Anjula Devi Lunch

Last month saw ZPR and Lakeland, in collaboration with Indian chef Anjula Devi, host a press lunch at the Good Housekeeping Cookery School in Soho.

Anjula recently launched her first cook book along with a great range of Indian cooking essentials and utensils, all of which are exclusive to Lakeland. We thought there would be no better way to introduce Anjula and her mission to get people cooking authentic Indian food in their own homes than her showing them how to do it for themselves!

The demo saw Anjula cook a multitude of aromatic and flavoursome dishes all of which were started with a traditional Masala Base. This simple to make base can be prepared in big batches and then frozen so when it comes to cooking your curry, it can be ready to eat in as little as 20 minutes!

 

So what did we learn? The key thing when making traditional Indian food is to have all your ingredients ready! So pre-preparing your masala base and investing in a Masala Dabba is most definitely the way forward. 

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JEWLR UK Product Showcase

JEWLR UK Product Showcase

Online jewellery retailer Jewlr held their UK product showcase in the backroom of St Martins Lane hotel last month. It was an afternoon - evening drop in event for press, where Jewlr showcased their key collections for the first time in the UK.

The venue was the perfect location for the event, with all white décor and furniture, a sparkling chandelier and Jewlr’s key pieces presented on top of white plinths. Guests were given guided tours of the collection whilst a video demonstrating Jewlr’s cutting edge production process was played. Jewlr's founder Tony Davis was also present for conversations with press.

Guests included key members of fashion and trade press, with titles including You Magazine, BBC, Hello!, Woman and Home and New!. Guests were offered afternoon tea style canapes and glasses of Prosecco and designed their very own Jewlr name necklaces that were posted to them following the event.

To see more on Jewlr, visit: www.jewlr.co.uk

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JD Williams Christmas Product Showcase

JD Williams Christmas Product Showcase

Last month saw the JD Williams Christmas Product Showcase. This was a festive and intimate press drop-in breakfast which was held in the Sherwood Room at the Ham Yard Hotel.

   

The room was decorated in true festive style. Shoes were displayed on Perspex trees and surrounded by fairy lights, a light box presented the event’s hashtag and a Santa sack was left at the door for journalists to place their ‘JD Williams Christmas Wish List’ inside on their way out.

                         

The JD Williams AW16 Christmas collection was shown to key fashion press, including Stylist, LOOK, Good Housekeeping, The Guardian, The Sun and Woman & Home, whilst they were offered delicious breakfast canapes and refreshments.

Press were also treated to a fabulous goodie bag which included a biscuit designed in the style of a red cape, a hero piece for the JD Williams AW16 collection, a £50 voucher to spend online at JD Williams and a USB stick containing AW16 Christmas high res images and all the information they could possibly need!

To see more of the JD Williams AW16 Christmas collection visit www.jdwilliams.co.uk

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Move over Coconut Water there's a newbie in town!

On Thursday 6^th October beauty journalists joined us for an intimate breakfast at the Connaught Hotel to celebrate the launch of Superdrug’s new Optimum skincare products – PhytoHydrate Birch Water. Superdrug’s Optimum PhytoHydrate Birch Water Day Cream and Micellar Tonic are the newest additions to the Optimum range and include the current must-have fashionable ingredient - birch water which helps keep skin hydrated and nourished.

The breakfast was introduced with speeches by Superdrug’s Dave Cooke and Jill Flood who gave a back story to the Optimum range and gave insights into skincare and why birch water is the next big beauty trend. The speeches were then followed by a presentation from Dr. Michael Peck on the skin benefits of birch water and how the new range works. Guests then tucked in to a delicious breakfast accompanied by some fresh birch water.

Guests at the breakfast included You Magazine, Stylist, Notebook, The Guardian, Beauty Magazine, Fabulous and Look. Guests left with a goody bag of the new products and included a bottle of birch water to try as well.

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Halfords stops traffic with Christmas press show

Consumer, business and tech media, bloggers, stakeholders and ambassadors joined us last week at the Halfords Christmas press event, as we showed new innovation for the season across motoring and cycling. Guests arrived at the central London venue to see a festive glitter garden outside, while inside our Halfords experts showed the best gifts for Christmas from drones to WIGGINS bikes, to Star Wars accessories, Elf-themed cycling jerseys and remote control cars.

Chris Boardman welcomed cycling stakeholders, Victoria Pendleton showed off her new Pendleton Somerby E-Bike and fashion designer Orla Kiely hosted a fashion blogger event in the evening, where we welcomed guests with a glass of Prosecco and canapes.

To keep customers on the road, we raved about Halfords’ free winter check – available at over 700 Halfords shops and Halfords Autocentres – which checks car batteries, head/tail light bulbs, wiper blades, oil levels, gives a free screenwash top-up and checks windscreens for signs of chips.

To find out more about Christmas and winter at halfords, check out and download the new lookbook here

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I'll Eat My Coral Hat!

Royal Ascot attracts some of the world’s finest racehorses along with racing’s most stylish fans and some of those fans include The Queen and members of the Royal Family.

Throughout the five days of this spectacle of fashion and style the press feature galleries of sartorial elegance often led by The Queen and the colours of Her Majesty’s outfits, in particular her hat.  The Queen’s hat also happens to be one of the most popular bets that our client Coral takes during Royal Ascot.

In addition to this, 2016 has been a special year for Her Majesty and our client Coral as they both celebrate their 90^th birthdays.  To commemorate these big occasions and to elbow our way into some column inches too – we produced a hat made of cake and organised a photocall on day one of Ascot to show it off.

We put two bakers together – Fiona Cairns, the royal baker famed for making Kate and William’s wedding cake and Carly Baker (yes her real name), Coral’s gorgeous ambassador.

Fiona and her team of expert bakers and cake stylists created their stunning masterpiece over four days – two tiers of soft victoria sponge filled with sticky raspberry jam and smooth vanilla butter cream and then covered in Coral icing and topped with intricate handmade flowers.

On the morning of June 14, day one of Ascot, Carly modeled the cake hat in front of a bevvy of national press photographers.  The cake was heavy but she carried it off with aplomb!

We thought that the cake and Carly looked beautiful as did the national press as the story appeared on p11 of the Evening Standard, The Express, The Mirror, The Telegraph, Mail online and PA to name a few.

It was a busy few hours – by the afternoon we had earned our tea and cake!

July 2016

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Eat. Sleep. Repeat - Healthy Sleep with The Wool Room

Last week the Wool Room team at ZPR hosted a gorgeous breakfast at the Metropolitan Hotel where press were left lusting for their beds!

 Centred around getting a healthy sleep and to launch new research commissioned by The Wool Room, it was easy to see why wool bedding is the new must have.

The research results commissioned by The Wool Room with The University of Leeds found wool to be far better at moisture management than other materials, allowing for 43% more moisture transmission than polyester and a massive 67% more than feather down duvets. Put simply, it keeps you cool and sweat free stopping you from waking up! Under testing, wool was also able to reach the optimum temperature for sleep (35.1oC) and maintain it, unlike the others. Wool bedding is so clever; it can even regulate the temperatures of two separate people in one bed, meaning no more arguments!

The White Room in the hotel was dressed with deluxe pillows, fluffy bed enhancers and soft woolly throws lit by clean scented candles and bouquets to create a serene atmosphere. We also had a masseuse on hand to give everyone a relaxing head massage in between browsing the room and time with a nutritionist.

Whilst Chairman Jo Dawson and MD Chris Tattersal were available to talk all about the wool bedding, guests were able to help themselves to a healthy breakfast of wheat germ muffins, natural yogurt with bee pollen, quinoa porridge, muesli and smoothies galore.

We had a great turn out with the likes of The Guardian, YOU Magazine, Your Fitness, S Mag and Woman & Home attending and all leaving with a personalised wool throw… After all of that the team were in need of a good night’s sleep!

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Juicing with Stylist

This week we visited the lovely people at Stylist for a delicious juicing session with Lakeland, who made some AMAZING juices and smoothies for the whole team (and us, obvs) to enjoy.

 

First up was the Sage™ The Nutri Juicer™ Plus. This machine can do everything and we mean anything – even juicing whole apples so you don’t have to faff about chopping them up. But to keep it simple, but still impressive we made the ULTIMATE green juice with apples, celery, cucumber, kiwi, spinach and some mint to finish it off.

This went down very well and for those who were keen to get involved, there was the opportunity to have a go too.

We also brought along not just any Nutri Bullet but the new Nutri Bullet Graphite. This was my personal favourite, frozen berries, chia seeds, walnuts, almonds, agave nectar and whizzed together with some water for an amazing pink smoothie.

Two lucky people at Stylist got to keep a juicer each to make their own at home. See below for the two recipes we used on the day.

 

Berry & Walnut Smoothie

50g Walnuts

55g Almonds

430ml water

750g frozen berries

2 teaspoons maples syrup or agave

1 tablespoon black chia seed

 

Green Juice

1 apple

3 fingers cucumber

2 sticks of celery

1 kiwi (peeled)

handful of mint leaves

2 large handfuls spinach

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Halfords Spring Summer Press Show

 

1 fashion designer, 2 Olympians and the paparazzi - welcome to the Halfords Spring Summer press show!

 

We recently launched Halfords Spring Summer launches to media at a press show in the heart of Soho. We were joined by fashion designer Orla Kiely and Olympians Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Boardman and the event showed the best innovation in kids and adult bikes, Orla's new and exclusive print range, the very latest tech and brand new child car seats and travel.

 

Olympic, World Champion and Tour de France hero, Sir Bradley unveiled his range of children's bikes for the first time. The range includes bikes for toddlers to teens, such as balance bikes through to junior carbon road bikes. 

 

 

 

Adding a designer edge to summer, Orla Kiely revealed her exclusive range for Halfords, Olive and Orange by Orla Kiely. The collection includes beautiful Dutch-style hybrid bikes and tents each with a print custom-designed for Halfords. The range launches in store in May - perfect timing for summer festivals.

 

'The Professor', Olympian Chris Boardman showed a brand new range of Boardman Performance bikes and accessories, with several media test rides lined up for spring.

 

We were joined by media from Channel 4, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Woman & Home, Daily Star, Heat magazine, ELLE magazine and many more...plus a few paps for good measure!

 

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The first ever Fifty Plus Fashion Week show

It has only been four weeks since we launched the triumphant Fifty Plus Fashion Week show on the eve of London Fashion Week, Feb 2016 at the iconic Café Royal in Regent Street.

Launched by retailer JD Williams and in partnership with the London College of Fashion, the show could not have wished for a better opener with 70s fashion icon and former Vogue cover girl Marie Helvin. If this wasn’t enough, we secured the world’s oldest working supermodel, Daphne Selfe to lead the finale of our beautiful models all over the age of 50 to a huge round of applause. 

Fifty Plus Fashion Week attracted some of the industry’s most influential fashion writers along with a charming front row including Hilary Alexander, Jo Wood, Susan George, Angie Best, Jane Felstead, Anthea Turner and Lizzy Cundy among others.

You can view the full show below...enjoy! #50PLUSFW

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WINE TASTING…YES PLEASE!

We were lucky enough to help host a wine tasting session with Waitrose, in aid of Valentine’s Day with the Cosmo girls at their office in Soho.

Alexandra Mawson, Wine buyer at Waitrose talked through all of the wines and suggested which food best complemented each of them.

We kicked off the evening with a best seller, the San Leo Rosato. This Italian sparkling rose has an aromatic bouquet, fresh fruity flavour and is a touch lighter in percentage at 11% which makes it so easy drink!

 

San Leo Rosato, RRP £10.49

 

Next we moved onto Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé, a well-known name in the champagne industry. Alexandra explained the history behind the company, actually founded by André Michel but it was his cellar master Eugene Laurent, who ran it with his wife, Mathilde Emilie Perrier. This champagne, with its distinctive bottle is perfect for showing off a bit to a loved one. It has delicious raspberry and red current flavours thanks to its soak-on-the-skin methods with the grapes.

 

Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé Brut, RRP £58.99

 

Moving onto white wine, the Waitrose New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc proved popular with the Cosmopolitan girls. Although this wine smells very sweet, it is actually very refreshing and zesty. It is crafted in the classic Marlborough style, with citrus and gooseberry flavours but with a twist of fresh mint.

 

Waitrose New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, RRP £7.99

 

Alexandra’s choice of Rosé was the Rustenberg Rosé. This South African wine is described as ‘round and fresh with red cherry aromas’, but it also has a slight spice on the palate which is a signature of this variety. We all agreed after trying this wine that Rosé definitely isn’t out of fashion anymore.

 

Rustenberg Rosé, RRP £8.99

 

For the red wine tasting we had the Yalumba Organic Shiraz, exclusive to Waitrose. Yalumba is Australia’s oldest family-owned wine producer, and this smooth Shiraz is its first organically produced wine. Although this red is light and fruity enough to be enjoyed on its own, it was beautifully complemented with the chocolates we had, which went down well, and a nice way to end the evening.

 

Yalumba Organic Shiraz, RRP £9.99

 

We hope you’ve learnt a thing or two about wine, we certainly have!

 

 

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IT FEELS LIKE SPRING!

Our show stopping giant Easter egg certainly wowed guests at this year’s Hobbycraft Spring press show. The 5ft egg was embellished with hundreds of flowers to welcome and inspire over 80 journalists and bloggers, as we showcased everything Easter, Bridal and Spring. From chocolate Easter egg decorating to mastering the iced ruffle cupcake and making their own floral headbands; press had the chance to make and decorate an array of items which they could take home with them.

Our giant balloon installation was also a talking point, as it swirled its way from Easter, through to Bridal and into our summer fete.

Our new range of everything bridal to make a beautiful handmade wedding was a hit, especially the Cricut which is a new crafting machine which designs and cuts out anything you want- perfect for save the dates and invitations! The glitter tree also showcased how to create an uber glam wedding theme!

In our fete, personalised tote bags were a popular make, as well as learning how to crotchet and upcycle and of course the ever popular Tee-pee is back again this season to help customers create that festival feeling!

We’re now looking forward to planning our Christmas Hobbycraft press show- watch this space!

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