Hill+Knowlton Strategies

So we near the end of the first month of 2012 – WELL DONE US. Except that Italian captain. And Tom Watson’s intern. And all those naive enough to believe that the SOPA/PIPA thing has gone away (if those words mean nothing to you then read this). And Snickers. And unwitting singers at American churches. And the Russian police. And Bayern Munich. And Uzbekistan. Everyone else, though, pat yourselves on the back – especially me, who found my very own doppelganger last week! We survived the most depressing day of the year, and from hereon in everything will be just peachy.

Read the rest of this entry »

New Year, everyone (I feel that it’s inappropriate to bother with the ‘happy’ charade after nearly two weeks of workaday tedium). Well, it’s been a while. HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED! A new era has been ushered in, where a man’s political fate can rest on a small-if-perplexingly-executed typographical error, and where said typographical error causes the entire country (or at least the white-collar, desk-bound, twitter-using part of it) to down tools and descend into some horrendous infinitely recursive spiral of non-humour; in which a new way of drinking whisky is almost certainly the first harbinger of the forthcoming Mayan apocalypse;  in which a bunch of apparently sentient adults chose, of their own volition, to spend a night in a furniture warehouse; and, hopefully, in which this particular Italian politician will never again be allowed to make videos.

Read the rest of this entry »

Launching the world’s first snore absorption room; creating the world’s biggest shave; reinterpreting art with technology; revealing the best place in the UK to bring up a family… As 2011 draws to a close, we take a look back month by month at some H+K Strategies campaigns and work throughout the year.

January: City & Guilds Million Extra

You're hired: Karren Brady+ City & Guilds' Chris Jones

To start the new year, preparations to launch City & Guilds first ever Apprenticeship Summit went underway early on. The aim of the campaign was to help ensure one million Apprenticeship starts by summer 2013.

In January, we commissioned a report to identify the barriers employers face in hiring apprentices with the findings discussed by key political and business leaders at the Summit, hosted by Apprentice star Karren Brady.

Nearly 100 pieces of coverage resulted from this campaign as well as a request from Professor Alison Wolf to receive a copy of the full report after seeing the articles to include in her Government review of 14-19 education.

February: Intel Remastered

Shortlisted for various industry awards, our Technology team created an exciting art campaign- Intel Remastered to showcase the creative application of Intel technology. The project saw 13 modern artists reinterpret iconic masterpieces using digital technology and techniques.

Pushing the boundaries of art and creating one of the most talked about art events on the year, the stories and inspiration behind classics such as Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ and Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ were retold and presented to a digital-savvy audience.

Read the rest of this entry »

I believe it was contemporary urban philosopher Ferris Bueller who once said ‘Life moves pretty fast; if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’ (NB – on reflection, I don’t know why I wrote that; I hate people who ascribe deep significance to the throwaway utterances of fictional characters. IT WAS WRITTEN BY A SCREENWRITER, YOU CHUMP). This edition of Web Curios is brought to you by the whooosh-ing sound that time makes as it flies past your ears; it seems like only yesterday that I was writing the last one of these, talking about holidays and the end of summer and stuff. All of a sudden it’s December, I’ve not written a Curios for a month (not that any of you CARE, you unappreciative whelps), and you can’t turn on the television without a famous trying to sell you stinkwater. On an unrelated note, I am yet to eat a mince pie in 2011. If anyone would like to courier some over to H&K towers, I will be very grateful and possibly do a small happy dance in gratitude; thanks (in the unlikely event that HRH Prince Charles is reading this, I am a massive fan of Duchy Originals).

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, Internet Week 2011 is over and from what I can tell, it was jam packed five days with a diverse array of events. Although hashtagged as #IWE (E for Europe), it seemed fairly London media industry centric, to the extent that the Hospital Club was the official HQ. In unconference style, anyone can hold an event during the week. Simultaneous offerings mean you have to make choices as to what to attend (as you somehow squeeze a few sessions into your work week). It also means we are extremely grateful to all the folks that flocked to the WPP Stream London breakfast, hosted here at H&K. Titled Always on Events: How the Internet can help you build a year round community for your real life event, our theme seemed a natural for both IWE and Stream.

It is not always easy to hold a true Discussion, vs a standard presentation where the speakers do all the talking. But I was delighted that many of our participants jumped right in to debate the different aspects that help a community stay together after an event is over. Because it is the interaction between attendees that is the real secret to any event’s success. My co-leader was Rob Blackie, the MD of Blue State Digital London. His five tips for events that rock made a great wrap-up. Let us know if you have any to add. Lots to think about for Stream itself, IWE and your special event as well.

Trying to prep my bit for the WPP Stream London IWE event in our bar tomorrow, I got totally side tracked. Google launched brand Pages on Google+. Hurrah.

Have been waiting and watching for this since forever. Well, since G+ itself launched. There are many feature-led business reasons I think this is so important for brands. But, in my gut, I really really want all the people working on the brands we represent to feel the rush. To beat their competitors off the starting blocks. To be an early adopter brand.

Those are my emotional reasons. The top practical ones include:

• Hangouts
  • The much touted live video tool you can use for everything from a user focus group to a press briefing (video)
• Ripples
  • A lovely visualization of how a post is shared (video). Clearly, identifying top contributors and influencers is key for our clients and Google knows how to provide tools to help. And it’s free.
• Direct Connect
  • This is huge. Users can type +BrandName in Google Search and get a direct link to that Brand’s Google+ Page. It’s not just great for users, it is a reminder of the real power of Google overall.

There is nothing better than to learn by doing. And early adopters learn more, faster. Facebook is almost eight years old; Twitter launched in 2006. Neither was built for brands and, to be honest, many brands are still not sure what to do there. That’s ok. Have a play with Google+ and it just may help your company get serious with an overall social strategy. It’s not a zero sum game and I think the future is a multi-platform place.

We have been doing Workshops on Google+ (and other things) so ping us if you want to know more. And please do circle me.

Any real life event — be it a pop concert, an unconference like WPP Digital’s Stream, or a breakfast session during Internet Week — creates an automatic community. Most event communities, though, are ephemeral. Once the crowd goes home, that group of interacting people disappears.

I started to think about this when we expanded our Demystifying Digital conference from a single event in 2010 to an ongoing platform. And, as a volunteer director for Stream, I have seen firsthand how an annual event can grow into an always on community. TED, Cannes Lions, Burning Man — these cult happenings connect people all year.  Some of their success is organic; some is due to smart community building by the organizers. Given the much heralded ability of the Internet to build communities online, it seemed a natural topic for a Stream Local Discussion. How do we use the social net to fan the interaction sparked by a real life event into an ongoing, connected society? Join our IWE session on 08 November and share your experience and techniques.

Phew. Three weeks since I last did one of these, and my word has there been a lot going on. Bankers have shut down a church (well, you know, indirectly)! The Sun gave us possibly the most tasteless frontpage in years! One of the most appalling hatecrimes of the (admittedly newish) decade was committed to little or no mainstream media fanfare! France and Germany mocked Italy’s sexually incontinent Premier! The filthy rich just keep on getting richer! And loads more besides, much of it even more dispiriting than those few links I’ve just shared.

Ignoring the fact that world is going to hell in the proverbial handcart, though, I’ve actually had rather a lot of fun (because that is obviously the MOST IMPORTANT THING). I’ve seen comedy; I’ve been to an awesome gig;I’ve been to the theatre and seen probably the most harrowing play I’ve ever seen, ever (actually, make that the second-most harrowing - this was probably worse); I’ve eaten some truly tremendous food; and I got to see a truly tremendous rapper live in a tiny venue. So, you know, I’m alright. Are you alright? I’m starting to worry.

Anyway, enough of this. Make yourself a cup of tea, settle down in a suitably confortable chair, and imagine my soothing, dulcet tones reading this out to you (and, if you like, imagine my malcoordinated body acting out every single video too. You pervert). You may want to get some biscuits too; this could take a while.

Image courtesy of Neutron, LLC

Read the rest of this entry »

The pretence that this blog is a weekly thing really has to stop. One month since the last one, fact fans. I’ve had THINGS TO DO. Not least going to Brussels and Croatia, where I went on holiday and did NOTHING other than read and swim and be horizontal. It was awesome, and as a result I now look less like this and more like this. No really, I do.

BUT that was then and this is now; I have returned to a world in which the internet spends all its time railing against the evil of corporations and then…er…goes incontinent with grief over the passing of the head of one of the world’s largest corporations; in which Silvio manages to somehow become even more ridiculous and offensive;  and a world in which somehow one of the members of 1980s pop combo Hue & Cry has become a consultant on games, play and ludic theory. We live in interesting times. Here are some totally insignificant bits of online ephemera to help distract you from what appears to be the total meltdown of civilisation which is going on all around us. Christ, I sound like an old man.

Socially responsible graffiti on a Croatian beach hut

Read the rest of this entry »

“Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness; close bosom friend of the maturing sun…” – or that’s what Keats said. Personally speaking, I think Keats can do one, as can September and Autumn in general. Everything smells of wet dog and regret, it’s cold and miserable and it’s now just the long, slow trudge towards another season of crass mass-consumerism and endless, interminable, incomprehensible perfume adverts (NB – anyone who works in advertising who reads this, please feel free to explain to me why perfume advertising is so oblique, as I have literally no idea).

Think, then, of this edition of Web Curios as the lightbox to your SAD, the plaster to your axewound (for future reference, an unpleasant conjunction of words to Google), the United Nations to your genocide. I’m here to help. To that end, here are some recommendations for awesome stuff you can do in London over the next few months (NB – that last link is one of the best things I’ve seen in years, very much recommended. Oh, and for an interesting take on Libya, you could do worse than read this). In the real world! NOT ON THE INTERNET! Crazy but true.

But for now it’s still all about the internet. Well, on this particular blog it is, anyway. If you don’t like it, you know what you can do (though I’d prefer it if you didn’t; I’m needy, and low-to-moderate traffic figures are all that’s standing between me and a P45).

Read the rest of this entry »