Journalist of the Month!

Laura Hampson with her Journalist of the Year prize at the London Venus Awards

Laura Hampson is a Digital Lifestyle Writer at the London Evening Standard and covers travel, health and fitness, food, drink and design. She was also the 2018 winner of the London Venus Award for Journalist of the Year!  Laura took some time out of her award-winning career to answer the notorious Sunny Bird PR questions… 

What are the 5 words that best describe you?

I asked my best friend and she said: “Curious, enthusiastic, kind, loyal and brave.”

What magazine do you love reading and why?

Evening Standard magazine, of course. As they always have interesting features and profiles. Other than that, I love Stylist as they always hit the mark.

What is your favourite book?

The two books I always go back to are Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern, two books I read when I was a teenager that have stuck with me and that I could read over and over. I am currently reading Michelle Obama’s memoir ‘Becoming’ which is also an excellent read.

Which song makes you dance?

Sorry by Justin Bieber. I attempted to learn the dance from the music video a few years back so now crack out a terrible version of it whenever it comes on.

What has been your best career moment?

Winning Journalist of the Year at the Venus Awards, I definitely didn’t expect it, but it was such a thrill to hear my name called.

What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

Don’t be afraid to speak up more, your opinion matters.

Where are you happiest?

At home, cooking dinner with my boyfriend or whenever I get a chance to go back to New Zealand to visit my family.

Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?

Kate Sheppard, basically New Zealand’s answer to Emmeline Pankhurst. She pioneered the women’s suffrage movement in New Zealand and helped NZ become the first self-governing country in the world to give women the vote in parliamentary elections in 1893. I would like to say ‘thank you’.  If it has to be a living guest, then Jacinda Ardern, NZ’s current Prime Minister. She just seems cool.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Teleportation. 100%. Then I could go see my family after work every night instead of having to fly 24+ hours and halfway across the world just to say hello in person. Oh, and it would make commuting a breeze.

If you had to ask us one question what would it be?

What country is at the top of your bucket list to visit and why?

Last month we answered where’s next on our travel bucket list, so this month we’ll tell you all about our number one dream destination to visit…

Georgie: “Mine would definitely be a tour to see wild mountain gorillas. I saw wild Bornean Orangutans in 2016 and it was an incredible experience, so gorillas are next!”

Alex: “I would want to travel around South America, I really want to see the Chilean marble caves and Bolivian salt flats.”

Jess: “I would go to the floating pizza and champagne bar in the middle of the ocean in Fiji – all my favourite things!”

Lu: “I would travel around Australia, New Zealand and Bali because I love the heat and I want to see beautiful sights. I would definitely do a sky dive too!”

Laura: “I would go to Mexico so I can eat nachos all day long…”

Rachael: “My number one would be Bali, mainly because of the weather and the beautiful scenery. Plus, you can indulge yourself in ultimate luxury on a budget and the food is colourful and healthy.”

Lizzie: “I’ve heard there’s a cat island in Japan…”

PR Campaigns – The Good, The Bad and The Viral!

Now winter has arrived, we are taking a look at the PR campaigns that have left us with a warm, fuzzy feeling. So, make a hot chocolate, put your feet up and enjoy perusing the good, bad and viral campaigns we’ve discovered this month…

John Lewis, the first.

Every year, the inevitable John Lewis advert is released and with that comes an influx of social media comments and shares. One man who can really relate to this is Virginia’s John Lewis, someone who receives thousands of tweets leading up to the release of the John Lewis advert and throughout the duration of its broadcast.

Boasting the handle @johnlewis as opposed to @jlandpartners (arguably harder to search for), the Virginia resident responds to tweets year after year directing consumers to the correct twitter profile, and he even shares his views on the latest advert!

This year, John Lewis (the company that is!) decided to pay ode to the gentleman by creating his very own advert which showcases the witty responses to people’s twitter questions and how he goes about translating our English sayings.

You can view the full advert by following this link. We think it’s better than Elton John’s….

The ‘advert’ achieved over 20,000 retweets and John Lewis even tweeted John with the kind words: “In return for your years of service to us, we’ll be sending any wayward Tweets from your fans straight back to you!”

All that’s left to say really is… would the real John Lewis please stand up?

#NotARetailStore

Deliveroo’s ‘Ride to Find’

The festive season can often be the hardest time for families and friends who are missing a loved one, which is why 500 Deliveroo riders have been wearing mobile billboards across London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol as part of a campaign with the charity Missing People. The delivery bags featured images of missing people in the area to help raise awareness of individuals who are missing across the UK.

According to the Missing People organisation, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds in the UK, with 80% being found within 24 hours. However, one in five cases take longer or remain unsolved.

With Deliveroo riders being a consistent presence on our streets, this campaign is cleverly using its riders to make a real difference to the communities in which they live and work.

Each of the firm’s 15,000 riders have been encouraged to sign up to receive child rescue alerts, which notifies subscribers whenever a missing child in their area is considered to be at a very high risk of harm. The Deliveroo app is also introducing a fundraising feature, giving customers the opportunity to donate to the charity.

Not only has the brand’s campaign gained coverage in The Metro, Sky News, ITV news, but three out of four missing people have already been reunited with their families in time for Christmas, after their faces were displayed on posters on the backpacks of Deliveroo riders. Amazing news!

Taco Bell Makes Big Ben Chime Once More

In anticipation of Taco Bell’s first London restaurant opening, the American fast food giant wanted to make a noise in the city.

To announce its arrival, Taco Bell chimed in with a sound London has been missing for over a year: Big Ben’s bells. The clock tower synonymous with the capital has been quiet since major construction work began back in August 2017 and is not expected to be heard again until 2021.

The Mexican restaurant chain worked with an audio engineer to recreate the Westminster chimes by digitising the brand’s own iconic 80’s chime. The sound was then played from speakers attached to rickshaws moving through the surrounding areas leaving unsuspecting commuters wondering if Big Ben had been resurrected.

"Restoring Big Ben's bell with our bell was the perfect way to introduce ourselves to London in a way only Taco Bell can," said Marisa Thalberg, Taco Bell Global Chief Brand Officer.

"We don't take ourselves too seriously and have been known to play a prank or two. We hope our unique twist on Big Ben's chimes brought surprise and humour to Londoners; this was our little arrival gift as we gratefully show up on London's doorstep."

The clever PR stunt, taking place just days before the London store opening, certainly caught peoples’ attention with the news quick to find its way on to social media. The stunt also achieved coverage in the likes of Forbes, The Drum, and Marketing Dive while making major news headlines across the pond in the likes of Fox News and US Weekly. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=jSahXJVqXdA

The Purple Revolution

We love this colourful PR campaign from the purple light up movement. Tuesday 3rd December marked International Day of Persons with Disabilities and to highlight and celebrate disabled people in the workplace, Purple Space encouraged businesses to use purple on logos and for communities to wear purple. The idea was to raise awareness and to help others recognise disabilities.

In the UK, seven million people have health conditions or disabilities and 50% of these people are unemployed. We love that large corporations such as Channel 4, Lloyds Bank, Virgin and HSBC were involved in this campaign as it really boosts awareness. Social media users were encouraged to use #purplelightup on their posts which created even more of a buzz. Channel 4 even aired a two-minute clip which encouraged businesses to help talented disabled people find careers where they can succeed.

This campaign featured in Campaign Live and Financial Times to name a few, spreading a great message this International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Choose Love Pops Up to Help Refugees

Working in PR we often see ‘pop-up’ shops opening as part of a larger PR campaign and often to great success with plenty of national news coverage. However, when you’ve seen so many the idea can become jaded which is why we love this PR campaign from Help Refugees – a pop-up shop with a difference.

Opening on Carnaby Street on Black Friday, Choose Love gave shoppers the option to spend plenty of money but walk away without any laden shopping bags. Inside the shop a plethora of items designed to help refugees were available to purchase, including warm clothing, tents, sleeping bags and hot food. Once the items are purchased by a customer, the shop will deliver it to help refugees this Christmas.

We were pleased to see that the shop also helped to raise awareness of their cause with tons of national features including in The Guardian, Time Out and The Drum, along with plenty of celebrity visits ranging from Jeremy Corbyn to Camilla and Jamie from Love Island!

The store is open until Christmas and shoppers in London can head down to 30 – 32 Foubert’s Place to help, or can visit their online shop here to support the cause.

Eat-y No Phone

When it comes to PR campaigns, we love to see brands taking a stand and trying to change something not only within their industry, but also within society. Hard-hitting, non-sitting-on-the-fence behaviour is often encouraged by us PRs as it’s a sure-fire way to get your brand’s voice heard (done in the right way of course!).

Frankie and Benny's has very bravely taken on the issue of mobile phones at the dinner table, brave as it involves potentially criticising parenting skills, which no matter how good the intentions are will always produce some kind of defensive backlash. Headlines from the national papers included ‘Frankie and Benny’s BANS mobile phones in drastic bid to get diners talking’ and ‘Frankie and Benny’s BAN mobile phones at ALL its restaurants in UK first’.

As well as potentially being controversial, the popular American-Italian restaurant chain has based its actions on a shocking nationwide study that found as many as 72% of kids wished their parents would spend less time on their phones and more time talking to them. A survey is a great asset for PR campaigns if you get strong stats, and you’ll often see a SBPR campaign backed up with a client’s survey results.

Another golden asset was the much sought-after ‘UK first’ which delivered the national headlines for the brand. The popular diner believes it is the first large company in the UK to impose the scheme and is offering a 'kids eat free' bonus to anyone who agrees to hand over their mobiles at any of its 250 restaurants which delivers a lovely feel-good freebie rewarding element to the campaign.

A spokesperson for Frankie and Benny’s said: "We looked at various ways we could encourage people to engage more at the dinner table, and we've found giving families the chance to part with their devices for a mere couple of hours is a great way to bring them closer and embrace family time."

A very well executed PR campaign in terms of assets, focus and messaging, and it delivered results with features appearing in a plethora of national titles including The Mirror, The Independent, The Daily Star, The Telegraph, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Times and the BBC.

Journalist of the month!

Georgia-May Collings is a journalist at Health & Wellbeing where she covers fitness and wellness including health stories from celebrities such as Charlotte Hawkins and Erin Mcnaught. This month Georgia-May took time out from her busy schedule to answer the notorious Sunny Bird PR questions. Take it away Georgia-May!

1.  What are the 5 words that best describe you?

I have sat and thought about this question for a solid hour and am still yet to come up with an answer, so make of that what you will. 

2.  What magazine do you love reading and why?

I subscribe to Women's Health and read Cosmopolitan regularly. A special shout-out has to go to Take A Break who recently did a crime special and I read the entire magazine in one sitting. I am fascinated by unsolved mysteries, crime and serial killers (without sounding weird) so that was right up my street. 

3. What is your favourite book?

I’m obsessed with The Secret by Rhonda Byrne- I always re-read and go back to this whenever I'm having a meltdown about life (so regularly....). I also love Bryony Gordan's The Wrong Knickers.  

4.  Which song makes you dance?

Any One Direction song. 

5. What has been your best career moment?

Nothing to do with journalism or magazines funnily enough, but after I finished university, I taught English in China for six months which was easily one of the hardest things I have ever done due to the culture shock, but it was super rewarding. 

6. What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

Get off ASOS and start saving some money!

7.  Where are you happiest?

When going on holiday - I know it is probably super cliché, but life is pretty great when you're by the beach with no cares in the world apart from deciding whether to get in the pool or get a cocktail. 

8. Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?

Usain Bolt - not only is he is the fastest man in the world, but he ate nothing but McDonald's chicken nuggets exclusively during the Beijing 2008 Olympics and still managed to win three gold medals which speaks to me on many levels.

9. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Definitely to teleport ... I'm always in a rush so getting to places by clicking my fingers would be ideal. 

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

Where is next on your travel bucket list? I'm always open to hearing about new places to visit! 

Alex: “Mine has to be Chile.”

Sunny: “The Maldives – I’ve wanted to go there for years.”

Jess: “I love cruising, so a Caribbean cruise would be ideal right now. And yes, I’m in my twenties.”

Laura: “I’ve always wanted to ski in Canada so that’s got to be next.”

Elizabeth: “I’m off to Costa Rica for Christmas!”

Georgie: “Anywhere!”

Happy Clientversary Mr Lee's!

This month the Sunny Bird PR team is celebrating our one-year clientversary with the no nasties, Dorset-based noodle brand, Mr Lee’s Noodles.

We first began working with Mr Lee’s Noodles back in 2017, a year after they begun trading, with the objective of raising the profile of their gluten-free noodles across the UK.

Over the past year, the Sunny Bird PR team have worked alongside Mr Lee’s on a predominantly media relations campaign, reaching out to the press to gain coverage in food slots, news stories and round-ups.

Throughout the course of the year we’ve smashed our targets, achieving 28 pieces of coverage since January, that’s an average of two features a month! Thanks to our campaign, Mr Lee’s Noodles has featured in prestigious titles such as The Grocer, Vegan Living, Veggie, Woman magazine and The Metro, with pots of their tasty noodles landing on the hands and desks of some of the most well-respected journalists in the country.

To secure these opportunities we’ve taken a number of different approaches to cut through the noise and get make journalists aware of the brand.

One key element of this has been making sure that journalists are aware of the noodles for key calendar hooks such as Veganuary, World Vegan Month and Coeliac Awareness Day.  

We’ve been busy showing off the nutritional value of Mr Lee’s in comparison to other well-known noodle brands (we won’t name names!), offering Mr Lee’s as an alternative option for an ‘al-desko’ lunch and highlighting Mr Lee’s as a leader in the Free-From Foods market. All to great success!

But Mr Lee’s isn’t just about the fantastic noodles. We recognised that Damien Lee, founder and creator of the brand has an extremely compelling story himself; he created the recipes following being diagnosed with cancer and self-prescribing himself a no nasties, raw diet. With a story like this, we knew that there would be an appetite in the press for Damien himself. We created an engaging profile and pitched it to press, resulting in coverage in respected trade and business publications such as Management Today, Entrepreneur and Investor and Start Ups.

Thanks to a 12-month PR strategy, drip feeding Mr Lee’s to journalists throughout the year, a touch of creativity and, of course, a fantastic product, we’ve achieved consistently brilliant results and fantastic coverage for our favourite noodle brand every month. This year, our PR campaign has reached over two million people and achieved a total of 28 pieces of coverage and thanks to our campaign, Mr Lee’s Noodles has featured in prestigious titles such as The Grocer, Vegan Living, Veggie, Woman magazine and The Metro, with pots of their tasty noodles landing on the hands and desks of some of the most well-respected journalists in the country. We cannot wait to continue this brilliant partnership into 2019 and beyond!

Reaching Millions!

If you’ve been following us on social media over the last few months you’ll have seen that we’ve been running our ‘Reaching Millions’ PR and Publicity courses here at SBPR HQ, teaching local businesses how to do their own PR.

The idea came about after conversations with start-ups and small businesses that knew the importance of PR, but simply didn’t have the budget for a PR agency. Founder of Sunny Bird PR and creator of the courses, Sunny, understands first-hand the struggles of being a start-up with budget constraints from her experience launching her own fitness retreat brand.

“When I started New You Boot Camp, I had just £3,000 to spend on a website and equipment. I had no money for anything else; no advertising, no SEO, no PPC, no social media, nothing. The only thing I had was a knowledge of PR which I used to invite journalists and celebrities to come to the boot camp and publish their experiences. Through PR alone, my business became an overnight success and was recognised worldwide by clients, celebrities and the media.”

Sunny then went on to launch retreats across the UK and Europe turning over just under £1 million in the first year. The media attention she received was a crucial factor in the growth of the business.

The power of PR led Sunny to secure a book deal with renowned publisher, Collins & Brown and to launch retreats across the UK as well as in Spain, Portugal and Austria.

Knowing how PR can drive a new business forward, Sunny was keen to help other brands find their voice and share her knowledge with other starts ups and new businesses. She created the ‘Reaching Millions’ PR & Publicity course to help them harness the power of PR for themselves.

When carried out effectively PR can skyrocket small businesses to scale ups, helping to raise the profile of the brand, build credibility, drive sales and secure new customers. Media attention is an invaluable asset – especially if you want to scale, speak on stage, land book deals and be seen by millions.

The one-day workshop is designed to teach small businesses everything they need to do their own PR. Recognising the need for useful take-home tools, Sunny also gives everyone that comes on the course examples of real-life pitches, a press release template and their own top ten media contacts.

Here’s what some of the attendees of our last course had to say about their experience:

Our next course dates are as follows:

Bournemouth – Thursday 22nd November 2018, 1pm – 5pm

Bournemouth – Friday 25th January 2018, 1pm – 5pm

London – Thursday 29th November 2018, 1pm – 5pm

Happy Clientversary ASR!

The Sunny Bird PR team are celebrating our five-year clientversary with our longest standing client, Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring!

The Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring team came to us back in 2013 asking for PR support to introduce their innovative anti-snoring ring to the consumer market.

Over the past few years, we’ve achieved a multitude of coverage through a carefully devised social media strategy and a mix of blogger reviews and press features.

The Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring has featured in the Daily Mail and Mail Online eight times, as well as a wide range of weekly magazines including Bella, Prima, Take a Break, Pick Me Up and Top Santé achieving an overall reach of nearly 90 million people and an advertising equivalent of £900,000 to date!

Despite working on the account for five years, we’ve not run out of creative ideas and are still delivering results year on year. This year was no exception; the Sunny Bird PR team have secured numerous features showcasing the non-invasive, natural ring in target titles such as Health & Wellbeing, Woman’s Own, Chat and My Weekly!

To secure these articles, we spent time speaking to journalists about their forward features and pitched the Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring for relevant slots on sleep and wellbeing. Where appropriate, we sent product to journalists for them (or their partners!) to try out. This active outreach resulted in the ring featuring in a mix of articles including product round-ups, health features and even a vlog showcasing the ring.

One of our most successful campaigns this year was Father’s Day where the team worked hard to secure slots for the ring in multiple Father’s Day gift guides. Playing on the stereotype of snoring dads, we positioned the Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring as the perfect alternative present to the same old socks, guaranteeing fathers across the country, and their long-suffering families, a peaceful night’s sleep. The fun twist on Father’s Day resulted in a plethora of coverage on blogs such as Just Average Jen, with online views of over 43,000, and Emma Drew’s online vlog.

With Father’s Day barely over, Christmas in July began! We applied the same outreach method as before and positioned the Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring as a stocking filler staple for Christmas gift guides. The team pitched the ring to consumer titles as well as family and lifestyle blogs and sent samples to journalists. Based on our success last year, we should see Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring in a whole range of different media titles this festive season.

Year round, one of our major ongoing PR activities for the Good Night Anti-Snoring is to ensure the brand has an engaging social media presence to attract the attention of potential customers. Each week, we devise a strategy for the Twitter and Facebook channels and post original content to increase views and organic impressions.

Key statistics for each channel, such as reach and engagement, are analysed weekly to determine which posts perform best and how we can modify this for the best results week-on-week. Our favourite, and most well received posts this year, have been quizzes on which animals people snore like, humorous memes on being sleep-deprived and adorable videos of family pets snoring.

The most successful social post of the year was a competition offering the brand’s followers the chance to win a snoring ring. These posts do wonders for boosting engagement rates as competitors are encouraged to comment for the chance to win and tag their friends in need of an anti-snoring ring. This year, we increased Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring’s Facebook impressions by 123% through competitions alone!

Our final campaign this year was for the launch of the Good Night brand’s new product, Good Night Sleeping Beauty; a beauty collagen drink designed to support your skin, hair and nails as you sleep. Just weeks since the project launched, it was shortlisted for Best New Beauty Supplement in the OK! Beauty Awards. From a PR perspective, the Sunny Bird PR team set out to increase brand awareness through a social media campaign designed to drive traffic to the voting site. Voting closes on the 9th November and results will be announced at the awards ceremony at the end of the month.

Thanks to a structured PR strategy, thorough campaign research, and a great product, the Sunny Bird PR team have helped Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring reach almost 2 million people this year. With the brand set to expand its product range across the health and beauty sector, the Sunny Bird PR team cannot wait to see what the next 12 months bring!

PR Campaigns – The Good, The Bad and The Viral

With the weather getting colder, evenings getting darker and Christmas getting closer, the team has been looking at a variety of exciting PR campaigns this October to help us keep our creative fires burning!

This month’s campaigns include Queen inspired Christmas lights in Carnaby, designers supporting Battersea Dogs and Cats home with a canine couture collection and Halloween Marmite jars for the lovers AND the haters.

So, sit down and curl up with a cup of tea and have a read of some of our favourites this month…

Is This Just Fantasy?

With Bohemian Rhapsody being one of the hotly anticipated film releases of 2018 there’s no doubt that Twentieth Century Fox were under pressure to make sure they got the launch just right and create one big noise around the new film release.

Every year Carnaby Street is decorated with beautiful neon words for Christmas time, and with the film release coinciding with this year’s festivities it makes for a natural fit to celebrate both the film release and the traditional Christmas lights switch on. In celebration of the film release, Twentieth Century Fox unveiled a killer light display down the iconic London street, with lyrics from Bohemian Rhapsody burning through the sky. With a big flash the lights came on and created a kind of magic in Carnaby Street as the crowd went gaga for Brian May, Roger Taylor and the cast of the new film.

That wasn’t all, fans of Queen can also pick up movie memorabilia, check out costumes from the film and watch archived Queen performance footage in a pop-up store at no3 Carnaby Street.

We love a classic PR pop-up and the creativity involved with aligning a Queen film with Christmas celebrations in an authentic way. The campaign achieved national articles and features with ITV News, Forbes, NME, Time Out and the Londonist.

(PS, prize goes to whoever can guess the right amount of Queen puns in this… Tag us with your answers @sunnybirdpr!)

Someone Call The Pupparazzi

This PR campaign certainly had us wagging our tails!

In October, top designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Lulu Guinness came together to create a special one-off range of canine clothing in support of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

From diamond embellished coats and collars, to pompom and tassel garments, the unique doggy accessories were modelled by Battersea dogs and auctioned off at the charity’s Collars and Coats Gala Ball on the 1st November.

The bespoke items were also auctioned online with all proceeds going directly to the home helping to support over 7,000 unwanted or abandoned animals.

Every year it costs over £21 million to ensure Battersea can keep helping dogs and cats in need and the Collars and Coats Gala Ball raised much needed funds as well as awareness for the home.

This heart-warming campaign took the media by storm and appeared in the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard.

This is Not A Sushi Bar!

Everyone loves free food, don’t they?!

A sushi restaurant in Milan called ‘This Is Not A Sushi Bar’ allowed guests to pay the bill in Instagram ‘likes’ rather than rinsing their bank balance.

Guests were asked to order their food, take a quick snap and post it on Instagram tagging in the restaurant. The number of followers determined the number of free dishes people could receive.

Those with 1000 to 5000 followers gained one free dish of sushi or sashimi and those with 5,000 to 10,000 followers gained two free dishes.

A whopping eight free dishes were given to the seriously Instagram famous who had over 100,000 followers! Plus the campaign gained national coverage in The Telegraph.

With Instagram holding a booming 1 billion users, we thought this way a great way to engage local millennials and get the restaurant flooded with new customers, whilst promoting the restaurant across social media at the same time.

Free food anyone?!

Trick or Treat? Love or Hate?

Halloween is an exciting time of year where everybody goes all out with scary costumes, pumpkin carving, decorations and treats. At SBPR HQ we certainly did!

Mintel’s research showed that a frightening 52% of Brits splashed out on Halloween in 2017 and 25% of purchasers spent up to £25 on treats, decorations and costume so it’s not surprising that more and more big-name retail brands are coming up with inventive campaigns to get the most out of Halloween.

For Halloween this year Marmite played the perfect ‘Trick or Treat’ prank on buyers highlighting one of the brand’s key messages – you either love it or you hate it.  Marmite released two new limited-edition jars, available exclusively for a few weeks in October.

The spooky Marmite jars came in two variations; a ‘Halloween Trick’ to ‘petrify a marmite hater’ and a ‘Halloween Treat’ to ‘spoil a marmite lover’, both of which can be personalised.

Marmite’s Trick or Treat campaign demonstrates that sometimes a simple tweak in your brands design can drive brand awareness. The beloved brand is well-known for its collectable jars which include the Guinness collaboration recipe that included 30% Guinness yeast, the Queen’s diamond jubilee edition, and the Marmite Gold edition with real edible gold flecks.

Although an innovative play on Halloween, tapping in to the brands USPs, this campaign didn’t gain any national coverage. We think that this is because Halloween doesn’t tend to be a gift-giving holiday like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, where personalised items are usually purchased for friends and family.

Do you love it or hate it?

The #itsoktoswitch Campaign

Is it ever ok to switch? Your morning coffee. That's fine A bad hairdresser. Trim that one. Moving your breakdown cover to Green Flag. That's a given. But your football team? We decided to set Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur fans the ultimate test: could you ever switch sides?

Green Flag, a breakdown cover provider, wanted to convey how easy it is to switch to a different provider, and what better way to do this than hypnotise a bunch of die-hard football fans?

The roadside assistance company hypnotised two groups of football fans during the North London derby between arch-rivals Spurs and Arsenal.

The experiment, conducted during half time, was designed to highlight how simple it can be to switch allegiances. The video above shows a handful of supporters cheering for the opposition, having apparently been convinced to switch sides by a hypnotist.

The clever concept tapped into the nation’s psyche and drew upon its research of 1,100 UK adults which revealed that half of football supporters would stop watching football all together if they couldn't watch their team play again.

Dan Titley, head of marketing at Green Flag, said: "It's clear we're a passionate nation when it comes to football, but how much the UK public are prepared to give up for their team is incredible. The North London derby switching experiment is set out to show just how easy it is to switch - even in situations when switching isn't necessarily ok."

The stunt, created by PR from Frank, was a brilliant example of a creative PR campaign which resulted in coverage in a number of outlets including The Sun, The Mirror, PR Week, The Express and Yahoo Sports.

Journalist of the Month

Melanie Giandzi is an official Food Tester at the Good Housekeeping Institute. Lucky Melanie spends her days taste testing the latest food and drink products from the coolest brands and penning copy for the title. Here, Melanie has taken a break from sampling the wares and compiling product round-ups to answer the notorious SBPR questions:

1. What are the 5 words that best describe you? Cheeky, caring, motivated, funny and personable.

2. What magazine do you love reading and why? I love reading all the grocer’s own in-house magazines as I love knowing what new products they are getting in and learning about what’s in season.

3. What is your favourite book? Can I say Harry Potter 1-7? 😉

4. Which song makes you dance? Tom Misch – Beautiful Escape.

5. What has been your best career moment? Deciding to change from the beauty world into food – a passion which always fills my mind.

6. What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? Save your money!

7. Where are you happiest? Having a picnic with my partner Cam at Primrose Hill.

8. Who would be your number one dinner guest and why? Frank Sinatra – I’d cook him a delicious meal in exchange for a serenade.

9. If you could have any superpower, what power would it be and why? Teleportation for sure, all my family is back home in Australia, so it would come in handy for sure.

10. If you had to ask us one question what would it be? What is your proudest moment at Sunny Bird PR?

As a team, there is a lot we’re proud of so this one took some thinking! Here are the team’s proudest achievements to date:

Lizzie: Creating Bournemouth’s Biggest Ever Street Art for a client – a giant Spiderman painted on Pier Approach which achieved 20 pieces of coverage in just two days with a reach of over four million people and exposure on TV, radio, online and in print.

Georgie: My first piece of coverage for Sunny Bird PR which was in the Telegraph - I loved winning the PR tiara and Prosecco for the piece too!

Laura: Securing 90 VIP guests to a restaurant launch in just one week and achieving 10 pieces of coverage off the back of the event.

Jess: Smashing our targets  and achieving more than 20 pieces of regional coverage for our client Ramsay Health Care UK in just one day.

Alex: Securing TV coverage on BBC Spotlight for one of our newest clients and even encouraging the presenters to get dressed up and take part in a cycling activity.

Sunny: My proudest moment to date has been hosting our PR & Publicity Reaching Millions courses which enables start-ups and SMEs, which don’t yet have the budget for PR, get their businesses of the ground!