself. Today's consumer is growing increasingly savvy and knows what it wants and when it wants it. It also refuses to stand still - what was relevant yesterday is not necessarily relevant today; it's a &...
06 Feb, 2008
Lucy's blog - Media Fragmentation v Media Convergence
The hype in the press and among so many professionals is that media fragmentation is making the market more diverse and complicated as broadband, digital TV and mobile all begin to divide up the audiences across the spectrum. Some countries are more affected than others but it is hard to argue that the rise of ‘new' media (why do we still refer to is as new?) has meant that individual audiences have broken down and become more spread out. Even the traditional media have helped lead this - just look at ITV in the UK who have four main channels to break...
06 Feb, 2008
Sponsorship and evaluation - by Michael Broughton, Nolan Partners
Fortunately this argument is becoming rarer as the Sports Industry in the UK grows up and begins to fully understand the breadth and impact sponsorship can have when fully integrated into the marketing mix. The thing that worries me though is that I seem to read every month in Sport Business International or Marketing that another company has just reaped the rewards of implementing a thorough measurement and evaluation service. Why is this still news, and why isn't everyone investing in research?
Even coaches and administrators at sports clubs ha...
Even coaches and administrators at sports clubs ha...
06 Feb, 2008
Corporate Social Responsibility - by Michael Broughton, Nolan Partners
The problem with CSR is that everyone wants to do it, and certainly everyone wants to be seen to do it. But shouldn't we be trying to go deeper than simply scratching the surface?
Any marketer who argues against CSR is both wrong and not seeing the long term picture, and while this is dangerous, perhaps more dangerous is the marketer who grabs CSR as a purely brand exercise. CSR only truly works at building a brand if there is substance and longevity behind glossy recycling and supposed apparent energy saving. And it's not all about the envir...
Any marketer who argues against CSR is both wrong and not seeing the long term picture, and while this is dangerous, perhaps more dangerous is the marketer who grabs CSR as a purely brand exercise. CSR only truly works at building a brand if there is substance and longevity behind glossy recycling and supposed apparent energy saving. And it's not all about the envir...
05 Feb, 2008
James' blog - Sponsorship is morphing…are we?
It's certainly no new thing to proclaim that logo branding alone is unable to provide a brand with an effective sponsorship platform these days. We've all been talking about the various above-the-line, below-the-line and through-the-line ways of leveraging a sponsorship platform for ages and yet, how many brands are we really seeing do all they can with their sponsorship? In fact, done correctly, should it even be called sponsorship anymore as ideally a platform should include the full mix of PR, Promotions, Research, Digital, Internal Communications, P...
31 Jan, 2008
Emma's blog - Food for thought…
Now don’t get me wrong, I know that as a nation, and as an industry, that we are all working longer hours and regular lunch breaks are a luxury, but I think it’s about time that journalist lunches make a comeback! Many journalists and PR professionals look back at the 1980s and 1990s as the good old days, when boozy three hour lunches were a regular occurrence. On the downside, I admit that this often caused people outside the industry to look upon PR in a negative way – think AbFab! – but the thinking behind these lunches are vital for ...