Hill+Knowlton Strategies

As we start the countdown to Christmas, it is still ridiculously busy here at H+K

The Schwartz team from Food and Drink visited L’Altelier des Chefs this week, where they were lucky enough to get stuck in with an hour long cooking class run by an expert chef! The team really put their cooking skills to the test  and learnt how to bring flavours to life when they rustled up a gourmet dish of Moroccan spiced guinea fowl with cous cous royale, accompanied by Schwartz Cumin flavoured carrots and a Mint and Coriander dressing….de-lish!

The London Eye team recreated a snow globe inside the London Eye on Monday to celebrate the opening of Eyeskate, the ice rink.

The Viakal team have sold in a survey finding that nearly half of us have a nosey through other people’s bathroom cabinets. It has been included on Express.co.uk

H+K was approached by Vale to manage the press conference at Vale Day 2012 in London. To ensure a good turnout and a successful event, H+K London invited key UK national, newswires and trade publications to the event, securing attendance by 13 reporters. The calibre of reporters who attended Vale Day was extremely good and included individuals from Bloomberg, Reuters, and Platts. The press conference led to 23 pieces of coverage.

And to wrap up our week, we had our Keeping the Flame Alive Panel Event last night at  our Soho Square offices.  A lively debate around the likely legacy left by the games with our very own WPP head honcho Sir Martin Sorrell, Olympic Gold Medallist Helen Glover and Sports Editor from The Telegraph Ben Clissit

We all know the expression “a problem shared is a problem halved” and it’s pretty true. It’s good to tell other people what’s on your mind.

But what about an experience shared? Well, forget trying to measure that – there isn’t a scale, a barometer or a mathematical formula on the planet that can begin to measure what’s just happened to this country.

At London 2012 we did it well but better than that we did it together. And that is a rare thing – very rare.

Some of the best things in life are shared experiences – sport, festivals, holidays – but how often is everyone up for the same team/band/trip? Not often.

And how good does it feel when there’s no United v City, no Jessie J v Rihanna, no beach v museum? Just Team GB and the incredible journey they took us on stopping off at heartbreak, ecstasy and farce (Ian Thorpe’s wardrobe) along the way. Unforgettable.

For those of us old enough to remember three channel television it was a bit of a throwback to the days when part of the fun of watching Grange Hill, The Young Ones or Spitting Image was going to school/work the next day and talking about it. Because everyone was watching. Everyone.

The fragmentation of media/society/life means that we hardly do anything together anymore – even when we’re in the same place.

The rise of Facebook, Twitter etc (pass me another Werthers Original would you?) means you might be sat five yards from someone and still not share the same experience. And that’s pretty sad because as a nation we’re pretty much unbeatable when we do things together.

London 2012 has been a thrill, a landmark, a revelation. But more than anything I hope it’s been a wake up call. Get together.

The Spark/Steve

The Real Doc Martin

A review of recent science publications found even researchers getting swept away with Olympic fever. Here are three that caught our eye (when it wasn’t fixed on the athletic achievements coming out of the East End!)

“Will steroids kill me if I use them once?” An analysis of enquiries submitted to the danish anti-doping authorities published in Performance Enhancement & Health

 The organisation Anti Doping Denmark apparently uses  a Web-based counselling service to address public questions about anabolic androgenic steroids and doping. The analysis found that questions seem to fall into two categories: side effects of using anabolic steroids, and questions around receiving a a positive result after the use of (presumably legal) supplements. Results showed that many of those in the second category often did not know which ingredients were banned and whether their supplements were safe or not,an issue often encountered when athletes are tested for drug use.

Read the rest of this entry »

This post comes from Anthony Scammell, Associate Director H+K Sports.

Aside from the running, rowing, cycling, BMX-ing and modern pentathlon, Olympic ‘legacy’ has almost become a sport in its own right. It even has a new cheerleader in Lord Coe, who was yesterday appointed the government’s Olympic legacy ambassador.

But, as the flame was put out last night at the Olympic stadium, the legacy that is most apparent to me across the country is confidence. After his second gold medal in Saturday’s 5,000m, Mo Farah looked into the camera and told the nation that ‘anything is possible with hard work and graft’. Quite right Mo.  But what that ‘hard work and graft’ gave Farah was boundless confidence. Confidence he could dare to be a double Olympic champion.  Confidence he could take the front with two laps to go in the 5,000m and absolutely refuse to let anyone pass him.

Too often the British psyche is prone to seeing a pint glass half empty rather than half full; we might not, rather than we might. Confidence can be the difference, and if these Olympics have given the country a huge shot in the arm – in a purely legal way – then that’s got to be a good thing.

BBC Radio 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell wondered aloud whether the 16-days of Olympic competition would be akin to a holiday romance – a short term thrill that would fade quickly when ‘normal life’ returns. I hope not.  Let’s have the confidence to make sure it’s much more than that.

Afterall, there’s more to come. As the official Paralympic broadcaster, Channel 4, is proclaiming on its adverts: ‘Thanks for the Warm Up’.

Half of Team Scammell takes in the wrestling at the Excel Centre.

The Tech team went to the Mizuno Performance Centre last Wednesday to attend the London Bloggers Meetup.

The Mizuno Performance Centre itself is quite impressive and decorated with paintings in Japanese style, due to the heritage of the brand itself. The different types of shoes were not only on display, people could also try them on and compare their football and handball skills to others. The Centre was even equipped with a 20 metre track and very keen people could measure how fast they were in spikes.    

Here are our recommended out-takes from the event:

- Peter Woodford from Starcount
- Colin Newlyn, who blogs about product development (www.colinnewlyn.com)
- Prad Patel, a blogger and photographer (http://uncoveringmylens.com/)
- Nick Silversides, tech & videogames blogger (http://www.theaveragegamer.com/)
- Filip Matous check this out yourself  (http://www.londonphilosophyclub.com/, http://evergreenreputation.com/)
- Laurence Borel – http://www.laurenceborel.com/
-And of course Andy Wilkes – find the London2012 blog here

One lucky member of the team even won a shoe personally signed by Sally Gunnell, for a creative picture taken (she didn’t remember which one it was, apparently she spammed the hash tag with pictures all night .

-  Eva

Inspired by a certain sporting event that’s now in full swing (hard to believe when the West End currently feels like the set of 28 Days Later) here we go with the some Olympic-inspired happenings that take the winners’ podium as this week’s Three For Free.

1) Take in the spirit of the Games

What better way to mark the 30^th Olympiad than by slurping vodka at the ice bar at Russia.Sochi. Park in Kensington Gardens?  It’s one nearly 20 free “hospitality houses” that  have popped up across London that are open to the public and are set to be the venue for medal ceremonies, exhibitions and parties throughout the Olympics and Paralympics.  Sink a Heineken with the Dutch at Alexandra Palace, take some little people to The House of Fairy Tales at the House of Switzerland near Borough Market, enjoy the craic at the Irish House in Kings Cross and bid a hearty “Herzlichen Gluckwunsch fur dem Goldmedaille” if you bump into any Germans that “medal” at the Deutches Haus in Docklands.

See http://www.visitlondon.com/london2012/national-hospitality-houses-for-london-2012/ for more details.

2) A One-Eyed View of London

Following in the footsteps of Cow Parade and the recent Big Egg Hunt,  download one of six walking trails around London and see how many  of the 83 unique Wenlock and Mandeville sculptures you can spot along the way.  See http://www.molpresents.com/stroll or get the app from http://photoroute.com/app

3) A photo finish…and other cultural happenings

And if you’re more about the mind than the body beautiful, there’s still bundles of stuff planned as part of the city’s Cultural Olympiad.  Highlights include the BT Road to 2012 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which pays tribute to the world-class athletes taking part in the Games, as well as those involved in planning and staging the event and ordinary folks living and working in the Olympic Host Boroughs.  Or marvel at the collection of 100 years of the posters created by each Olympic Host City since 1912 at Tate Britain.  http://festival.london2012.com/index.php

The Spark/Claire C

I just missed the Olympic torch! It was only a couple of blocks away, but by the time I’d managed to elbow my way through several floor’s worth of local office workers, it had passed by. Only the din of a nearby helicopter provided testament to its near existence. It was a bit of a Higgs Boson moment.

Anyway, rather than being bamboozled by physics, the physician in me came to the fore and I  asked myself if these Olympic games might spur me and others to improve our fitness and overall health. Maybe by Rio 2016, I might be at the front, a bit faster and wiser than today?

So I visited NHS Choices for some tips from the athletes themselves. There’s a wonderful section called Health Tips from Olympic Athletes where 60 past and present champions share their advice and practical tips on how to have a happy and healthy life.

One guy, Albert Aspen, a wrestler from the 1960 Games, his tip was to do plenty of swimming. Interesting I thought, but I needed a bit more detail. What did the swimmers say? Rather disappointingly they also thought swimming was a good idea: David Roberts (Gold 2004) was very much in favour, as was Sharon Davis (Silver 1980). Adrian Moorhouse (another swimming Gold) struck off in different direction. Diet. Skimmed milk apparently is what does it for him. But there must be something else, something a bit more medical surely? Some secret remedy or an ancient and obscure exercise? Not that I could discover I’m afraid. Its all a bit obvious really, you just have to exercise a lot. But finally I did find a zen master in there and he’s not a runner, or a swimmer or a wrestler…he’s a fencer!  Graham Watts a fencing medallist swears by..wait for it.. Sudoku!  So there we have it. Four years with the Daily Telegraph on my lap and and we will get there!

While I was on NHS Choices (a site I’ve always found much under-rated and full of useful ideas and information) I noticed a really unusual interactive tool that allows users to find out which sport they are best suited to through a series of psychological and aptitude tests. It was developed by an expert team of sports psychologists at Loughborough University and I must say it’s quite addictive; particularly the one which tests your reflexes. According to them I should have taken up cricket or basketball. I knew I should have stuck at it at school! All those wasted years. Sadly Sudoku doesn’t appear to be one of the choices!

Big well done to our Ariel ‘Big Sprint’ P&G Team.  Yesterday Olympian Jeanette Kwakye teamed up with good ole household favourite Ariel Detergent & Stain remover, to lead the Ariel Big Sprint, a ‘Capital wide’ clean-up challenge that will saw Jeanette travel across London cleaning four dirty hotspots in record breaking time. At each location Jeanette tackled different cleaning challenges including collecting litter, erasing graffiti, repainting fences, clearing fly tip areas and tidying disused parkland. Jeanette had just 60 minutes per location to do as much cleaning as she can.

Jeanette had just seven hours, from start to finish, to tackle some of London’s biggest clean up challenges in the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest, Camden, Brent and Lambeth.

• Waltham Forest – Jeanette tidied up Wanstead Flats and helped to clear dirty parkland
• Camden – Jeanette painted over graffiti found on the Regents Canal
• Brent – Jeanette tackled fly tipping and paint over graffiti on the defaced garages and garden fences of Leybourne Open Space
• Lambeth – Jeanette helped restore the local playing fields in Norwood, put up new tennis nets and painted the club house so that local kids can enjoy a summer of sport.

Online coverage has already started to appear, including a great interview with Jeanette that was posted on both Yahoo! Lifestyle (3,524,000) and Zest Magazine (39,000) that features our campaign image.

We also secured two online hits in the Evening Standard (235,514) – a news write up, and featuring in their  Pictures of the Day gallery.  Metro online (2,900,000) also included one of the images in their news picture gallery.

Jeanette also conducted interviews with the Evening Standard, Daily Star, Christian Radio, London Mums, Bodyfit Magazine, Ham and High, Camden Community Radio, Your News UK TV and The Voice. She has also been very active on Twitter throughout the day – snapshot captured in the coverage summary attached.

The Ariel Big Sprint, part of the P&G Capital Clean Up, is a three month programme run in partnership with The Greater London Authority with the aim of helping make London stainless this summer. Every event is designed to make London an even cleaner, fresher, greener place in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games and beyond, via local bursaries to help sustain the clean-up efforts.  P&G, the company behind Flash, Febreze and Ariel is a worldwide partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games through a 10 year, global partnership with the International Olympic Committee and P&G ‘Thank You, Mum’ campaign.

Don’t know about you but I put off cleaning my own house as much as I can, so lending a hand to clean up the capital gets a lot of kudos in my book!

Another week, another set of people yapping away at each other on the internet in the mistaken belief that what they say matters. Earlier this week, the web watched AGHAST as two sets of people pitted themselves against each other in a BITTER WAR OF WORDS, in what turned out to be a massively unedifying spectacle both for the journalist involved and, frankly, for everyone else who participated.

I am, of course, referring to this – oh, Barbara Ellen, what were you thinking?

Read the rest of this entry »

Millions of people around the UK are getting ready to welcome the world to London in 100 days time. 70,000 volunteers are already a significant way through the million hours of training they will receive ahead of the eight million hours of volunteering they will deliver;  over eight million people have said in a recent survey they are getting ready to line the streets and cheer the thousands of community heroes carrying the Olympic flame around the UK;  two million school children are learning about the values of the Games and the countries and cultures of the 10,000 plus athletes from over 200 National Olympic Committees coming to the UK and eight million Olympic and Paralympic tickets will be in the hands of British sports fans by the Summer.

Whilst the UK gets ready to host the Games, LOCOG announced today that the world-famous aerobatic display team the  Red Arrows will perform a nine-ship flypast in Big Battle formation across the UK to mark the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games (27 July), providing a stunning curtain raiser to the show. Flying over London 2012 Live Sites in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London before the Opening Ceremony begins, the iconic Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team will herald the start of the Games, and welcome the world in quintessentially British fashion.

LOCOG also today unveiled the motto for the Games – ‘Inspire a generation’.  Reflecting the promise made when London bid for the Games, the motto will appear on branding and publications in the run up to, and during, the Games.

Today sees the latest ‘spectacular’ installation of the Olympic rings unveiled – at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, west London. The rings, which are 50m long, will be made up of 20,000 plants and will be visible from the Heathrow flight path.  The flowers were planted over a period of five days by a team of volunteers and Kew staff.  They will be in full flower for the summer.

LOCOG, and its delivery partners, are getting ready for the Games – 31 out of 42 sport test events have been successfully completed, with the biggest test event to come in May, involving over 80,000 people on the Olympic Park for six events. In total, around 250,000 people will have attended the London Prepares series of test events.

Finally, preparations are well advanced for the London 2012 Festival – the country’s biggest ever arts festival which will see over 1,000 events held across the UK to welcome the world as part of the Cultural Olympiad. There will be 10 million free opportunities to take part in events across the UK.

Across the UK, thousands of people will be marking 100 days to go.  At Weymouth and Portland, the venue for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing competitions, a giant sandcastle has been built featuring the Olympic Rings.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said, ‘Organising the Olympics is a team effort and over the next hundred days, people from all walks of life and from all around the world will play their part in helping to make London 2012 a Games that will inspire a generation. From the athletes refining their technique, to the volunteers learning about their roles, to the torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame and the people supporting them as they go, each and every one of them is playing their part in making these a Games to remember. Around the world, the excitement is growing and expectations are high but I am confident that Britain and London will deliver a great sporting event and a warm welcome too.’

LOCOG Chair Seb Coe said, ‘With 100 days to go to the start of the Games, millions of people  are getting ready to do the best work of their lives and welcome the world this summer.  There is a groundswell of support and excitement, not just in the UK, but internationally as the final countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games begins. Whether it’s the competing athletes or people getting ready to join their communities in supporting Torchbearers on the streets of the UK, the whole world is getting ready for London. Expectations are high, and we won’t disappoint.’

Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt said, ‘The London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics are within touching distance now and there’s something incredibly exciting about that. The country is getting ready to welcome the world this summer, and it’s set to be an amazing celebration that we will never forget.’

We’re excited that we are at the 100 days to go marker and we’re getting ready to celebrate the biggest event in the world coming to London.  How are you planning to mark the Olympics in a hundred days time? Are you volunteering, hosting Olympic parties or getting involved with the torch relay in your local community?  We’d also love to hear your thoughts on how you think the Olympics will ‘inspire a generation’ too.