‘Tis the month for a good debate – you only have to click here to see the ongoing and lively discussions generated on our global poll to find the greatest sports marketing innovation of modern times.

With just over a month until this year’s BBC Sports Personality Awards, it’s right about now that I, along with people up and down the land, begin to debate who should be in the BBC’s final short-list. Growing up watching the show, having attended the last two and with this year’s Birmingham ceremony on Sunday 19th December already in the diary, I can’t wait for the night itself.

One of the privileged few who actually does help to decide the final shortlist, SPORT’s editor Simon Caney, shared his own top 10 in today’s magazine which got me thinking who would make mine.

It must be said, Ryder Cup 2010 aside, with no Olympic Games and a truly feeble showing by England in this summer’s World Cup, it has not been the most historic of years. But there are two clear stand-out names for me.

Graeme McDowell checks out his Ballantine's Championship blend

1. Graeme McDowell – having worked with GMAC for Ballantine’s (have you tried Graeme’s very own Ballantine’s Championship blend? Lovely.), Graeme would get the nod for personality alone. Cracking guy. Add to that his performance in October’s Ryder Cup, helping Europe to win the trophy and most importantly, back in April, becoming Europe’s first US Champion in 40 years; he’s had an incredible year.

2. AP McCoy – Tony McCoy. The greatest jump jockey horse racing has ever seen. Finally won the Grand National this year on Don’t Push It, 15th time lucky. Ridden over 3,000 winners and been jump racing champion every year since 1995/96.

Difficult to see beyond those two for me. However, let’s not forget a few other worth contenders:

Powerade ambassador Jessica Ennis

3. Jess Ennis – Powerade ambassador, flying the flag for both Sheffield and GB (as team captain). European Heptathlon Gold medallist in Barcelona earlier this year.

4. Mo Farah – Bupa flash runner, NFL honorary captain and, more importantly, one of this year’s big sporting success stories having won both the 5,000m and 10,000m at the European Championships. Nice chap to boot.

5. Graeme Swann – standout bowler in this summer’s Ashes win, the ECB’s Cricketer of the Year and all-round great Tweeter.

6. Lee Westwood – finally crowned the world’s number 1 golfer (Tiger who?), especially excelled this year in weight losing and Ryder Cup winning, before injury forced a temporarily break from the game.

7. Tom Daley – his gold medal Commonwealth Games performance in Delhi would have secured the 16-year old Olympics gold. True fact.

8. Phil Taylor – has a darts player ever won before? No. More than enough reason for me to back ‘The Power’ and he’s certainly the greatest in the sport. Would eat my hat if he did win. Happily.

9. Lewis Hamilton – has the ability to win SPOTY based on this Sunday’s performance in Abu Dhabi alone, the last race of what has been a fascinating F1 season. Leading the British charge to stop Alonso, Webber or Vettel taking the world championship. Win the title, win the Sports Personality. Possibly.

Bupa Ambassador Mo Farah

Long shots for my final nod include Amy Williams (fearless Olympic gold medallist in the Winter Games), Stuart Broad (if he has a stonking first Ashes Test in Brisbane this month), Phillips Idowu (for services to bonkers hair colour) and Mark Cavendish (five Tour de France stage wins and one of the world’s greatest sprinters on the road).

Never easy to make the final call. If I was pushed, I think Amy Williams would get the nod for #10. And Mark Cavendish to replace Lewis Hamilton is he doesn’t win the F1 Championship on Sunday.

Yep, I’m done. Have I got it right? And who’d make your list?

By Stephanie Branston on November 12th, 2010

Tags: Ashes, Athletics, BBC, Cricket, Cycling, ECB, Football, Formula 1, Golf, Lewis Hamilton, Media, NFL, Olympics, Ryder Cup, Team GB, Television, Tiger Woods, World Cup

11 comments

As a long standing fan of all things The Apprentice-related, you can imagine my joy at this week’s return of the hit BBC show, now in its sixth series.  And last night’s episode ‘Bangers’, watched by nearly 7 million viewers, didn’t disappoint. Another motley crew of egotistical fools forced together, last night to make and sell sausages, jostling competitively to be picked by ‘Suralan’ (sorry Lord Sugar these days) for their next stab at employment.

Better still, the boys’ team chose to call themselves Synergy. Good name, rings a bell.

Which is why at Synergy Towers, we’ve decided to get behind the show by offering the last remaining member of the show’s Team Synergy a much sought-after internship here.

We may be offering considerably less than the six figure starting salary the show’s winner will take home but the lucky candidate will get to work on a series of sponsorship related tasks (none of which will involve sausages) for a selection of our international clients which include the likes of Betfair, BMW, Pernod Ricard, Coca-Cola and Diageo.

I think our CEO Tim Crow sums it all up rather nicely, “After seeing last night’s episode, supporting Team Synergy was an obvious thing for us to do. We’re looking to give this year’s ‘Pantsman’ the opportunity to get their teeth into the world of sponsorship. No job interviews from hell. No boardroom showdowns. And hopefully not all of the candidates will turn out to be self-delusional idiots by the end of the show. Who knows – they may even prefer it to working for Lord Sugar!”

Next week’s episode is all about designing and creating a brand new beach accessory. Let’s hope Team Synergy does a little better than last night or I fear 21 year old Stuart ‘The Brand’ Baggs could find himself back in the boardroom.

Which frankly might be no bad thing for us here at Synergy.

By Stephanie Branston on October 7th, 2010

Tags: Advertising, Public relations, Sponsorship, Synergy, Television, Television audiences

No comments

Sunday 29th August 2010. As the motorway jams slowly grow in time for a good old fashioned Bank Holiday Monday traffic crescendo, Colin Montgomerie will have other things on his mind when he (at last) announces the final European 12-man 2010 Ryder Cup team.

Drum roll.

No questions about Monty’s personal life please (“or I’ll get my lawyers out, I just want to talk about the golf”) which, quite frankly, is fair enough. The final team selection is way more interesting and doesn’t require any press super-injunctions.

Now isn’t the time to debate the merits of Europe’s Ryder Cup selection process, although clearly the system is far from ideal. Having worked on Wales’s original Ryder Cup bid team back in 2001, I am far more excited about the prospect of what Celtic Manor will deliver, as well as which players will go head to head as the epic battle takes place on Welsh soil for the first time ever.

For Monty, his job is simple. Select the 12 best players for the job to enable Europe to win back the Ryder Cup. Sounds easy. However, the task of choosing the team is nothing short of mission impossible for our man up in Gleneagles.

In breaking news this afternoon, Scottish Open champion Francesco Molinari has just clinched a place in the team after an injury forced Ross McGowan to quit the Johnnie Walker Championship. The Italian Molinari joins Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Martin Kaymer, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell and Ross Fisher at Celtic Manor in October. They are guaranteed to be there – the final two automatic spots and three wildcards are still up for grabs.

All eyes will be on this weekend’s final Tour results in Scotland and America, which may yet have a critical impact on the team’s final make-up. Which is why the charismatic Miguel Angel Jimenez has opted to miss a major family wedding (poor old nephew) to play at Gleneagles this weekend. Should he drop out of the guaranteed places, my first wildcard would go to the Spaniard for showing real dedication to the cause, as well as for the spirit he will undoubtedly bring to the dressing room. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

This Saturday night will see Monty hosting a dinner at his newly-built mansion for his three elected Ryder Cup vice-captains: Darren Clarke, Thomas Bjorn and Paul McGinley. What a fantastic place for any flies on the wall to loiter. Between the quartet, they will debate who of the remaining players truly contending for wildcard selection will be granted one of the places.

Interestingly, the players fall neatly into two groups:

- The ‘stars’ who have remained in the States chasing the American dollar, choosing not to play in Europe despite Monty’s requests to do so (Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington & Luke Donald)

- The lesser known foot soldiers who have demonstrated gut-busting determination to make the team, as well as far greater dedication to the European Tour (Alvaro Quiros, Robert Karlsson, Simon Dyson. Sadly no place for the injured Ross McGowan now, next time)

Peter Hanson’s victory in last weekend’s Czech Open will have added to Monty’s headaches this weekend, as his win pushed Paul Casey out of the automatic qualifying spots.

Left to a deciding committee of Engine employees, following a straw poll I did at 60 Great Portland Street this afternoon, Engine’s chosen three for the wildcard places were Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Padraig Harrington – with Luke Donald just behind and a few sympathy votes for Henrik Stenson (got to love the spirit the Swedes give a Ryder Cup team), Sergio Garcia (a wild long shot but the heartbeat of the previous five Ryder Cup teams) and Bradley Dredge (the boyo knows how to play at Celtic Manor).

As last viewing, the latest odds suggest it will be either Justin Rose or Luke Donald who will miss out a place. Donald has a great Ryder Cup record but is currently 1/3 to be selected and Rose, who despite being unbeaten in the 2008 Ryder Cup, has the longest odds of the four leading players at 1/2.  Harrington, despite poor form this season, looks set to line up at Celtic Manor (heavily odds-on 1/33 favourite) and Casey is not far behind at 1/12.

As for me, the mantra is simple.

Monty must select the players the Americans would least like to face. On that basis alone, my votes would go to Padraig Harrington (three time Major winner, now must step up and re-find his form), Luke Donald (number 10 in the world rankings, greatly admired in the US and unbeaten in Ryder Cup partnership) and Paul Casey (a decent Ryder Cup record although a more reluctant personal choice as I think he should have showed up at Gleneagles). If Justin Rose (a natural partner for Ian Poulter and the world number 22) were to sneak in at the final hour, I won’t be sorry. Have always had a soft spot for our English Rose. The US picks are also far from certain, and it will be interesting to see what Corey Pavin does with his 12 men, particularly whether the newly-divorced Tiger Woods will be lining up at Celtic Manor.

Lots of unanswered questions still. A big weekend of golf ahead. 35 days to go until the main event tees off. Let (selection) battle commence…

By Stephanie Branston on August 26th, 2010

Tags: Golf, Ryder Cup, Sport

3 comments

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I like things that pop up in city locations seemingly out of nowhere. The more random and unexpected, the better – elephants, pianos, lions, designer deckchairs… So the recent landing of 100 ping pong tables scattered across the capital is especially pleasing to the old Branston eye.

In an attempt to trend-ify (is that a real word? Am not sure) table tennis, ping pong is set to become the urban craze of London for the next month with the kick-off last Thursday of the Ping! London festival. Pop up sport for impromptu games all over the city has a neat appeal. And interestingly, Yahoo branding aside, this particular initiative doesn’t feel to be over-endorsed by brands. Almost refreshing; ironic I know given the industry in which we operate.

Great timing too; getting in there ahead of this week’s somewhat brand-cluttered London 2012 two years to go landmark. The Ping! London initiative, supported by the English Table Tennis Association (ETTA) hopes to raise the profile of the sport and get more British people to play ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games. An Olympic sport since 1988, apparently table tennis is the world’s second most popular sport after football, with over 300 million registered players.

Are you serious?

Last week’s Ping! launch party witnessed the GB Team showing off their moves and despite having lived and breathed sport all my life, I wouldn’t be able to name any of our national team. Sad but true. Not one. A different matter in Asia and for the Chinese in particular where it is considered the country’s national sport. Hence why they excel at spending lots of time on the old ping pong Olympic podium. And we don’t. Two years to go mind, all that could change.

Having given the re-positioning of ping pong some thought, it strikes me that table tennis has rather a lot going for it. The sport has universal appeal, is accessible, cheap, not too time consuming, easy to learn, can be played by all ages/genders (all 2 of them) and appeals to the child in us all. And if we needed any further convincing, and here’s the PR talk, it is played by celebrities too – Blur’s Damon Albarn & Hollywood legend Susan Sarandon (co-owner of New York’s successful ping pong club SpiN) – the names freely touted around as ping pong lovers.

It seems especially apt that the table tennis tables are currently residing in London given the sport was invented in Victorian-era England. Ping! follows closely behind Luke Jarram’s highly successful ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ artwork, a project that has been touring globally since 2008. Last month in London, over 20 pianos were placed throughout the city for anyone to play. A creative blank canvas and one that left behind a rather touching legacy with the pianos being donated to local schools and community groups. Loved it. Hopefully the tables will follow in the pianos footsteps and be given to local youth clubs and charities to enjoy once Ping! waves farewell to the city on 22nd August.

If you’ve not already bumped into a table (bats & balls all provided too. Over 4,000 bats, fear not), keep your eyes peeled in Soho Square, Tate Britain, the British Library, Heathrow Airport…all over the shop.  A geek-chic Olympic sport that we will not only see played in our own backyard come July 2012 but one that is enjoying an uplifting revival as ideal for hip city dwellers – count me in.

Game, set and match.

By Stephanie Branston on July 29th, 2010

Tags: grass roots sport, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, PR, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sport

2 comments

Never realised I was such a fan of the common cephalopod mollusc before this week. Turns out I, like half the population and every red-top news editor in the land, love a good octopus – especially one with psychic powers. If there’s one nimble-legged genius seizing all the headlines this week, it ain’t the expected superstars (sic) we might all have predicted in the run-up to this year’s tournament. Not Wayne Rooney (currently sunning it up with Coleen in Barbados), Frank Ribery (dissolved mid-mutiny with the rest of the French team) or Gilardino (you’re only as good as your last World Cup win Alberto).

Nope, clearly our powers of prediction are not world-beating.

Unlike Paul. Paul the Psychic Octopus. The German star who has correctly predicted the outcome of all six of Germany’s World Cup matches. This morning, during a live television broadcast, Paul predicted Germany would beat Uruguay in tomorrow’s third place play-off match - his seventh prediction of the tournament. And more importantly for those who live in Spain and the Netherlands, Paul has plumped for Spain, the pre-tournament favourites, to lift the World Cup on Sunday evening. Viva España.

Eight arms. Eight predictions. Coincidence? I think not. Paul is good, damn good for a suckered seer, and given the level of attention on him right now, I imagine he’s praying to the bottom of his mussel filled tank that his powers haven’t deserted him at this crucial stage of the tournament.

Paul is definitely ‘da man’, albeit a hard beaked, blue blooded, eight-armed one (technically six arms and two legs but who really cares?), and even better news for us English folk – embarrassed by our team’s recent knock-out 4-1 defeat to Germany – is learning that Paul is not actually German at all. He was born in Weymouth, back in 2006, where he was apparently much more shy on the predicting front. Paul joins other fellow famous Weymoutharians such as painter Sir James Thornhill (big in the 1600s), Strictly Come Dancing’s Karen Hardy and…urmmmm…not all that many other people it turns out.

So that’s two genuine English stars who have emerged late in the day in South Africa’s World Cup:

1. Paul

2. And Yorkshire’s very own Howard Webb who will referee Sunday’s Final; the first Englishman to referee a World Cup Final since Jack Taylor in 1974. Interestingly Holland lost that game 2-1 to West Germany (the signs are not looking all that good for the Dutchies).

Our much-hyped Premiership players may have failed lamentably to emulate the heroes of 1966 but all is clearly not lost.

Paul now resides in Germany’s Oberhausen’s Sea Life Aquarium whom I applaud for their quite brilliant PR campaign. Paul has put the city of Oberhausen (twinned with Middlesbrough) on the map which, as well as the aquarium, also boasts Germany’s biggest shopping centre and Europe’s largest disc-type gasometer.  Yep.

Back to Paul. The Times of India reports, “He has eight legs but has never kicked a ball. That, however, hasn’t stopped Paul the octopus from becoming the world’s finest football forecaster.” Spain’s celebrity chef José Andrés has taken octopus off the menu at all of his restaurants until further notice. Brilliant, it’s not just me who loves the little fella. He has well over 70,000 fans on his official Facebook page. He has become an online phenomenon and one of the most talked about topics on the web. The phrases “Paul the Octopus” and “Pulpo”, the Spanish word for octopus, are both currently in the top 10 global trends on Twitter.

However, celebrity fame has come at a price. Paul has made enemies along the way as a result of his predictions and is now enduring death threats on an hourly basis. Most recently he has become the target of bitter Argentinian fans, angry that he predicted their footballing demise, who have been sending seafood recipes to his aquarium. The Spanish government is reportedly ready to step in with Spain’s Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez stating “I am thinking of sending him a protection team“. Too right. Spain’s World Cup success may depend on it.

Will Paul be right for the eighth time? Are his days really numbered? Roll on Sunday night’s big showdown to find out…

By Stephanie Branston on July 9th, 2010

Tags: Football, Public relations, Television, World Cup

2 comments

About five years ago, try as I might to find an elephant in London to take part in a PR photo stunt we were organising, there was none available. Our need was great – promote the Chivas World Elephant Polo Championships due to be held that November in Nepal. Scotland were at the time, defending World Champions in the sport (true fact.) Anyway, London Zoo weren’t up for lending out their eles, we couldn’t locate any in the Yellow pages so alas, the photo was a no go. I don’t think Scotland retained the title either (I don’t hold us responsible for that mind).

Fast forward to June 2010 and everywhere you look in London, there are elephants. You can barely move without bumping into one.

So what’s occurring? Turns out the Elephant Parade London 2010 is a conservation campaign, in aid of the Elephant Family charity set up by Mark Shand, involving 258 brightly painted life-size elephants located over central London with the aim of raising over £2mn towards the conservation of the endangered Asian elephants. Tidy.

As it turns out, 258 elephant sculptures = London’s largest outdoor art exhibition on record.

They may not have been in town in 2005 when we really needed them but they are at least here now, for one more week.  And over the last 5 weeks, I have been slowly gripped by some unexplainable elephant obsession. Out of nowhere. Strange but true.

It all started innocently enough.

08.03, Tuesday 4 May 2010, stepping off the Leicester – St Pancras train, I suddenly realised that I’d walked past a giant elephant statue (‘Dandiphant’, I later found out). Unusual, elephant art. Not something you see everyday next to British Rail’s finest.

Throughout May, I continued to notice elephants around town (they’re hard to miss) and soon found myself whooping with joy on seeing a new undiscovered ele – which whilst on a scooter is a truly great feeling - although not one that is widely encouraged in the Highway Code as a means of responsible motorcycle driving. The elephant observing shifted up a gear – spending one Sunday afternoon cycling round London to see which ones we happened across. A great way to combine seeing the city in the sunshine with getting fit. All innocent fun.

I dropped into one of the 4 London pop-up Elephant Parade shops (it’s all about pop-ups these days) and found an official map which marked out where they could all be found. And things changed. The map proved a dangerous addition to my armoury. It became serious. I was soon on a mission to tick off (& photograph) all of them. Why I have no idea but joined by like-minded friends, and at times on my own, the past few weeks has involved dedication, effort and organisation, missed lunch hours, late nights and getting myself to places in London that I have never heard of, never mind visited before.

As a tourism campaign to get people experiencing the city of London, Visit London could do a whole lot worse. That has been one of the absolute pleasures in finding the elephants – I have got to know the city in which I have lived for over 10 years a whole lot better. I now know where one can find the Museum of London (the Docklands), Bow Churchyard, The Hempel and The Hoxton (both lovely hotels), BT’s Building (as opposed to its Tower), the National Geographic Store on Regent Street, the Royal Exchange and where you can park a scooter right next to Somerset House. I have seen Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park in full flow (fascinating), marvelled at the current installation on the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square, walked the length of Baker Street (following Sherlock Holmes’ footsteps) and witnessed the beauty of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

I have found myself in some unexpected places at unpredictable hours. One Monday night I cycled solo to both Brixton and Elephant & Castle (an aptly named place to house one of the statues) well after 10pm, two areas I barely know and probably wouldn’t ordinarily try and navigate around in the dark, solely to find 2 elephants. And after a recent Keane gig in Camden, we employed that ‘oh so normal’ post-gig wind down technique of walking around Leicester Square, Covent Garden & Piccadilly until 1am when we ran out of elephants (20 ticked off in record time) and our feet could take no more. Dedication to the cause or just sheer madness? You decide.

It has been an adventure, albeit an exhausting mission and I have met some dedicated fellow hunters (okay, I’ll admit some have been, shall we say, a little odd but most seem fairly normal) on the way. Equally eye opening has been witnessing first hand how social media communities truly engage in real time interaction on a subject in which they are passionate. Take the Facebook group for the Elephant Family and Elephant Parade group, a hotbed of activity with over 14,000 fans. “Anyone tell me where you can find the Ella May elephant – she’s not on Baker Street and is proving elusive?” Within minutes, 6 people have already replied with the answer. Job done. Fellow elephant fans, who have never, and will never meet in real life, helping each other out in their time of need, with UGC (mainly still images) uploaded on a minute by minute basis.

As PR goes, I’m a big admirer of the campaign. A simple idea with creativity at the heart in aid of a good cause with the actual product they’re promoting (the future of the Asian Elephant) at the very core of the activity.

Add to that, a few simple PR tactics that have been very well executed:
1. Launch photocall of brightly coloured elephant herd in Trafalgar Square pre-installation – tick
2. Interviews with famous and upcoming artists & celebrities who have painted the elephants (Tommy Hilfiger, Paul Smith, Matthew Williamson, Sir Terence Conran…) – tick
3. Locate elephants at various iconic London landmarks / institutions who then add their own PR weight behind it – tick
4. Grip the public’s imagination (kids & adults alike) by introducing Cloudia (the ‘Where’s Wally?’ of the elephant world) to the herd, the elephant that is constantly on the move – tick
5. Ensure your social media ducks (sorry, eles) are all in place to enable the online community to do the rest – tick
6. Merchandise the hell out of it – produce replica elephants, books, cards etc to ensure product sales generate funds of their own – tick

Of the features in the press, one I particularly liked was the story about Gerald, the model elephant who generated a cult following after he was banned from his original home in Selfridges for being too risqué. Gerald is blue (quite literally it turns out on closer inspection), painted by controversial artist Jonathan Yeo who added his trademark collage, causing serious offense to the shoppers of W1. After a “Free Gerald” Facebook group was set up to free him from the charity’s Bloomsbury HQ, sniffing some free publicity, Chinawhite offered their nightclubbing HQ to home the pornographic beast. Bob’s your uncle, queues of people trying to get into the night spot between 1-2pm every weekday to see the elephant and tick it off their lists. Genius.

On a serious note, the joie de vivre these elephants have spread throughout London disguise the real tragedy behind the Asian Elephant’s collapse. Once ranging from China to Thailand, Indonesia, India and across Syria, these great animals are now confined to an area the size of Spain. The number of Asian elephants has dwindled even more severely than those of the African elephant, from 200,000 a century ago to a fifth of that population now.  Shocking statistics.

So my own breaking news, having confessed that I quite fancied trying to see them all before they vanished from our streets, is that I have now officially seen all 258 ‘in the wild’. Marc Quinn’s Untitled in Somerset House was my final ele. Job done, mission completed. Difficult to narrow down my favourites, there really were too many.  Special mention goes out to ‘Help!’ the fully turfed elephant, ‘Dedicated to the Wonderful Chelsea Pensioners’ elephant (too cute), ‘Union Jack ‘(Rule Britannia) and Benjamin Shine’s glossy black ‘Taxi Elephant’, ideally positioned by the Royal Exchange and powered by a solar cell so that the taxi sign lights up at night and its eyes turn into headlamps. Truly London.

Sadly the city migration is well underway and this week, the elephants can all be seen herded together at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea and Westfield Shopping Centre for general viewing before they go under the auction hammer. If you haven’t seen them yet, they are seriously worth a look. Some are absolutely stunning works of art.

As for me, I’m having a break from elephants. For a start, I don’t trust myself not to get carried away with it all and buy one of the statues at auction – and with some of the bids already exceeding £50k online, that is an experience that I’m not quite ready to blog about.

No, it’s all about lions now. Like all great ideas, copycats are out there and rife. Cue the city of Bath announcing that a giant pride of individually decorated, life-size lion sculptures are taking up residence in and around the City of Bath. With only 100 lions to find, I reckon it’s do-able in record time. Anyone who fancies a safari trip down in Bath this summer, let me know. Or if you’re a fellow (adopted) digital native, you’ll probably be able to find me on the Pride in Our City – Lions of Bath group on Facebook…

By Stephanie Branston on June 22nd, 2010

Tags: Alcohol, Digital marketing, Media, Public relations, Sponsorship, The Arts

1 comment

Hearing that Andy Ripley had died yesterday, I felt an enormous wave of sadness.

The news itself was unfortunately not a shock; the inevitable final chapter on a death sentence first imposed 5 years ago when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. For some, it was this battle, one he fought publically and with great dignity, bravery and humour, that he will be remembered for. However, what was so impressive about Andy Ripley was his unwavering enthusiasm for life. An immense athlete, Andy’s abilities transcended way off the field of sport. With a maverick approach to both sport and life, he was one of the very last in a great English tradition of all-round amateur sportsmen that is no longer sustainable in today’s era of professional sport. More’s the pity.

First hitting the headlines for his rugby abilities (24 caps for England, a World Cup Sevens winner in 1973, a British & Irish Lion in their unbeaten tour of South Africa in 1974), Andy played first-class rugby at Rosslyn Park until the age of 41. A champion tri-athlete and exceptional 400 metres runner, he was a winner of the BBC’s Superstars competition in the 1970s and was close to securing a place in the Boat Race for Cambridge at the grand old age of 50 (that’s right, 50). In addition, he was a qualified canoe instructor, skilled at basketball, tennis and water-skiing. And there’s more. Chartered accountant, hugely successful businessman, fluent linguist, rugby commentator for French TV, charity campaigner, credible author. OBE. Husband, father, friend to many.

The obituaries that fill today’s press are a must read. I defy anyone to look at life in quite the same way after reading all that Andy achieved in his 62 years. They will almost certainly make you truly wonder the extent of human endurance.

I was lucky enough to get to know Andy, his wife Elizabeth and three children (Marcus, Claudia and Stef), having originally met them in Greece on holiday in June 2008, and having kept in contact since. I feel very privileged. To be in his presence was to feel blessed. A truly thought provoking individual, Andy combined a seriously laid back approach to life with a (charmingly disguised) drive to succeed in everything that he did. Intelligent, funny, open, enthusiastic, generous of spirit, easy to talk to, strong as an ox, I can think of few other people that I have met that I have found as inspiring. He will be much missed.

His immortal words in the foreward to his book on cancer have been widely quoted but to finish this blog, are worth repeating once again here:

“Dare we hope? We dare.
Can we hope? We can.
Should we hope? We must, because to do otherwise is to waste the most precious of gifts, given so freely by God to all of us. So when we do die, it will be with hope and it will be easy and our hearts will not be broken.”

By Stephanie Branston on June 18th, 2010

Tags: Rugby

1 comment

I do like a good April Fool’s Day story. As it turns out, so do my colleagues within Engine Towers.

Synergy‘s Guinness spoof aftershave story that ran in this morning’s Metro was PR gold (I would say that…) but hats off to our advertising friends upstairs at WCRS who created BMW‘s gem of an April Fool’s Day advert for today’s press.

Anything that can simultaneously get me excited about the General Election AND make me want to buy a new car is all good in my book.

Love it.

By Stephanie Branston on April 1st, 2010

Tags: Advertising, Public relations

No comments

Today I find myself feeling especially Irish, buoyed by the news that one of my favourite books, Round Ireland with a Fridge, has been made into a feature film with the author Tony Hawks in the main starring role. This is especially excellent having developed a teenage crush on the main character when I first read the book: India, November 2006 (I was not a teenager then, just the crush was).

I won’t tell you what happens in the book – needless to say it involves a fridge and Ireland.

But I can say this. I recommend the book highly especially if you find yourself relaxing on some faraway beach as I was in Kerala way back when. If the book doesn’t make you laugh out loud at least once then take a deep look at yourself. And again. And try and locate a sense of fun.

What is less funny is that currently, the team who created the film, don’t know if it will ever be seen by a wide audience. Which would be no less than a tragedy.

Incase you’re not familiar with the art of movie distribution, here’s a very quick lesson – and special thanks to Jeff at HowStuffWorks for the inspiration behind this list:

1. Someone has an idea for a movie – writes outline, uses it to try & get interest in the idea.
2. A studio or independent investor decides to purchase rights to the film.
3. Screenwriter, producer, director, cast, crew come together – to help make the film.
4. The film is completed and sent to the studio.
5. The studio makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company.
6. The distribution company determines how many copies to make.
7. The distribution company shows the movie to prospective buyers representing the theaters.
8. The buyers negotiate on which movies they wish to lease.
9. The theater shows the movie for a specified number of weeks.
10. You & I buy a ticket and watch the movie. And eat popcorn loudly if you’re one of those annoying cinema go-ers (I am not). Infact, don’t get me started on anti-social foods that are sold in movie houses…

Simple. In theory at least.

Obviously a lot of people in the world have ideas for movies (step 1) but few of them make it all the way seamlessly from 1-10.  The film industry is ruthless.  Money, more often than not, outweighs the creative process. The studios won’t commit without the big Hollywood names attached, the names won’t sign until the money is secured. Funding makes the movie world go round. Not excellent.

So the Round Ireland with A Fridge team, it appears, find themselves stuck at step 5,6 & 7 with no official distribution yet in place. Steps 8,9 and 10 probably seem somewhere over the rainbow right now.

Hawks (not to be confused with Tony Hawk, the pro American skateboarder), ever the quirky comedian, has instead opted to turn his back against the traditional model and is taking the film-making road less travelled. Planning to go on the road with the fridge and visit film festivals (“to see which doors open”), he plans to generate buzz around the film until it has a life of its own. And with the potential force that can be harnessed today using social media, digital PR and internet campaigners – power to the people – everyone loves an underdog (think Rage Against the Machine making Christmas Number one back in December, the successful digital campaign to get Cadbury to bring back the previously extinct Wispa bar…), I am confident he will succeed.

Whatever the movie release strategy that is ultimately deployed this autumn, watch this space. It almost certainly won’t be with a mainstream distributor. And it’ll likely be quirky, entertaining and highly innovative.

Back to today, happy St Patrick’s Day.

I’m off to have a pint of Guinness. And in true Irish fridge fashion, perhaps a second – “one for the road” whilst (and if you’ve read the book, you’ll get the reference here) being careful to avoid, in Tony’s words, ”granting the road too much respect”…

By Stephanie Branston on March 17th, 2010

Tags: Alcohol, Digital marketing, Film, Guinness, Public relations, Social Media

1 comment

Much has been written about Thierry Henry this week.

Has he forever lost his va va voom? Will his reputation recover from the ‘Hand of Frog’ drama?

Is he the new Maradona? Will the nation of Ireland ever forgive him?

(No, yes, no, no – as you ask).

It’s not been the best of weeks for the Frenchman, ain’t that the truth. But is it really Armageddon?

I think not.

In my opinion and as quoted in PR Week, the Thierry Henry brand is not irreversibly damaged.

Damaged? Yes for sure but he will recover.

Thierry is a hero in France whose football fans witnessed their captain play to the whistle and arguably use his nous to secure a victory for his team. The incident is a far wider indictment of the sport and what is at stake nowadays (in this case, national pride and a place in The World Cup); cheating is nothing new in sport unfortunately.

Henry would have preferred to have scored a controversy-free belter to secure his country’s fate. That goes without saying. But the unpredictable nature of sport throws up the unexpected. Like most rational sportsfans, I didn’t like what I saw and I wish the referee had seen, during the game itself, what the rest of the world has since watched over and over again. But he didn’t. C’est la vie.

For Thierry, his value to sponsors, and I am talking in the long term, will not irretrievably suffer although I would not envisage too many Irish companies beating down the door of Henry’s agent this week offering brand endorsements.

There will be those who don’t agree with me. Fine, great, I love a good debate but let’s put it in perspective shall we?

Henry is French, plays his football in Spain (for Barcelona), has global cross-gender appeal and as Arsenal’s greatest goal scorer, he will always be a legend in England. He is a gifted footballer and an eloquent individual. The 2010 World Cup is likely to be his last and he played a highly visible role in ensuring himself one last shot at the biggest prize in football. Gillette, for whom Henry is a global brand ambassador, has said on record the incident will not affect their relationship with him.

As a role model to millions and a footballer who was widely perceived to demonstrate true sporting values, his biggest crime was missing the opportunity to right a wrong and show genuine sportsmanship on the pitch immediately after the incident. His reputation may forever be tarnished by that decision but his commercial value in the long term, as one of the most dazzling players of his generation, I believe will hold firm.

By Stephanie Branston on November 20th, 2009

Tags: Football, Public relations, Sponsorship, World Cup

3 comments