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

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So there it is, all over. 100 days and 2400 people later; today marks the final day of Antony Gormley’s live art installation ‘One & Other’.

34,520 people applied; 1208 men and 1192 women aged between 16 and 84 were randomly selected to take part. People from every walk of life from across the UK, spent an hour alone on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square creating a collective portrait of humanity.

And not a single ‘celebrity’ or former Big Brother contestant in sight.
Marvellous.

The project – the focus of articles, photos, tweets and blogs well before the first person took to the plinth on 6th July 2009 – has been deemed a success. In Gormley’s own words, “Whether you see the plinth as a protest or pole-dance platform; studio or stocks; playpen or pulpit; as a frame for interrogation or for meditation, it has provided an open space of possibility for many to test their sense of self and how they might communicate this to a wider world.”

So did we like it? The art critics did not.
Me? I loved it.

I first wrote about the project last July on this very blog. I didn’t get picked in the ballot but I have enjoyed watching those who did, including three people I know. ‘A snapshot of Britain’, the creation has been described as. Well certainly it showed off the great British sense of humour – as well as raising over £24,000 for charity through plinthers performances.

A brief snapshot of just a few of the plinthers who caught my eye:
- A modern day naturist Lady Godiva astride a child’s rocking horse in only a pair of boots (Gormley himself had said that ‘he would be very upset if somebody didn’t take their clothes off’)
- A 26 year old dressed as a giant turd in a plea for cleaner water, resulting in some nice PR & awareness for Water Aid
- A Stringfellow’s dancer whose pole dancing performance apparently caused the Sky Arts website to crash
- An 8ft Godzilla
- A bent over skin-tight morph suit
- A number of folk advertising themselves in a ‘Give me a Job’ bid to gain work most of which resulted in employment
- The girl who led an impressive flash-mob audience in a world-record bid for the most people dancing to Thriller (Michael Jackson, RIP, would have been proud).

The list goes on. Right up to the very final plinther, Emma Burns from Liverpool who used the last hour of the people’s plinth (08.00-09.00 today) to remember the victims of the Hillsborough disaster.

The good, the bad, the ugly and the downright bizarre have all been up there.

The art critics may not have raved about it.
Stuff ‘em.

Over 720,000 people watched online – a huge figure for an arts website – with 7.5 million page impressions during the 100 days. And the project will live on through a TV documentary due to be screened on Sky Arts; a book produced by Random House; and within the walls of the Wellcome Library who plan to store the footage and interviews with every participant for future historians and academics.

Antony Gormley never actually made it onto the plinth having been rejected four times in the public ballot (and refusing to insist on a slot). One suspects he won’t mind. Without a shadow of a doubt, he will be kept busy over the coming months regardless, his profile further elevated by the successful way in which One & Other has truly brought art to the masses. And if you need further persuasion, take 4mins out of your day – right now- and have a watch of the final highlights video on Sky Arts. It’s emotive stuff.

- Next month, Sir Keith Park, a Battle of Britain hero will take to the Fourth Plinth in a more conventional memorial statue format

By Stephanie Branston on October 14th, 2009

Tags: Blogging, Communications, Flash mobbing, Media, Public relations, The Arts

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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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In one of the most touching tributes to celebrate the life of children’s TV presenter Tony Hart, over 200 fans gathered outside London’s Tate Modern at the weekend. In recognition of Tony’s much-loved sidekick, the animated character Morph, a flash-mob of plasticene Morphs were displayed on the Southbank, drawing in large crowds throughout the day.

Hart’s legacy touched generations of children who were encouraged to paint and draw over a TV career that spanned 50 years, before his death, at the age of 83, earlier this year.

‘Morph Mob’ was a compliment to Tony’s unflappable “you can do it” approach to art and creativity. Morph was certainly capable of extraordinary feats of metamorphosis and spoke an unintelligible language that only he and Hart seemingly could understand. None of this mattered on Sunday. The event, organised on social networking website Facebook, involved members of the Hart family with Tony’s daughter, Carolyn Williams, invited to judge Best Morph in Show.

Fantastic; flash mobbing at it’s best and in true Tony Hart spirit; the doyen of DIY art.

PS. I’d love to say that Tony Hart inspired me to draw brilliantly from a young age but I have always been a rather hopeless artist and never quite made it into The (infamous) Gallery. I think I tried at least once, as did 6,000 other kids a week apparently. I had no chance.

PPS. One question and I do hope Tony will forgive me. Was Morph a man or a woman? Very difficult to tell on closer inspection…

By Stephanie Branston on March 3rd, 2009

Tags: Facebook, Flash mobbing, Television, The Arts

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I’ve never quite got all the hype around Banksy, the pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist with an international reputation for his artwork. However, I still like the idea of owning one of his prints especially for the attractive investment of 1p. Thanks to a promotion running with Brahma beers just now, that dream could become a reality, all the more appealing given the current economic climate. Brahma, the most popular cerveja in Brazil which will celebrate its 120th birthday next year, has launched a promotion for one winner to buy, for £0.01, an original print of the ‘Trolleys’, currently being housed at 3, Newburgh Street, London.

Known for his headline making stunts, Banksy’s anti-establishment “cool” has certainly made him highly collectible. Celebrity fans include Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Damien Hirst. Always controversial (with no obvious links to Brazil that I’m aware of), it’s not known whether Banksy will be present to hand over the print to the lucky recipient at the secret location on 27th March.

I suspect he won’t but definitely worth a punt (and a pint) regardless.

By Stephanie Branston on March 2nd, 2009

Tags: Alcohol, The Arts

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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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In the ever evolving world that is sponsorship PR, there are two factors that increasingly hit our radar again and again:

1. A client’s request to come up with an idea that is unique, something never been done before, one that will grip news editors, secure acres of coverage, go down in history. Ideally the idea should also be engaging, clever and memorable. And must reward customers too.

No mean feat – a new, engaging, rewarding killer idea.
Leave it with us.

2. The power of celebville. The obsession with celebrities and fame, Heat headlines and Hello! ‘exclusives’ which shows no signs of truly waning. People yearn to be famous particularly those with no discerning talent. Shame on them. I don’t get it but then I don’t actively choose to be the centre of attention, preferring to promote clients; make them more famous for what they do, rather then me.

However, an idea that recently caught my eye is one that manages to combine the two – a never been done before corker that will guarantee headlines and media coverage across the land. And at the same time, a stunt that will make normal beings famous. Give an everyday Joe his 15 seconds of fame. Although in this case, it will be a whole hour; an impressive 3,600 seconds.

And I love it enough to (temporarily) abandon my ‘I really don’t want to be in the limelight, honestly I blush very easily’ genes and sign up for my very own moment in the media spotlight.

Those that live in London will almost certainly be familiar with the Fourth Plinth. Those who don’t juggle their evening commute reading between London Lite, the London Paper and the Evening Standard may be happily oblivious so here goes; the Fourth Plinth is in the north-west of Trafalgar Square. Built in 1841, it was originally intended for an equestrian statue but remained empty for years. It is now the location for specially commissioned art works. The most talked about commission unveiled on the Fourth Plinth was Marc Quinn’s sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant which was taken down in October 2007.

Lapper was born with no arms and shortened legs. Quinn’s inspiration came from the fact that there was ‘no positive representation of disability in the history of public art’.

Controversial? Absolutely. Powerful enough to change peoples’ perceptions of disability and motherhood. Definitely. It was widely viewed as a success, capturing the attention of the public and global media alike.

Alison Lapper has long gone. Thomas Schütte’s Model for a Hotel 2007, unveiled in November 2007, is currently on the Fourth Plinth.

But it’s a future resident of the Plinth that I am most interested by; Antony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’. Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare (to follow later in the year) were chosen from a shortlist of six artists. Gormley? I know the name. English sculptor, Londoner by birth, him of Angel of the North fame, erected in Gateshead back in 1998. And a range of other public sculpture commissions.

For ‘One and Other’, Antony is looking for 2,400 members of the public who have volunteered to stand on the plinth for an hour at a time.

I love it. It’s a cracker. And so simple. I’m inspired and I find myself wanting to be part of it.

The official line from Gormley is “Through elevation onto the plinth and removal from common ground, the subjective living body becomes both representation and representative, encouraging consideration of diversity, vulnerability and the individual in contemporary society’.

Hmmmm, I’m not so sure that did it for me Ant. My motivation is driven by an opportunity to be part of history in a vibrant city in which I have lived for the past 9 years. Perhaps also because Trafalgar Square, location of the Fouth Plinth, holds happy memories for me. Having worked on the historic npower Ashes Series of 2005, I was privileged to watch the England cricket team’s victorious tour parade perched on some tall column owned by a chap called Nelson. Top view, what a summer. And the final brucie bonus is that it’s nice and close to the office; easy to squeeze in my hour of plinth service between meetings. Convenience is everything.

I applaud Antony Gormley for his creative concept and I high five the Mayor of London’s Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group for choosing it. When you see Gormley’s Fourth Plinth unveiled, whenever that is, think of me. Website ballot permitting, I will be there soaking up the spotlight. Me, myself and I.
For one hour only.

By Stephanie Branston on July 24th, 2008

Tags: Ashes, Public relations, Sponsorship, The Arts

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