Friday 1 September 2017
Hobbycraft Press Show
On the 4th and 5th July, the Hobbycraft team hosted the Hobbycraft Autumn Winter Press show at Drink, Shop, Do in Kings Cross.
We showcased hero products for Halloween and Christmas to over 120 journalists in two separate events; one evening event for bloggers with canapes and cocktails (of course) and a full day event for press.
From fillable bauble decorating and slime making (yes, that is a thing), to candle making and pyrography, attendees could get stuck into crafting if they were a beginner or an expert. The event kicked off with a Halloween showcase with scary decorations and baking accessories, including spider doughnuts and day of the dead cakes.
The main room was set up in stories, showing the media the key themes for Christmas – bright, metallic and scandi dominated. Each section was set up with a selection of makes across key categories.
We also had a craft workshop with guests able to make candles, a range of pyrography and bauble decorating.
The key purpose of the event was to launch the Hobbycraft Christmas workshop, ensuring attendees think of Hobbycraft as the go-to retailer for a handmade Christmas, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Thursday 6 July 2017
FEELING FESTIVE AT ZPR
Once again it’s Christmas in July and we kicked off with
Waitrose showcasing its delicious offerings this year at 1 Belgravia.
A hero product, which appeared across the national press on
the day, was chocolate mince pies- a favourite for chocolate lovers this
Christmas. Also making headlines was a Prosecco infused turkey as the trend for
boozy food ramps up this winter and the classic 70's black forest flavour,
infused in venison, panetonne and desserts.
Over 200 journalists and bloggers had the chance to dine in
the Waitrose Christmas pop up restaurant, with highlights from the menu
including a gin smoked salmon starter, Red Cabbage Stuffing Balls, Black Forest
Venison Rack, Gingerbread Turkey Crown, Goose Fat Potatoes, Mocha Cheesecake and a Salted Caramel Profiterole Tart.
This year customers from Waitrose will be able to snap up
Heston’s iconic hidden orange Christmas pudding as well as a Black Forest
Panetonne, Venison Paté and Edible Chocolate Baubles.
A favourite with the ZPR team was the new and improved party
range which was bursting with flavour and colour. Mini Macaroni and Cheese
Tarts, Arancini balls and Red Thai Pork Snowballs were the favourites- we know
what our Christmas party is going to taste like this year!
And finally, what better way to enjoy Christmas in July than
with a glass of English fizz. The show had an English and Welsh wine bar to
showcase how Waitrose continues to offer the widest range of home grown fizz
and wine in the market.
Merry Christmas!
Wednesday 28 June 2017
JD Williams SS17 celebrity activity and shoots
The fashion team have been busy over the last few
months working on a number of fabulous celebrity shoots for the JD Williams
Spring Summer collection.
First up, we shot Esther Rantzen, Angie Best and Lorraine
Kelly for some fundraising activity for JD Williams and their charity partner
The Silver Line. The Silver Line is a
free charity helpline set up by Esther Rantzen, to help combat loneliness and depression amongst
elderly people. All 3 ladies modelled their favourite pieces from the SS17
collection, with 30% of their sales going to the charity helpline. The images
landed alongside interviews with the ladies in a host of titles including, the Telegraph, S
Mag, Hello! magazine and the Mirror online.
Lastly, we shot the gorgeous Lisa Snowdon who modelled the new JD Williams swimwear
collection. The team flew out to Villa Monte in Portugal where
Lisa was shot by celebrity photographer Nicky Johnston. The images landed in the Daily
Mail, where Lisa shared her secrets on bikini body confidence in her forties.
Monday 26 June 2017
B. Makeup Re-launch Event
To celebrate the re-launch of B. Makeup, Superdrug hosted an
exclusive preview event for press, bloggers, vloggers and makeup artists at
Hoxton Hotel in Holborn. The event was a vegan house party where guests were
invited for the first view of the makeup, to try the range and to meet Cassie
Lomas, the celebrity Makeup Artist who is the collection’s ambassador.
B. Makeup offers professional quality, solution driven,
vegan and cruelty free makeup. Everything has been created using insider
expertise offering the products and knowhow to help everyone become their own
makeup artist. The new range includes a capsule collection by celebrity MUA
Cassie Lomas.
The event celebrated the brand’s 100% vegan message with
delicious vegan cocktails, catering and delicious doughnuts. Key messages were
dotted around the event space to reinforce the vegan and cruelty free.
At the
event, there were three separate rooms. In the makeup room, guests including Made In Chelsea's Lucy and Tiffany Watson were treated
to makeover from Cassie Lomas trained makeup artists using B. Makeup products
and accessories. There was also a flat lay table for guests to create instagrammable
pictures with the new collection.
Attendees were also able to view the rest of the B. range including all B. Skincare
phases and the B. Men range. There was also a chillout area which has
influencer DJ Mercedes Benson on the decks and Cassie Lomas talking through her
capsule range. eLab content showcasing the range and Cassie Lomas tutorials
were also on show to bring the collection alive.
At the end of the evening, attendees were gifted with a
selection of the samples as well as a look book detailing information on all
products with expert tips and tricks.
B. Makeup launched online at Superdrug.com on 31st May 2017
and will be in selected stores from 28th June 2017.
Thursday 15 June 2017
Afternoon Tea with Orla Kiely and Halfords at Claridge’s
On 7th
June the Halfords team hosted Orla Kiely and 40 journalists and bloggers at the
launch of the second Olive and Orange by Orla Kiely collection at Claridge’s.
An afternoon tea event that showcased the 32-piece exclusive collection, the
event provided a sneak preview of the range, as well as interview opportunities
and a chance to enjoy afternoon tea with Orla and her team.
With the
advent of the summer season, and rising popularity of staycations, the
journalists were introduced to the collection, which features three new graphic
prints in Orla’s signature style.
The
collection, which spans camping, cycling and motoring, was displayed, with hero
products including the Dutch-style hybrid bike with a beautiful duck egg print
across the chain and mudguards, bold and stylish cycle accessories including
water bottles, bike bells and bike baskets, and products to brighten up the
campsite, including a striking gazebo, new two-person tent, sleeping bags and
festival chairs.
On a sunny day
in London, journalists from the likes of Good Housekeeping, Evening Standard,
Financial Times, YOU magazine and the Press Association sipped their Earl Grey
– or glass of bubbly – and enjoyed a traditional afternoon tea, while checking
out the collection, with a particular buzz around the folding bike and cycling
accessories, as well as the picnic and camping accessories ahead of a glorious
weekend.
All spoke with
Orla, who spoke of her inspirations, creative process and her favourite pieces,
as well as her hopes to enjoy her own staycations this year.
At the end of
a beautiful afternoon, each guest was given a goody bag of products from the
new collection, and full information on the range and the wider Halfords summer
offering, some promising to visit to gear up for their own summer holidays.
Thursday 18 May 2017
Halfords Electric Bike Press Trip
On Wednesday 12th- Thursday 13th April,
the Halfords team hosted Olympian Victoria Pendleton, Victoria’s mother Pauline
and ten high profile journalists at Dormy House Hotel and Spa in the Cotswolds.
The trip’s purpose was to showcase and demonstrate the range of electric bikes
that Halfords offers, giving attendees an opportunity to try them out. With the
popularity of e-bikes growing rapidly, the journalists were keen to learn all
about how they work, despite some of them not having ridden a bike for many
years!
Victoria Pendleton and her mum
Pauline trying out e-bikes
We rode a wide range of electric bikes across the Dormy
estate. With lots of hills and bends, the route proved perfect for trying out
all the capabilities of an e-bike, as the motor has different modes which give
different levels of power, or push to the rider. It was fantastic to see people
of all different levels of athletic ability enjoying the bikes.
Happy afternoon riding e-bikes with
Victoria Pendleton
The most popular e-bike of the day was Victoria Pendleton’s
electric Somerby bike, an electric version of her incredibly popular Somerby
model. Everyone loved how smart and sophisticated the bike was, yet it was
really functional when tackling the big hills. Halfway through the ride, we
stopped for a picnic by a beautiful lake on the estate.
Following the ride, attendees were treated to spa treatments,
drinks and dinner. It was a fantastic trip, enjoyed by all and we definitely
converted some of the Halfords team and journalists to take up riding e-bikes.
Ladbrokes Grand National 2017
For the Grand National 2017, we wanted
to place Nation’s Favourite bookmaker Ladbrokes in the hearts and minds of
those who have a flutter once a year.
We conducted a survey, asking Brits
about their favourite things: from divine dinners (fish & chips) to best
beverages (a cuppa tea), most beloved Bond actors (Sean Connery) to favourite
members of the Royal Family (Prince Harry), top telly picks (Bake Off) to soap
heroes (Dot Cotton), we got to the heart of what makes us tick as a nation. And
the Grand National came up trumps as the nation’ favourite race. The survey was covered by The Sun.
And to give us a bit of a boost, and
really help those who pop to the bookies to bet on the National, we worked with
maths whizz, TV personality and national sweetheart Carol Vorderman to create a
formula to pick a winner.
Carol wanted to create something
simple, memorable and easy to use – and something using letters and numbers,
keeping it firmly in the former Countdown-presenter’s comfort zone.
How it works:
Step 1: Take the first letter of your surname, and its place in
the alphabet
a = 1
b = 2
C = 3
…
X = 24
Y = 25
Z = 26
Step 2: Add your favourite number between 0 and 14
Result: The resulting number between 1 and 40 is the number of the
horse you should back
Example: Carol Vorderman’s number is 7
22 + 7 = Horse number 29
We photographed Carol with a good old
fashioned bookies board, demonstrating the formula and how it works for her –
and helping a nation of part-time punters choose the horse they’d back for the
biggest race in the world.
And we captured her on film talking it
through – Countdown-style – for Ladbrokes social media.
With a six-week turnaround, we engaged
our celebrity, commissioned a survey, coordinated a photo shoot and sold in on
the second day of the National.
Carol’s cheeky winning formula was
covered in The Daily Record and online on Express.co.uk and Mirror online.
In
her interview with Daily Mail online, Carol spoke of her love of racing,
attending the Grand National for the first time with her buddies from the I’m A
Celebrity jungle and her tips for using her Ladbrokes formula.
An
interview Carol did with Press Association, in which she ran through the
formula and her reasons for creating it – was picked up by 224 regional and
online titles, including Yahoo! UK and BT.com, Oxford Mail, Glasgow Evening
Times, Express and Star, Dorset Echo and the Northern Echo.
And
on Ladbrokes’ Facebook, the video was viewed by more than 19,000 people.
A huge thanks to Carol Vorderman,
whose fun formula proved a big hit with the media – and with which one of our
ZPR team picked their own winner!
Coral's Grand Splashional
The Grand National is one of the nation’s most
iconic and historic sporting events and takes place every April at Aintree. To capture the excitement of this year’s
race, Coral let us loose in Liverpool to stage our own aquatic version of the
Grand National, featuring a team of highly skilled flyboarders, dressed as
jockeys with model horses…what could go wrong?
This was a project of two halves. Firstly, we needed to produce all of the
components to hold the race and then we needed a PR plan to ensure that we
maximized all opportunities to publicise our client Coral.
We had approximately three months to produce the
race so that we could film it for the press and social media. We needed to source the flyboarders, find a
Liverpool location, costume designer, model makers for the horses’ heads,
photographer, film crew and drone operator.
We also needed to pray for good weather; fog,
wind or rain would have delayed proceedings considerably.
The race deadline was April 3rd, the
day we were set to stage Coral’s Grand Splashional at the Liverpool Water
Sports Centre. The weather was on our side,
a crisp morning with stunning sunshine and a breathtaking backdrop of some of
Liverpool’s most recognisable landmarks.
The setting was perfect for us to re-enact the
Grand National in our own epic style. We
filmed the tension of the build up to the event, the jostling for position at
the start, the excitement of the 300m race and the euphoria of flying over the
finish line.
With the filming in the
can, the job was only half done - we had great content, it was now time to
share it with the press. Our efforts
were not in vain, on the morning of April 5th we woke up to three
half-page spreads in The Sun, The Express and The Daily Star as well as
widespread coverage in the regionals and online in several of the nationals and
the video received nearly 80,000 views on social media. The project came in on time, on budget and
delivered great press and social coverage.
Hats off to Aquatic
Jetpacks who provided the team of flyboarders and to the film crew who were out
on the water too – the sun may have been shining but apparently that water was
cold and they were in there ALL day!
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