Doubling Traffic & Doubling Sales - How Did We Do It?

Find out how we did it here...

How We Get Overseas Clients Coverage in the UK

We have clients all over the globe so we need to know how to get the best results from public relations on an international level. For Bliss Sanctuary for Women, a luxury retreat in Bali, our strategy was to raise the profile of the retreat in the UK resulting in the sanctuary being fully booked. Find out how we did this here.

How to...Get the Best Out of Your PR Agency

Making sure you get the best out of your PR agency is crucial for seeing that all important return on investment. The Sunny Bird PR team has compiled a How To guide to help you do just that.

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad and The Viral

This month we present a fashion designer using a dating app to showcase his latest collection, a florist attacking the big apple with guerrilla bouquets and some uncomfortable seating options on Mexico City’s pubic transport. Read the round-up here.

Journalist of the Month

Claire Scott is a journalist for The Irish Mirror and Dublin Live and a lover of G&T’s! She kindly took a moment away from her busy schedule to answer our Journalist of the Month questions and gave us a craicing question in return...

Why Working By The Sea Can Boost Your Health, Happiness And Productivity

The Sunny Bird PR office is literally five minutes from the beautiful Bournemouth sea front. With seven miles of award-winning beach to choose from, its own micro-climate that provides us with smog-free, blue skies and a bustling atmosphere with lots of exciting start-ups. I’m going to try my hardest not to city bash (although a number of us are ex-city dwellers) but living in Dorset truly is a dream.

As a team, being based in Dorset helps us to achieve that elusive work/life balance, encourages us to get outside and exercise more and nothing beats a sun downer on your doorstop whilst taking in the stunning views of the Purbecks. All of these factors (and many more) contribute to happy, healthy staff members who come into work ready to smash our PR targets.

Being based on the costa del Dorset coastline may make us biased, but recent environmental research has found that living and working by the coast can improve the following:

1. You don’t have to get your feet wet to reap the health benefits – even just a view of the sea can promote reductions in heart rate and improvements in mood

2. You rate your health as significantly better if you live within 5km of the British coastline

3. You are more likely to exercise regularly if you live within 1km of the English coastline

4. You are more likely to have better mental health if you live within 5km of the British coastline

5. The UK economy could benefit to the tune of £176m of healthcare savings per year from water-based recreation alone.

Still not convinced? The team have compiled their favourite places to eat, drink and visit so that next time you consider a weekend away (or perhaps a PR company) Dorset will be front of mind.

Sunny (MD & Founder)

Eat: Koh Thai in Boscombe – The best 24hour ribs and they do an amazing Pad Thai. I love that it’s a Dorset company set to take over the world!

Drink: 1812 (Bournemouth) or The Kings Arms (Christchurch) – I love a cocktail or two and I’m completely torn between two places… the drinks in both are incredible.

Visit: The New Forest – Fall in love with the forest’s idyllic glades, ancient woodland and cliff top walks. You may even bump into a few ponies or donkeys that run wild near Lymington.

Why you love living in Dorset: Nothing beats being able to walk on the beach in your lunch break. Being just 2 hours away from London allows us to be able to work with regional, national and international clients without giving up on our wonderful lifestyle.

Lizzie  (Account Manager)

Eat: Urban Reef – 5 minutes’ walk from my flat, right on Bosombe’s award-winning beaches and undoubtedly serving the best Eggs Royale and Bloody Mary.

Drink: Chaplin’s – Quirky and cool, an award-winning bar and live music venue in Boscombe.

Visit: Worth Matravers – One of my favourite places in the Purbecks, the Square and Compass serves the best pints and pasties and there’s the beautiful walk down to Winspit caves and the sea. Perfect for any time of year.

Why you love living in Dorset: In my opinion it is the best place to live in the UK, best beaches, best nightlife, best countryside, best climate and the best people!

Rian (Senior Account Manager)

Eat: The Stables – Nestled on Weymouth’s harbour side in the old harbour master’s building it has a great atmosphere and a great selection of ciders. The company started in Dorset and now has restaurants in Cardiff, Bristol and London to name a few – definitely worth checking out. http://stablepizza.com/

Drink: The Cove House Inn – A bevvy at The Cove House Inn on Portland’s Chesil Beach can’t be beaten. In summer it boasts the BEST sunset and in winter you can hunker down by the fire and watch the crashing waves as they pound the pebbles.

Visit: West Bay – The home of Itv’s Broadchurch and not far from Bridport, which is worth a visit too. Stunning sheer cliffs and the perfect place for random celeb spotting (PJ Harvey and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie have both been spotted in the last month).

Why you love living in Dorset: Nothing beats a walk down to the beach and being able to take a deep, breath of fresh sea air. When you hear the phrase “why do you need to go on holiday when you live in a place like this” then you know you’re on to a winner.

Lucy (Account Executive)

Eat: Vesuvio – If you take a stroll along the beachfront to get to Vesuvio, it offers a relaxed vibe and a range of pizzas and pastas.

Drink: Aruba – Right on the beachfront, you can walk out onto the balcony with a cocktail and enjoy the amazing views of the pier and beach.

Visit: Durdle Door – no matter if the sun is shining or if it’s slightly overcast, Durdle Door is the most beautiful place on the coast. The water is crystal blue and the views are breath-taking.

Why you love living in Dorset: Originally from Oxford, I’ve always known that I wanted to live near the south coast. The weather is 100 times better and it never takes any longer than 20 minutes to get somewhere. Places to visit and attractions to see are never far and come summer, the beach is just on our doorstep.

Darren(In-house Graphic designer)

Eat and Drink: Aruba – I often take clients or have internal meetings in Aruba, I love the fact you can eat and drink and look out on Bournemouth’s amazing beach. When the sun is shining you could be anywhere in the world.

Visit: Mudeford Spit – Is a lovely place to visit with great views of Christchurch on the harbour side. My kids will say “the best part is getting the noddy train” to the beach.

Why you love living in Dorset: I love working in Bournemouth, we are a stone’s throw from the amazing beaches and a 5 minute walk into the heart of Bournemouth town centre.

How to...Get the Most From Your PR Agency

First Date

You know all there is to know about you; now your agency needs to know all of that too. The more information you can give your agency the better, they need to know who you are, where you came from, what makes you tick, your story, your audience, your tone of voice, your likes and dislikes. It’s like starting a new relationship and staying up ‘til 3am swapping life stories – you need to do that with your new agency. And in the same way you’d bare your soul and tell your worst secrets to your new beau, you need to tell your new agency the bad bits too so they have the best chance of managing any future issues that might rear their ugly head. Once your agency knows you inside out and back to front then they can truly be an extension of you and your brand.

Meeting the Family

If there’s more to your company than just you then your agency needs to get to know them too, give them access to your company’s thought leaders. At Sunny Bird PR, we speak to the movers and shakers at your company, the product managers, marketers, customer service representatives, case studies, ambassadors, you name it, anyone that can give valuable insight or a juicy story to get your brand into press.

Plan for the Future

Together, you and your PR agency should agree on a strategy including timings and KPIs. This should be a document that you’re both happy with that you can each refer back to week by week, month by month so you know where you are and what’s happening. Life does get in the way of the best laid plans and agencies are flexible enough to work around your changing business needs so don’t feel that your timing strategy is set in stone. If you need to change your focuses or tactics just let them know and they will accommodate you and your needs.

Expect the Best

You can ask and expect creative ideas from your new PR agency, share yours, get their input and see where your fledging relationship goes from there. A PR agency should be open to your input and also not afraid to guide and advise you on how they can tweak your ideas to achieve more coverage, followers or engagement – or even break the news to you that your brilliant idea is not quite as brilliant as you thought. An agency will be built on a team of experts so always remember that you’re investing in the team’s creativity and industry knowledge – a bunch of heads are better than one!

Communication is Key

This really is a two way street, you need to keep your agency fully up to speed with all developments your end, you might not think something is press worthy but your agency might know the journalist who’s looking for that angle. Your agency should also be in regular contact with you so you know what they are working on each week. This goes back to being flexible, a weekly email gives you the perfect prompt to change your agency’s focus for that week.  Communication also keeps goals on track as agencies will communicate with you at the end of each week to let you know how they’ve spent your hours and what they’ve achieved with them.

Do More

PR agencies don’t just stop at writing media releases and meeting journalists for you. Most offer a wide array of services, including creative campaigns, press trips, social media management, blogger campaigns, case study management, event management, internal communications, videography and photography services, design, web content creation and award applications. So next time you’re faced with a challenge, don’t overlook your PR agency, chances are they can help.

Be Realistic

This needs to happen from the word go and is key in establishing a successful, long-term relationship with your PR agency. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is PR, the most realistic expectation is that the process takes time. The best news is that PR usually offers the best ROI from the marketing mix, it often makes up the smallest part of the marketing budget whilst delivering the best results.

PR works best when it is supported by other marketing disciplines but remember PR is different to advertising. An agency doesn’t pay the publications or TV channels for the media exposure it secures, hard work and relationship cultivation does. It’s that third-party endorsement that gives PR its power and credibility.

Set Objectives

Work with your agency to set short term and long term objectives, these need to be reviewed regularly (monthly/ quarterly/ six monthly). Status meetings at agreed intervals with you and your agency can make sure that these objectives are on track and reflecting your focuses.

Who’s Doing What

In an ideal world there should be just one person from your end that is responsible for managing the agency. Too many people working with the agency at once or having to gain approval or input into written materials will slow the process down and limit the results your agency can achieve. Equally, you should have one point of contact at your agency so there’s no risk of mixed messages or instructions.

Do Your Bit

One of the most frustrating stumbling blocks for PR agencies is sending out a press release to journalists only to discover that your company spokesperson isn’t available for interview. It’s up to you to ensure a spokesperson is on hand and available for interviews on the day the story is pitched to journalists. This can be tricky with work commitments and meetings, but if you want to get the most out of your PR agency, you need to be able to provide a spokesperson who is actually available for interview. Journalists are notoriously short on time so if they have to chase, follow up, wait or hassle someone to get their story the likelihood is they’ll move onto the next message in their inbox that does offer all assets at their fingertips.

Honesty is the Best Policy

If you don’t like something your agency has done or the way they have handled something, don’t bottle it up – tell them. There’s no way issues can get ironed out without airing them. A good PR agency will want to address this issue and remedy it immediately by finding a solution that everyone’s happy with.

If your relationship with your PR agency doesn't read like this then get in touch with us and we'll give you the Sunny Bird PR treatment!

Email us at hello@sunnybirdpr.com or give us a call on 01202 293095

Journalist of the Month

Claire Scott is a journalist for The Irish Mirror and Dublin Live and a lover of G&T’s! She kindly took a moment away from her busy schedule to answer our Journalist of the Month questions and gave us a cracking question in return …

1. What are the 5 words that best describe you? Wine lover, good listener, curious

2. What magazine do you love reading and why? A Dublin-based magazine called Guts - brilliant writing and graphics from up-and-coming Irish artists 

3. What is your favourite book?  Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

4. Which song makes you dance?  Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere

5. What has been your best career moment?  I have two; visiting Bali in 2016 to review an amazing resort called Bliss Sanctuary for Women and launching two news campaigns and a weekly news feature for Dublin Live

6. What advice would you give your 20 year old self? Get up and go to your lectures - on time! 

7. Where are you happiest?  My family home in Ballyfin, Co Laois - it's in the middle of nowhere and as you get older, you realise that's the best place to be sometimes

8. Who would be your number one dinner guest be and why? Caitlin Moran - she's a fantastic writer and columnist so I wouldn't mind picking her brain for an hour or two

9. If you could have any superpower, what power would it be and why?   Fly - I'd never be late again (I'm notoriously always late)

10. If you had to ask us one question what would it be? Will you all come visit the Dublin Live team in Ireland soon?

Yes please! Next time we’re in Ireland we’ll definitely come and say hi :)

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad and The Viral

Each week the Sunny Bird PR team research PR campaigns that have made their way into the media and choose one to share that demonstrates effectiveness, reach, simplicity, message and in some cases the opposite – how not to execute a PR campaign. Every month the team chooses their personal favourites and here we deliver them - The Good, The Bad and The Viral from the PR Campaign world.

This month we present a fashion designer using a dating app to showcase his latest collection, a florist attacking the big apple with guerrilla bouquets and some uncomfortable seating options on Mexico City’s pubic transport.

Fashion Show Livestreamed on… Grindr

In the ever competitive and ferocious world of fashion, designers are always on the hunt for the next big thing, not just when it comes to their designs but also how they showcase them.

British fashion label, J.W. Anderson, is known as the darling of London Collections Men and has a reputation for the unexpected but no one saw this partnership coming: J.W. Anderson announced that he would be livestreaming his latest collection for the very first time and exclusively on the infamous male only dating app, Grindr.

Although this move is a first from the fashion world and most definitely daring, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Grindr has an impressive seven million users across 192 countries who were all directed from the app to a digital destination where the video of the latest collection was shown live. Compare this to the last showing of J.W. Anderson’s that aired on YouTube and only achieved five thousand views over six months.

According to Grindr, the show was watched by hundreds of thousands of men with about a third of them viewing the live event and the rest watching the loop which was available for 24 hours afterward. As well as reaching a much larger audience for his fashion show, J.W. Anderson also achieved coverage in a multitude of titles as the news of his partnership hit the media. The New York Times was the publication primed to ‘break’ the news with others following suit including Vogue, The Guardian, Event Magazine, the Drum and many more to boot.

There is another element to this PR campaign that helped make it a success, both J.W. Anderson and Grindr are represented by the same PR agency highlighting an often overlooked reason to employ a PR agency rather than taking it in house – agencies will have connections with other brands that can work well together with you and yours.

‘Flowers For The People’ - Thistle Brighten Your Day!

If only we lived in New York and could experience this fabulous display on our commute to work! It’s certainly an Instagram-able image for any creative in New York to take a snap or cheeky selfie… and that’s exactly what the mastermind behind this idea wants you to do.

If you live in New York, chances are you’ve come across these large bold, colourful flower arrangements in random locations around the city. These eye catching installations are so striking and ‘banksey-esque’ that they’ve got curious New Yorkers thinking on who’s behind the guerrilla bouquets.

The mystery is now solved, Lewis Miller is the florist responsible for the city's recent rash of "Flower Flashes," a series of decorative floral arrangements that have popped up in places ranging from city landmarks, such as Central Park, to more surprising spots, like a public bin. Miller’s goal? To simply bring joy to citizens daily commutes: “Gifting flowers to New Yorkers is a simple idea that I have been thinking about for years,” Lewis says, “I am in the business of fantasy and flowers, and it’s my job to transform key moments in my clients’ lives into joyful, everlasting memories. I wanted to recreate a similar feeling for the everyday city-dwellers and tourists of New York City.”

The initial idea began when Miller and his team placed over 2,000 flowers at the John Lennon Memorial in Central Park. They were delighted with the response when strangers stopped to appreciate the arrangement. "That was my goal, my vision. Create an emotional response through flowers. And in this age of social media, we saw the fruits of our labour and were instantly rewarded via Instagram and other social media platforms. We got to see how our idea translated in real time with hundreds of selfies and photographs documenting the flowers throughout the course of the day. It was one of the most rewarding and gratifying 'events' I have produced," Miller said.

Not only is this campaign eye-catching but there is no sign of it stopping. Miller has said that he wants to expand his creations and hopes to share them with all corners of the Earth. The floral campaign has already been covered by Vogue and Architectural Digest this week and images of his creations have been shared on Instagram with the hashtag #LMDxNYC

To find out more about Lewis’s idea behind ‘Flowers For The People’ check out his blog post about their first ever ‘Flower Flash’ here!

PR Stunt Highlights Sexual Assault On Public Transport

A new style of train seat has suddenly appeared on Mexico City’s metro system and it was instantly labelled as inappropriate, uncomfortable and embarrassing. The seat was designed purely to raise this reaction and to highlight how often women are subjected to sexual assault and harassment whilst using the transport system.

The Metro seat was moulded into the shape of a man’s chest and penis. Underneath the seat there was a label that read: "It is uncomfortable to sit here, but that is nothing compared to the sexual violence that women suffer on their daily journeys."

The seat is not a permanent fixture, but part of a campaign launched by UN Women and the Mexico City authority and a video showing the reactions from the general public has received over 900,000 views and has been shared worldwide. Many people have praised the idea, while others called it "sexist" and unfair to men as it paints all men as potential perpetrators. Regardless, this simple PR stunt has certainly raised awareness for a widespread problem and has sparked interest across the world with an attention-grabbing video and a controversial subject.

How to...Get the Most From Facebook

Despite the plethora of social media platforms coming into existence every minute, Facebook remains the wise old grandfather of the social world with over 1.8 billion people using the platform every day. As a business, ignoring Facebook would be as daft as a high street shop locking the door and covering the windows on the busiest day of the year. There is no way the social media giant can be ignored but how to get the most from it? With such a powerful tool it’s important that the manual is well and truly read. As a PR agency we make it our mission to know how best to use all platforms and we’ve compiled a ‘How to’ for Facebook.

Build your Presence: First and foremost you need to be in it to win it. If you don’t have a Facebook business page already, make one as soon as you’ve finished reading this. A Facebook business page allows you to communicate directly with customers, helping them learn more about your business while offering customer service and visually compelling stories.

Create and Boost Posts: For help with creating eye-catching and professional posts read our blog on How to…Get the Best Out of Social Media Tools here. To reach a larger audience you can boost your posts (paying to increase their reach) easily and effectively. When you boost a post, you select the audience that you want to see it. Choose people who like your page, extend it to their friends or even select a new audience that you tailor by age, location, interests and more.

You're in control of how much you spend on a boosted post; the budget that you select is the per-day price of boosting a post. Depending on the audience and budget that you choose, you may or may not reach the maximum amount of your budget each day. Facebook will even recommend which posts you should boost depending on their organic success; these posts already have more likes, comments and shares than other recent posts which usually means that they'll perform well after boosting.

Talk About Your Business: Keep people updated on all that’s new with the business. People can check your page for information and updates or follow it and sign up to get notifications about your Facebook posts. To keep people interested you need to tell your stories beautifully; share updates through text, photos, and videos to keep people interested and coming back to your page.

Connect with your audience: Get to know your followers, who are they and why do they like you? Facebook is the platform for humanising your brand and letting your followers see your warm, fuzzy side. As well as adding a face to your business with Facebook you can also add a voice and become an expert in your industry by sharing your blogs or tips that your followers might find useful. Share meaningful updates; whether its content related to your industry or updates on what your business is doing, stay in touch with your audience with Facebook posts. Use short, fun-to-read copy and eye-catching images to get attention. You can even schedule your posts to save time.

Get More Attention: When your post is published, you can bring more attention to it by pinning it to your page or embedding it in your website. When you pin a post, it will remain at the top of your page so it’s the first thing people will see.

Understand Customers: Once you've captured awareness and created demand for your business, encourage potential customers to sign up for more information, spend time in your app or on your website, or visit your shop – actions that signal that they may make a purchase. Understanding which groups of people are thinking about purchasing helps you reconnect with those people later to encourage them to complete the transaction, so you can boost sales.

Entice Customers: Use posts to make special offers to your customers, invite them to events or share the moment with a live video.

Boost Sales: Sell more by showing people things that they may want to buy.

Plan advertising campaigns for your leads, website visitors and app users or shoppers you haven't reached yet. With Facebook adverts, you can prompt people to purchase by showing them products based on interests they've expressed on your site, app on Facebook or other places online. You can also offer promotions and encourage people to shop online.

Know it’s Working: Page Insights allows you to see exactly how your Facebook page is helping you accomplish your business goals. It analyses the performance of each post so you can compare and tailor your posts to become even more effective.

Companies Getting it Right: We love a good Facebook page and we think these businesses have really hit the mark with theirs…

Farrow & Ball is renowned for its classy colour palette, the premium paint brand has transferred this seamlessly onto the Facebook page by using professional photography.

Hello Big Idea is really good at engaging other businesses (and therefore potential clients) with tips and blogs that are created to help and improve; these kinds of posts will always prove popular.

Stylist makes it its job to be at the cutting edge of all things trending in the fast-paced world of style and fashion, sharing articles like this that gives its followers the best hairstyles for hot weather is, as always, bang on.

Try it For Yourself – Have a good look at your competitors as well as your favourite Facebook business pages for inspiration. Think about how you want to come across and what your tone of voice will be. Compile a brand board for Facebook so that all your posts are consistent and can be recognised as yours. Once you’ve settled on who you are then you can start sharing with your followers, gaining more and more followers with your fluid, engaging and beautiful content.

If you don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to your Facebook page or if you would like some advice and creative ideas call the Sunny Bird PR team on 01202 293095 or email the team on hello@sunnybirdpr.com

How to…Get the Best Out of Social Media Tools

Social Media plays an integral role in today’s public relations; the Sunny Bird PR team make it our business to be social media gurus so we can get the best results for our clients (and us!) from the wide array of social platforms.

Engagement is the key to building and maintaining a social media following, and visuals can play a crucial role in enhancing and growing engagement. In fact, a recent study found that posts with images have a 37% higher engagement rate.

You don’t need to be a graphic artist to come up with engaging images for your social media posts – we’ve tried and tested a whole host of image making tools and we’ve included some of our favourites here.

Another important element of engagement is measuring and monitoring results so you can analyse your posts and learn how to optimise them effectively. Facebook and Twitter have inbuilt analytics which are very user friendly but what about Instagram? How can you measure that? We’ve tried a few monitoring tools for Instagram and we’ve included Rian’s favourite below (a.ka. Instaqueen).

We hope the tools suggested help you get the most from your social media platforms, if you would like additional support contact the team on 01202 293095 or hello@sunnybirdpr.com.

Lucy’s Favourites

A Beautiful Mess

This is my favourite app to create any image to ensure its social-media- ready! If that be overlaying text, creating a frame or even have three images within one frame. Creating quotes or images that include text is no challenge for A Beautiful Mess. Choosing from many colours, text fonts, shapes and decorations gives you the endless opportunity to create beautiful image.

 Repost It!

I’m sure there’s been a time when you have found a picture on someone else’s Instagram that you love and want to share – if that be a quote, an image of a stunning view from the Maldives or a picture of a cute cat! 

But Repost It! has made it quick and easy for you to repost an image from someone’s feed and credit the image back to that person who took the original image. The image displays a bar at the bottom of the image clearly stating that you have reposted that picture and it states the name of the account you took it from, therefore crediting that person.

 

Rian’s Favourites

Planoly

One of the best visual planners for instagram. It is the perfect app for those who love to create a consistent instagram theme as it allows you to drag and drop your images so that you can arrange them all before posting them live to instagram. Planoly also enables you to analyse the likes and comments that your instagram channel is getting and will let you see which posts are getting the most engagement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictapgo

A simple, easy to use, photo editing app that enables you to layer photo filters on top of each other to create the perfect photograph. The app remembers your most-used filters and saves them into a ‘photo recipe’ so that you can access it easily each time and keep you photo finish consistent.

 

 

Lizzie’s Favourites

Over

Make your images more interesting by adding text to them with Over. This iOS and Android app lets you pick any image that you have saved on your device and add text to it.

Customise the font, colour, and text size to get the best results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ease.ly

Infographics are all the rage right now, and you can get in on the action with Easel.ly. The idea of creating infographics might seem daunting, but you can use templates with this tool. You can go with a standard template and customise it to your liking or you can build your infographic from the ground up. Regardless of which option you choose, you'll have objects, icons, and shapes at your disposal. Just drag and drop them into the tool and watch your infographic grow right before your eyes.

Journalist of the Month

Jenny Cross is managing director for Niche Magazine, a luxury lifestyle magazine that’s distributed in the East Midlands. She kindly took a moment to answer our journalist of the month questions and gave us a cracking question back in return (see question number 10).

1. What are the 5 words that best describe you? Outgoing, fun, caring, kind and energetic

2. What magazine do you love reading and why? Niche Magazine because it’s a positive read and all about the Leicester Business Community

3. What is your favourite book?  Start with Why - Simon Sinek

4. Which song makes you dance?  You can call me Al - Paul Simon

5. What has been your best career moment?  Organising the Niche Business Awards and seeing local business professionals recognised for their success (https://vimeo.com/183282657)

6. What advice would you give your 20 year old self? Not everyone is your friend

7. Where are you happiest?  When I am with my kids

8. Who would be your number one dinner guest be and why? (they can be past and present?)  Princess Diana - She was a true inspiration and she always put others first

9. If you could have any superpower, what power would it be and why?   To fly so that I could escape the world now and then and have some peace

10. If you had to ask us one question what would it be? What drives you?

Getting amazing coverage for our clients always spurs us on, as does the promise of a gin cocktail on a Friday afternoon.