I’ve been thinking a lot about ideas and idea generation recently.

Maybe it’s some of the people I’ve met, some of the things I’ve seen or watched, some of the business briefs in (a lot – v busy at Launch Towers) – or maybe it’s just because Launch is growing up fast and is soon to have its tenth birthday.  Whatever the reason, my mind seems more full than ever of what / if / how / maybe / did you see that / go on, let’s try it etc….

Clients rarely buy just people, process and results, they buy in to that flash of something that they’re not getting elsewhere.  That bit of genius, however tiny or big – and in whatever shape or size it comes.  And I always think you know when you’ve got it, when clients smile.  Smiling is good when it comes to idea generation (been catching up on Mad Men recently, and aside from an intoxicating amount of smoking, there’s a lot of smiling too …)

So, as we approach our teenage years (avoiding all adolescent growing pains!), I’m very focused right now on how we stay full of ideas.

It’s partly that mix of how you go about thinking and facilitation, your people, new people, what we’re absorbing, how much time we have, new technologies, trends etc.  But it’s more than that – and it runs deeper than that.

It’s what lies at the heart of an agency DNA … and if your DNA celebrates the intrinsics of good business practice, matched with ambition and freedom to explore, the ideas will come.

Worth celebrating that.

 Independent, integrated PR agency, Launch Group, won the prestigious Campaign of the Year Award for its Disney Twinned Town campaign at last night’s PRCA Awards.

The entry also scooped the New Media, Digital and Broadcast Award, was highly commended for the Consumer Award and was a finalist for the Media Relations Award.

Last week the same campaign won a PRWeek Award for Best Use of TV, Radio and Internet, and earlier this year won the Drum Marketing Award for PR Strategy.

The integrated campaign, a world-first, nationwide search to find a UK village, town or city to be twinned with Walt Disney World, was designed to generate wide-spread coverage for the Resort in the UK.

Generating over 780 pieces of coverage including 22 national newspapers, 43 TV items (32 of which were national) and 97 radio interviews, 130 regional newspapers and over 490 online sites, the campaign captured the imagination of the UK press and public.

TV broadcast highlights included being the opening story on ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross’, the coveted ‘and Finally’ on ‘ITV News at Ten’ and sparking debate on ‘BBC Breakfast’, who reported live from the Magic Roundabout.  Over 14,500 people visited the microsite and over 500 people entered the search.

Johnny Pitt, CEO of Launch, commented: “We obsess about ‘world-first’ idea innovation, backed by ruthless implementation, and this excellent recognition is reflective of the great work we’re doing week in, week out for our stellar client list.”

Last week, we closed the books on 12 months of trading, which as ever, has made me reflect on key influences that have shaped our performance over the last year.

Firstly, despite one of the worst recessions in history, there’s been a lot of activity with clients and prospects, which tells me, the role for PR and its increasing influence on the digital scene is encouraging. And at unusual times too – lots more mid year activity. It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out over the next 12 months.

Secondly, budgets have been harder fought over. And often smaller, too.  There’s absolutely zero room for sloppiness or complacency – and that certainly adds an intensity to things.

Finally, people. We’re always on the look-out for stellar people to join the trailblazing Launch family … but good people have been thinner on the ground this year. Lots of people have stayed put, many have lost their jobs … so recruiting the best hasn’t been easy. And you should never compromise – we certainly don’t.

There’s one thing that’s impressed me throughout, however, and that’s the Launch spirit. We’ve had epic wins, we’ve had some near epic wins, we’ve had some great client gains (and a few client economy-led shrinkages), major award wins, major award runners-up spots … and we’ve had extreme weather fluctuations, which with a creaking heating / cooling system, has tested everyone.  But one thing consistently shines through – and that’s a positive attitude and a willingness to get the job done – whatever the weather. 

Over the past three months we’ve been searching for the in-house team who has shown true entrepreneurial spirit in the face of adversity. The entries, from all sectors, were impressive, with creativity winning the battle against negative perceptions, challenging trading environments and budget and staffing cuts.

The winner, Thames Water, who on a budget of zero demonstrated news from nothing generation at its very best, will receive £15,000 of consultancy from Launch Group over the coming months.

The judging panel, which included Danny Rogers, PRWeek Editor; Claire Murphy, PRWeek Consultant Editor; Johnny Pitt Launch Group’s CEO; Andy Nash, Launch Group’s Director of Client Strategy and Marcus Waley-Cohen, one of the entrepreneurial founders of Firefly Drinks, also highly commended Bulldog Natural Grooming and Thames21.

Click here to read the full feature in PRWeek. 

Launched a brand from nothing using only PR? Introduced a risky new comms strategy? Battled to get PR recognised internally or suffered budget or team cuts?  Now’s the time to get some recognition for all the hard work. Launch Group has teamed up with PRWeek to create a new award for the UK’s most entrepreneurial in-house team.

We’re looking for a team that has performed PR miracles on limited resources.  The winning team’s prize will be £15,000 worth of consultancy from Launch Group (media relations, social media, experiential or a bit of all three), and two runners up will be given free PR workshops.  All three will be covered in a feature in PRWeek.

To qualify, in-house teams must employ a maximum of three people (or part-time / freelance equivalents).  Whether a start-up brand or a household name you will demonstrate your unrivalled entrepreneurial spirit over the past year.

To enter, document your team’s communications strategy between March 2009 and March 2010, split into the following four sections – Objectives and challenges, Strategy, Execution and results (No AVEs!).  Please also list the names and titles of your team members, and your budget. 

The judging panel of five includes PRWeek’s editor Danny Rogers, Launch Group’s CEO Johnny Pitt, plus Marcus Waley-Cohen, one of the entrepreneurs behind firefly, a £2m drinks brand built on great PR.

Email your entry (word limit – 1,000 words) as a Word Attachment to inhouseteam@prweek.com by 6^th May.

Launch Group has been announced the winner in the sole PR category at the Drum Marketing Awards 2010 for its Walt Disney World Twinned Town campaign.

The Drum Marketing Awards is renowned for recognising outstanding marketing strategy within the UK industry at large, across all marketing disciplines.

Launch Group’s win of the best ‘PR Strategy’ award, resulted from its campaign to find the first-ever town in the UK to be ‘twinned’ with Walt Disney World in Florida, providing massive cultural appeal to the UK media – on and offline.  With Swindon eventually unveiled as the winning twinned town, the campaign achieved over 750 pieces of editorial.  Jonathan Ross opened his Friday night talk show on BBC1 with it and it was the coveted ‘And Finally’ slot on News at Ten.  

Commented Johnny Pitt, CEO, Launch Group: “We love developing big cultural platforms for brands, and the Disney Twinned campaign captured the mood and the agenda of the nation in a huge way.”

I really am proud to see us reach the No.40 slot in this week’s PR Week League Tables of best performing Consumer PR agencies of the year. We started nearly 8 years ago at around No.2000 I imagine!  And there’s lot’s more growth to come from Launch Towers.

What I like even more is that this is truly happening from an ‘integrated’ perspective. Every breathtaking campaign we dream up always tries (wherever possible) to combine the three most important word of mouth disciplines – media relations, social media and experiential. And with a consumer or corporate option all the time. That’s important too, given today’s market dynamics.

Our vision is based on an integrated future, and I think there is good growth out there. Sure, when we close the books in June, we won’t have had our best year (due to primarily 3 big new business WINS, and several other smaller ones, not coming to final fruition), but our pitch win ratio is around 85% at the moment and has been for a while. That’s awesome.

And the inspiring Launch team only think ‘integrated’ all the way. It really does come strongly from within. And that’s what makes the future bright … and fun too.