Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Its official, this is now a weekly feature.   So what has been going on inside H+K Towers this week? Well…

Our Retail+Leisure team donned their fashionable fluorescent vests and hard hats for a walk round the new InterContinental London Westminster this week, which opens at the end of November. With just one month to go, 85% of the 180-strong hotel team have now been recruited and a workforce of over 500 builders are currently on site putting the finishing touches to the design details of the six floor hotel including 256 guest rooms with 44 suites, Club InterContinental executive lounge, the meetings and events space, the much-anticipated Blue Boar Smokehouse and Bar, and Emmeline’s, a whimsical and vibrant lounge situated in the heart of the hotel. You’ll know where to find us once the doors swing open!

Following the launch of the first Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series film competition, which offered budding filmmakers the chance to make their own short film, using their imagination to interpret a short film script created by Academy Award® winner Geoffrey Fletcher, this week our Food + Drink Team and Bombay Sapphire announced the five winners. The competition received more than 700 submissions from all over the world and now the five winners will go on to produce and direct their own individual films, which will be shown in early 2013.

Our Consumer Packaged Goods team have also had another busy week: Research released by Duracell this week revealed that a staggering one third of alkaline batteries thrown away may still have up to 67 per cent of usable power left inside – that’s more than is being used!  Duracell are promoting their Ultra Power range, which are the only batteries that offer unique built-in Powercheck technology. It’s like having x-ray vision, enabling you to see the energy left inside so you can squeeze out all the remaining power.

Duracell together with Energy Saving Trust is helping consumers understand how to maximise battery power, tap into unused resource and reduce energy wastage in the home by giving their batteries a second life this Autumn.   To demonstrate how batteries that have been presumed dead can be given a second life, the Duracell Bunny can be seen being transformed into an impressive light sculpture.  Loving the video.

Last week, two of our Healthcare team met with Neil Betteridge, Vice-President of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). Neil has previously worked for the Royal Association of Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR) and was Chief Executive of Arthritis Care UK until September last year. He was keen to discuss how healthcare PR can help to facilitate integrated online and offline networks for both patients and healthcare professionals. It was great to talk with Neil and gain insights into our current advocacy work, which we hope to do even more of in the future!

The team also travelled to Brussels to support a debate at the European Parliament on preventable blindness as part of World Sight Day and on behalf of the European Forum Against Blindness (E-FAB). The event was attended by over 45 delegates and several MEPS who were offered digital photographs of their retinas.  A Call to Action for earlier screening for blindness, which will be endorsed by MEPs, was also developed at the meeting. The team also had the opportunity to tap into our large network and work with the H+K Brussels office on this initiative.

And finally, on Monday, our Venus and P&G Beauty teams took journalists to see Venus global ambassador Jennifer Lopez take the stage for her first ever UK arena live show.