Alfred

Today marks World Book Day’s 18th year – that one day each year when the world takes a bit of time out in order to celebrate all things literature.  Taking part in over 100 countries around the globe, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind; it really shows just how influential literature is and that anyone can connect with it.  The main aim of World Book Day in the UK & Ireland is to encourage kids to delve into the magical worlds that reading can offer by picking up a book. But why stop at kids?

Today, books are available to us at the tap of a button, thanks to technological advances like the Kindle – as anyone whose daily commute includes a trip on the tube will know. Yet a survey for World Book Day recently revealed that while the average home has an impressive collection of 158 books, a quarter of them have remained unread!

Everyone in team Alfred loves a good book, so World Book Day certainly got the office talking, and we decided to compile a list of our all-time favourites:

The Etruscan Smile by José Luis Sampedro

Dany said that the novel that struck a cord with him is the Spanish La Sonrisa Etrusca (The Etruscan Smile) by José Luis Sampedro.  The story tells of an Italian farmer who goes from being the archetypal grumpy old man to being completely transformed through the relationship with his baby grandson. “The way that bond develops throughout the story and how it reflects on every aspect of the man’s life is incredibly moving. I read this book not long after my own granddad died, and I could see a lot of his traits in the book’s central character… for that reason alone it’s always been a hugely special read to me.”

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry is Stacey’s favourite – in fact, she loves it so much that she still thinks about the characters! Set in Bombay, the book follows four characters who develop a bond in the midst of the turmoil of The Emergency.  “I gobbled it down in less than 24 hours! I’ve never been so captivated by a book, and still think about all the characters on a oddly regular basis!”

Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Purple Cow by Seth Godin is Dan’s top pick, which he heralds as a thought-leader at the time of its release. “It highlights how companies need to bring marketing and communications etc. into the fold when looking at product development, to create something that is truly disruptive and encourages word of mouth.”

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

What book list would be complete without one of the true classics? Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, of course. Lauren says it’s her favourite book because “not only is it the most romantic book ever written (and given us the Colin Firth swimming scene which should not be forgotten), it also gave us a heroine in Lizzy Bennett, who was one of the first feminists.”

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Katy’s ultimate favourite book is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. “So beautifully written, it draws you in from the very beginning as it tells the story of a man called Stephen Wraysford at different stages of his life both before and during World War One. It combines love through to tragedy, culminating in possibly the most moving ending I've ever read - yes I did cry!”

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Caroline opted for one of her childhood classics - JM Barrie’s Peter Pan.  “There was always something so enchanting about it, and it’s remained a classic throughout the years with young and old alike.  When I moved to London, one of the first things I did was go to see the statue in Kensington Gardens!”

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Gemma found it nearly impossible to pick her number one favourite book – she has so many! So she went back to one of the first books that made her fall in love with literature - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.  “It was the first book I read for A-level, and I remember finishing it and going straight back to the beginning, and reading it all over again. I debated and dissected the story through my studies, and have read many a review over why it was a book of such impact when released in 1950s New York, through to the modern day. For me, it was the first book I’d ever read written in this style and loaded with such emotion. It’s a stream of consciousness and puts the reader directly in the place of Holden Caulfield. He’s completely unlikeable, a bit of a loser who you really wouldn’t want to know or like, but at the same time, wholly loveable as you feel for his lost soul.”

As part of StyleHaul’s new campaign partnership, helping to launch Very.co.uk’s accessible luxury website, Very Exclusive, we took part in a special shoot with some of the superstar vlogging talent and world-renowned photographer, Rankin. This was a real first in terms of new media meets traditional media, showing just how prevalent native advertising is now becoming for brands, with the vloggers fronting elements of the VE campaign behind the lens of such an iconic figure. An honour previously withheld for the biggest celebrities and top models.

StyleHaul enlisted the help of some their top rated fashion vloggers, FleurDeForce, AllyValentine, LilyPebbles and InTheFrow, to model the new VE range. Acting like true pros, the vloggers’ fronting the campaign showed how the lines between celebrity and social influencer, are becoming more and more blurred, as they became the models of the moment.

We took along some key press to capture everything going on behind the scenes, complete with interviews and a few golden minutes with Rankin himself! Stay tuned for more on the coverage as it appears…

This month saw YouTube turn 10 years old; it now seems almost impossible to remember a time before videos went viral and our inboxes and social media feeds were filled with the latest ‘MUST WATCH’. So, to honour its special birthday, we’ve taken a look back over some key YouTube milestones, and picked out some of our best bits.

In the past 10 years YouTube has amassed over a staggering ONE BILLION users and over a TRILLION views. It’s not just a content house or a platform, it’s become a social phenomenon changing the way that we consume data full top. The number of hours people spend watching content on YouTube is going up 50% year on year. This could partly be down to its takeover and backing by global giant Google in 2006, for a staggering  £1.65 billion in shares.

50% of American teenagers now say YouTube is their number one website – which could account for the online sensation created by the millennials – the ‘Vlogger’, and why brands are clamoring to work with YouTube stars such as Zoella, Alfie Deyes and Tanya Burr, to name a few. Each of these have amassed a staggering amount of followers, with a reach no publication can touch, changing the traditional ‘media’ landscape entirely.

The most watched YouTube video is to some no surprise, K-Pop superstar Psy’s music video with 2,256,105,767 views. That’s Gangnam Style to most! We did a little YouTube audit of the Alfred office and here are some our favourite YouTube gems:

Katy loved Slow Loris so much, she created her own take on it…

That music, that turn, the zoom, THAT face! Dany is still perfecting the stunned chipmunk pose.

Dan thinks this bizarre dance off proves how one lone nut can create a movement. In a field. In three minutes. And reach over 12million people! An Alfred leader in the making?

'Wellll, obviously', said Caroline ‘it has to be the infamous Bed Intruder Song’

Lauren opted for the ever so fabulous Sophia Grace Brownlee…who actually, even looks a bit like her?

Gemma has gone for the perfect balance of super cute and super funny with this Jason Mraz cover

In recent months we’ve been working on a range of projects from some of the most exciting new tech companies around, including a number of top mobile gaming studios. Just this year, we’ve already been involved in the launch of the hotly anticipated mobile game, Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect and Hutch’s massive overhaul of their flagship title, MMX Racing.

Hinted in the lead up to release by the TV show’s creator, Kurt Sutter, Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect is an episodic game that tells a story parallel to the show’s final series but set in Lincoln, Oregon. In the game you take the role of SAMLIN’s new prospect, and you decide the course of the story as you go along.

While for Sons of Anarchy we focused our efforts on a consumer-facing, mainstream entertainment media campaign that saw us securing key breaks with the likes of Digital Spy, Empire and the Sunday Sport, as well as generating content for their social media channels, with Hutch the brief required a trade approach so we could tell the story of Hutch as a company.

Formed four years ago by five ex-Sony/PlayStation developers and producers, Hutch took only 6 months to bring their first title from inception to release. Four games and 50 million players later, we helped Hutch tell their story by placing company profile and news pieces on top trade publications including Games Industry, Pocket Gamer Biz and Develop, showcasing the studio’s unique attributes and innovative ethos and workplace culture. MMX Racing, with its Multiplayer update, served of course to further cement their growing reputation as one of the UK’s top young studios.

Now, whether trade or consumer facing, a mobile gaming campaign also brings in many challenges. Not least the sheer amount of new games released to the App Store and Google Play on a daily basis. Gaming and tech writers do of course get bombarded with press releases, and knowing how to showcase a unique proposition to soar above a very dense release landscape is absolutely key in getting your title talked about. When your game isn’t tied to a major franchise or doesn’t come from one of the major, long established studios, securing this can prove even more difficult. And that is where publicists need to really take a deep look at the product they’re pushing, and look at the elements (or the story behind it) that make it stand out from everything else that’s already out there. Here at Alfred, we know that expertise and a deep knowledge of the mobile gaming industry is also instrumental in this.

Last night Eastenders saw in its 30th Birthday in style, by smashing the ratings with over ten million viewers watching. Which in real terms meant that 40% of the UK TV audience actually tuned in LIVE. Something almost unheard of in today’s multi-platform market. It didn't seem to matter if you were a fan or not, watched it every day or never so much as seen an episode, EVERYONE  was talking about it.

Fuelled by an almost one year long PR campaign, which had been building the anticipation, it came to its climax in last night's episode, when we FINALLY  discovered just who had killed Lucy Beale.  It didn't really matter in the end what the final outcome was - the Eastenders team had done its job. It wasn't just sheer column inches that Eastenders dominated this week, last night’s episode also set social media alight becoming the most tweeted about soap in the UK EVER, with over one million tweets sent. It was all we could talk about in the office this morning.

However, our absolute favourite piece of PR to come off the back of the Eastenders 30th anniversary was actually by (shock/horror) rival soap Neighbours! They created a hilarious viral called EastErinsborough– where stars of the Aussie soap recreated some of Eastenders finest moments over 30 years including Peggy Mitchells infamous ‘Get out my pub.’

Esteemed video game website Eurogamer have just announced the end of the classic numbered scoring system on their reviews.  In place of scores, they will have one-line summaries for each review, and a new recommendation system whereby some, but not all games will be considered ‘recommended’, ‘essential’ or to ‘avoid’.  As a result of these changes, they no longer will be listed on review aggregate site Metacritic, a must for many games developers.

Not only that, but they will only review online games after launch, and will only review from the final retail versions of games i.e. no more “debug code” and likely, no more preview events. This is an attempt on their behalf to firm up other areas of their reviews policy, ensuring that they always review the same experience that one has when they buy the game.

The issue with review scores has been widely acknowledged by the industry at large. They don’t accurately depict whether a game is worth buying or not. They are based on taste, preference and experience. The same game can have wildly difference scores based on the reviewer and the same score can be awarded to two games of vastly differing quality and content. Much like film reviews, anything below a 7 is deemed unworthy of our time and thus the numbers have lost their meaning.

Since the news broke, the gaming industry have, largely come out in full force on social media supporting Eurogamer’s “bold move”.  The way we see it is this, it is largely a good thing. The words in a review should always take priority over the score at the end. Hopefully removing the scores will help people realise that reviews are one person’s opinion; they are not an objective scale of quality.

Forget the impending Grammy's, BAFTA, and Oscars, it's time to celebrate at Alfred HQ, with news just in that we've been shortlisted for another amazing award. Hot off the heels of our New Consultancy of the Year WIN at the PRCAs in November, we've also been shortlisted for the same coveted award by the lovely people at PR Moment.  

We are music lovers here at Alfred; it should come as no surprise that some of us even got our start in the world of PR and marketing at labels and events companies in this industry. So when portable, high-resolution music players got picked as one of the leading tech trends for 2015 by the likes of CNET and Pocket-Lint, we couldn’t help but get rather excited about it… but then also step back and think about the practicalities of the technology and who would be interested in such products.

Just what the hell is high-resolution audio though? Well, it’s the new standard for digital music files that aims to give you the closest possible experience to the richness of analogue. In essence, what your average MP3 can’t do.

Now, high-resolution audio is hardly anything new, but until very recently it was very much part of a niche, albeit highly profitable market catering for enthusiastic audiophiles with plenty of spare cash to go. In 2015, however, all signs are pointing to a warm welcome for high-res audio into the mainstream arena, with new audiophile-proof technology becoming a more affordable reality, and a growing appreciation of the listening experience that goes beyond the traditional MP3.

But let’s look at some figures to see where this is all coming from.

First up, there’s the much-talked resurgence experienced by analogue music. In 2014, vinyl sales reached 1.3 million in the UK for the first time in 19 years, a huge increase of 65% on the year before. And although those figures are mainly driven by heritage acts including Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd (with the latter releasing the biggest and fastest-selling vinyl LP of the century), you’d be wrong to assume that this is purely a nostalgic affair: the other two entries in the top 3 for last year were Artic Monkeys’ AM and newcomers Royal Blood with their self-titled debut, one of the UK’s biggest success stories for some time.

Digital (downloads and streaming), on the other hand, now accounts for 51% of UK music consumption. Streaming alone has doubled in the last year, with instant availability, convenience and affordability being some of its obvious strong points. And while the quality on offer is good enough for the average or casual consumer, music lovers with a more refined ear are quick to point out that these formats often suffer from a loss of warmth and quality as a result of heavy MP3 compression.

Now, while there’s a plethora of lossless digital formats available, the (until now) limited availability of a quality, affordable portable player rendered such formats useless for the audiophile on the go. And with younger generations of fans demanding a higher quality experience, there’s a growing need to not only bridge the gap between the high-end, borderline prohibitive audiophile market and the more demanding end of your mass consumer, but also that section of the mass consumer market that’s willing to spend hundreds of pounds on a smartphone and a pair of sub-par designer headphones to listen to 128kbps MP3s, unaware that there’s a much higher quality experience available for pretty much the same price tag.

2014 saw a whirlwind year for Alfred; lots of hard work and of course some play, but after a Christmas break of scoffing chocolates and relaxing we are more than ready to get our teeth stuck into 2015! 

In true new year - new you style, Alfred has moved into a shiny new office right in the very heart of Shoreditch, in the middle of the action and surrounded by some of the very best eateries and drinking haunts in the city (which we are definitely enjoying sampling by the way). Sure there’ll be a few foodie blogs posted soon…

Inside, we’ve wasted no time in making our Alfred mark on the place, complete with a top-notch espresso machine and possibly the biggest teapot you’ve ever seen to satisfy our caffeine cravings, along with some Shoreditch friendly décor – very cool oversized stars lights.

On the subjects of stars, we’ve also welcomed a brand new starlet into the Alfred fold, the very lovely and super talented graduate Caroline Docherty! With a multi-media journalism degree under her belt and a host of amazing internships, she’s no stranger to the world of PR and has already been putting her expertise to good use.

We had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with BBC Breakfast News royalty recently at the 2014 International Content Marketing Summit held in London.

Featuring some of the most skilled and respected experts in content marketing, our client StyleHaul was on the line-up of keynote speakers alongside senior executives from the likes of YouTube, LinkedIn, BuzzFeed and Google – so no shoddy group of experts!

Hosted by the cool and charismatic Beeb Brekkie presenter Naga Munchetty (who we resisted the urge to stalk for a selfie), StyleHaul’s European VP James Stafford used his twenty-minute speech to educate the audience of 150 delegates about how they can turn the power of vloggers into seriously effective marketing. And how does he know? Because he spent over three years at Google and StyleHaul is now the world’s biggest fashion and beauty network on YouTube, the marketing and analytical brains behind UK ‘vlogger’ superstars such as Zoella, Alfie Deyes, Tanya Burr and Fleur De Force.

So for anyone reading this who is still struggling to understand who or what a ‘vlogger’ is, StyleHaul are your guys!

So did James spill the beans about how to become an internationally loved and renowned vlogger? Well, that would be telling! StyleHaul after all need to keep some secrets. But we can say is that as people increasingly watch TV and video online, and with UK television sales this week dropping behind mobile and tablets for the first time, YouTube networks like StyleHaul who are home to video bloggers, are very much the present and future of where we’ll be watching content.

Right, we just need to work out how to make our next Alfred blog post a vlog. Watch this space…

Tis three weeks before Christmas and in the Alfred house we are all starting to get into the festive spirit. The Crimbo tunes are going full blast and we’re particularly enjoying munching on our special Alfred advent calendars each day. So when we received an invite to join our lovely client StyleHaul for ice-skating and drinks at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, we were there with jingle bells on (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Proceedings started with delicious mulled wine in the Bavarian style village, luckily donning a lederhosen wasn’t required! After getting suitably merry and chatting all things Yotube with StyleHaul’s roster of hugely talented vloggers, we took to the ice ready to pirouette. Okay, well at least half the group did (and pirouetting may have been over ambitious) but they did manage to get round the rink in one piece at least. The rest of us who didn’t want to take the risk of becoming Bambi on ice, happily watched from the side lines and supped on more mulled wine, hot chocolate with cream and egg nogg…when in Winter Wonderland needs must!

After building up an appetite after all that skating (or not) we devoured delicious German Sausage, well when in the Bavarian village you just have to. We also took a little tour of what else the Wonderland had to offer, and even found our very own Monty the penguin. You can see how much this made one little Alfred girl’s Christmas!! 

Thanks StyleHaul, you’ve certainly kicked off a fabulous Christmas season for us…now for more mulled wine and advent calendar chocolates.

Yesterday here at Alfred, we woke up to news that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s advertising watchdog, had ruled that video bloggers - or “vloggers” - must make it clear when they are being paid to promote a product, or risk their videos being banned.

Photo by jonsson / CC BY

The ruling came off the back of a single complaint, made by a BBC journalist, about a series of YouTube videos uploaded in June this year in which vloggers took part in an Oreo “Lick Race”: a competition to see how quickly they can lick the cream off an Oreo biscuit. The trouble with these videos, as far as the ASA is concerned, is that they contained a number of references to Oreo and other Lick Race videos without making it abundantly clear that the vloggers had been paid to put them together. 

So, what does this mean for brands and vloggers?

As with all new rulings, the specifics are still unclear, but it means that YouTubers must now take steps to make viewers aware that a particular piece is a paid for advert before the user is engaged in the content.

Luckily, as a YouTuber, there are a few options that you can take on board to ensure this is done correctly:

Option 1: State at the top of the video description that you’re being paid by a brand to promote their product… and be sure this is right at the top! In order for the ASA to deem this step as acceptable, viewers must be able to view the disclaimer in the description without scrolling down or having to roll out the full text. A simple “This is a paid for advert” will do

Option 2: Include a text caption at the start of the video that lets viewers know that the piece is a paid for advert. Again, just writing “This is a paid for advert” will suffice

Option 3: Add an audio disclaimer at the beginning of the video making it clear that the brand you’re promoting has paid you to do so 

Option 4: Include the words “advert” or “promo” in the video title… this isn’t dissimilar to existing rules for social media platforms including Twitter and Tumblr, where users posting any paid for content must add a hashtag such as #AD or #SPON

Again, as this is a new ruling, the ASA doesn’t specify whether you must take just one, more, or all of the above steps to avoid your video being banned. But as the YouTubers affected by this ruling are already showing, it’s certainly better to be safe than sorry until clearer measures are announced.

Last night we got our glad rags on and headed down to the PRCA Awards at the stunning Hilton on Park Lane, having been shortlisted for the 2014 ‘New Consultancy of the Year’. We’re very pleased to confirm we brought home the gong! 

As you can imagine, the team partied in style (which you’ll see from the video below), well into the night to celebrate this fantastic industry accolade.

The agency has gone from strength to strength since conception in 2013, with client wins including; Universal Pictures, Disney, Wuaki.tv, Scholastic and more recently StyleHaul, Universal Channel and new football app High5it. The team is now 10 strong and made up of not only the traditional PR and publicist, but also digital and social experts, giving the agency real expertise when it comes to creating campaigns for clients that really deliver is today’s fast-moving landscape.

A huge well done to the whole team, and many thanks to our lovely clients that have supported us so far.

It's been months in the planning but yesterday saw our first of many press interview days for the supergroup McBusted, in anticipation of their epic TOURPLAY & MCBUSTED LIVE AT THE O2 DVD, on the 24th November. 

With a good few super fans in the house (ahem, Emma, Katy, Lauren...Dan?) it was a hotly contested working day indeed, and suffice to say, a lot of fun. With six boys and countless press in attendance there was a lot of coffee drunk, a lot of chocolate snacked on, and A LOT of laughter. Has anyone seen Harry's Instagram feed with #ChilliRoulette?

We were almost too busy to remember a picture (shock horror!)...but Gemma and Emma managed to snag one with the lovely Dougie, James, Tom and Danny, before they headed off home. 

Thanks one and all for your lovely good luck wishes ahead of tonights PRCA Awards. We're thrilled to be shortlisted for New Agency of the Year and poised for a night of team fun loaded with sugar, thanks to this sweet treat delivery of GOOD LUCK cupcakes!

Here is a shot of us pre glam squad makeover...

We recently had the pleasure of hosting a jam-packed junket day for the super talented, stylish and outrageously funny ventriloquist comedian - Nina Conti.

We knew the day was going to be nothing of the ordinary, when during her very first interview with broadcast station London Live, Nina pulled out her long standing puppet partner in crime –Monkey!  Full of hilarious and often inappropriate comments, Monkey certainly didn’t hold back in interviews and had everyone (including the film crew) in stitches. The highlight was when one particular journalist, when interviewing Monkey, couldn’t contain himself and broke down in uncontrollable fits of giggles, even needing a minute to compose himself. It’s not often a journalist loses their cool in such comedic fashion! We had a roster of top lifestyle and entertainment online sites in attendance to see this fantastically talented comedian in action, including the likes of; Good Housekeeping, Digital Spy, Hey U Guys, Bang Showbiz and Comedy.co.uk.

However the day didn’t end there. We all hot footed it over to the Alan Carr: Chatty Man show for Nina’s guest interview slot. It was a quick costume change for Nina (she donned a gorgeous slinky dress) and then her and Monkey proceeded to drink and get very merry on Alan’s sofa as part of a stellar line up, including Derren Brown, Sue Perkins, Jungle and Mel B! Monkey even came face to face with Alan’s own ventriloquist doll, the very scary ‘Tommy’, suffice to say Monkey was NOT IMPRESSED.

Fast-forward to the weekend and Saturday night saw the in-demand comic getting ready to push the button on National Lottery Live, and incase you wondered, yes, that VERY cheeky Monkey was in attendance too. National Lottery also managed to get to the bottom of some your very bizarre questions for both Monkey and Nina via a special Twitter Q&A on the night, who knew that Monkey does have some diva demands – he requires an iron in the dressing room, a spray tan and a swivel bench vice (don’t ask!).

It's an interesting question, how far would you go to help a loved one? Your parents, partner or children? What about a friend? To mark the UK season premiere of How to Get Away with Murder, the new TV show from Grey's Anatomy and Scandal creator, Shonda Rhimes, we put four friends to the ultimate test as part of a social experiment.

Lured to a secret London location and set about a series of tasks, each friend tested the one person they thought they could trust with just about anything. Would they lie to the police? Cover up a ‘serious’ crime? Check it out here!

It's an interesting debate and so thought the Mail, Mirror and Metro, who all covered the video on their homepage and video channels. The experiment has to date racked up almost 70k views on YouTube and the Mail article alone has received 500 shares. PR Examples also featured the experiment this week.

Alongside the experiment we ran a researching piece polling the UK on how far they would go to protect a loved one, with over half of those questioned saying they wouldn’t hesitate to cover up a loved ones crime, which featured in Daily Star, and this interesting, key message packed, columnist takeover in Daily Express.