We're In The Business!

Our latest press in Access All Areas magazine. Over the last couple of months, RPM have won contracts with M&S, Royal Ascot, Eden TV, EON and ECB.

Sleepiness Kills

This print campaign shows a close-up of an eye getting smaller and smaller. Above the eyelid is a car that closes in on a family as the eye shuts. If the eye is completely closed, the cars crashes into them.

This is a non-profit-campaign for the Thai Health Promotional Foundation.
Sleepiness is stronger than you.

www.creativecriminals.com

BASE CAMP EDEN: BEN FOGLE ON HIS TIME AT THE BBC

“I was very lucky, as I was approached by BBC Country File and they asked me if I’d like to become a presenter. This is something I hadn’t really ever thought about- becoming a presenter? It had never really crossed my mind. I loved watching Blue Peter and I thought being a Blue Peter presenter might be fun, but it wasn’t something I genuinely thought about.

So, I decided to have a go and I worked on that show for 8 years, during which time I got to do some pretty fun things. I got to take part in the world lawn mower racing championships where you sit in a little mower and race around a course. I crashed it and ended up in hospital incidentally. I took part in the world conker championships and the World oyster eating championships; I managed to eat 88 oysters in 3 minutes! I took part in the world stinging nettle championships; I managed to eat 200 leaves in one hour and I felt very sick afterwards with a very sore tongue! I took part in the world tin bath racing championships where you sit in a little metal tin bath and race across a harbour. I sank and got hyperthermia in that. I also took part in the man versus horse race, a 21 mile race across the black mountains racing against horses- and yes I got beaten by a horse.

So my early sporting achievements weren’t bettered by any of those challenges. But I loved being in the outdoors and I developed a real passion for the countryside; I discovered what we have on our doorstep which you’re all discovering today [ at Eden]. It was about the same time that I was asked by the BBC if I would like to present a programme called Animal Farm. I did that for 10 years and that was one of my favourite programmes. I got to work with the lions, the tigers, the elephants and finally I was fulfilling my childhood dream, working alongside vets. I got to work with animals on a daily basis which was just fantastic. We witnessed the highs and lows, the cycle of life as it’s called. Animals passed away but many animals were born and again all of these experiences started changing me as a person, started changing my values in life and I suppose another of these tipping points, these moments when you realise what other people do and what work goes on, was when I became an ambassador for WWF, The World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

As an ambassador they sent me off to Nepal to watch a Rhino relocation project down on the border with India. A lot of us think of Nepal as being just mountains but they’ve got lowlands there too. I went to one of the big National parks called Badia, and the idea was that there were too many Rhino in one of the national parks and not enough in the other. So they wanted to move these enormous creatures from one park to the other and the only way to do that was to go out on elephant back, huge Indian elephants- they’re the biggest thing I’ve ever seen-they would take 5 of us on top of each elephant, in a convoy of 20 elephants with 5 people on each one. These included vets, antitheists, scientists, and we all went out for a 5 day trip, walking through this forest until we found a rhino.

When it got darted, a huge sledge was bought in on the back of elephants and we had to lift one of these rhino that weighs many, many tons- more than a car- onto this sledge and then get the elephants to haul this thing out. It was like watching an episode of King Kong, I’d never seen anything quite like it, and the reality that people worked for these conservation groups made me decide that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to do as much for nature and working for wildlife as I could.

BASE CAMP EDEN: BEN FOGLE'S CAMPFIRE STORIES

Ben Fogle, our Base Camp Eden leader, told us all about the adventures he has had over the last 10 years. Here, he takes us back to where it all began...Castaway.

"When they told me [I had been selected to go to an island for a year] I had images of white sandy beaches and girls in bikinis, but I later found out they were talking about an island in the outer Hebrides, a windswept island, totally treeless, in one of the windiest parts of the British Isles. But it didn’t put me off and I unwittingly became one of the very first volunteers of reality TV in the UK.

I personally wouldn’t call it reality TV though. The idea of the project, Castaway 2000, was to take 36 volunteers like myself all from the City, (I grew up in London) to this remote island and have to create a whole lifestyle from scratch. So we’d grow our own crops, we had our own animals, we milked cattle each morning, we had sheep there for our meat and we had children. We therefore had to build a little school and we took turns educating them. We did absolutely everything. The idea was that by the end of the year, we would be entirely self sufficient.

For me, it was probably the happiest year I’ve ever had. I absolutely loved every minute of it. We were an eclectic bunch- some of you who may have seen the series will have seen a lot of arguing but actually, the reality was there was a lot more happiness and laughter than there was arguing. The show wasn’t a contest and there was no winner; I’m sometimes referred to as ‘the winner’ but I wasn’t. There was no prize money, there was no voting off, it was purely a social experiment and it was a success. By the end of the year, we grew 25 different crops, we reared all our animals successfully, the children had jumped ahead a year in terms of their education and for me, leaving that island was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.

Going from this incredible island which I loved, into city life, was such a shock to the system. I felt I was suffocating, there was no air. All the food was too rich back in London because we’d had all of our organic food for a whole year and all the noises were too noisy, the smells were too smelly, I couldn’t bear crowds of people, and all I wanted to do was get away again...."

See what Ben did next in tomorrow's blog.....

BASE CAMP EDEN ALAN CREE

I was lucky enough to join the UKTV competition winners at Base Camp Eden in The Forest of Dean; a weekend that celebrated Eden's British Wild Life season with an array of activities, luxury camping and encounters with locals and wild life experts. One of these experts was Bushcraft genius Alan Cree, who has over 20 years of outdoor experience. Inspired by living and working in Africa, he has been studying Bushcraft and outdoor leadership for the last 10 years and holds over 10 relevant qualifications. I managed to tear Alan away from the forest for a quick interview and here's what I found...

RPM: Tell me a little about yourself and how you became the Bushcraft ‘guru’ you are today.

ALAN: I used to work in London, and to release myself from the pressure I was under, I used to do some wild camping. I spent a lot of my time designing buildings around the world-I realised I had designed all different types of architectural buildings- yet knew very little about the natural world. So about 12 years ago I started going on some courses in Bushcraft with some very well known names and those courses gave me the confidence to study nature in much more detail. So after that I moved down to the Forest Of Dean and I’ve been studying bush craft and wilderness skills here for 12 years.

RPM: So you were an architect before? That must seem very different to what you’re doing now?

ALAN: Funnily enough I don’t think it is different, I teach people about the design of furniture and shelter outdoors and architecture is a form of shelter. The tepees you see around here (he points to the yurts our competition winners are staying in) they are still some of the most elegant shelters that have ever been designed. So I think I’ve learnt quite a lot about architecture from working in the woods because the ergonomics, the design of everything has to be the appropriate size of human beings. It’s actually a very similar skill, just going back about 40,000 years!

RPM: How did you become such an expert? Did you have to live in the woods surviving off water and berries for a year....?

ALAN:You can get courses now, but they’re quite simplistic. They teach people some skills, but the only way to really learn is through experience. For five years, I spent every single day going out and trying to learn 2 new things about nature: one wild flower, one plant one medicinal herb whatever it was, and if you add that up, then you end up with about 30,000 things you know. Again, for one year, I would spend every single day going out and making a fire, without matches, every single day.

RPM: And were you successful every day?

ALAN:I reckon I’ve made 3,000 fires now and I think only about 3 times it’s not worked. That took a lot of practise and preparation though. It’s not obvious to people for example when they come to my woods that there is actually preparation that’s been done. There are groups of young people I’ve had for 24 hours who have never even been out of a city and it just rains for that entire 24 hours and you’ve got to keep them warm. Fire is one of the most basic forms of shelter; it’s something that you can’t live for long without in the outdoors as people get hyperthermia and die.

RPM: So you’re interested in showing people how to survive?

ALAN: You know humans have some physiological requirements and some psychological requirements and that’s what I’m interested in showing people; how nature provides for them, in abundance. It provides for all our physiological requirements: food, shelter and water.

RPM: I’ve lived in London all my life, so it’s really interesting meeting people like you and the rest of locals at The Forest of Dean who can take me back to basics. I really wouldn’t have a clue how to survive in the forest!

ALAN: Deep down in the back of your head, you actually do know these things. I do try to prompt people to think about what the priorities in life are. There are lots of things in life that are unnecessary and only a few things that are necessary and it’s quite amazing how necessary these few things are. You actually do know; all humans know instinctively. You might not know how to go about getting it in an elegant and good way, but you do know what’s important. So I think it’s a good thing to reconnect people with nature, and I think bush craft and wilderness skills are the best way of doing that. It’s about what we need as humans and it is a very human experience. When you spend a lot of time out on your own in the woods, you come to appreciate the value of human company, so it teaches you that as well, it teaches you humanity I think.

RPM: I saw you earlier sniffing the firewood we’ve got ready for our bonfire later. What exactly were you doing there?

ALAN:I was trying to tell how long ago it’s been cut, because it’s not been cut as long as I would have like it to have been cut. It’s only been cut in the Spring so it’s not completely seasoned. That’s one of the few fire-woods in the world; it’s the best firewood in the world as it has the highest calorific value. Ash will burn when its green and no other wood will burn when it’s green. So looks like you’ve arranged a fire here that has the best combination of firewoods possible, ash, which is the heat, and I’ve bought in five year old seasoned beach from a forest. That provides a very clear white light, so more light than heat and the combination of those two woods gives the best combination.

RPM: Is fire-making one of things you enjoy teaching the most?

ALAN: Fire, yes, we’ve been doing it for the last thousand years and there’s a lot more to it then lighting some matches you know? You get to learn lots of things. I stay away from the brutal aspect of ‘survival’. I’m much more interested in talking to people about life and things that are really helpful.

RPM: What are you going to be teaching the competition winners today and tomorrow?

ALAN: Well I have a two hour session, a bit like a TV programme, with some scratch and sniff elements where people can get involved. But I’ll teach a couple of the most fundamental skills for living outdoors and show them how nature provides for it. I’ll let them see it through my eyes. I’ve bought along some examples from nature, for instance I’m going to teach people about shelters, so I’ve bought a long a Green Finches nest, a Wren’s nest and a solitary Bee’s nest to show you how nature solves those problems. You’ll see that nature has set a very high bar for us to jump to. A wren makes its nest with a beak and a couple of claws so architecture and shelter is inspired by nature. The competition winners can learn from that and I want to really inspire them, to show them what we can come up with, some fundamental life skills

Westfield Car Boot Fair & Designer's Block

Lucy Heale, our design guru, will be reporting on some exclusive events at this week's London Design Week. Yesterday, she headed to the Car Boot Fair at Westfield and Designers Block.

Lucy:"The Car Boot Fair has a great interactive stand from Whistles, which took the 'whistle' concept to the full! You can choose a whistle from the back of the boot and if it doesn't make a sound once you blow it, you get chance to try the lucky dip". The Car Boot Fair displays a range of highstreet and up and coming designers, and had an seating area, fronted by a sign saying 'Bloggers Only'.

I predict that Designers Black on the other hand is going to be one of the best shows at London Design Week. They've bought together a range of young product designers and installation pieces. There were some great products and ideas that could be applied to events such as www.theideamonster.com which displayed an electronic portrait sketcher.

The best use of innovative new materials would go to www.faymccaul.com, who showed some beautiful UV lighting (see pic).

Weapon Of The Day: Box

This box is one of the most basic weapons in our Catch A Creative range, but the most effective. The target Creative can be lured into the contraption using bait, which should be placed at the back corner of the trap. This is so that said Creative can be fully covered with the box once string is pulled.

We advise to hide around the nearest corner, and once Creative has taken a bite of the bait, pull the string to release.

NB: At our testing headquarters in Sheperd's Bush, our research revealed that other effective bait to use were seeded smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels, a copy of Wallpaper Magazine, or a brand spanking new pair of Cheap Monday's.

www.rpmltd.com/catch

Weapon Of The Day- The Slingshot

WARNING: Only to be used for those with a good aim and steady hand.

USAGE: Target your Creative specifically between the eyes. All shots toward lower part of the body are futile, with the exception of more sensitive areas. Once target is secured, pull back the slingshot, and allow stone to catapult forward, knocking your Creative flat out. On arousal, Creative will seem dazed and confused, but this is a normal side effect.

RESULT: Congratulations bounty hunter, you are one step closer to £1000!

www.rpmltd.com/catch

Weapon Of The Day: The Bear Trap

Calling all bounty hunters!

Catch A Creative Tip One: Place this bear trap in the path of any unsuspecting two legged Creative and distract him from looking downwards by commenting on the weather and pointing to the window. If deploy is successful, said Creative's leg will become caught in the spikes, and hence will be unable to move. If Creative becomes aggressive, place a paper bag over Creative's head, and, once calm, get him to visit www.rpmltd.com/catch

Congratulations hunter- you are one step closer to winning a grand.

Creative Lunch

This month's Creative Lunch was a roaring success. Held in the RPM Park (an area of grass on the Account Team floor complete with stripey deck chairs and plants), RPM's Creative brains came together in one climax of imaginative innovation complete with rug and strawberries.

Highlights of design items brought in by staff included removable wallpaper, event constructions from LoveBox, photographs of unusual advertising on the Underground and the 100% Design Festival leaflet.

The Creative Lunch board stands in reception and people are invited to pull off the items discussed and browse at their perusal.

Clever ATL for Red-logistics

Red-logistics are a firm specialising in moving, for which they claim they are able to move your house 'Just As It Is'. Using this ATL design they are cunningly showcasing their ability to pack up rooms into just one box.

Uniqlo's Lucky Counter

Uniqlo's latest UK promotion, ‘Lucky Counter’ asks consumers to Tweet products on a special site. The more tweets an item receives, the bigger the discount gets on September 9, when the new Uniqlo UK online store launches.

Speedarting Tonight?

Speedarting has the same principles as Speed dating, although you're more likley to be batting your eyelashes at the latest Camberwell graduate than Mr Right. The event takes place in Bishopsgate, and allows a host of artists to flaunt their pieces and a swarm of collectors to flash their cash. The event is free, and there's even a complimentary drink on arrival. Check out the website for more details.

RPM REPORTER: SPOTS V STRIPES

This weekend I headed off to the Thames Festival to check out Cadburys' activity for their Spots V Stripes campaign. Situated by Potters Field Park, I came acorss the Cadburys Treat Station first, where two brand communicators were sculpting a model of London Bridge out of chocolate. This drew quite a crowd and later I discovered more chocolate sculptures inside, including a London skyline and a dolphin. The Treat Station offered an array of chocolate bars to buy in a small stand, and provided people with a game scorecard and Spots v Stripes stick-on tatoos.

After I was pointed in the direction of the fish-face game, part of the campaign's 'Games Crew' I headed over and stood observing the inflatable structure full of delighted kids, who tried to grab as many floating pieces as they could which were scattered about the interior by blasts of air. Outside the structure stood another brand communicator, who drew attention to the game by explaining the point of the campaign and helped to highlight the 'recruitment' theme to it, as she asked, "Are you a spot or a stripe? Choose your team, play any game you like and log online to register your points".

Spots V Stripes was created by Cadbury to celebrate the fact that they are the Official Treat Provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The aim is to help millions of people over the next two years to play thousands of games, getting everyone in the mood for the ultimate event: the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Have a look at their website to find out where the next games will commence.

Hero Billboard Painting

As you know our offices are near Westfield and on my lunchtime stroll to M&S, I came across this fantastic PR stunt. Halo Reach, the popular console game, had technicians raised on a scissor lift, hand painting the gigantic Halo billboards as part of the game's launch of the fourth edition.

RPM REPORTER: Despicable Me

I was invited to a private screening of Universal's 'Despicable Me' last night, organised by Filmology. After a short speech from a producer at Universal, (who claimed that the film has taken over £250 million so far in the US) the animated, 3D flick began and I was kept in hysterics right from the start.

The endearing storyline narrates the tale of a Russain evil villain, who is soon to discover that a younger competitor is out-eviling him. In a desperate attempt to become the world's eviliest man, he decides to steal the moon, and with the help of three children and his thousands of Spanish sounding minions, the outcome is both triumphant and tear-jerking all at once.

A brilliant family flick to be enjoyed by both adults and children; in particular, the references to the 'Bank Of Evil' have an amusing resonance. Click here to view the trailer.

Picture Of The Day

Buddhists hanging pieces of paper containing prayer wishes on lanterns during a prayer meeting celebrating the birth of Lord Buddha on May 12 2008.

NEW MAOAM SITE GOES LIVE

Our new MAOAM site went live this week!

Visit http://getyourmoutharound.maoam.com/ to check out how to win a holiday for four to LA with helicopter flights, VIP concert tickets, spending money and much more....

RPM'S NABS FOOTBALL TEAM

We came up trumps at last week's football tournament against BD Network. 6-4. Here's a review by Simon Moore, RPM's Financial Analyst:

"It was an action packed game at Harrow Borough game where victory was never really in doubt but we managed to keep it interesting by letting them score the odd goal! We raced into an early lead and were on top for the majority of the first half and finished 3-1 at the break - the game should have been dead and buried but a lack of finishing (me) left BD in a position to come back. A number of substitutions and positional changes from RPM helped BD get a foothold in the game but Chris Hughes bagged a brace, one an unbelievable volley from the edge of the area after a great cross (or was it a shot?) from Tom Stenner. Tim Jones also scored a penalty, atoning the miss in the final of the ISP tournament against BD last summer – with the final score ending at 6-4.

Well done to everyone, a great team performance – special mention to Shano who patrolled his goal admirably and Pricey, who did his best to eat up any goal threat while keeping a calm head and was deservedly named man of the match!!"

RPM REPORTER: Peroni Wrap Party

A few weeks ago I headed down to Brick Lane's Truman Brewery to check out Peroni's Wrap Party; a series of film events to promote Peroni's classy new advert, directed by Gabriele Mauccino. The event was organised by Creative Agency The Bank, and the advert documents two lovers and their journey through Italy.

A smart Peroni bar was the focal point of the room where pints of Peroni were elegantly poured, and the advert was played on a continual loop via a projector. In each corner of the room, was a small cinema with bare bulb lighting and brand communicator, who invited consumers to step behind the velvet curtain, put on some headphones and watch a short film about the making of the Peroni advert and Italian film making in general. Each cinema had only two seats within it, adding to the exclusivity of the event and the films were interesting in content.

Other nice touches in the space included the handing round of free popcorn, and the display of costumes and props featured in the film, including Vespas and designer clothing. The event wasn't too busy that you felt crammed into the space, and I was always able to get a pint of Peroni in good enough time. Every time. The event was definitely classy and did well to glamorise Italian film making, but perhaps lacked the turn-out it was looking for.