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via BIKE CRAFT. DESIGN. INNOVATION. on Vimeo.

Cloud 9 offers a full PR service and unlike many agencies we don’t always work on a retainer basis – so you can use this service when you need to, and not have to pay for retaining us when your PR campaign is inactive for any reason. We believe that this offers our customers the chance to tailor their PR expenditure to suit the budget.

Everyone in business needs to communicate with its audience – let us show you how to formulate a PR campaign that will really work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT16DcHcjRA

Titled Legacy – Now Is Our Time, the ad features a reading of Charles Bukowski’s poem The Laughing Heart, which opens with the lines ‘Your life is your life, don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission, be on the watch, there are ways out, there is a light somewhere.’ The visuals are a mixture of kids having fun (jumping into swimming pools etc) and the more pertinent imagery of protests and riots.

Realising that the timing is off, Levi’s has apparently postponed the ad’s UK release, but has uploaded the spot onto YouTube and similar sharing sites, and it is available to view on the Levi’s Go Forth site, goforth.levi.com, so is easy to find. Plus with the unrest that has occurred elsewhere recently, the ad’s imagery will no doubt feel topical to people all over the world, not just in the UK.

Levi’s is far from the first brand to want to co-opt the romanticism and danger of protest imagery for commercial gain. And looking more deeply into the mission statement that accompanies the ad on the website, Levi’s is clearly trying to instigate positive action with the campaign (in particular support for the charity water.org). But should brands really be dabbling with the language and imagery of political protest to sell products? Especially when the issues behind such action, as has been proven lately, are often far more complex than brands are ultimately comfortable with engaging in?

This post courtesy of Creative Review

Well, the latest cinema spot for Cravendale Milk, ponders the question, ‘who first thought to milk a cow?’

The resulting film is, unsurprisingly, rather funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Xt_XS9BJA

Thanks to creative review for spotting this one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvgYAwDORo4

{Please note: this isn’t suitable for under 18′s}

Although there’s a big disclaimer saying it has nothing to do with Wrigley or Skittles themselves, there’s some nice production in it that cost ‘someone’ some cash. Clearly, watching the video it’s obvious why they can’t be seen to have commissioned it themselves.

We love the way big brands are cottoning on to the idea that a low-cost viral can spread like wildfire, if the concept is really and truly rude, shocking or proper funny.

This doesn’t apply to marketing managers that don’t have bottle to be rude (You’d be surprised how reluctant people are to be rude). Someone using your product wearing a funny hat is not going to make a great viral, and we’ve all seen enough cute cat/baby videos.

If you would like to investigate promoting your brand or product through viral advertising, we can come up with an idea, shoot and distribute it for you. The question is, do you have the bottle?

Give us a call

Twelve British artists, including Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili, have been chosen to design posters for the 2012 Olympics. Great, but couldn’t some designers have been asked as well?

Alongside Emin and Ofili, Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Martin Creed, Anthea Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris, Bridget Riley, Bob and Roberta Smith and Rachel Whiteread will each create a poster. Their works will shown in a free exhibition at Tate Britain as part of the London 2012 Festival, and will go on sale this autumn (more here).

The idea has a precedent – 29 artists were commissioned to produce posters for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games (as we mentioned here). In the run-up to the 1972 Games, the Organising Committee decided to commission a series of Artist Posters to “represent the intertwining of sports and art worldwide”. It was a great success as sales of the posters, which were produced in various editions, made over 2 million Deutschmarks.

The 2012 posters may prove to be a similar success but wouldn’t this have been an opportunity for the UK’s world-renowned graphics community to show off their skills too?

This article is courtesy of Creative Review

As it’s on our doorstep, Clare and I decided to watch a production of ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’ at Packwood House, one of Warwickshire’s most popular National Trust venues.

Whilst some of the audience came armed with deluxe picnic hampers complete with table and candelabra, we were more low-key – taking camping chairs and wine, and a few nibbles from Marks & Spencer – happy to enjoy a bit of alfresco theatre in the heart of the Warwickshire countryside.

We’re not big on the works of Mr Shakespeare, and did wonder if it would be a little too high brow for us. We needn’t have worried.

The actors from The Lord Chamberlains Men Theatre Company, had the whole audience in stitches as the all-male cast played both the male and female characters , and I would imagine anyone would find it an entertaining evening.

There are over 3 million business pages on Facebook and over 80% have less than 100 ‘likes’ (or fans as they were known as until very recently).

The fact is that everyone knows how to create a page, but making it really WORK for your business as part of your marketing strategy is whole different matter.

In just 5 months we’ve created a business page for local gastro-pub ‘The Punchbowl’ in Lapworth, Warwickshire, that now has over 1,000 likes. and is more importantly opening a new channel to their customers.

Integrating events and special offers into the Punchbowl’s Facebook feed is a great way of constantly giving a gentle reminder of what’s on, and has increased their mid-week business by over 1,000%!!

Sounds great but it has to be done correctly, and regularly, to have any positive impact on your business. Like any marketing activity it should have a well thought out strategy behind it – forget the ‘half a dozen product shots and pray for an audience’ technique. We use social media lists, email marketing, viral, and good old proven ‘in-store’ tactics to really rack up an online audience that is in-turn driving business.

Fancy a bite of the action? Why not give us a call and ask us how we can maximise your business exposure on Facebook?