Farah’s 90th Birthday
Confessions of a door whore (the women who greets you upon your arrival at the party with a friendly but firm demeanour). Last Wednesday night we braved sub zero temperatures in London and celebrated Farah’s 90th Birthday at the Soho Sanctum Hotel.
The venue itself (owned by Iron Maiden’s manager) set the agenda for the evening to be led by the music and Farah didn’t disappoint as soul singer Dayley performed and Schizodelic Sound (minus one as he was stuck in the snow) DJ’d.
As we, the exposure fashion girls, braved the blizzard outside armed with nothing but our clipboards for shelter and the occasional cup of tea for warmth, an impressive number of peeps from the style and music scene drank their weight in wine, beer and washed it back with true Brit favourites, sausage & mash or fish & chips.
The celebs started to rock up around 9pm with the arrival of ‘OLLY MURS’. We ushered him inside, away from the flashing lights of the paparazzi, while biting our tongues as we fought back the urge to put on the voice of smooth talking Peter Dickson (the X Factor voice over man) and shout ‘OLLY MURRRRSSSS’.
Guests danced and drank the night away until the clock struck midnight and it was time to grab a goodie bag and jump into the back of a cosy black cab. For those who left towards the end of the evening, apologies, possibly your lovely Farah socks were missing from your goodie bag? Us girls on the door had to borrow a few pairs.
Martini /
Stay Beautiful
Martini wanted to change consumer’s perceptions of the brand amongst 25-35 year old women. So we took them to the places this iconic brand should be and made it fashionable again.
Martini briefed us with the challenge of bringing their ‘Stay Beautiful’ campaign to life in a BTL environment. The emphasis was to actively change perceptions of the brand amongst the female 25-35 years audience, to promote the low abv of the drinks and the new Rosato variant.
We recognised that the key to changing perceptions was to offer opportunities to trial in relevant environments. Our activity was designed to deliver trial across event, on trade and partnership platforms.
We created an experiential space which was taken to fashion and style destinations popular with the target audience. These included the Clothes Show in London, Westfield and designer fashion shows during London Fashion Week.
The space was a modern interpretation of the historical Martini Terrazza’s. The focal point was the bar, with the new Rosato variant glorified as a backdrop. The ‘Stay Beautiful’ concept was bought to life via complementary beauty treatments and mini manicures for consumers as they enjoyed their samples.
Within the on trade, Martini created a squadra of staff to visit over 200 outlets across the UK. The team sampled the new Rosato variant to consumers, whilst also incentivising further purchase with promotional activity. On trade collateral and kits were also created, utilising impactful reflective surfaces to maximise standout in a crowded environment.
The partnerships created in 2009 with Toni&Guy and Nails Inc. were chosen due to their relevance to the target audience, and also to maximise reach of samples across the UK within their high street salons.
In total over 60,000 samples were distributed across events, on trade and partnership activity. There was a 20% conversion from trial to purchase in the on trade and over 36,000 people were driven to a dedicated Facebook page (8,000 fan sign ups).
Rizla /
Invisible Players
With music as a brand platform we devised an innovative strategy that got Rizla to the heart of the action of the summer’s hottest events, tackling dark marketing issues and turning customers into fans.
Our brief was to produce a campaign that engaged a core 18 – 34 Male/Female audience with the Rizla brand and its products whilst understanding an increasingly challenging market with restrictive legislation. At the same time we needed to enhance brand equity amongst young adults, drive brand reappraisal and create truly engaging and memorable touchpoints that turn customers into ‘adorers’.
Using music as a brand platform, we created the Rizla Invisible Players, a long-term strategic overarching campaign theme that offers a platform for the brand to engage face to face with their audience.
At the core of this campaign is the Rizla Invisible Players festival arena. A subtly branded open air arena that delves into Rizla’s heritage and has recreated a custom vehicle that Rizla used in the 1920’s as a touring musical experience. This experience tours selected festivals and is further amplified and supported by a nationwide club tour. Content is key in this campaign, this allows us to amplify key messages via a dedicated area on rizla.co.uk whilst acquiring press coverage in relevant titles.
Now moving into year four and growing, this campaign tackles the issues surrounding the marketing of tobacco products credibly and effectively. Since 2006 this activity developed into a widely adored, famous and valuable campaign that delivers coverage and cut through to the media savvy audience.
De Beers /
Forevermark
Launched by De Beers in 2008, Forevermark is a new promise in diamonds, a promise above and beyond the 4Cs – one of exceptional quality and integrity. Less than 1% of the world’s diamonds are eligible to become a Forevermark diamond. As proof of this, each and every Forevermark diamond is inscribed with the Forevermark icon and its very own identification number which makes it always uniquely yours.
We were asked to create a global blueprint to communicate this new brand in key Asian markets including China and Japan, laying the foundations for Forevermark to develop into a successful global brand.
Using the brief ‘Precious’ we created a collection of individual short stories and diamond jewellery pieces, in collaboration with a number of literary experts and jewellery designers.
The Precious Collection™ was captured visually and then launched at events in each territory, to which media and local celebrities were invited. The collection, the authors and designers provided content and personality to bring the brand to life in the media and over $1 million of editorial coverage was generated by each territory.
A toolkit and media kit was also created for translation and distribution in markets, along with event and media guidelines.
Virgin Unite /
Annual Charity Fundraising Ball
Over the last three years we’ve created and organised Virgin Unite’s annual charity ball. From the concept to the clear up, we managed every element of these nights that have raised £800,000 for the Virgin Unite charities.
Our three-year relationship with Virgin Unite (The charity arm of the Virgin Group) has seen us create and organise events that have utilised their fundamentals and raised both awareness and funds for the Virgin Unite charities. For the past three years Exposure has been enlisted to create an exciting, high profile ‘must attend’ annual fundraising event for Richard Branson’s charity arm of the group.
In 2008 we conjured up, ‘Through The Looking Glass’ a theme inspired by Alice In Wonderland: Mad Hatters Tea Party. We used this creative platform as it reflected Virgin Unite’s key brand values in a fun and colourful manner incorporating interactive elements, high-end entertainment and premium auction items. Our strategy saw us implement all areas of event management for the night, ranging from the organisation and design to the red carpet arrivals and the arranging of live performances from Kelly Rowland and Natalie Imbruglia. We assisted in securing sponsorship, acted as a media consultancy and negotiated reduced costs for every aspect of the evening that liberated the budget for further use.
By utilising our network we secured not only exclusive items for the charity auction but extensive post-party coverage in Hello magazine with the front page and 8 pages dedicated to our night. Each year we’ve attracted high volumes of interest and attendance, from business, celebrities and even Royalty. The results of our three Virgin Unite events have exceeding expectation with £800,000 raised for the Virgin Unite charities.