So it’s d-day today for the London mayoral candidates. The culmination of months of blood, sweat and tears to decide the direction of London for the next four years. Quite exciting really isn’t it? Well, not if you take a straw poll of the Launch office. There is a significant portion of people who aren’t going to be voting today. They have their reasons, but one can’t help but think, as Blonde_M pointed out to me on Twitter yesterday, that politicians aren’t doing enough to inspire people to want to be involved.

This election campaign feels like a real damp squib to me. Apart from a few flare-ups between Boris and Ken (including some rather amusing swearing), no-one is standing out. Maybe it’s due to over-familiarity with the candidates, but I don’t feel that any of them have made a real effort to separate themselves from the pack, to stamp their authority and their vision on their campaign. It’s (unfortunately) come down to personalities – who do you like? And if you don’t like any of them, what do you feel like doing? Exactly….not voting at all.

Obviously politics relies a lot on personality, but one really felt that after the General Election social media would play a huge role in UK politics in the future (as it does in the US). However, whilst the mayoral election race has generated a lot of conversation online (according to this anyway), and even predicted the result, it hasn’t been harnessed or crystallised by any of the parties or the candidates. Yes, Boris did an #askboris twinterview, but a lot of the questions were like the man himself – hugely frivolous. As far as our research here can tell, there  isn’t even a hashtag that has been decided for interested people to group their conversation around. #londonelects is getting a fair amount of activity today (polling day), but it is nothing to the #GE2010 that captured imaginations two year ago.

Maybe I’m just being too unrealistic and idealistic, but I think it’s up to politicians and their advisors to explore new channels to come up with new ways of inspiring new people to vote and get involved in politics. If Obama and his team can do it, why can’t we do it in England? Admittedly, we don’t have Jimmy Fallon, but there are plenty of other options.

Much excitement at Launch Towers this week as the teams behind the inspiring Scott-Amundsen Centenary Race to the Pole recreation met TRH Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Earlier this year the five team members completed their arduous trek, covering 920 miles in the process. Incredibly, the Scott team reached the South Pole 100 years to the day as Captain Scott did, before he began his ill-fated return trip.

The Duke is patron of the expedition and joined team members in London to show his support. As you might expect, there was much media attention focused on Kate’s attire but when Prince William held the oh-so-cute three week old Hugo Vicary, son of Scott team member Vic Vicary, the media and social media sphere went into overdrive.

Fantastic front page coverage followed for the Legion, with much of it mentioning the heroic efforts of Lt Col Henry Worsley and his Army team-mates in raising funds for The Royal British Legion’s Battle Back Centre.

The expedition raised a staggering £160,000. And Team Poppy at Launch has been honoured to be involved and supporting them every step of the way…

I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but I have been absolutely transfixed by the whole Leveson Inquiry. For someone who is obsessed by and works in the media, it has shone a light on some of its more nefarious dealings (not something we’ve had anything to do with here at Launch).

At times it has seemed like an episode of The Thick Of It (particularly the scene when Malcolm Tucker invites four journos to his house for a friendly curry whilst on ‘holiday’). The more sinister revelations are more like something out of a Stieg Larsson novel.

Unfortunately (or fortunately if you’re Jeremy Hunt, Rupert Murdoch or one of the other people who have had aspersions cast on their character) there is no Lisbeth Salander available to use either her photographic memory or supreme hacking skills to uncover the real truth.

The questioning of both James and Rupert Murdoch this week have been characterised by the limitations of the evidence available. There have been salacious emails that, on the surface, appear to pull those involved right into the mire. However, those who have been implicated by these allegations have been able to play down the seriousness of the evidence. And when it comes to phone calls, meetings and conversations, memories become even sketchier.

The unfortunate truth is that, whilst it may feel that we are living through an epochal moment in the way that politics, media and the public interact (history in the making, you might say), the full reality of how News International and the various political parties have worked and clashed over the past 20/30 years is only going to become apparent once the major players have a lot less to lose.

We can spend time (as they did on Newsnight last night) discussing the effect the Inquiry will have on Murdoch, whether Leveson and Robert Jay could have been stronger in their questioning and whether criminal charges should be brought. However, we’re probably going to have to wait until memoirs are published and empires crumble for the full truth to out.

In the meantime, let’s sit back and enjoy the ride. And be thankful that we at least UK politicians and the Murdochs have their own opinions that they are not afraid to share (unlike the guy below…)

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:

At the beginning of the year there is always lots of talk of “New Year New You”. Like most of the nation I started the year with such high hopes of a new, transformed, healthier me. So I did what most people in my position do when the 1st of January hits – I joined the gym, so far I have been (drum roll…) once!

I can safely say that the majority of the New Year’s resolutions I made at the beginning of the year have already been broken but luckily there was one resolution that I have been able to stick to and it’s actually thanks to one of our clients – Tetley. I really wanted to cut down on my caffeine intake and start drinking more green tea, especially as I had heard from a friend green tea is said to have health benefits. So I tried to replace my regular cup of tea – (which I have to express how hard that was for me!) with green tea. Again, yes, this lasted all of a week because I just missed my “normal” tea too much. Luckily for me, I then started to work on a new brand of tea brought to us from Tetley, called Blend of Both. Blend of Both is a mixture of black tea and green tea so I still feel like I’m being healthy and getting the benefits of green tea but still have the taste of my normal cuppa -It’s all about compromise!

So now it is Ash Wednesday and again I’m finding myself thinking about what I can give up – I like the idea of a compromise again so if someone discovers a biscuit that has hidden health benefits, please do let me know…

Hi I’m Kevin and I work on sponsorship activation at Launch Towers, across many of the sport  and CSR accounts. Sometimes the winter seems like it will never end, the cold dark mornings and the short days.  I long for something, a sign that will signal the arrival of spring. That something for me has always been the Six Nations, a beacon of light for sports fans in the cold dark days of February.  Timing is everything in sport and the same could be said of the world’s oldest, most famous excuse for rugby fans to hit the pub, invite mates round or simply sit glued to your telly for six weeks of rugby-fuelled passion through February and March. Nestled at the fag end of Winter and marking the beginning of Spring means the Six Nations never has to compete with an Olympics, World Cup or European Championship. Its place in the sporting calendar is secure with a potent mix of tradition, excitement, passion, skill and occasion that makes it unique amongst  tournaments around the world.  The tournament revels in its unpredictability with pre-match favourites (see prediction below) devoured by hostile away fixtures and future world superstars unearthed on a damp afternoon in Dublin, you never quite know what will happen.

So even if you don’t love rugby my advice is to welcome the Six Nations with open arms, get down to the pub and soak up the atmosphere and embrace the coming of spring. My prediction for this year is for France to take the title under new coach Philippe Saint-André and perhaps the Grand Slam. The chasing pack is a little trickier to predict but here goes. England, even though they are 2011 Champions, feel like they are starting from scratch and Ireland and Wales’ season could be defined by what happens in their first game on the 5^th February when they go head to head. Scotland are improving and could provide a few shocks while Italy have a new coach and low expectations which could work in their favour.

Whatever happens the Six Nations is an opportunity to catch up with old friends, watch some great rugby and hopefully see plenty more moments like this…

Here’s my 2012 Six Nations prediction in full -

1. France (Champions)
2. Wales (Triple Crown)
3. Ireland
4. England
5. Scotland
6. Italy

Also, keep an eye out for Six Nations branding – Guinness already leading the way with their outdoor branding -

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.

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.