The weekend before Easter saw the Synergy team glamming it up and walking the red carpet for our friends at Jameson, in preparation for the 2010 Jameson Empire Awards ceremony in London.

Ray Winstone with daughters, Jamie and Lois who presented him with the Jameson Empire Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema (c) Photo: Karwai Tang / Alpha Press

For those unfamiliar with the Awards, they are universally considered to be the most fun Awards in the British film calendar. Regularly attended by the top echelons of Hollywood glitterati, the 2010 ceremony was no exception with a guest list that included the casts of The Clash of Titans, Kick-Ass as well as Hollywood royalty Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and legendary guest of honour, Sir Ian McKellen.

Synergy’s role was two-fold: international PR support enabling Jameson HQ in Dublin to successfully engage five international markets around the world to use the Jameson Empire Awards for local PR in their home nation, and creation and management of the Jameson guest hospitality programme, across 13 markets.

Central to the PR programme was the Jameson Done in 60 Seconds Award, inviting amateur film-makers to re-make 60-second versions of their favourite Hollywood blockbuster. Synergy created a central PR toolkit for each market to pick up and implement in their own region, encouraging entries from their nation and making the Done in 60 Seconds competition truly global for the first time.

As part of the Jameson guest hospitality programme, Done in 60 Seconds finalists from each market were then invited to London on Friday 26th March – two days prior to the full Awards ceremony – to attend the International Finals Party, held at 24:London. There, the panel of judges – including British directing talent Edgar Wright and Michael Bassett, Empire’s editor, Mark Dinning and British actor Jason Isaacs (who was absent on the day but consulted remotely) – viewed the sixteen final films, heralding from Turkey, Russia, Sweden, Holland, Ireland and the UK. Five finalists were chosen, who then went on to attend the Jameson Empire Awards on the Sunday night, where the final winner was to be crowned victorious.

Jameson branded Routemaster buses were specially commissioned to transport guests around London on their Movie Mania Tour

Between this event and the Awards night, Synergy put together a full guest management programme for visiting markets: the Jameson Movie Mania Tour.

It began with a behind the scenes tour of St Paul’s with private access to the geometric staircase most recently used in Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes. Guests were greeted by a Professor Dumbledore look-a-like running down the geometric staircase as he does in Harry Potter the Prisoner of Azkaban.  The St Paul’s tour finished up in the Wren Suite were guests were treated to an exclusive performance by world famous illusionist Keith Barry.

Guests then re-boarded their Jameson Routemaster and were taken to the Bluebird Restaurant in Chelsea for a private three course lunch in the Gallery Room, before heading to Borough Market for the final part of their Jameson Movie Mania Tour.  Simon Rodway and John Ashton movie experts from Silver Cane Tours guided guests through Borough Markets movie locations, ending at Bridget Jones’s flat door, where guests were met by a Hugh Grant look-a-like. Guests then got back on the bus and headed back to The Langham Hotel.

Our Experiential team did such a top job of entertaining all of Jameson’s international guests, that Event Magazine ran a feature on the weekend last week. Have a read here.

On the night of the Awards, Synergy managed the Jameson press room, ensuring all the global markets were equipped with full video and photographic assets from the night, enabling them to bring some of their own local talent to attend the event, creating greater relevancy and PR back home (such as Croatian actress Natasa Janjic, below).

The attendance of international movie stars such as Croatian Natasa Janjic helped Jameson's global markets secure local coverage of the event (c) Getty Images for Jameson

As for the Done in 60 Seconds Award, it was our favourite Top Gun that clinched the top prize, with Cambridge accountant Mark Wong – director and star of the re-make – taking to the stage, still in costume as Maverick, and collecting his much-deserved Jameson Empire Award. Watch the final masterpiece here.

Done in 60 Seconds winner Mark Wong clutches his Jameson Empire Award for his Top Gun re-make (c) Getty Images for Jameson

But if that hasn’t given you enough of a flavour of life on the red carpet, have a look at Empire’s full videoblogisode of the event below. It certainly keeps some variety to what we do, swapping muddy rugby pitches for red carpet glamour.

Bring on the 2011 Awards.

By Lucie Bartlett on April 7th, 2010

Tags: Alcohol, Brand marketing, Event management consultants, Event management service, Film, Public relations, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy

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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

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If, like me, you were unable to keep your eyes open until 4am on Monday morning, you likely watched the highlights of this year’s Oscars online the following day. Unfortunately, for the advertisers that paid around the $1m-per-slot mark to gain a highly coveted slice of the limelight, this means you missed out on the commercial gaps.

However, the chances are far greater that you will have seen those brands who advertised in the Best Picture nominated movies. Fenton’s Creamery ice cream in Disney’s Up? BMW and Taco Bell in American Football drama The Blind Side? American Airlines, Hilton Hotels or Chrysler in Up In The Air? Ringing any bells?

It’s always quite amusing to survey friends and colleagues on their recollection of product placement on screen – the latter especially given that they work within marketing and are arguably more watchful of brand presence within entertainment platforms. If you mark this against the reality (superbly documented by Brand Channel’s Brand Cameo database), I have found that by and large people’s recall is probably less than 5% of the actual brands exposed on screen.

To make things interesting, those clever Brand Cameo folks have taken the brands present in this year’s Oscar contenders for Best Picture and plotted them on a matrix: pitching memorable versus instantly forgettable, against those that provided significant profit versus those that did not.

Hopefully, they won’t mind me reproducing it in full here:

(c) BrandChannel.com 2010

Now for the really interesting bit. Of those featuring in the most memorable segmentation, both Günther’s in District 9 and RDA that featured in Cameron’s epic Avatar were actually fictional brands.

Having written previously on how events, rights-holders and entertainment platforms are increasingly feeling the need to get a ‘brand stamp of approval’ on their project (even if they have to make one up), I am now more convinced than ever that we all now require a brand presence within our entertainment to validate its grounding in reality.

Though in the case of both District 9 and Avatar, paradoxically the branding was exercised to validate their grounding in un-reality. I guess given their sci-fi nature, it seems to make more sense to create a fictional unknown brand, thereby emphasizing the futuristic setting. But nonetheless, Günther’s and RDA still fall firmly on the ‘memorable’ side of scale – despite their non-existence in our reality.

Was this a missed opportunity for ‘real’ brands? Would South African-born Nando’s or thoroughly American N.A.S.A. have offered anything more? Would the producers have allowed it? Would the brand managers have wanted to association? And would the brand messages have been more – or less – memorable as a result?

I would love to know what goes in to thinking up these fictional companies. Do production execs or screenwriters work in a name that states a subtle (or not-so-subtle) socio-political message to fit with the film’s thematic development? As one District 9 viewer pointed out in a fan forum, sometimes the connotations have more meaning than at first it might appear:

‘Why were the South Africans patrons of a restaurant named Günther’s? Günther is the name of a king of Burgundy and means “warrior” or “soldier.” In effect, the South African blacks had a white warrior to thank for their sustenance.’

Either which way, we are entering an era where commercialism of movies – on and off screen – may fast become the life-blood of the industry; if, in fact we are not there already. How many years before an esteemed member of the Hollywood glitterati stands before the Academy audience and announces, ‘And the Academy Award for Best Product Placement goes to….‘?

Judging by the above, this year it should have gone to a brand that doesn’t even exist.

If this year’s Oscar-winning animated short film Logorama is anything to go by, it won’t be long. For those who have not yet had the pleasure of this little piece, the entire premise is the over-branded commercialisation of modern-day America on film. Watch the trailer below, and try to count the brand logos. There are over 2,500 in the full piece. Utter genius.

By Lucie Bartlett on March 9th, 2010

Tags: Advertising, American football, Brand marketing, Film, Product placement

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It’s one of those projects that all of us ladies dream of… spending two weeks on an event in Paris working on the Chivas Regal brand collaboration with celebrated French designer, Christian Lacroix. 

Using their sponsorship of the Cannes Film Festival as a platform to launch their latest designer collaboration to the media, Chivas Regal commissioned Synergy to oversee all the guest management for the event and to arrange a specially tailored Lacroix 24 hour Experience in Paris for key media to celebrate the launch of the limited edition Chivas 12 magnum designed by Lacroix himself.  

And so I found myself in Paris for two weeks.  Staying at the stunning boutique Hotel du Petit Moulin, the original hotel in Paris designed by Christian Lacroix and spending time in the infamous Marie district of Paris which has provided the designer with much of his inspiration. 

A tailored programme was developed for each group of media who attended, including visits to the Christian Laxroix flagship store in Paris to view the designer’s latest collection, a private viewing at the Mauboussin Chocolate bar, a tour of the Bellechasse hotel and a visit to the newly opened Merci concept store. 

A unique Paris venue, created by the former owners of the luxury French children’s brand Bonpoint, Merci brings together a combination of high fashion, homeware, books, flowers and more in a 1,500m2 former industrial building.  The design of the store is updated every six weeks, when a new designer inputs their creativity within the impressive space.  In addition to being a unique commercial space and wowing the international journalists who we took to the store, the guests were even more inclined to buy a keepsake from the store having learned that Merci donates all of its profits to a children’s charity in Madagascar.

In addition to the fashion and design elements of the experience, we arranged for all the guests to experience Chivas within a selection of Paris’s top venues, including the Cristal Room Baccarat and Pershing Hall.

So, it’s been back to earth with a bit of a bang this week… no more private viewings in Christian Lacroix or luxury French cuisine for me… although arguably, for my credit card at least, that’s not a bad thing.

By Amy Mansell on June 4th, 2009

Tags: Alcohol, Film, Sponsorship, The Arts

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Isn’t it always the way: you wait a lifetime to see a film in 3D about a hero named Bolt, and then two come along in a matter of months. Granted one was the John Travolta-voiced Disney blockbuster, whilst the other was footage of the all-conquering Olympian Usain Bolt smashing another world record at the Bupa Great City Games in Manchester this year. But it begs the question of just how many befuddled 6 year-olds out there thought they were off to see their favourite animated canine star, only for an altogether different eponymous hero to come bursting through the cinema screen.

In fact, this raises an interesting topic for the cinema-going public in 2009: how many more 3D films are we going to be expected to see? Bolt (both cute dog and sprint God) seemed to work; similarly Monsters vs Aliens made use of the third dimension, albeit, according to fans, slightly less successfully. Then Coraline, the new animation from Henry Selick, whilst a critically-acclaimed film, gains little more than a bit of textural richness with the addition of 3D specs. And don’t even get me started on Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience…

Are we seriously heading for Scorsese in 3D? Would a ‘remastered’ Withnail and I really offer a better experience if the audience felt every drunken lurch from Richard E Grant? And just how many geological eras will have to pass before Terence Malick gets round to pulling out the third dimensional stops?

With the advent of Avatar, James Cameron’s CGI magnum opus – widely tipped to be the most expensive film ever made – we might see a big screen production to truly make use of that extra ‘D’, though I guess the point is just because we can go beyond 2D, doesn’t mean we always have to – it should be something that feels worthwhile and relevant.

However, this is where the mighty cinema industry might disagree with me.

From the early 1980s, when VHS emerged victorious from the home video format wars, film piracy had become a reality for the major studios. Then the ‘90s brought DVD, and with it the potential for lossless data duplication. Coupled with faster, cheaper PCs, offering massive, inexpensive data storage, the widespread availability of DVD authoring software and the geometric growth of both the internet and home broadband capabilities – not to mention that feller in my local with the carrier bag full of iffy films – the piracy situation begins to look understandably grim.

Star Wars Episode III, Casino Royale, The Hulk, and most recently X-Men Origins: Wolverine – every one a $100+ million production – have all been circulated online prior to their official release. And once a film is in the public domain, things only get worse. With a host of questionable websites allowing web users free access to streamed (though largely crackling, jerky and unwatchable) movies, Hollywood needs a solution. Reading between the lines the studios’ answer seems to be to fight tech with tech: if you can’t pirate a ‘3D experience’, then you’ll have to go to the cinema, won’t you?

Well, according to at least one well-informed, well-respected (not to mention well-coiffed) critic – no. Mark Kermode’s POV – worth watching just for the clip of the unfinished cut of Wolverine that surfaced online – revolves around the question of the changing landscape of film.

In short, cinema might be the medium of choice for the all-encapsulating visceral movie experience, but the internet has offered a genuine alternative in the home – what the film industry needs to do is offer its wares to the right people, at the right time, crucially, in the right place. Oh, and stop green-lighting Alien vs Predator spin-offs.

By Jonathan Izzard on June 1st, 2009

Tags: Blogging, Default, Film, Media, The Arts, YouTube

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When was the last time you donned a pair of 3-D glasses?

I’m pretty sure that I was about 5, but this year 3-D is, apparently, BIG news. It started with the NFL Super Bowl in January. One of the most widely anticipated ads of this year’s Super Bowl ad breaks was Dreamworks’ trailer for its upcoming feature Monsters vs Aliens. Given that the movie (and thus, the trailer) required special 3-D glasses to see the full effects, in the run up to the Super Bowl, 150 million pairs of glasses were made available from Pepsi retailers across the US.

Later this year, we will see both Disney/Pixar and FOX getting in on the action with their releases Up and Avatar respectively. Even the Disney-produced Jonas Brothers have produced a ‘concert experience’ in the format (thus possibly supporting my it’s-for-5-year-olds theory).

But Time Inc. (the magazine division at AOL Time Warner) is trying to convince us all that it is far more than just child’s play. And to get their message across, they’ve done something pretty cool in five of their top magazine titles this month.

Readers of five fairly dissimilar sibling magazines - Time, Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly  – will find each title giving big editorial coverage to the subject of new-wave 3-D.

Each magazine has filled its section on 3-D, which was ordered up by corporate executives, its own way. Time is reporting on the new wave of 3-D movies, while Sports Illustrated is running a 3-D photo section (not the Swimsuit edition, sorry guys).

It was the SI version that brought the campaign to my attention, landing on my desk this morning. The sizable 14-page (7 DPS) chunk dominating the first section is impossible to miss. Half of the space has been dedicated to carrying the magazine’s usual content (their ‘Leading Off’ big action pictures of the week section), and the rest to willing ’sponsors’ – in this case, HP and Intel (both pushing their Monsters vs Aliens sponsorship through retail advertising), RealD 3D (again pushing the movie) and, seemingly randomly, McDonalds. A handy pair of 3-D glasses is inserted into the first DPS, bringing alive the visuals on all 14 pages, so that college basketball, NHL, monster trucks and hamburgers alike are all thrust off the page towards you.

The blurb that Time Inc. published in their advertorial page vaguely outlines why they feel 3-D is worth shouting about:

3-D is about to get serious…At Time Inc., we think 3-D is pretty darn cool, a technology that’s certain to have an impact across entertainment, business, and even sports. So we decided to cover it in a special way.

But what really struck me, is rather than simply taking out four pages trailing dull technology services, or a kids movie (neither of which would appeal hugely to most readers of the five magazines involved), each feature is aimed at the interests of that title’s particular readers – a seemless synergy of advertising and editorial, all physically viewed through the medium that the message tries to convey.

I loved it. But maybe that’s just because it made me feel 5 again.

By Lucie Bartlett on March 25th, 2009

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Film, Media, Sponsorship

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Building on Lucie’s post about Highland Spring’s Comedy Awards mauling, check out this footage of Tom Hanks, er, ’plugging’ Sony in a keynote presentation at the Consumer Electronics Association Show International back in January. Start watching from 1:40. My favourite moment? “They write the lies but I tell the truth.” Glorious.

By Tim Crow on March 9th, 2009

Tags: Default, Film, Product placement

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Last week we helped launch British Airways’ Great Britons campaign at Heathrow by naming a plane after Olympic Gold medallist Chris Hoy. We’ve been working closely with the team at British Airways to create a campaign to demonstrate a clear role for British Airways in the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As the national flag carrier, helping British talent succeed has always important to BA and the 2012 Games has given the airline a great goal to aim for. The BA Great Britons programme is offering hundreds of free flights in the run up to 2012, to enable budding talent from sport, fashion, community, art & design, innovation and performing arts to realise their dreams.

Whilst much Olympic marketing can feel remote to consumers, this campaign has active participation at is core. Alongside encouraging applicants to show how flights could help them, BA is encouraging the public to vote on who deserves to fly across the world in search of their dream.

The initial response has been positive with good media pick up and lots of discussion on a variety of blogs from http://www.gaj-it.com/7639/british-airways-holds-its-very-own-britains-got-talent-show to http://styleclone.com/128/fancy-a-flight-to-milan-fashion-show-with-british-airways. The hope is to not only receive hundreds of applicants but create a forum for discussion and support for Britain’s up and coming talent.

By Roberto Colandangelo on February 27th, 2009

Tags: Fashion, Film, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Music, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Team GB, The Arts, grass roots sport

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There was much to admire about the very first sponsorship of 2009, LG’s sponsorship of London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks.

When the deal was originally announced back in November I liked the synergy between the LG ‘Life’s Good’ brand philosophy and the optimism of the New Year’s Eve celebrations, but wondered how effectively LG could use the asset to bring the brand to life given the constraints presented by, variously, the BBC, GLA and the location.

Ultimately I thought they did a really good job, the stand-outs being the giant projections of filmed New Year’s Eve messages from the likes of Boris Johnson, Helen Mirren, Ricky Gervais  and Homer Simpson, and the distribution of mini-films onto the web and to news channels.

They did miss one big opportunity though, which was to leverage the fertile activation territory presented by the leap second, which – QED – became one of the biggest stories of the night.

But with that caveat aside, hats off and Happy New Year to LG and BBH.

By Tim Crow on January 7th, 2009

Tags: Brand marketing, Branded content, Default, Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, Film, Media, Sponsorship, Synergy, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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Attracting the attention of the target audience, getting the message across clearly and having that message seen in a positive light are all important factors in any marketing communication, whatever the discipline.

For me one of the masters of such effective communication was Don LaFontaine.  You probably don’t know his name, but you’ll almost certainly recognise his voice.  Don voiced more than 5,000 movie trailers and I was sad to read today that he’d passed away after an ongoing illness.

Based on contracts signed, he was considered to be the busiest member of the Screen Actors Guild ever. “In a world where” getting your message to cut through the clutter is getting harder, I salute you Mr Don LaFontaine – may you rest in peace.

By Malph Minns on September 3rd, 2008

Tags: Brand marketing, Film, Television

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