Monday 28 February 2011

RPM Remains in Sunday Times Top 100 for Six Years in a Row

We made it! Coming in at No.74, RPM is one of only three marketing agencies to be listed in the Sunday Times Top 100 Small Companies to Work For, and 2011 marks our 6th year in the list.

90% of employees said they were proud to work for RPM, and 80% said bosses listen to employees.

Friday 25 February 2011

Brand Guidelines Made Fun


Lipton came to an understanding that providing employees with a thick book of brand guidelines doesn't exactly scream 'brand engagement'. So, to excite and immerse employees further with Lipton, they created a contest, a game app and a full internal activation idea aptly named ‘Lipton Millionaire'. Each employee received a case full of (fake) money representing the one million dollars they could win and a real iPod Touch pre-loaded with the game. The app included tests about the company including branding, history as well as sales technique, and Lipton employees could challenge other Lipton staff from all over the UK.

Thursday 24 February 2011

Who Pushed the Peugeot?

Peugeot has launched a 'whodunit' campaign, coinciding with the new 207 Envy. The TV ad shows a Peugeot sinking to the bottom of a swimming pool, having been pushed in by a neighbour. The public will then be encouraged to hunt for the culprit online via their Facebook page and are invited to weigh up the evidence, voting for a series of suspects. Those picking correctly will be entered into a prize draw to win their own Peugeot 207 Envy.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Rory Sloan Speaks at International Confex

Our very own Head of Production, Rory Sloan, has been invited to present the seminar session 'Big Brands and Sustainability' at the International Confex on March 3rd at Earls Court. Other presenters include Sam Wilson from EcoEvents, and Callum Gill, Marketing Manager at drpgroup.

The session will focus on what big brands, including Sky and M&S, are asking for, and why sustainability has to be a priority. The session will also include how to link sustainability into the ROI of your event.

Monday 21 February 2011

30 Under 30...We're In!

Congratulations to Di and Tim for making it into Promotional Marketing's 30 Under 30 competition. The latter cast its web for the industry's best up-and-coming young talent, looking for applicants demonstrating strategic thinking, commercial awareness and an innovative approach to promotional marketing.

Di has played a key role in leading Strongbow’s below the line festival activation with a result of 178,624 visitors to the Bowtime Bar across six festivals. Her role as J&B’s Global Events coordinator has her managing events from Australia to Mexico, and last year alone, Di travelled 35,000 miles and spent 35 days in the field.

Tim Jones began life at RPM as a grad and now leads strategic accounts for Heineken, Diageo and Kraft on brands from Smirnoff to Philadelphia. He led 2010 pitch wins on shopper, global and experiential engagement briefs to the value of £2M. Tim speaks on campaign planning and experiential for the IPM Diploma.

Well done, team....

Thursday 17 February 2011

Photo of the Day - Adrien de Bontin

Adrien de Bontin is the 'trendiest of trendy' Argentinian photographers, documenting his swanky lifestyle through the coolest of lenses. If you want to see the hippest parties, chicest exhibitions and faddish gatherings full of beauty queens, then check out his website.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Volvo's Car Canvas

There seems to be a growing trend for the collaboration between automotive brands and artists. Right through from the Citroen Picasso advert to Jeff Koons' takeover of the BMW art car, and Volvo has provided yet another. Under the tagline, '10 artists, 1 car, 1 canvas', Volvo has commissioned ten artists to paint over a blank Volvo car 'canvas', filming the whole collaboration. The artists use the new model as a 3D canvas to develop limited edition live art and paint directly over the work of the previous painter. The overall campaign has been turned into a short film.

Monday 14 February 2011

RPM Corporate on FM&BE Blog

Check out Chloe's blog on the importance of choosing the right venues at events, featured on Field Marketing's brand spanking new Destinations in FM&BE blog. A member of the RPM team will be blogging each month here, so be sure to keep revisiting.

Friday 11 February 2011

We Got Valentine's Vibes



Seeing as Valentine's Day is fast approaching, we've pulled together our top five Valentine's campaigns, ideas and events to really get you in that Luuuuuurrrrrrvin' mood...(sorry).

1. Ever fancied proposing underwater surrounded by aquatic fish? If the answer is yes, then the London Aquarium is the place for you. This weekend, it's offering an underwater proposal service, whereby those wishing to pop the question can arrange for a diver to emerge with a personalised sign.

2. For all you 'anti-Valentiners', Funthyme supper club is hosting a ‘jog on cupid’ special this Valentine's Day, through a pop-up dining experience in Dalston. Couples and singles can escape the traditional Valentine's meals by coming together for a feast of great food and live music.

3. Gourmet Pie is producing a special-edition pack design just in time for Valentine’s Day. Maintaining the brand’s tongue-in-cheek style, it's used red logos and a special cartoon of a naked couple dining together. The Valentine packs will appear in Waitrose and on the Ocado website for one week only.

4. Orange is turning tweets into animated love stories for Valentine's Day. People submit their tweets using #feedlovestories, and a day later, Orange uploads the animations. The films then appear on YouTube and the Orange website, ‘The Feed’.

5. Nike is setting hearts 'racing' this Valentine's Day by producing a novelty pair of red trainers covered with hearts, only for girls.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Red Bull's Magazine

It’s interesting to see that Red Bull has produced ‘The Red Bulletin’ magazine in association with The Sunday Telegraph, an adventure-inspired glossy that covers extreme sports, travel, edgy art and the hippest music scenes. Every one of these topics of course features against sharp Red Bull-related editorial and large photographic images of Red Bull’s latest projects. BUT, it’s a great way of creating a brand personality.

For example, once you’ve read the magazine from page to page, Red Bull becomes an even more thrill-seeking, trendy and cultured brand; someone you’d like to be associated with. If Red Bull was a person, he (or she) would be the cool kid at school, head of the sports teams, or the thrill-seeking adrenaline junkie trying out every adventure under the sun.

The Red Bulletin is published monthly in eight countries worldwide, and apologies if I’ve been slow on the pickup with this, but either way it’s still an innovative idea and a great way to engage the consumer.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

The Fighter is World-Class

After hearing rave reviews, I headed to The Coronet to see The Fighter last night, and boy I'm glad I queued for as long as I did for that golden £3.50 ticket. For those who haven't seen it yet, I won't reveal too much, but in broad terms the film is based on a true story about two welterweight boxing brothers: Christian Bale aka 'Dicky' the elder, and Mark Wahlberg aka 'Micky' the younger, who both grew up with the sport from a young age.

Dicky, a previous boxing 'champ' and idol to his younger brother, messed up his chances at winning the title, so the pressure lies on Micky to follow in his footsteps. This isn't an easy journey to success though, as we see family dramas unfold and the strain on the brotherly bond becomes distressingly apparent, tainted by a whirlwind of drug addiction, love and family tensions.

Christian Bale is utterly fantastic in this film. Appearing scrawny and gaunt, he had to lose up to one-third of his body weight for the part. Mark Wahlberg is also a strong, level-headed actor here, and it's no wonder the film's racked up seven Academy Award nominations and won two Golden Globes so far.

The Fighter really is a must-see film, and you can watch the trailer here.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

RPM Reporter: Local Social Summit: ‘Two Sides to Every Story, a Local Social Case Study’





Down Gray’s Inn Road sits Andrew's Cafe, an old and battered greasy spoon, the owner of which serves up to ‘400 fried breakfasts in just two hours’ every morning. This is where Daniel Young, founder of Young and Foodish, decided to host his pop-up social media event ‘Two Sides to Every Story’ as part of London’s Social Media Week.

The purpose of the small gathering (30 people attended) was to discuss the encounter between the big Burger King corporation and Daniel, after he decided to invade Burger King at Waterloo Station with a string of red T-shirted burger fans. The ‘invasion’ was drummed up via Twitter and Facebook, through which Burger King caught wind and decided to get involved, bridging the divide between the big dog and the underdog. Jack Clothier of Cow PR, which represents Burger King, spoke at last night’s event, claiming that he decided to come to Burger King armed with two chefs, who then cooked up a special ‘Atomic Whopper’ burger for Daniel and his clan.

As Daniel and Jack discussed the event in unison last night, what was interesting was the collaboration between them on such a small happening, and it was nice to see corporates like Burger King taking an active interest in social media, and therefore Daniel’s invasion. Jack jokingly touched on his reservation to come down to Burger King that day without pre-warning Daniel. Neither of them knew much about the other, and it was like two strangers meeting with secret agendas, which thankfully for Daniel worked out perfectly.

The first hour of last night’s event was greetings, popcorn and networking, shortly followed by the most delicious burger I’ve ever had, prepared by O’Shea’s of Knightsbridge. The thick slabs of meat were 100% Black Angus Beef, complemented by soft seeded buns and a slice of mouthwatering melted cheese. Cupcakes from Bea's of Bloomsbury were next, followed by speeches from Daniel, Jack, and Dylan Fuller from Local Social Summit.

The evening ended with a complimentary Burger King goodie bag (of course), which I was surprised to find contained a Burger King perfume, containing ‘Flame Grilled’ essence.
To watch the unedited ‘invasion’ of Burger King by Daniel and his foodie followers, click here.

Friday 4 February 2011

Photographer Scribbles Graffiti with Light and Stencils

You've never seen light graffiti quite like this.

Urban photographer TigTab, who keeps her real identity under tight wraps, has been going around the streets of Melbourne at night, seeking out the dark and lonely places and illuminating them with her gorgeous light stencils.

Each image is painstakingly created and can take hours to produce. A light box lined with foil, which TigTab places over the stencil, is lit up with a burst of light from a camera flash while the camera shutter itself remains open to capture the image. She then repositions her images and shoots the flash again.

The result is hauntingly beautiful.

TigTab herself put it best: "I find beauty in decay...those abandoned and forgotten places all around us. By bringing light into the darkness of each space, it fills that space for a moment in time and highlights both their beauty and impermanence."

You can see more of TigTab's work over at her Flickr stream.

Via CNET Pulse

Thursday 3 February 2011

Music in One Image


RPM's Creative Lunch kicked into full swing with this interesting blog post from Edit. A bunch of inspired designers were briefed to represent a musical genre using just one element and one typeface. Successful projects like this demonstrate that graphic design doesn't have to be overcomplicated; clever, yes, but often the simplest of designs work best. Above we have 'The Twist', 'Folk' and 'Metal'.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Brand Publishing

Now that most brands are finally catching up with digital, establishing their social media pages and launching their blogs, there’s a realisation that these channels need to be populated with content. And not just any content, but that which is compelling enough to cut through the quagmire of syndicated opinion cluttering many an online experience.

Considering most brands are not geared up to be publishers quite yet, it’s worth considering what form this content will take and who will be creating it. Putting an event or experience at the heart of it seems a good place to start, we think! Perhaps there’s a bigger part for brands to play in publishing altogether?

Check out this interesting blog on the future of publishing, which asks a panel of experts how they see the future of the publishing industry after 10 more years of advancing technology...

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Honda Branches into Fashion



Honda’s latest branch out into fashion proves that brands are not necessarily restricted to promotion within the confines of their sector. Going back to its roots and tapping into the loyal following the brand developed in the 1970s, Honda has launched the Honda Heritage Collection, created using original Honda apparel and advertising designs from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

The clothing line has a distinctly American look and includes limited edition logo T-shirts, sweatshirts and bags. Honda is looking to expand the collection in the future to include cafe racer leather jackets and casual wear.