Move over Paul the Octopus, there’s a new match-predicting animal in town.

Fancy a flutter on this weekend’s Champions League final? Why not follow the Llama?

A Llama at Ashdown Llama Park in East Sussex is being tipped as the next match-predicting phenomenon after successfully calling the result of this month’s FA Cup final and now hotly tipping Chelsea in this weekend’s Champions League thriller.

Check out the video below to see him in action

Disclaimer – this is a client video to promote a new range of Llama Snacks. We love it though. Nicholas the llama was amazing on set. Big thanks to Ashdown Llama Park for letting us come down and film

Pinterest is a social network that has been creating a lot of interest online in recent months, but what exactly is it and how does it differ from old favourites Facebook and Twitter? Take a look at our handy need-to-know guide below, and then look up Launch Group’s very own Pinterest page!

What is it?

Pinterest is a new social network that allows users to ‘pin’ the things they love from around the web into one place. These ‘pins’ are organised into ‘boards.’ Try to think of Pinterest as a great big interactive scrapbook where you can show off everything you’re interested in, and follow, as well as comment, on others with similar interests. Anytime you pin something, you are given the option to share it across your Twitter or Facebook pages.

Re-pinning, following and likes

‘Re-pinning’ works much in the same way as ‘re-tweeting.’ If someone has posted something you like too, re-pinning it will add it to one of your own boards. You also have the option of following other people – either every single one of their boards, or one in particular. Those that you follow will appear on your Pinterest dashboard when you log-in. ‘Liking’ a pin tells the person who pinned it exactly that – you like it! It does not automatically add the pin to any of your boards.

How does it work?

First of all, you need to download the ‘Pin It’ button from the website and add it to your browser. That done, it’s incredibly easy to use. When you’re browsing the web and come across an image or a video you like, hit the ‘Pin It’ button. This brings up a window with all of the available ‘pin-able’ content. Select the image or video you want, choose which of your boards you want it added to, add a short description and BOOM! You have successfully pinned an item. When others click your pin, they will be directed back to its original source, which is great news for brands who have had pins taken from a product page and will benefit from the back-link.

What are the demographics?

According to Mashable, 42 per cent of users are aged between 25 and 34, and of those 56 per cent are male (versus 44 per cent female).

Why are people using it?

Pinterest is a slightly different kettle of fish from your Facebook and your Twitter – primarily because the emphasis is on being inspired. People flock to Pinterest for ideas on what to have for dinner, how to re-model their bathroom and what they should wear to a friend’s wedding. In this way the site gives its users vicarious pleasure in taking a look at what other people – all over the world – like. Visitors are also already in a ‘buy hungry’ state of mind by the time they arrive at Pinterest, which offers a not insignificant opportunity for brands.

How could brands use it?

Showcase ‘exclusive’ never-before-seen content
Let followers get involved in curating brand content by selecting the function that allows others to add to your boards
Request images or video of followers with a particular product in return for rewards
Run image and video competitions
Run focus groups and use the comments functionality to collect feedback
Promote new products and campaigns in a visually interesting way
Upload a selection of coverage
Inspire a brand lifestyle by going beyond simple product-pushing. We really like the Whole Foods Market Pinterest page, which inspires not just on the culinary front, but across exercise, well-being and environmental too

Friends and colleagues haven’t been able to escape me talking about Mad Men recently. I’m EXTREMELY excited about season five kicking off on Sky Atlantic on March 27^th. It’s the best show on TV at the moment, and not just because it resonates so strongly with people like me who are in the business of client servicing.

The promotion of the show’s return has been carefully orchestrated, with a range of teaser images and videos appearing on both sides of the continent. In America, this has ramped up considerably of late, with AMC and various US media devoting huge chunks of space to interviews and other behind the scenes gossip. So far, so standard.

What Matthew Weiner and the execs at AMC couldn’t have expected (but potentially SHOULD have) was the effect that the show’s fans would have on the hype that is surrounding season five. First there was the minimalist poster that appeared around NYC, which was swiftly converted into a meme by creative street artists (check out the best of them here. I like the Superman one the best).

Then this weekend a new Tumblr was set up full of people ‘draping’. Draping, in case you’re not familiar with it, is people uploading pictures of themselves in the classic Don Draper, ‘one arm across the back of the sofa’ pose.

People on Twitter were asking whether these two (especially Draping) were marketing/PR stunts. I doubt it. You could make a cogent case to say that the white background of the teaser poster was an invitation to creative and street artists, but I doubt this was the defining factor in their decision.

Both memes are happy by-products of a TV show that has captured people’s imaginations, and become so important to people’s lives that they want to create content of their own volition. It’s the purest form of advocacy. When we’re putting together an all-channel campaign for our clients, it’s our holy grail.

What AMC and Matthew Weiner will be conscious of is the fact that, however careful they are with their own promotion of the show, this kind of unplanned fan activity only serves to ramp up the expectations around its come back. Already delayed by a year, season five will have to kick off with a real bang to escape the inevitable ‘jumped the shark’ accusations.

I have no doubts it will more than live up to the hype.

(my Mad Men Yourself photo is below. A great example of AMC’s marketing!)

I’ve been to Tesco loads of times. Seriously. I’m not bragging, but I mean loads and loads of times. In fact, I’ve been so many times I know that if you were to live your life sequentially, rather than chronologically, then the time spent in Tesco would take up a 64 day stretch. That’s bonkers really. 64 days. Two summer months and two days. 9 weeks and a day. 92,160 minutes.

But I’d never been with Launch Group. Not for one second.

I am new at Launch Group, coming to the end of my third official week. It’s been great: really cool. What I have particularly responded to, and talked about at home and on the phone to my mother, is the immediate sense of cohesion. I never felt like the ‘work experience’ kid, I never felt like the ‘tea-mule’, rather a legitimate member of Launch Group. Sure, the most inexperienced member, but a member none-the-less.

This sentiment is no better explained than on my second day. I was at home, talking about how much I was enjoying Launch and eating a Solero, when I receive a text asking whether I would like to attend a photo-call in the morning at a nearby Tesco to launch the Together for Trees initiative. I didn’t expect that. It wasn’t necessary to extend a professional olive branch. I was grateful enough, as I should have been, to be on work experience with Launch Group, let alone be allowed to attend official business with our CEO Johnny and an important client. But then again, I have been in Tesco loads, so maybe they have spotted my retail nous. ‘I’d love to’. ‘Great news David, see you at 8am’.

It’s 8am. I enter, what is a very large Tesco near Earl’s Court, and bashfully ask whether a PR event is being hosted. The gentleman didn’t know, but pointed me to an aisle that had been turned in to a “rope bridge or a jungle or something”. I’ll give that a try. I walk down the central reservation, no real jungle in sight, but there is a group of people at the very far end. As I get closer and closer, what unravels is both surprising and charming. The aisle isn’t an aisle any more, it is closer to an installation: lined with looming plants, and a wooden bridge on the floor held together by rope. Two colleagues are being directed by the photographer. I stand, reticent. Not only do I not know how to help, but I don’t know what I could even do to enhance what is an impressive display of PR imagination and implementation. In the meantime, Kevin is still being told to hold the hose higher above Harri’s umbrella while she peers out looking delicately affected by the fake rainfall.

I turn around and am suddenly shaking hands with Ed Stafford. I know of Ed Stafford. It was a real pleasure to meet him, and he put me at an ease I didn’t realise I needed. He gets called to position by the photographer. “Here?”. “Yeah that’s great”. Immediately, and with consummate ease for an explorer not a model, he looks like he is back walking the Amazon. Except for the trolley of food. Although I wouldn’t put it past him to walk the Amazon again with a trolley full of food, that’s for sure.

The photographer is done. I look to my colleagues. “Right, back to the office’. That’s it. This magnum PR event finished. Except of course it isn’t finished. It is just the spark that starts the day’s work.

When people ask you on a Monday what you got up to over the weekend, one answer you maybe don’t expect is “I helped to break a world record”. But that is exactly what the Meteor meet and greet team said and did a couple of weeks ago.

Early on a Saturday morning armed with coffee, the Meteor meet and greet team – or the Meteorites as we like to call ourselves, arrived at a car park in Gatwick Airport with our fighting spirit intact. The record we were trying to set was for one person to park 50 cars in a car park in under an hour.

The team got to work straight away, making sure the photographer, videographer, official time keepers, and of course the 50 cars were all in place. As the clock struck 1030, we all got into position and held our breath as the starting horn blew.

The Meteor meet and greet driver was on fire, expertly screeching cars ranging from BMW 5 Series to Fiat 500s into the spaces and sprinting back and forth to the start line. When the 50th car was parked and the horn sounded, all eyes rushed to the clock. We had successfully set a Guinness World Record, parking 50 cars in a car park in only 22 minutes and 16 seconds.

Once the XP side of the event was complete, Launch Group set the all-channel wheels in motion and achieved some fantastic on and offline coverage.

Check out the video here:

I know I’m a bit late to be commenting on the Snickers Twitter hornet’s nest from a couple of weeks ago, but today’s announcement about the new Digital Trading Standards Group and the post-Super Bowl buzz threw everything back into focus.

In case you missed it, the Digital Trading Standards Group has been set up to develop a set of industry-wide principles aimed at reducing the risk of ad misplacement at impression level. And in case you missed them, the Super Bowl showcased the usual headline advertising campaigns, alongside a record number of mentions in social media.

Back to Snickers  – the reason its ‘takeovers’ of celebrities caused so much debate, and a certain amount of opprobrium in certain quarters, was that it was using Twitter PURELY for awareness building, rather than encouraging any form of action or advocacy. Most people follow brands on Twitter to get something from them – special offers, customer service, competitions, even just entertainment (as with someone like Betfair).

The Snickers activity was a self-contained package, with a message, but didn’t add any value to any conversation or provide anything but a message to the celebrities’ followers. And it was created and executed by AMV BBDO, which is an advertising agency. Spotted the link? It was essentially an advert. Played out over a series of tweets.

It grabs your attention, keeps it going for a short amount of time, before revealing the denouement. Just like an advert.

There’s nothing wrong with it – it’s a perfectly fine piece of awareness building (and almost as newsworthy as some of the Super Bowl ads), but it’s slightly disingenuous of Snickers to have not paid Twitter for the placement (I’m sure the celebs were handsomely rewarded). We could spend hours debating whether or not it affected Snickers bottom line, but that’s probably not really the point (I very much doubt it did affect sales). The guerrilla ‘ad placement’ is an issue Twitter themselves need to sort out – all the trading standards groups in the world, or the ASA, won’t stop creatives trying to get out of paying for placement – especially when they can get so much for free at the moment.

Do you want to work in a dynamic, challenging agency working with some of the UK’s top brands? Who wouldn’t?!

We are currently looking for great people to join us at various levels across the business – from graduates to senior roles, and we might just have the perfect opportunity for you.

Our all-channel offering isn’t just great news for clients, but also for our people too, as it means they get exposure to every part of the marketing mix – regardless of level, or department. Our consultants work hard to produce breathtaking campaigns – just read our blog to see some of the highlights from the past few months.

If you’re interested in joining our team, please send your CV & covering letter to cvs@launchgroup.co.uk. And we’ll be in touch if we’d like to set up an interview. (no agencies please)

Hi, I’m Katrina, I recently joined the All-Channel Launch team working mainly on Tesco and BP.

Having only been a Launcher for 6 working weeks this week heralded my first piece of experiential activity and the opportunity to spend a day with former Olympian and hurdling legend, Colin Jackson CBE. It just so happens that Colin is one of the nicest men you will ever meet and just as well as we were asking him to run his first ever half marathon on before of the Tesco Great School Run. This he did with consummate ease and a big smile on his face the whole way round.

Prior to my arrival, Launch had taken the brief to raise awareness of the 2012 Tesco Great School Run ( a 2k fun run staged at schools across the UK encouraging children, family, friends and teachers to take part in exercise for fun) and encourage other children/schools to sign up. The idea was simple yet effective – get Colin to run between the primary schools in Westminster to thank them for signing up to this year’s run and spur on kids to take part. The response we had from schools and kids alike was fantastic and far exceeded our expectations. The best way to give a snapshot of the day is by numbers:

• 15 miles run
• 1000+ kids met
• 100 Autographs signed
• 20,000 steps taken
• 500 high fives
• 150+ banners made
• 5 London Landmarks

It is not every day you get to work with a British sporting legend but seeing the response from the kids along the way was truly refreshing and I would recommend it to anyone! Coverage included: The Sun, The Guardian, TalkSport, The Mirror, The People, MSN to name a few.

Monitoring specific websites and keywords online is critical to keep up to date with the latest trends associated with your clients, as well as understand what your clients’ competitors are talking about.

Using a combination of manual searching and automatic tools, it is relatively easy to keep up-to-date with what is being said about your client and relevant topics.

However, as well as monitoring conversations, it is also important to identify who your top influential – client friendly – bloggers are, who you should be regularly engaging with, as well as being aware of any potential negative bloggers. This will enable you to monitor for relevant posts, understand the sentiment around an issue and tackle any potential situation early on.

After all, one of the best ways to identify and tackle a problem, that may escalate if left alone is to ensure you track online conversations about your clients.

Below are some essential tools and tips to help you monitor conversations effectively:

Google Alerts: In addition to setting up daily or even hourly alerts for a series of keywords that you have identified that may be relevant for your client, you will also need to set-up alerts for your key spokespeoples’ names

Whilst Google Alerts can be very helpful, they can flood your inbox with results so it is important to only set keywords alerts and review them as soon as they hit your inbox – do not put it off!

Free online tracking tools: We recommend Socialmention.com, Monitter.com, Blogsearch.google.com and omgili.com for tracking mentions of specific keyword terms

Twitter: Identify and follow the influential journalists and bloggers relevant to your client, as they will be the ones most likely to spot issue and make them public. Tweets often create specific hashtags when an issue is breaking (e.g. #hacking) and these can be picked up by Google. Twitter also has a basic search function where you can set up automatic alerts. TweetDeck is the best tool for monitoring mentions on Twitter

Key industry and enthusiast websites and blogs: Identify who these are, and regularly check RSS feeds. Ensure you know which sites are likely to be negative. Monitor these very closely anyway, but particularly during any announcement. Tracking an RSS feed from these sites can help to alert you when a new post has been written

Now that you understand what tools to use to monitor and track local noise, it is vital that you define your objectives. Monitoring anything in isolation is a pointless exercise. You should incorporate the insights and information gathered to your advantage, to enhance your communications plan and enable you to reach a larger audience.
Do get in touch if you’d like to discuss our all-channel approach in more detail and how we can help you with your online conversations.

You may remember this time last year, the Launch Virgin Holidays team were braving the cold and attempting the World Record for the World’s Largest Burlesque Dance?

Well, in December, Virgin Holidays tasked us with the brief to launch their famous sale once again, alongside the opening of their first stand-alone store in High Street Kensington and in true Launch style we wanted to out-do our previous work!

We decided this year to attempt the record for The Longest Swimwear Queue, again in keeping with Virgin’s cheeky reputation, and bold enough to generate some top notch coverage.

Launch fired on all channels and the experiential, digital and media relations teams pulled together to produce some amazing results.

Coverage included Daily Mirror, The Times, The Mail on Sunday, Daily Star, Evening Standard and Metro, along with The Sun Online, Daily Telegraph Online, This is London, FHM Online, Talk Talk and many more.