It’s not news that we’re all watching TV whilst surfing the net, tapping away on our smartphones and engaging others in discussion around our favourite programmes (just log on to Twitter during  X-Factor and Strictly!). What I’d like to applaud here is how broadcasters are taking this social engagement and building communities of loyal fans beyond the TV schedule.

Sunday night saw the last ever episode of the BBC’s thrilling MI5 drama Spooks. After nine years and 10 series it was time for the sliding doors of Section D to close for a final time. I knew I would probably be a little tearful and mourn that I’ll no longer swoon over the incredibly suave terrorist-fighting male cast, nor dream of emulating the leading ladies; however, what I absolutely loved was the show’s commitment to social engagement.

As an avid Tweeter, I was super-excited to find out during Series 9 that you could actually follow the characters on Twitter. The thing that they have got so right with these feeds is that they are active all year round (unlike @bbcLuther who only tweets when Luther is airing). Not only are they active but also attentive. They care about their followers and will take the time to respond to individual tweets.

First up, can you imagine my surprise (and delight) when @Dimitri_MI5 tweeted back to a message I sent about being excited about the final series starting…

I certainly *grinned* on receiving that back, but this was topped off by a response from the boss man himself @Harry_Pearce when I tweeted after the final episode…

I’ve honestly never felt more social media love than that and I’m sure anyone who has received a response or RT will be feeling the same way!

It’s great to see other dramas are taking a lead from Spooks, with ITV’s Downton Abbey creating profiles for all cast members – @LadyMaryCrawley is winning the followers race with over 1,700 at the time of writing. So when you’re watching on Sunday night, you know where I’ll be… wrapped up on the sofa with Blackberry in hand, tweeting away.

By Caroline Ayling on October 27th, 2011

Tags: Default, PR, Public relations, Social Media, Television, Television audiences, Twitter

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Synergy, working as part of a cross agency team, has developed a rugby campaign this autumn to activate the GUINNESS brand’s rugby partnerships with the RFU, WRU, Scottish Rugby and the IRFU. Synergy contracted GUINNESS rugby ambassadors Lewis Moody, Lee Byrne and Sean Lamont (alongside Irish winger Tommy Bowe) to create an integrated campaign across TV, print, digital and PR targeting international rugby fans.

The ambassadors featured in print ads showing them flying the GUINNESS flag and giving their all for their country, in doing so proving that they themselves are made of more. Point-of-sale creative was rolled out in pubs and supermarkets across the country offering fans the chance to win tickets to the RBS 6 Nations (of which GUINNESS are Official Beer Partner).

Synergy secured national and regional press, broadcast and online coverage across England, Scotland and Wales through interviews with the players. Dynamic action shots of the players accompanied the interviews linking their national flag with the flag featuring in the TV ad campaign and reinforcing the brand’s support of the home nations.

To get fans closer to the action, we sponsored the Lewis Moody app to deliver an exclusive blog. GUINNESS fans who left messages of support for both Lewis and Lee on the brands Facebook page had the chance to receive personalised messages back from the players.

For those fans that haven’t been able to follow their team out to New Zealand, our man “Hutch” has been supplying a weekly video diary of his travels and meeting the home nations’ supporters.

To engage fans offline we took England pace man Ugo Monye to Asda in Gloucester to meet fans and staff at the supermarket, allowing them to have their photo taken with the rugby star and take part in the GUINNESS Rugby Reflex game.

Finally, the campaign’s TV ad, directed by Oscar winner Tom Hooper and produced by ad agency AMV, sees our intrepid hero overcome an army to prove that he and his team are made of more. Check it out below.

By Caroline Ayling on October 13th, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Alcohol, Facebook, Food & Drink, Guinness, PR, Public relations, RBS 6 Nations, Rugby, Synergy, YouTube

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What happened?

It would be remiss of us to ignore the social disturbance, unrest and rioting that wreaked havoc on the streets of London and around Britain in early August. What really struck a chord with us here at Synergy was the response of local communities to counter the destruction and rally together,  specifically the role social media played in doing so.

Everyone will be au fait with images of Clapham’s broom wielding army lead by Commander-in-Chief, one B. Johnson, who set about cleaning up their local neighbourhood the day after the carnage. Organised by the very same social media sites that were at the heart of spreading the riots, communities gathered first virtually and then physically to start the clean up. Check out Jam’s infographic on the buzz created around the riots and the call for social change.

One of Engine’s other companies, Partners Andrews Aldridge, started a campaign called De-Loot London. Their mission was to make sure that not a single shop that was looted during the riots was forced to close as a result. By setting up a website with an interactive map, people can highlight local shops that most need their community’s support. Embracing the power of social media they established the #delootlondon hash tag for people to share amongst their friends.

Why we liked it?

Firstly they acted fast, the campaign was up and moving within days of the looters running riot. This allowed people to act quickly and really feel as though they could make a difference to their local community.

Secondly, social media was at the heart of the campaign and provided the online community with a mechanism to make a difference to their own physical communities.   Brands often talk about building a community of advocates, fans or followers and this campaign tapped into a passion point. It turns out that people are passionate about keeping local businesses afloat in the face of adversity.

Thirdly, it was philanthropic, and after fear and uncertainty spread across London it reassured the population that good people are out there…and there are lots of us!

Finally, the riots may not be headline news any more, but local communities will need long term support. De-Loot London already has 1,900 Facebook fans, so keep the campaign going by sharing your support here.

By Caroline Ayling on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Blogging, Default, Social Media, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis, Twitter, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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Here at Synergy towers we’re always looking for fun, quirky ideas that have genuine media traction while fitting with our clients’ target audiences and business objectives. So with the London 2012 test events rolling into town the Betfair team put our thinking hats on and looked at how Betfair could get involved. We focused specifically on the beach volleyball tournament at Horse Guards Parade - an event with high media and consumer interest that would engage the brand’s target audience and deliver a tactical campaign within budget.

Further to a recent Ofcom report highlighting that one third of British adults now owns a smart phone, Betfair developed a concept to promote their mobile offering.

Synergy negotiated a deal with Team Mullin-Dampney, the number one British beach volleyball duo, to position Quick Response technology, known as QR codes, on the players’ kit. When photographed, the QR code would drive people to  Betfair’s free-bet and registration page.

Given the limited space available on a beach volleyball kit, the signature ‘hands on knees’ stance, and likely viewpoint of media and spectator cameras, the QR codes were placed on the players’ bikini bottoms to maximise exposure, whilst their arm bands carried the Betfair Mobile logo.

Working with Betfair’s consumer PR agency and new members of the Engine family - Mischief - we held a photoshoot with Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney and distributed the images before the test event on 9^th August.

Capturing the imagination of both the front and back pages the story featured in four national newspapers (Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star and Daily Record), two regional titles (Metro and The Evening Standard) and seven national online sites as well as over 200 online outlets, thousands of tweets and in the international media.

By Caroline Ayling on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Ambush campaign, Beach Volleyball, Brand marketing, London 2012, Mobile, Olympics, PR, Product placement, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Team GB

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It’s Wimbledon fortnight! Time for the nation to dust off their tennis rackets, get behind Andy Murray and enjoy frolicking in SW19 drinking Pimms and eating strawberries.

Always one to fully embrace the sporting event of the moment the Betfair team at Synergy has had a week to remember – well, particularly the boys!

To celebrate the launch of Betfair’s Wimbledon Doubles game we got identical twins Bryony and Katherine Frost to strike a pose recreating the iconic 1976 Tennis Girl poster, but this time with a unique twist. The blonde duo bared their derrieres to mark the launch of Wimbledon Doubles – a smashing online game served-up by Betfair (see what we did there!)

We dodged a few downpours to get the shots and with a bit of ankle and racket repositioning, not to mention a few carefully placed hands, we cracked the shot. Check out the game for a bit of Friday afternoon fun!

By Caroline Ayling on June 24th, 2011

Tags: Andy Murray, Betfair, PR, Public relations, Sport, Tennis

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BMW challenged Synergy to develop a PR stunt that would combine their sponsorship of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and the London 2012 Games.

So we challenged former world number one golfer Martin Kaymer and three time Olympic medallist Steve Backley to go head-to-head in a multisport play-off from Wentworth’s first tee. With wedge and javelin in hand, Kaymer and Backley put their accuracy to the test in an attempt to land their shot nearest the pin at the venue for the BMW PGA Championship from May 26 – 29.

Both athletes were given three attempts to hit the pin which, at 60 metres, was comfortably within their reach. Despite Kaymer’s drives averaging over 260m and Backley having a world record breaking throw of 91.46m to his name, precision rather than distance was the aim for the BMW Nearest the Pin challenge. With all shots taken, Kaymer was announced the overall winner, beating Backley with a comprehensive score of 3-0.

Check out the video of the guys in action, below:

By Caroline Ayling on May 18th, 2011

Tags: BMW, Golf, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, PGA Tour, PR, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sport, Team GB

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This week’s top PR picks from the team could be categorised as the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good

As the great British press reveal their first bikini-clad babes splashing on Brighton beach shots of the summer and all our thoughts turn to hitting the beach this weekend (yes it is going to be sunny on a Saturday!), Trip Advisor capitalised on the warm weather by releasing a survey on Europe’s top beaches. We may not be able to compete with Cyprus, Turkey and Greece for the top spots, but the Cornish seaside town of St Ives came sixth in the poll above any of the Spanish entries. And it’s not just a pretty beach. For those summer days when the British summertime can let you down there is Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth museum to visit. Bravo St Ives for maximising on Trip Advisor’s timely survey – now get planning your summer hols!

The Bad (or just naughty!)

The old adage of any publicity is good publicity is not something we at Synergy necessarily believe in, but I can only imagine that the PR team at Jack Wills will be secretly smiling that they got a little wrist slap by the Advertising Standards Authority this week. The ASA decided to censor images from the Spring Term catalogue on the grounds of the brand’s target audience being under 18 years old. Semi-nude girls are not normally found on the broadsheet pages of the Daily Telegraph but this story got a good spread for the preppy clothing brand.

The Ugly

I suspect that many of you will think this should have gone in the former category – the headline writers of the red tops certainly did! So, who’s bad? Mohammed Al Fayed revealed his new Michael Jackson statue outside of Craven Cottage and boy did it cause a stir! Whether you love it (I bet there are some die hard Jacko fans out there that do) or hate it (pretty much everyone else), it certainly raised the profile of Fulham FC and Mr Al Fayed this week.

…until next week!

By Caroline Ayling on April 8th, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, PR, Public relations, Synergy Papers

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The 10th ICC Cricket World Cup launched yesterday with a multimillion pound opening ceremony including a good old croon from that well known cricket lover (?!) Bryan Adams. I have to say I am in total agreement with Dan Jones about Bryan not quite fitting the bill, but at least the weather didn’t destroy the shindig.

The spotlight is well and truly on the ICC after last week’s tribunal found Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir guilty of corruption. Match fixing is not something anyone in sport wants to see, so the question is: what is the ICC doing ahead of this tournament to stop corruption?

BBC Sport Editor David Bond best summaries the latest measures on his blog. To combat the problem the ICC has introduced the following rules ahead of the World Cup:

•     It has changed its rules on “communication devices” during the 45 days of the World Cup. This is longhand for a Twitter ban and is designed to stop players tweeting potentially valuable inside information on a match before they arrive at the ground

•     There will be a ban on laptops for players, with team management limited to four per dressing room and only one allowed to be connected to the internet

•     Security officials will be given broader powers to monitor players, although the ICC is not going into any more detail on this as they don’t want to alert the fixers

My personal opinion is that attempting to hinder players’ access to social media outlets, such as Twitter, is not going to stop corruption but then I’m also hoping there is a lot more than just a Twitter ban going on behind the scenes to ensure the illegal gambling cartels are being closed down.

And for those Twitter fans amongst us, I really hope that the match fixers haven’t destroyed our access to some of the funniest Tweeters in the sporting arena. For the next installment of our Follow Friday Twitter specials, here are my favourite follows in the cricket world:

The players:

•     Graeme Swann – @swannyg66 A true Twitter and cricket legend – Head Boy

•     Jimmy Anderson – @JimmyAnderson9 Often the butt of many Swanny jokes but really is Head Prefect

•     Tim Bresnan – @TimBresnan Telling you like it is

•     Kevin Pietersen – @kevinpp24 Conned by a naughty EBay phoney but bailed out by Chairman of the Governors, Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan)

•     Stuart Broad – @StuartBroad8 The school sweetheart

•     Steve Finny – @finnysteve The new boy on the Twitter block, picked on by the Twitter ‘sixth formers’

The TMS team:

•     Jonathan Agnew – @aggerscricket Geek turned unsuspecting cool kid in the Twittersphere – he snared Lily Allen (@lilyroseallen) – credit where credit’s due!

•     Alison Mitchell – @AlisonMitchell Everyone’s favourite lady in the common room (press box)

•     Malcolm Ashton – @tmsscorer Bridges the cricket/rugby gap: his nephew is swallow-diving rugby hero Chris

•     Adam Mountford – @tmsproducer

•     Emma Agnew – @MrsAggers The Yummy Mummy

The snappers (photographers to the uninitiated):

•     Gareth Copley – @GarethCopley

•     Phillip Brown – @dudleyplatypus

•     Tom Shaw – @tomshaw72

Best of the media rest:

•     David Lloyd – @BumbleCricket

•     Tim Abraham – @skysportsmrtim

•     Lawrence Booth – @the_topspin

•     Dean Wilson – @CricketMirror

•     John Etheridge – @JohnSunCricket

By Caroline Ayling on February 18th, 2011

Tags: Cricket, FollowFriday, Social Media, Twitter, World Cup

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If you’re a regular visitor to the Synergy website you’ll be aware that we love to Tweet! From Twitter’s early days, the Synergy clan has embraced the micro-blogging site for both client and company work. We’ve introduced the likes of @philtufnell to the site and now use Twitter to source and assist journalists, engage ambassadors, share client campaigns and set the sponsorship news agenda.

Well, in true Twitter fashion we’re starting a bit of a #FollowFriday blog theme and I’m kicking off with a special rugby edition ahead of this weekend’s RBS 6 Nations. It’s a top 10 list for now but is by no means exhaustive so please feel free to add to the list in the comments box below.

Rugby Media Types:

1.    Paul Morgan – @rugbyworldmag

2.    Alex Lowe – @alexmlowe

3.    Jill Douglas – @JillADouglas

4.    Andrew Cotter – @MrAndrewCotter

5.    Ian Stafford – @sportsvibe

6.    Nick Heath – @rugbymedia

7.    Gabby Logan – @Gabby_Logan

8.    Gavin Mairs  – @gavinmairs

9.    Alastair Eykyn – @5LiveRugby

10.   Ian Chadband – @ianchad_tele

Clubs and Competitions:

1.    Official RBS 6 Nations – @rbs_6_nations

2.    Premiership Rugby – @premrugby

3.    RFU – @Official_RFU

4.    Scottish Rugby – @ScottishRugby

5.    WRU – @WelshRugbyUnion

6.    Northampton Saint – @SaintsRugby

7.    Harlequins – @QuinsRugbyUnion

8.    Leicester Tigers – @LeicesterTigers

9.    Saracens – @Saracens

10.   Irish Rugby Union – @irfurugby

Players – on and off the pitch:

1.    Lee Byrne – @LeeByrne_15

2.    Lewis Moody – @LewisMoody7

3.    Will Greenwood – @GreenwoodRugby

4.    Ugo Monye – @ugomonye

5.    Shane Williams – @shanewilliams11

6.    Will Carling – @willcarling

7.    Danny Care – @dannycare9

8.    Tommy Bowe – @tommybowe14

9.    Ben Foden – @ben_foden

10.   Matt Dawson – @matt9dawson

If you want to follow any of the Synergy twitterati you can find us here.

Keep your eyes peeled for more #FollowFriday themed Synergy blogs…

By Caroline Ayling on February 11th, 2011

Tags: FollowFriday, Media, RBS 6 Nations, Rugby, Social Media, Twitter

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Last week The Times…(yes, you may well think I’m going to write about the newspaper changing its domain name as it prepares to become the first English national paper to start charging for its online content; however that’s not it)…newspaper ran a week long feature on the coaches that are training the stars of tomorrow, today; with Tom Daley, Jess Ennis and Becky Adlington amongst the featured athletes (you may need a new www.TheTimes.co.uk login to access these links).

What stood out for me as I flicked through the non-World Cup related pages was the photography by Chief Sports Photographer Marc Aspland.  Phenomenal images that I think are just stunning.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did…

By Caroline Ayling on June 22nd, 2010

Tags: London 2012, Olympics, Public relations

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