Charming new TV spot from BBH London for the new Audi A5, playing on the German car manufacturer’s love of aerodynamics and its ability to be ahead of its time.

via Adweek

Loving this new campaign for Newcastle Brown from the ever-brilliant Droga5. A cheeky outdoor campaign that sets the tone for the TV spots….great stuff.

via Adweek

Tradesmen.  We love ‘em. And they get a bad press a lot of the time. So Rave is working together with IRWIN Tools to try and change that with the launch of National Tradesman Day 2012, when we’ll be asking the UK to join us and support the campaign to ‘Show Some Love For Our Tradesmen’

The next 6 months will see more than 50 events taking place all over the UK throughout the year, culminating in ‘National Tradesmen Day’ on 21st September, that will officially salute professional tradesmen and highlight the importance of their work to the Great British Public. Throughout the campaign, IRWIN will be inviting trade professionals to visit them at trade shows, retailer and merchant branches to pick up lots of free stuff as their way of saying thanks and rewarding the hard working trade heroes that keep the country running strong. The list of great items that tradesmen can get courtesy of IRWIN includes free t-shirts, free tools, free tradesmen packs and even free food!

We’re expecting big things from this initiative, as in recent years IRWIN have shaken up the professional trades industry with their ‘Challenge IRWIN’ and ‘Ultimate Tradesman Challenge’ campaigns. ‘National Tradesman Day’ looks set to be the biggest yet.

More info at: http://www.nationaltradesmenday.co.uk

Very nifty piece of work from Alton Towers and Cake PR to get the theme park’s latest attraction classified as a ‘12A’ by the BBFC – the British Board of Film Classification . This makes it the first non-film or game to receive an age rating by the organisation,  meaning that under 12s will have to ride with an adult in order to further underlines the apparent scariness of the ride. And of course, it’s picked up a raft of top media coverage as a result. Great work.

More info here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-17428747

For more like this, visit the excellent PR Examples

Another great, simple and effective piece of Outdoor – this time in the States to promote BBC America. Cleverly placed above the recycling bins, the execution plays on the notion that Americans view British society as more refined and sophisticated – therefore for a program to be on BBC America, it has an automatic seal of approval.

Seen on the ever enlightening Stunt of The Day from Taylor Herring PR.

We are loving this outdoor campaign from agency101 which sees 19 specially converted poster site dispensing free cake. Designed to promote Mr Kipling’s new 'snap pack' format, which allows consumers to eat cake 'on the go', each site distributes up to 500 Mr Kipling Angel Slices a day, once a minute, at the touch of a button. One bus shelter on London's Tottenham Court Road will also emit the aroma of cake, with a scent spray on the poster site. Additional support for the campaign from Starcom, JC Decaux and PR activities from Ketchum Pleon.

Free cake. Massive win.

Via Creativity Online

Interesting campaign from Y&R Chicago  to create a movement for all Americans to stand up and take control of the growing problem of poor grammar.. The print ads drive to a blog where people can post mistakes they’ve found themselves, as well as donate money to an urban language and grammar school.

Very commendable. Just don’t ask them about the centre. Or colour.

It was hotfoot down to London last week for some of Rave’s PR team when they attended Social Media Week 2012. A series of insightful sessions were absorbed and consumed over the course of several days and here Rave’s Social Media Manager Jane Whitehead gives her overview of the opening session ‘How to Talk to Bloggers & Your Community’

Ben Moore kicked off the session telling us all about the charity he is involved in - Stickaid. Stickaid is a 24 hour online charity fundraiser raising money for UNICEF.

Ben provided some great insights into working with a charity on social media and it was really interesting to hear that Stickaid is a purely social media driven campaign and the successes it has. It just shows the power of social now and the fact that it’s only going from strength to strength which is fantastic for us in the industry.

Find out all about Stickaid: Twitter @stickaid http://www.stickaid2011.com/

Blogger of T-Shirts and Tails and social media specialist Sophia Littledale was next to take the stage. With 200 million blogs worldwide – Sophia knows that the quality and influence of blogs are increasing vastly as people begin to share more and curate their own content. It was great to hear from someone who sits on ‘both sides of the fence’.
 Sophia talked about the importance of a two-way relationship between us, the marketers, and bloggers, and how not to put bloggers in the same circle as journalists. Bloggers want to experience unique content, they want us to engage with them on their level as they have the freedom to use a different tone-of-voice that journalists can’t afford to have.

Unique content is key – giving influential bloggers exclusive products, interviews or invites increases brand awareness and visibility on social media in a way which creates some great buzz around the brand. Burberry is a brand which does this really well making campaign adverts available to bloggers before anyone else, giving them sharable content to feedback to their loyal readers.

Sophia has found the main benefit of working with bloggers is longevity which is invaluable. To achieve this we need to work closely with bloggers; building a true relationship will result in the blogger becoming an advocate for years to come giving the brand real-time, honest reviews that reach the correct target market and is actually meaningful to them.

Read Sophia’s fabulous fashion blog here: http://www.t-shirtsandtails.blogspot.com

The final speaker of the session was YouTube ‘superuser’ Mawaan Rizwan. Mawaan is the creator of Malum TV where he publishes comedy videos. Mawaan’s most popular video has received 1.2 million views to date with viewers from all over the world.

Mawaan gave us an insight into becoming a successful YouTuber, on a personal level and for brands and gave us a few key points to think about. People see YouTube as an extension of television but those watching have a different mentality – viewers are there ready to click to the next video so videos must keep attention spans.

We must not forget about the community aspect to YouTube. Building an interactive community on YouTube, similar to the aims of doing so on Facebook and Twitter is very essential. It’s not just about hits, it’s more important to evoke a reaction through likes and comments and really get into the brain of the viewer.

Take a look at the ‘Top 45 Ghetto British Names’ – my favourite…

The key takeaway from this session was the impact of captivating content – we need to create content that people want to share and remember social media is not just another place to push adverts!

To read the full version of this post, visit Jane’s blog at http://janegetssocial.tumblr.com/   or follow her on Twitter @janiexx

Under their ‘Unleash the chaos’ line, and hot on the heels of a great TV spot, BBH London reveal a superb piece of print to support their latest Axe Effect (Lynx!) for BOTH men and women. Love it.

Superb interactive piece for Ikea from Instict Russia, allowing the user to change point of view from one character to the next in different scenes. Each perspective shows a new way that IKEA kitchens enrich time spent with your loved ones.

Visit the website here: http://www.kitchenview.ru/index_en.html

Spotted on the Tube this week…….and just how exactly am I supposed to scan that?! Just pop across the tracks?!

Rave has appointed Meg Woods from Haslimann Taylor to join its consumer PR team in the role of Senior Account Manager.

Meg, who worked on heavyweight clients including Mitchells and Butlers and Essential Health Products at HTPR, brings more than five years PR experience to the Rave PR and Social Media team and its growing consumer portfolio.

Formerly chair of PRCA FrontLine Midlands and a finalist in CIPR Pride 2011’s Outstanding Young Communicator category, Meg will be leading the Graco and Electrolux PR accounts at Rave, including the launch of a “multi-million pound exclusive dining experience in London”.

Rave’s PR Director Chris Date said: “Meg has joined Rave in a particularly exciting year and her exceptional and highly-regarded experience in the food, drink and leisure industry will see her lead some truly exciting campaigns this year. 2012 is set to be the most successful year yet for the Rave PR & Social Media team”

Rave, recently a finalist for Outstanding Small Consultancy and award winners for Best Use of Social Media  at the CIPR PRide Awards 2011, as well as winners of the Best Viral at the Cream Awards 2011, has recently created PR and integrated campaigns for clients including AEG, Graco, Showcase Cinemas, Zanussi, IRWIN Tools and Reckitt Benckiser.

Loving the latest "Treat Yourself Better" campaign for Weight Watchers France, courtesy of Fred & Farid Paris. It’s a thing of beauty….but having been shot and directed by Rankin, what did you expect?!

We love a bit of simple and effective print work – this time from Barnes, Catmur & Friends Auckland for New Zealand Subaru's new rear reversing cameras (which now come as standard)