Fitness First Hijacks Receipts

Fitness First Berlin wanted to increase its numbers so decided to reach people by hijacking restaurant cash registers. When a customer's receipt was printed off, it also included the calories in the food they had eaten. Underneath this was a message from Fitness First telling them how long it would take to work off what they had consumed. The customer could then take the receipt to their nearest Fitness First to get a free training session.

RPM Reporter: MasterChef Live and The Wine Show

Admittedly, I like to watch MasterChef, but I wasn't aware of its huge following until I found myself barging through thousands of people who were filling MasterChef Live by the minute. Women in particular seemed rather giddy with excitement to catch a glimpse of John Torode and Gregg Wallace, whose dipping of spoons and 'ever so comedy' squeals of delight were sure to cause a few heart palpitations.

In the middle of The Exhibition Centre was a MasterChef branded kitchen area, in which Andi Peters (or perhaps I should now say a rather 'buffed-up' Andi P) hosted The Invention Test, which we all know so well from the show. The area was sponsored by Plenty kitchen roll, and they brought their adverts to life by using the same actor seen on the screen to come and interact with the crowds.

At various intervals, the 'Spanish' actor recreated Plenty's rather cringeworthy tagline, 'You Only Need One Sheet' by running to the aid of one of the chefs who had spilt sauce all over the counter. It was in among these over-exaggerated gestures and dodgy Spanish accent that I began to wonder if all his time at drama school had really paid off. Despite all this, Plenty did a good job of ensuring that practically everyone on stage managed to 'accidentally' spill a glass of water, causing them to take "just one sheet", which they all loudly announced as they continued to mop up the spillage. This was glaringly obvious product placement, but it did work and caused a lot of laughter among the spectators.

I went to MasterChef Live specifically to see our M&S Wine Lounge in The Wine Show, which really stood out. We'd branded the stand well, and it looked smart and engaging. During my time there, I chatted to a wine expert about the copious number of wine samples he poured for me, and I was greeted by friendly and informative BCs. Alongside the M&S Lounge, there must have been over 100 other stands full of samples and a whole host of food products ranging from spicy curry sauces, to homemade banana cake, to sesame seed ice-cream (apparently very popular in Asia, though to me it tasted slightly like watery....water).

So, all in all I left MasterChef Live feeling slightly sick from combining a whole host of rich foods within a short amount of time, but also very proud that RPM's stand stood out from the crowd. If you'd like to see more images of the M&S Wine Lounge, please check out our Flickr page here.

Movember- Sponsor RPM!!

The 'real men' of RPM are currently growing moustaches as part of the annual Movember charity fundraiser. We have 24 (and counting) competitors with a selection of styles being developed. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and one man dies every hour from the disease in the UK. This is a cause that we feel passionately about and would be extremely grateful if you could make a donation of any size through our sponsorship site at http://uk.movember.com/mospace/577504.

The Prostate Cancer Charity will use the money raised by Movember for the development of programmes related to awareness, public education, advocacy, support of those affected, and research into the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of prostate cancer. For more details on the impact Movember is having, please visit http://uk.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.

Thank you in advance for helping us to support men's health, and please see above for week one of the tache-growing!

E.ON is on the Road

A very busy five weeks are coming up for E.ON. This week sees the start of our five-week tour of the North for the Energy Fit stand and phase two of our Talking Energy Live events that start in Birmingham this Wednesday, moving onto Manchester next week, Derby, Leeds, and finishing in Sheffield.

The Energy Fit stand is huge and equipped with some very cool features. These include the augmented reality FA Cup photography experience, a working fireplace to put your wish to Father Christmas up, competition entrees, and gift converter touch screens (type into an iPod and it will tell you what changes you can make at home to get that money back on your energy bill).

Riding on the back of the success of the first phase of events, we go live with five more Talking Energy Live events in Birmingham, Manchester, Derby, Leeds and Sheffield.

For those of you that don’t know, Talking Energy Live gives you the opportunity to question experts from E.ON, the Energy Saving Trust and the local community on how you can save energy and money, explore the new technologies available and raise the energy issues that matter to you. They are chaired and run beautifully by the one and only Philippa Forrester.

E.ON has basically realised that energy bills are only going to rise, and there is nothing any of us can do about that, but it wants to help and show you ways in which you can reduce your usage, thereby giving you cheaper bills and saving you money!

For more information and to register for any of the events, have a look at the website: www.eontalkingenergy.com/live

RPM Reporter: Standby Club

The dark and dingy archway of London Bridge’s Counter Culture Club was livened by an energetically eccentric performance from The Correspondents, whose Dubstep, Hip Hop, Jazz, Drum 'n' Bass and Funk beats were delivered with gusto, stamina and some serious sweat. Mr Bruce and Mr Chuckles have toured pretty much every festival scene this summer, headlining Bestival as well as smaller sets at Glasto, Secret Garden and Love Box, which explains why Mr Bruce can still fit into those spandex leggings he sports so well.

Bristol's finest, Parker, set things up nicely for Ninja DJ Jaguar Skills who, hidden beneath his guise, delivered a mash-up set with fierce exertion. Jaguar Skills, who recently headlined Freeze Festival, had an impressive set at The Strongbow Bowtime Bar at Isle of Wight Festival, and you can watch a clip here.

Standby Club is hosted by OurKidBrother, a talent-booking consultation and live event production company who we work with on a number of our events. Keep an eye on its website for the next event.

www.standbyclub.co.uk
www.ourkidbrother.com
http://www.twitter.com/OurKidBrother

Stella's Night Chauffeur

To celebrate the launch of Stella Artois Black, a blond Belgian premium pils that’s matured for longer to produce a richer, fuller-flavoured beer, the brand is taking its own tradition of telling stories one step further with ‘The Night Chauffeur.’ It's an interactive experience that promises to bring cinema to life; lucky ticket holders will be plunged into an intriguing world of film noir femme fatales, secret exchanges and unanswered questions while being driven around the streets of London (and back in time) in a 1960s Citroen DS. Along the way they will be thrust into what feels like the final act of a film, with an intense narrative, tales of love, loss, loyalty and regret.

So how do you get in? Purchase a pint of Stella Artois Black at one of the ten participating venues between now and the 14th, and you’ll be offered an invitation to register your interest. Once the tickets are released you’ll be sent an email asking you to choose a date and venue – but hurry, spaces are limited and on a first come, first served basis, with two available per applicant. Successful entrants will then turn up at their chosen bar (which will be transformed to bring the illusion of being in a sophisticated Nouvelle Vague film to life), where a phone will ring and the barman will call out their name. A chauffeur will pick them up, two at a time, and the nighttime journey begins…

www.urbanjunkies.com

Orange Balloonacy

Orange has kicked off its 2010 edition of Balloonacy. The award-winning campaign sends 40,000 virtual hot air balloons across 3,000 different sites online and 63 million internet miles in a mad two-week race to win a group holiday to Ibiza.

The contest kicks off on November 8th. All you have to do is simply register your balloon, and once released they float from site-to-site, picking up pace and collecting stars, entitling you to a daily prize draw entry. You can also boost the speed of your balloon by collecting nudges from your friends.

The Shave-Off Begins

Alex has always sported a long beard, so deciding to raise extra money for Movember, we all sponsored him to shave it off. Here are the results...start from bottom up.

RPM Reporter - Freeze Festival

There was a whole host of brand activity at this year's Freeze Festival, the most impressive being Nike's chill-out Lodge, Jagermeister's Ice Bar and Three Mobile's Jump OnBoard Bus. Other brands embracing experiential marketing were Vitamin Water, Desperados, ActionAid and LG Mobile.

Nike's Lodge was designed to resemble the interior and ambience of a ski lodge, with interactive games, a pool table, comfortable sofas, and computers upon which people could browse through different shoe designs. The lodge was full to the brim during the day, and looked great; Nike shoes were displayed all over the trendy interiors, which was a good use of subtle branding.

Jagermeister's Ice Bar, placed near the entrance, allowed people to buy a shot and drink it upstairs in the frosted, ice-cold bar. There was also a heated terrace upon which people were chilling out and which gave a great view of the ski ramp. Back on the floor, LG Mobile recruited photo marketing company Say Cheese to mill around throughout the festival, taking photos of groups of friends or individuals that were then instantly printed and able to be retrieved from the saycheese.co.uk website. LG also had a stand whereby friends were asked to pose in front of a faux ski backdrop and once again, after logging in online, you were able to download the photos.

Three Mobile's Jump OnBoard Bus was surrounded by a heated garden and offered you the chance to 'jump on board' and try out their new Smart Phone. The bus aims to help spread the word about the benefits of using the mobile internet on Three, and the area came equipped with DJ and waffle stand. The bus has toured festivals throughout the summer, and you can follow its progress on the Three Mobile Blog.

Desperados had a small dance arena, which had its own DJ line-up and small seating area. I wasn't overly impressed with this. There was nothing that particularly set it apart from any other music-related brand activity, and it certainly didn't compare to the Strongbow Bowtime Bar! Something tells me I'm somewhat biased though, and perhaps the budget was limited. I still felt they could do more with the entertainment aspect to it. Perhaps some live French bands would have been more engaging? Yes, Desperados is actually French, not Mexican!

Last but not least, ActionAid was continuing its 'Bollocks To Poverty' tour, which has previously been seen at Global Gathering, by asking people to pose in front of their faux NMH (No More Hunger) magazine background holding up anti-poverty banners. The photos are then able to be downloaded online. Bollocks To Poverty is ActionAid's youth arm; in their words, "We want you to ditch the guilt and say bollocks to poverty by doing something you love. Whether it’s through music, art, activism or shopping, there’s loads of ways to say bollocks to poverty."

All round there was some good brand activity keeping people engaged, on their feet and immersed in each brand.

Movember - RPM's Big Shave-Off is Here

All of RPM's bold, brave, bearded men, including the entire board, have decided to embrace Movember by having an official shave-off at the RPM offices this morning in preparation for a month-long moustache-growing.

Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men's health issues, in particular prostate and testicular cancer, and began in Melbourne, Australia in 2003. The trend came to the UK officially in 2006, and last year saw its challenge to bring back the moustache raise more than 25 million globally.

So, which style will you choose? Check out the website for more details.