(Or THPRTOTW for short) We listen to a lot of music here in THHQ, our influences are pretty wide ranging, everything from disco/italio sleeze to the electro pop madness of Ga Ga and Co gets its go. We thought it might be nice to share some of these moments with you too so from now on we will pick one favourite song we have all been digging and post up the video here. The first track on our list comes from Empire of The Sun, and their debut single 'Walking On a Dream'. It's been on heavy rotation round here for the last couple of months and is getting a bit of radio play now too, expect to see them at a festival near you this Summer. The track is somewhat reminiscent of MGMT with its swirly chords and slightly camp feel, nothing wrong with that though, it's top class pop.
It seems more and more companies are realising the value in PR over advertising. According to PR Week nearly half of industry bosses said their PR budgets increased last year. This despite (or in response to) the economic troubles the world finds its self in. This from their site:
"PR chiefs are reporting that they are taking client cash away from the ad industry – but not much. 49 per cent of industry bosses said PR budgets increased slightly in 2008 as a percentage of clients' total marketing budgets.
However, only 2 per cent say budgets increased significantly, in a poll of 48 CEOs who are in the PRCA’s leaders’ panel.
15 per cent of agencies say their budgets have decreased slightly, and 4 per cent have decreased significantly compared to their clients’ ad budgets.
LexisNexis corporate marketing executive Richard Dean confirmed the findings: ‘PR has increased in importance in my marketing budget due to the fact it is considerably easier to measure than advertising.’
Van Communications director Mark Cooper said: ‘This recession could prove to be a blessing in disguise. It will remove the comfort blanket of the multi-million pound media budget and force everyone to be more creative; to spend more time coming up with publicity ideas that can travel.’ "
We have always championed PR over advertising (what PR company wouldn't!), good to see our thoughts backed up by some captains of industry too.
Spring is in the air and all through the land birds are singing, lambs are bleating and cavemen are roaring. Yes that's right, don't be alarmed if the men in your office slip back to their caveman roots all of a sudden, it's all down to Instinct, the new scent from Lynx. Made from a mix of cardamom, amber and atlas cedar wood, Lynx Instinct has a scent that appeals to your primordial instinct and will have the ladies going back to their roots, grunting and salivating at your feet. Test your manliness over at the Lynx Roar Off at lynxroar.ie.
The good folk at the Dublin Flea Market are back again this Sunday with more bargains and fun times. It's a great place for a catch up after a heavy Saturday night, there's mugs o' tea, toasties and of course all kinds of bric a brac ranging from junk to treasure and vice versa. There is also a dedicated swap shop too and just look at this lovely artwork they have come up with. It's great to see more of this stuff happening around the city but don't just think that, get down on Sunday and see for yourself.Dublin Fleadh - Sunday 25th Jan, 11am -5pm, The Co-op, Newmarket, near Cork St.
A few of us dropped by the opening of the Bodies Exhibit in the Ambassador Dublin yesterday, it's pretty fascinating stuff, if a little squeam inducing. They have basically preserved human bodies in various stages of autopsy to give us all a better look at what goes on underneath our skin. The lungs on show were a nice deterrent to would be smokers and the blood vessels on their own looked fantastic in their blue and red glow. There was a bit of controversy surrounding the exhibit, mainly to do with the acquisition of the bodies and their treatment after, the usual Radio phone in shows were full of the usual mad auld ones giving out, no doubt after hearing crazy rumors over the garden fence. After grabbing a few moments with the curator though it’s obvious that they have the utmost respect for their 'specimens' and education is the only motive. The exhibition opens on Saturday 24th January for a few months. More info at www.bodiesdublin.com
Assistanttothebrandmanager has an interesting piece on Apple up at the moment questioning the wisdom of placing so much of a brand’s success on one individual- Steve 'God Man' Jobs. How about placing all that success on one big wheel?
Strange thing is we can probably think of a few people who would still buy that. A testament to Apple’s brand loyalty. They really have created the ultimate 'alternative' lifestyle brand, completely accessible to all yet at the same time keeping its cool creds.
The Obama campaign provided fodder for many a PR and marketing story, it was indeed a master class on the subject. At the same time lots of companies saw opportunities in Obama's message of change and hope and made full use of them. This Pepsi campaign from titled Refresh Everything, invited users to upload their personal message to Obama via their refresheverything.com site and the activity coincided nicely with their branding 'refresh'. The new branding in question also raised a few eyebrows with its apparent similarity to Obama's own campaign logo. See for yourself.
For another piece of perfect brand positioning, see this Veet ad that appeared in an Aussie newspaper today. They must have been waiting for this idea for 8 years.
Our dear friends in Ben & Jerry's also had a nod to the Big Guy with their brand new flavour Yes Pecan, unfortunately it's not available in Ireland but we are assured it tastes almost as good freedom itself .
One of our favourite DJs Greg Wilson has just recorded a long overdue Essential Mix. Greg’s story is pretty amazing, he was the first person in the UK to actually mix two record at the same time, even doing so live on TV with a young (and perhaps unimpressed?) Jools Holand.
He then went into retirement for 20 years before making a comeback in 2003 including a few dates in Dublin and one at the Garden Party. This essential mix takes in lots of Greg Wilsons influences from Chic, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder to the likes of talking Heads and The Happy Mondays right up to 'dance' acts like 808 State. Particular highlights would be League Unlimited Orchestra ‘Things That Dreams Are Made Of’ which has appeared on mixes by everyone from Tiga to The Glimmers.
Full track list available here. Download the mix here.
The song is just Aerodynamic with a bit of speech over it but the video looks fantastic. This is from the director'sVimeo page: "The following is a mixed-media stop motion music video and celebration commemorating the election and inauguration of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of these United States. Audibly showcasing Adam Freeland's remix of Daft Punk's "Aerodynamic" and the imaginative stylings of forward thinking toy artists Dalek, Bill McMullen and Kubrick to name just a few. Independently animated and directed by the progressive minds of the directing team GOLD, the piece is a labor of love that invites everyone to join in or create their own celebration this coming Tuesday January the 20th."
Labour of love is right!
Incidentally those little Daft Punk bears are available as a limited edition run from Bearbrincks - More on that here. The Gallic duo were certainly never ones to miss a marketing trick.
Lots more PR and marketing types are getting in on the blog world. This can only be good for the industry as it should give everyone a better understanding of what the other is doing and hopefully lead to stronger relationships between bloggers and PR companies. Piaras Kelly compiled a list of them the other day over on his blog, it's a great resource and led us to this little gem: assistanttothebrandmanager.blogspot.com A great read.
Part two of the Barry's ‘Tea With…..’ cultural series takes place at the end of this month. We covered fashion last time round (see below for a reminder). This time we’ve come over all arty and Barry’s Tea teams up with those creative kids at Monstertruck Gallery and Studio, Francis St to bring the very talented Graham Rawle to Dublin. Graham is most well renowned for his farcical illustrated series ‘Lost Consonants’, in The Weekend Guardian for over 15 years but has also published a few amazing illustrated novels too.
Don’t miss this opportunity for ‘Tea With…. Graham’ in the relaxing environs of the RHA on Ely place, on Thursday 29th from 6.30pm. There will be delicious Barry’s Tea to warm you up and the exclusive tea cocktails will also make a popular return...delish! See the Barry’s Tea Facebook fan page for more details and while you are at it, swing by the Thinkhouse group for all our latest news.
At Thinkhouse we know how much Ben & Jerry’s loves planet earth. So, in a move that hopefully more brands will follow, we’ve just announced that we will offset all PR activity for the Ben & Jerry’s brand. So here it is, our official promise to make all our PR exercises for Ben & Jerry’s completely climate neutral. Since its inception in 1978, Ben & Jerry's has always made efforts to be socially responsible with activites including Fairtrade ice cream, the Greyston Bakery where all the brownies are made, which trains and counsels the homeless and Cool Your Jets, an offsetting website. In Ireland, a shining example of social responsibility is the Ben & Jerry’s Climate Change College, an initiative that has gained worldwide recognition since its launch in 2007. Check it out here.
In news equally as delicious, new low fat versions of B&J's favorites Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Strawberry Cheesecake have just been launched. We had the arduous task of sampling them here in the office, it ain't all fun and games in the Thinkhouse office!
It’s the start of a new year which means countdowns galore and everyone and their dog telling us their top 10 this and that from last year. We don’t have a dog, but would hate to miss an opportunity like this, so have decided to compile our own list. Ours is different though, instead of Top 10, we are breaking the mould and going Top 5! Some you will know, some you might not, but we all had our say and this was the consensus.
So without further ado here is Thinkhouse’s Top 5 virals of 2008.
1-Christian The Lion. Pretty much made everyone’s favourite video list this year, a truly touching story (plus anything that makes the girls in the office cry gets the male vote).
2- Where is Matt? Not our Matt, we know where he is. It’s dancing Matt Harding the globe trotting jigster. His 2006 video is up to 12.5 million views, last year’s version has hit a staggering 16.4 million in just 6 months. This is exactly the kind of user generated content that makes Youtube so damn popular and even led to Matt giving lectures to various campuses and speaking at the Google Tech Talks.
3- You Can Vote However You Like. The US Presidential Campaign provided fodder for many a great spook, this song by the kids of Ron Clark Academy sung to the tune of TI’s ‘Whatever you Like’. Check the lyrics in the more info tag too, pretty impressive.
4- Bill O’Reilly Does it Live. The usually straight faced Inside Edition front man looses his rag over the producer’s plans to have Sting ‘play them out’.
5- Paris For President. When McCain dissed Paris in his campaign last year, the It-girl fought back with her own solutions to some of the biggest problems facing the would be presidents. Bless her!
Thinkhouse is a Dublin based PR company specialising in youth communications. Keep up to date with all of our latest news and see what's currently floating our collective boat on the World Wide Web.
