This week Yves Saint Laurent announced it is changing its name, as Hedi Slimane made his mark on the iconic global brand as new Creative Director.

The new signature ‘Saint Laurent Paris’ will be used for the ready-to-wear collection, moving away from the iconic and infamous acronym ‘YSL’, which we’ve all become accustomed to, whether part of the fashion set or not.

Apparently Slimane has used YSL’s fashion history as creative inspiration, looking back to 1966 when the fashion house was known as ‘Saint Laurent Rive Gauche’, as his main source of reasoning behind the re-brand.  As you can imagine, this sudden name change has caused a stir with the fashion set, raising the question as to whether Slimane gone too far, when he hasn’t even completed a season?

To change a brand name of such stature takes a powerful, headstrong individual who has the audacity to send a message around the world that he’s doing things his way. Who can fault that? After all, in 1966 Saint Laurent did the same when he launched the YSL ready-to-wear line.

I still haven’t come around to the idea of ‘SLP’ (it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue) although I admire his determination to make the brand his own. The 1966 brand ‘Rive Gauche’ defiantly gave off more of an air of romantic Parisian chic, which I’m not convinced ‘SLP’ achieves.  After announcing the brand will move its creative studio from Paris to Los Angeles, I can’t help but think the rich heritage the brand has built over 50 years is losing its ‘exclusivity’.

The rebrand will be rolled out over the coming months, and I’m sure after time everyone will come around to enjoy his new creative direction.

By Francesca Gamble on June 29th, 2012

Tags: Art & Design, Default, Fashion, Synergy

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With less than one month to go to London 2012, Tim Crow joined a Marketing magazine roundtable of Olympic sponsors to share Olympic marketing strategies and insights.

Click here to read the feature.

By Synergy on June 28th, 2012

Tags: Press Clipping

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Synergy’s PR division makes it into the PR Week Top 50 Consumer PR Consultancies list at number 42.

For the full article, click here

By Synergy on June 16th, 2012

Tags: Default, Press Clipping

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Sport has taken centre stage this week as possibly the least hyped major international football tournament in recent memory – the consensus seemingly having developed that the ridiculous build-up around previous tournaments was never exactly vindicated by brilliant England performances or particularly exciting matches – started with a bang. Added to that Harry Redknapp’s surprise departure from Spurs and Rangers’ sad demise, as well as the continued journey of the Olympic Torch and the unveiling of the details of the Opening Ceremony, and this week’s papers could rightfully be described as a sports fan’s dream.

The new Premier League TV rights agreement was unveiled on Wednesday, and Thursday’s papers were replete with the news of the bumper deal for top flight clubs. Coverage focused on the sheer value of the deal, as well as the surprise entry of BT into the market. The Mirror led with fears that the higher rights prices would be passed onto fans via higher subscription fees.

Meanwhile, England’s solid if unspectacular start to the Euros – a 1-1 draw with France – absorbed several column inches. The Sun got in early with a patriotic stunt, beaming the cross of St George onto Parisian landmarks.

England-France rivalry always provides amusement on both sides of the Channel, and Eurostar has used this as the basis of their latest advertising campaign, making fun of Brits with posters depicting chubby and slobby Greek-style statues.

With only so much to write about how England must get on the ball more and not sit as deeply against Sweden as they did against France, and while the team took a break between their first two matches, the arrival of the WAGs and some controversial new hairstyles proved excellent tabloid fodder…

Rooney’s extreme hairstyle hasn’t totally diverted media attention from what Tim Crow and Siobhan Sharpe call the Jubilympics though. The Torch in Scotland featured on the Guardian’s front page yesterday, while Wednesday’s papers were all about Danny Boyle’s pastoral opening ceremony. While some in the press were enchanted by his rural vision and Glastonbury mosh pits, a commentator in the Mirror responded rather more cynically, asking “What is the point of wanting to bring the countryside into the capital?”

The Jubi in Jubilympics also continued apace, with Kate Middleton accompanying the Queen on the Nottingham leg of her UK tour in the absence of the convalescing Duke of Edinburgh. Kate’s presence at an event virtually guarantees a substantial picture story, with her favoured shops and designers reaping the rewards for their association with the Duchess of Cambridge, whose outfit is fully itemised every time she steps out in public. Missoni were the lucky recipients of this week’s Royal wardrobe choices.

With so much going on, David Cameron might have hoped that his minor slip-up at the weekend – leaving his young daughter at the pub by mistake – might have gone unnoticed. Unfortunately for him, this couldn’t have been further from the case, with his momentary memory blank making front page news on both Monday and Tuesday. The Independent even decided to review the previously low-key watering hole where the mishap occurred, The Plough. Great exposure for them, but with only a few weeks gone since Greggs made headlines at the PM’s expense during pastygate, he’ll be looking to avoid catching the public’s imagination again for a while…

By Jessica Enoch on June 15th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, David Cameron, Default, Diamond Jubilee, Fashion, Media, Olympics, PR, Public relations

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In my Jubilympics post last week I wrote about how important the London 2012 Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies were going to be in shaping both Britain’s and the world’s view of what it is to be British, and how well the Olympics plays the suspense card by never revealing which acts will be playing at said shindigs.

Opening Ceremony Artistic Director Danny Boyle didn’t disappoint in either regard at his press conference this morning. Here’s Owen Gibson of the Guardian’s take:

‘While the show will open with a rural pastoral vision that evokes William Blake and Jerusalem, it is expected to evolve to take on a more urban hue. Boyle said he would not reveal how the “puzzle fits together” as the show evolved. He also refused to confirm any of the acts that will take part, although Sir Paul McCartney has already confirmed his involvement and the likes of Take That and The Who are also expected to feature. But the director underlined that it was not a musical show but a narrative set to music. Underworld have already recorded two lengthy tracks at Abbey Road to score the action. The closing ceremony will be a more traditional celebration of British music. Boyle had already revealed that the three-hour opening ceremony would be titled Isles of Wonder, a title based on a speech by Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest that will be referenced throughout the four ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.’

In the same vein, the latest in a series of breadcrumb stories about a James Bond Opening Ceremony spectacular ‘broke’ this weekend.

What a tease…although to be fair Danny did definitively resolve another point I made in last week’s post: it will rain at the Opening Ceremony, because he’s going to make it. Here he is again, later in the same Guardian piece above:

‘Boyle also teased that there would “real clouds” hanging over the stadium but refused to elaborate. “They will be real clouds that will be hanging over the stadium. Work that out if you can. We know we’re an island culture and an island climate. One of these clouds will provide rain on the evening, just in case it doesn’t rain.”‘

By Tim Crow on June 12th, 2012

Tags: Brand marketing, Content, Default, Diamond Jubilee, Experiential marketing, Film, London 2012, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Public relations

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The Jubilee provided food for thought for some of the key trends to watch during the Olympics – or the Jubilympics, as Twenty Twelve‘s sublime Siobhan Sharpe would of course describe it.

1. London 2012 Will Evolve Britain and Britishness

As I predicted back in January, the story of how Britain re-defines itself and what it means to be British under the global spotlight has been and will continue to be a key trend all year. As I write this, Ed Miliband’s speech about Englishness is making waves. Back in March we had the decidedly mixed reaction to Stella McCartney’s Team GB kit designs for adidas, which of course wasn’t a debate about design but about identity. The Jubilee was always going to be a landmark moment in this story, celebrating Britain at its most traditional. We can of course expect more of the same come Games Time, but watch out too for how the Games showcases more modern and diverse aspects of Britain, and how this evolves ’Britishness’ – both for ourselves, and for the world.

2.  Reflecting The Mood of the Nation Is Vital For Sponsors & Broadcasters

The ability to accurately reflect and leverage the mood of the nation at Games Time is vital to, in particular, the Games’ sponsors (especially the consumer brands) and to its host broadcaster. Get it right, and the overall campaign finishes with a halo and on a high. Get it wrong and – well, you end up with Fearne Cotton and Paloma Faith talking about sick bags featuring the Queen’s face.

3. It Might Rain. In Fact It Probably Will.

Outside of the host country, most Games are only remembered for two or three things at most. Example: Vancouver 2010. If you’re British, I suspect you’ll remember it for some or all of these three things: Amy Williams’ gold medal; the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili; and the fact that it didn’t snow.

It rained – a lot – during the Jubilee long weekend. Let’s hope it doesn’t – too much – during the Games.

4. How Will It Look & How Will We Feel About It?

For better or worse, one of the defining images of the Jubilee was of course the Union Jack. It wasn’t subtle, but it was everywhere.

London 2012 of course has its own version, which differs markedly to the rest of the 2012 visual identity

A defining image of every Olympics in the modern era for the host country is the ‘look and feel’ of the host city at Games time. I’ll be very interested to see how London 2012 renders its visual identity onto London and the country during the Games, if and how consumers adopt and adapt it to their own purposes, and how this ultimately affects the legacy perception of what of course began life as a deeply unpopular logo.

5. Show Me (Don’t Tell Me)

I’ve written before about how well - in striking contrast to the World Cup – the Olympics leverages the suspense of which acts will be playing at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

In this respect I thought it was a shame that after the Diamond Jubilee concert Sir Paul McCartney chose to reveal that he would be, as he put it, “closing the opening” of London 2012.

That aside, watching the highlights of the Diamond Jubilee concert, and hearing people talk about it the next day, it struck me again how important ’the show’ – the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and all the accompanying concerts -is going to be to people’s experience and memory of the Games, not least (picking up on my point above about Britishness) in shaping both Britain and the world’s impressions of what it is to be British.

And on that note, let’s hope that, come July 27, we can do a bit better than this.

6. Expect More Projection Mapping

Unquestionably the big hit of the Diamond Jubilee concert was Madness playing on the roof of Buckingham Palace, which was memorably transformed by some brilliant projection mapping.

Although projection mapping has been out there for a couple of years, this was the first experience of it for most UK consumers who were evidently wowed. Good news for them, because I happen to know that there’s a lot more of the same coming during Games Time.

By Tim Crow on June 7th, 2012

Tags: BBC, Brand marketing, Content, Default, Design, Diamond Jubilee, Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Music, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Team GB, Television, Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics

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