Who knew London fashion week was first held in 1984? Well I for one didn’t…I thought it started in 1964. Despite getting this question wrong, I still received the Guardian fashion seal of approval: ‘You’ve won a seat on the front row of fashion week wisdom. Mwah. You look fabulous!’

YES fashion quiz, take that! What a sigh of relief I passed. What did this mean? Absolutely nothing, it turned out. Instead, I experienced AW13 London Fashion Week on the FROW of social media.

After the success of last year’s partnership with Facebook, the British High St giant Topshop continued to push the boundaries of the digital space, which saw them collaborate with Google +. Together they successfully developed products to allow customers to experience the show as if they were there. I wasn’t alone in being made to feel like I was part of the FROW (or the ‘model’ walking the catwalk…or the fashion ‘buyer’), over 4 million people clearly did too. The clever products Google + produced created an intimate, engaging and personal experience for people watching online.

My second FROW experience came from the luxury brand, Burberry. Live streamed through their website, the show experience was captivating, alluring and intimate. Content is King when it comes to Burberry, and they didn’t disappoint. The British fashion label gave viewers the chance to click to buy from the catwalk, the opportunity to personalise their purchases, go backstage with the models and share their Burberry experience on social media platforms. Whether you’re a regular customer or a fan like me, Burberry offered innovative ways to interact socially, leaving your Facebook friends wondering: did you actually attend?

The new video app from Twitter, Vine, caught on with the fashion set in a big way, as Paul Smith, Burberry, Matthew Williamson, Topshop, Jonathan Saunders and journalists were noticeable Vine advocates. The British designer, Paul Smith, partnered with London-based artist Kate Moross, who shot a series of imaginative six-second clips in the run-up to Paul Smith’s London Fashion Week show.

Established designer Matthew Williamson collaborated with esteemed photographer Sean Cunningham, who exclusively shot the designers collection using Vine and posted his own six-second clips just before the ensemble hit the catwalk.  The idea was to give Williamson fans the ultimate FROW experience, focusing on the intricate craftsmanship and detail of each garment in the collection – often overlooked by regular FROWers. Fans were able to follow the Vines on Twitter through #MatthewMagnifield and on Facebook. Like Burberry, Williamson also released his catwalk soundtrack on Spotify.

Fashion socialite and acclaimed designer Henry Holland (of House of Holland) developed a capsule collection exclusively for eBay.co.uk with all proceeds from items sold on the auction site during London Fashion Week going to Cancer Research UK.

Sponsor of London Fashion Week, American Express launched ‘Fashion Insiders’ based at Somerset House. Their purpose was to assist, navigate and advise fashion week guests when needed. Sporting the latest colour block trend, American Express exclusively partnered with new gen designer Jonathan Saunders to ensure the ‘Fashion Insiders’ were suitably dressed for the occasion. The brand also partnered with fashion blogger, Disney Roll, who created a series of sponsored posts for the brand.

The British Fashion Council (BCF) made a strong statement that 2013 would be the start of the digital revolution for fashion in this country and London Fashion Week AW13 would be the starting place. For the first time ever the BFC partnered with You Tube to live-stream 21 of the on-schedule catwalk shows through the LFW channel. The BFC continues to lead British Fashion in the right direction, showing our fashion counterparts that pioneering new technologies need to be integrated into Fashion Week and remain at the forefront of the global fashion industry for the future.

Finally, it’s hard to mention LFW without a nod to the biggest talk of the town, model Cara Delevingne, the coolest girl in the world right now. Opposed to the quieter Kate Moss, Cara is a social media addict and posts her journey through life across all social media sites such as Instagam, Google +, Tumblr, Twitter and You Tube. Out with the model talk on weight issues and in with social buzz of this new, fresh-faced exciting British talent, who doesn’t take herself too seriously, is everyone’s best friend and loves to eat McDonald’s.

Which brand wouldn’t want her as the face of their campaign? #modelbehaviour

Noticeably this season, London Fashion Week was dominated by the designers’ innovative desire to give their fans and customers the most intimate experience possible. Where traditionally big sponsors of the event may have capitalised on their dominant position, designers and models have re-emerged, laying claim on digital innovation and consumer engagement.

So, whether you want to dress up, invite your friends over or even don a pair of sunglasses for the occasion, fashion has a new set of FROWers, the ‘Socialistas.’

By Francesca Gamble on February 26th, 2013

Tags: Celebrity, Communications, Content, Default, Digital marketing, Facebook, Fashion, Media, Music, Public relations, Social Media, Sponsorship, Synergy, Twitter, YouTube

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On this blog just a few months ago we discussed how the Red Bull Stratos, Red Bull’s ambitious project that saw Felix Baumgartner breaking the sound barrier in a jump from space, showed the ABCDE sponsorship framework executed to near perfection.

Now it’s the turn of Lynx, a brand traditionally less associated with extreme pursuits and adrenaline, but nevertheless targeted at the same male thrill-seeking audience, to blast off into space. To launch its new Apollo range, Lynx is launching a competition that will ultimately send one would-be astronaut from the UK, along with 21 others from around the globe, into outer space on the Lynx SXC (Space Expedition Corporation) shuttle.

Of course this differs in several important respects from Red Bull’s activation a few months ago. Felix’s jump was one (particularly awesome) part of a coordinated and years-old approach by Red Bull towards marketing that emphasises differentiation of their brand via a unique association with thrill-seekers like Felix and other adrenaline junkies who take part in the various Red Bull-created sports.

For Lynx, this is way ahead of what it has ever done before – the Lynx effect taken, quite literally, to the extreme. The Lynx effect is all about helping men up their game to win over the ladies by looking good, feeling good, and – and this is where Lynx has traditionally come in – smelling amazing. This has been demonstrated throughout the years in a series of ads that show the devastating impact of the Lynx effect on the female population. One would have been forgiven for wondering if a scent could genuinely have this sort of impact. But the Lynx Space Academy represents the ultimate substantiation of the Lynx effect – after all, as the advert that launched this activity in the UK makes clear, nothing beats an astronaut.

Of course, another important difference lies in the protagonists of these respective activations and the ultimate importance of them scientifically. Red Bull was out to make history, with Felix, already a noted record-breaking jumper, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier without using any sort of machine. Lynx isn’t doing anything new in terms of space travel. But with space tourism a distant reality for all but the very wealthy few, giving normal people this chance to go to space is genuinely boundary-pushing.

And at a time when national government budgets for space exploration are being slashed as cuts begin to bite, it is brilliant that brands are taking up the mantle in terms of supporting scientific endeavour and taking initial steps to widen space travel. This blog has already discussed the merits of brands stepping in to safeguard public services, and, whilst it would be wrong to pretend that private companies’ intergalactic efforts could get anywhere near to the endeavours of established national space agencies like NASA, this is still an encouraging, and very exciting, trend.

For now, I will look out with interest to see how the participants fare at each stage of the Lynx Space Academy – and (of course) keep an eye out for any astronauts, to see if this particular Lynx effect really works.

By Jessica Enoch on January 17th, 2013

Tags: Advertising, Default, Experiential marketing, Red Bull

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Analysis of industry data suggests that the F1 ecosystem raises over £1b per year from sponsorship. This includes Team Sponsors and Suppliers (ranging from £100m for the big boys to £20m for the smaller teams), F1 Partners (around £25m per year in cash or Value in Kind from each of the 6 global partners) and Race Sponsorship (around £10m for each of the races with title sponsors plus trackside advertising).

To put that into context, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games raised around the same amount (£750m from domestic sponsors plus around £250m contribution from the IOC for TOP partners) – but that was for a 4-year cycle.

So here’s a question: Given how much is spent on it from some of the world’s leading brands, why is F1 Sponsorship not at the leading edge of sponsorship thinking and activation?

It’s fair to say that F1 is ahead of the game in virtually everything else it does. So surely F1 Sponsors should be cleaning up at the major sponsorship industry awards.  In fact, over the past 5 years, an F1 sponsorship has won only once out of a possible 47 SIA awards (Vodafone’s Best Sponsorship of a Team or Individual in 2009). Case studies from F1 should be inspiring sponsors in other sports.  Here at Synergy, we should regularly be showcasing examples from F1 in the ‘What We Love’ section of Synopsis. But this just isn’t the case – at least not to the extent that one would expect.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great pieces of activation in F1 (I’ll point out some of them later), but as a whole, F1 sponsorship is pretty uninspiring.

Having run the Reuters sponsorship of WilliamsF1 from 2000 – 2003 (yes – I agree – it was nowhere near ‘award-winning’!), I thought I would have a go at answering that question based on my own personal experiences.

1. Most Formula One sponsorships are B2B

Reuters primarily used F1 for B2B relationship building. A quick scan of F1 sponsors shows that over 40% have significant B2B businesses. There is little better than F1 if you have a relatively small number of high-value, global customers who you reach through targeted sales and marketing programmes.  Travelling around the world to all the key markets, Formula One and Paddock Club™ are the absolute gold standard of corporate hospitality. With this being the focus of the brands’ activation programme, it is little wonder that it remains unseen by the mass audience, award panels and the Synopsis editors.

The activation challenge for the B2B partners, however, is to create the most compelling brand stories and event experiences to attract their audience.  Because the fact is, especially in the small markets, most of the B2B sponsors are going after a very similar audience, in some cases exactly the same people.

2. There is too much focus on brand exposure and logos on cars and not enough on activation

Whenever brand exposure is such a critical part of the sponsorship package, it is easy to rely too heavily on it at the expense of all the other things you can do with the sponsorship. I absolutely hate the “media value” figures that are at the heart of so many F1 sponsorships.  However, it is easy to measure and as long as the media value is bigger than the cost of the sponsorship, brands can be tempted to think “job done”. In comparison, Olympic sponsors can’t rely on any media value to justify their sponsorship.  That’s why they have to work much harder and be far more creative with their activation.

A knock-on effect of this over-emphasis on media value is the fact that it can lead to an under-investment in activation.  Typically, the rights fee is so high (because brands are paying for the exposure) that there isn’t enough left over for activation. I’m not a big believer in any rule-of-thumb ratios, but the proportion of rights fee to activation spend when I was at Reuters is definitely not going to make it into any how-to textbooks. I suspect this isn’t unusual for F1 sponsors up and down the Paddock

3. The calendar gives you no time to plan and develop great campaigns

The F1 season is relentless. The first race is in early March and the last race is in late November. In between is a never-ending cycle of travelling and managing the day-to-day execution of race weekends. Everyone goes on holiday during the 4-week summer break and at the end of the season, which then leads into Christmas. Trust me, if you want a year to fly past, get a job in F1.

Which basically just leaves January and February to do any sort of campaign development. But even those months tend to be dominated by tactical planning for the season ahead. There just isn’t the time to think about a season-long campaign or a brilliant piece of activation.

Another challenge is the global scale required by an activation campaign. Japan, Abu Dhabi, Britain, the US and Brazil have very little in common with each other from a marketing perspective.  So as an F1 sponsor you are sort of in limbo between creating and delivering a global campaign that doesn’t quite work in loads of markets and developing local campaigns which feel a bit ‘small’ and short term.

4. The F1 community is too closed

There are some great people who work in F1.  However, it needs more ‘churn’.

For example, when I needed a sponsorship agency, everyone I invited to pitch was effectively a specialist F1 agency. I understand why most sponsors do that, but it leads to a form of ‘groupthink’ where new ideas are thrown out in favour of “what we did last year” or “what we do with our other clients”.

This happens up and down the paddock. If an F1 team needs a new Account Manager, they are likely to hire someone from one of the other teams. If a brand needs an F1 Sponsorship Director, they are likely to hire someone who has done a similar job at another sponsor. If an F1 agency hires a new Account Director, they typically hire someone who already has F1 experience.

The danger of this ‘closed’ community is that it loses the fresh influences and perspectives that drive creativity.

I know it’s tough (I’ve been there myself) but I think F1 sponsors need to be braver and set the bar higher for their activation campaigns. The benchmark should not be: “we want to create the best F1 sponsorship campaign”, but rather “we want to create the best sponsorship campaign”. And to do that, I think that it is critical for sponsors to look for inspiration outside the very small world of F1.

The point of this blog is not to say that there are no good F1 activations – because clearly there are some great examples.

My point is simply that given the number of world-class brands who are sponsors in F1, the amount that they invest and the possibilities of F1 as a platform, there should be far more ground-breaking activation programmes than there are.

Some of our Favourite F1 Activation Case Studies:

Johnnie Walker – Step Inside the Circuit Series

Johnnie Walker extended this campaign with some experiential activity in Travel Retail environments but at its core was some great behind-the-scenes content, from Monte Carlo (below), India, Singapore and other races

Vodafone:

One car, no team:

Camping:

Santander:

London Grand Prix:

The Silverstone Chase

Hugo Boss - Dress Me for the Finale

Using a special online configurator, consumers in each country could create bespoke designs of the drivers’ race suits. The drivers wore the designs during qualifying for each race, while the best two designs as voted by the audience were worn on the Sunday during the Brazilian Grand Prix. Boss also did a good job of connecting this activation to their social media and retail channels:

Red Bull – Faces for Charity

In exchange for a donation to charity (which Red Bull matched), consumers could upload a photo which was then put on the car for the British Grand Prix.

Vodafone –  Drive to the Big League

Vodafone introduced this initiative at the British Grand Prix in 2010 which offered one of their small business customers the chance to put their logo on the car for the British Grand Prix.  Vodafone have taken it to a whole new level in India now, where they have combined it with a Dragons Den style TV programme to select the winner – watch it – it’s brilliant!!!

See – it is possible – more of that please!!!

By Carsten Thode on November 15th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Alcohol, Awards, Brand marketing, Branded content, Consultancy, Content, Default, Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, Facebook, Formula 1, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Red Bull, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis

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I’ve been pretty lucky over the past few years, working in sport and enjoying some incredibly memorable events. Maybe even the odd Welsh Grand Slam – certainly not the type of thing I was used to when I was growing up.

Indeed, I’ve been privileged to work on the Olympic Games, helping to plan and deliver BMW’s London 2012 vision. Sometimes I really do have to pinch myself.

You could argue some others are not quite so lucky. Some people are born without arms or without sight. Some suffer from debilitating illnesses that they fight for a lifetime. But some don’t think about it that way.

Today marks the start of what I think will be the most amazing and emotive event we’ve ever seen, in what has been the most amazing and emotive summer of sport. Today, the Superhumans begin the greatest show on Earth at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

As a nation, we’re fired up. We’ve developed a thirst for the most compelling of sporting stories. Tomorrow, when the action begins, we’ll be ready to lap it up.

Athletes will take to the field, pool and track ready to give it everything. Brands at London 2012 have shown great support to the Paralympic Games, but right now, I think one or two will realise they’ve missed out. Have they given it their all?

The next few weeks will define Paralympic sport in the UK and inspire a nation. It will challenge the way we think and the way we perceive disability sport. It will also show us the future in sponsorship.

Brands that have got it have been brave, they’ve trusted their instincts and they’ve exploded into a new space. This is the very essence of creating great creative sponsorship – brands that are prepared to step into the unknown and re-imagine the way they think and deliver.

So as we sit back to enjoy the lionhearts of Paralympic sport in action, we’ll also be experiencing a key part of the development for the future in sports marketing. The Paralympic Games will show that the brave come out on top; both on and off the field.

Full disclosure: Synergy works with BMW on London 2012

By Ben Wilkinson on August 29th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Paralympics, Sponsorship, Synergy

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At the end of last week a couple of the Experiential team took a trip over to East London to see if all the hype around the PUMA Yard is justified, and investigate just how well their campaign is going. We also wanted to see how they have created the experience whilst staying within the confines of the 2006 Olympic Act.

PUMA Yard opened a day after the official start of London 2012 in part of the Old Truman Brewery in Shoreditch. Revelling in PUMA’s sponsorship of Usain Bolt, but with Olympic legislation prohibiting them from mentioning Bolt explicitly, the idea is obvious and simple: bring Kingston, Jamaica to the Heart of London. The sprawling pop-up caters to the crowds with hefty portions of jerk chicken, Red Stripe, Kingston Bowl and Montego Bay Brew. The inside is chock-a-block of yellow, green and black. There is a legacy wall to Bob Marley and a ‘Listening Wall’ full of PUMA sneakers which, by linking up a shoe to headphones, will play a popular reggae song from a particular decade. Plus, if you fancy it, you can kit yourself out in Jamaican-inspired PUMA gear including the Cedalla Marley speciality collection. Polishing off the theme is the constant sound of chilled reggae that permeates throughout the entire space, to really hammer home the Jamaican vibe just in case anyone had managed to miss it!

Within the space there are several interactive essentials which integrate with PUMA’s Social Club ongoing global marketing campaign. The PUMA Social Club is based around everything and anything the ‘After Hours Athlete’ needs to turn the night into a sport. Think ping pong, photo booths, famous DJs and the Bolt Speed Test which gives everyone a bash at challenging Usain Bolt’s 100m record time of 9.58 seconds.

And PUMA haven’t missed the commercial opportunity. No pop-up event is complete without its own unique and engaging shopping experience, and the PUMA Yard is no different. Out in the back yard is the PUMA Quad, an impressive mobile structure made from shipping containers and best known for its appearance at a few Volvo Ocean race stopovers. The Quad overlooks the back yard where there’s a rather large lawn and chill-out area to watch all the Olympics coverage on the big screen.

All in all, the PUMA Yard blew our socks off with ping pong, speed tests, jerk chicken and live Olympics. Does it break LOCOG’s rules? No. It has merely capitalised cleverly on the popularity of one of PUMA’s most valuable assets and created an area that encapsulates PUMA’s ongoing lifestyle campaign. Great work.

By Synergy on August 9th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Art & Design, Athletics, Brand marketing, Default, Experiential marketing, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy Loves

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As I eagerly count down the hours before going to see The Dark Knight Rises tonight (to the amazement of one colleague who couldn’t comprehend the idea of going to the cinema on a Friday night after a long week at work), I couldn’t help but notice the number of brands looking to ride the wave of hype surrounding 2012’s most eagerly anticipated film.

By my latest count, no fewer than 15 brands have partnered up with Warner Bros and it is interesting to see which have or will achieve cut-through. The obvious danger for brands getting involved in movies is the potential backlash from fans who don’t want to be ‘sold to’ when they go to the cinema, and dislike obvious product placements that can detract from the story, rather than improve the overall fan experience (the key to a successful brand partnership). The films themselves also risk being accused by fans of selling out if they go too far (see the James Bond franchise), but it seems that so far Christopher Nolan’s trilogy has managed to remain both ‘cool’ and a commercial success, with no accusations of selling its soul. It will be interesting, however, in the coming weeks if any of the ‘friends of Gotham City’ start to get a few enemies.

Amazingly, Warner Bros have managed to tie up deals with two car brands – Chrysler in the US and Nissan in the UK. The Chrysler deal is expected to include some product placement (hopefully I won’t be distracted tonight trying to spot their vehicles) and they have also encouraged fans to create their own Dark Knight movie trailer, to be posted on the brand’s Facebook site, with Nolan himself choosing the best commercial to be aired on National TV. Whilst UGC is not a new phenomenon, this is a nice way for Chrysler to build on the hysteria surrounding the official trailer (which, to date, has over 23m YouTube hits) and gives the true Batman fans the tools to create their own content.

Nissan’s striking press ad was designed by illustrator Gabriel Hardman, who developed the storyboards for the film and brand also used Blippar’s augmented reality tool to give fans the chance to win premiere tickets.

My main concern, however, for any car brand getting involved in the Batman movies is that there is really only one car that the fans care about, no matter the marketing, so it is going to be difficult for anyone to compete with the Batmobile, let alone with this movie’s flying gunship.

Both Nokia and Mountain Dew have created limited edition products surrounding the films, with both brands offering fans exclusive film content – clearly banking on the partnership driving sales. It will be interesting to see whether there are really fans who care about the film enough to tie themselves into a long-term phone contract to get Nokia’s handset (unlikely to be quite so desirable this time next year), and the true test will be whether the phone can compete with the iPhones and Samsung Galaxys of this world. Obviously committing to trying a new flavour of Mountain Dew is much less of an ask for the consumer…

My favourite Batman brand partnership however is undoubtedly Under Armour’s sponsorship of the Gotham Rogues American Football team, and their subsequent product range. This is a great example of a subtle, and, most importantly, natural bit of product placement (in what looks like an amazing scene from the trailer) allowing the brand to launch a potentially lucrative new clothing range (which I’m sure many of the thousands of Batman geeks will be keen to buy, myself included).

This is all well and good, but as I shun the call of the pub tonight, I look forward to leaving my marketing hat at the door, and escaping into the world of Gotham City.

By Matt Kiernan on July 20th, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Branded content, Film, Product placement

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2012 brings one of the best summer of sport line-ups ever on the Sky platform. As the pre-eminent sports broadcaster in the UK, it was only natural that Sky chose to showcase its glorious HD offering of these events in style.

Sky Creative Director Barry Skolnick, alongside directors Ivan Bird and Mark Harris, devised a concept for a campaign that was to focus on the blood, sweat, tears and hugely demanding preparation that go hand-in-hand with being an elite athlete. Off the back of two highly engaging campaigns created by Brothers and Sisters for the 2011-12 Football season and 2012 F1 launch – the HD Summer of Sport campaign was born.

As part of the planning, management and execution of the campaign, Synergy was enlisted to consult on the use of elite athletes and IP, and to manage the entire athlete management process for all the Sky Sports Scholarships athletes involved. This included management and scheduling of appearance time, liaison with agents and governing bodies, management of contractual rights, on-site management of athletes, content gathering, image approval, and finally, athlete promotion via social media channels upon the ad’s launch.

Each athlete was shot in a non-intrusive fly-on-the-wall style piece of filming usually only accessible to coaches. All footage was captured in three weeks with shoots in several locations including Ireland, Spain, Portugal, London, Peterborough, Loughborough and Manchester.

Overall it was a truly insightful and inspiring to spend time with these athletes in this most intimate of settings; whether hard at work in a 50m pool, tucked away in a boxing gym or half-way up a mountain. The effort, devotion and natural ability displayed by each athlete brought to life some incredible footage which will no doubt inspire and engage people to show their support for the best that Britain and Ireland have to offer in what is set to be an incredible Summer of Sport.

Watch the ad in full here:

By Synergy on May 31st, 2012

Tags: Advertising, Consultancy, Content, Default, Sport

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What happened:

English handmade tailors Lutwyche partnered with premium Scottish whisky brand, The Dalmore to launch their first tailor-made, luxury men’s shoe. Traditionally known for its tailoring, Lutwyche needed something special to mark the launch their first made-to-measure brogue.

Why we Love it:

As far as I know this is the first time an alcohol brand has partnered with a shoe brand, marrying together my two favorite things! In many ways, this is the perfect partnership, as both brands encapsulate the authenticity and craftsmanship of truly luxury brands, while complementing each other’s style and ethos.

Both brands extended their core audience while staying true to their brand values. By sharing their credibility in these complementary markets, both brands managed to define ‘luxury’ and ‘premium’ in a new sphere.

Lutwyche took its inspiration from the aesthetics of The Dalmore single malt and, in particular, the stag whose head appears on every bottle. This iconic image is built into the design of the shoe with the regal stag’s head crest stamped on the inside of each sole. Everyone who purchases a pair of Dalmore Brogues can  have them personalised with their name and, of course, receive a bottle of The Dalmore’s award-winning King Alexander III single malt whisky.

At Synergy, we love it when brands successfully manage to combine passion points, so when fashion and alcohol decide to come together, we always know we’re in for a treat and this is no exception. What is there not to love?

What the brand said:

The Dalmore Master Distiller, Richard Paterson commented:

“The Dalmore, like Lutwyche, prides itself on qualities of artisanship, exclusivity and excellence, so we’re delighted to be partnering with a like-minded brand on such a creative project. The skills that have been passed down through generations to create each drop of our whisky are matched by the craftmanship that goes into the creation of this shoe. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between the two brands.”

By Francesca Gamble on December 6th, 2011

Tags: Alcohol, Default, Fashion, Synergy Loves, Synopsis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Caroline Ayling on October 13th, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Caroline Ayling on September 1st, 2011

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

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