Hello Soho! My name’s Kitty Hennessy. Nice to see you again.

Starting at Launch this week has felt like coming home – in more ways than one. I started my professional and PR life in the mighty Soho Square, just around the corner from Launch Towers in Archer Street W1. It got me thinking as to why so many creative industries choose to set up shop on King Henry VIII’s former hunting field.

It’s certainly not glamorous or picturesque to the naked eye – but perhaps that’s the point: all life is here. And always has been. The colourful locals on our corner come from a long tradition in Soho, when loitering wasn’t loitering but each corner was in fact an unofficial labour exchange. Archer Street was the musician’s quarter with nearby Compton and Frith Street for waiters, literally waiting for work.

Perhaps Soho’s creative notoriety stems from the entrepreneurship that was left behind when the employers had been and gone; survival of the fittest (or most imaginative). Artists, musicians, actors, poets  and everybody else besides gathered in the many great watering holes to devise ways of making their fame and fortune and more than a few succeeded – past residents of the area include: Karl Marx, Casanova, William Blake and Mozart.

I think that is the key to the lure of Soho – inspiration is everywhere you look, and that, combined with vision and creativity, do a successful mixture make. No wonder the Launch lot are so invigorated – you live by your wits round here!

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

An Introduction to PPC

As marketing strategies continue to evolve and adapt to the online shift, understanding and utilising the new tools at your disposal in the correct way is critical to effective All-Channel campaigns. So with that in mind, just what is PPC advertising? How does it work? And why should I care? Sit back, grab a tea, and I’ll tell you…

So, PPC, heard of it? Any guesses? A quick office poll produced ‘Please Prepare Canapes’, ‘Post Party Crying’ or, my particular favourite, ‘People Prefer Cats’.  Amusing though these suggestions may be, the answer is, of course, a little more conventional. For the uninitiated PPC stands for Pay Per Click advertising.

What is it?

First off the basics, when you search for something on Google it will give you two different types of results: natural listings and sponsored links. Natural listings are free, generated by Google’s algorithms and are dependent on SEO (an acronym for another time and another cup of tea). What we are interested in today are the sponsored links. These are paid for results which appear at the top in the orange box.

Google’s PPC advertising is in essence a real-time auction in which you bid on keywords that you would like your ad to appear beside when searched. You only pay when somebody clicks on your link and thus you pay per click, ergo PPC! Simple!

The order that these results appear (the ranking) will be dependent on the popularity of your search term. The more popular a search term is the more companies there will be competing over it. Those with the highest bid and those with adverts whose copy is most relevant to the search term will appear at the top of the list.

What does it achieve?

What are the benefits to your brand? Simply put – visibility. The ads will generate traffic to your website, targeted leads and instant sales. The beauty of PPC though is its flexibility. You can adjust your budget as you see fit in a system which really does give back relative to what you put in. You can test keywords and track your conversions to keep an iron grip on exactly where your advertising budgets are going, one of the notable differences between online and traditional advertising.

As with all elements of digital marketing, using PPC on its own would leave you with a limited online strategy , however if implemented wisely as part of an All-Channel campaign PPC advertising can be invaluable, lucrative and in most cases absolutely essential.

Next week we will be covering the yin to PPC’s yang, SEO. If you have any questions or would like to find out how PPC could work for you, send us a tweet @LaunchGroup or an email to hello@launchgroup.co.uk.

This week Launch Group joined The Royal British Legion for this year’s launch of the Poppy Appeal 2011.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of The Royal British Legion and to celebrate, the Legion is calling for the nation to stand shoulder to shoulder with serving and ex-Service personnel and show their support by wearing a poppy.

Whether it’s the traditional poppy or a virtual poppy, the long standing symbol of The Royal British Legion remains a powerful reminder of those who have served and still serve the Armed Forces.

This year, the team are helping to get the word out about  The Shoulder to Shoulder app, which enables people to upload a photo of themselves, add a poppy to it and then a message of support to our Armed Forces. Once submitted, the images then appear on the Shoulder to Shoulder virtual wall.

The app launched yesterday and already an amazing 2,800 people have uploaded pictures to show their support.

To show your support, check out the website and follow Shoulder to Shoulder on Twitter.

Launch started life as a consumer brands project PR agency in 2001.  We were one of PR Week’s best new agencies of the year, attracting great people and great clients alike.

In 2005, our offer began to integrate media relations, digital and events.  We launched our corporate team around this time too.

And now, towards the end of 2011, we’re talking to people about our all-channel PR offer.

Innovation is good in business.  In fact, if you don’t innovate, your business quickly loses its shine and appeal.

All-channel PR?

It’s logical – whatever you have to communicate, to whichever audiences, we consult around the key PR channels-to-market to do it.  And we have all the capability in-house.

Clients should be guided, clients should be advised, and they shouldn’t feel hampered by one dimensional offers.  There’s too much at stake in the real / virtual / consumer / corporate inter-connected world and the relationship between experience / content / digital and media needs to be well explained – and bought in part (if that’s the need against the audience), or in whole.

Some clients come to us and say – ‘we’d love a bit of that.’  And that’s great.  Others come saying ‘we’re not sure, you tell us’.  And that’s equally, if not more exciting.

One size doesn’t fit all.  Having all the channels open and available has to be in a client’s best interest.

Add amazing people, brilliant thinking, collective culture and nice coffee and you’re probably on to something.

It’s not all swank dos and drinks receptions in the glamorous world of PR…but then again, sometimes it is! This week Launch were lucky enough to join First News at The Park Plaza to celebrate Henry Winkler’s newly awarded OBE. Henry Winkler (AKA ‘The Fonz!’) was given his OBE in September in recognition of his work with schools across the UK as he helps children to better understand dyslexia.

Having being diagnosed with dyslexia as an adult, Henry has undertaken numerous tours over the past few years to talk to children about the learning disability. He has also written books for children featuring the fictional character Hank Zipzer, a boy with dyslexia whose stories mirror Henry’s real life experiences. Having grown up in a time when he was simply labelled as stupid or incapable, Henry knows all too well the struggles that face sufferers of the condition, and consequently speaks about the cause with genuine passion, care and intelligence. By the time he leaves a school all of the kids want to be dyslexic!

The party was the perfect opportunity to celebrate his achievement and the continuing success of First News, who delivered a brilliant speech on brand responsibility before Henry was given the chance to show off his new medal. With entertainment provided by Dynamo, Bradford’s hardest working magician, everyone left with a smile on their face.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening for a genuinely lovely bloke!

Happy days.

(budum chh)

Recently I’ve found myself watching hundreds of videos by brands from all over the world – this might have something to do my new obsession with Twitter – but it’s got me thinking…

I’ve noticed a pattern emerging which goes against what traditionally experience / events are measured on.  Before the explosion of the digital age, brands focused on how many people they could get to physically engage with their brand experience – the more the better.  Yes there are numerous variables, but the fundamental goal was volume of engagement.  Direct brand experiences for the masses is still a core component to the experiential marketers toolbox, but now we have new exciting shiny social medial tools to play with.

These new online tools allow us to turn the engagement theory on its head.  No longer do we need thousands of willing consumers to interact with a brand for it to be a success. All we need is a few willing participants to have an amazing experience which they’ll want to share.  You then capture this experience and stick it online for people like me to OOO and ahhh over.

BUT…  Is it really that simple?  And do massive consumer engagement experiences have a shelf life?
The answer, surely, is to combine the two, but if you haven’t got the budget to engage large numbers then the second option isn’t a bad one.

Give them a great experience.

Capture it in a compelling way.

Share it.

More to come from the Launch XP and Digital teams soon.

Great talent drives great businesses – and here at Launch HQ we are on the look out for some fantastic new PR talent to come and join us……

If you’re a seasoned Consumer Account Manager or fresh faced Assistant Executive looking for a new challenge, look no further. If you want to work at an award winning agency on some of the most exciting consumer brands in the UK, then talk to us!

With a results-driven ethos and big creative platforms at the centre of everything we do, our all-channel PR approach means our consultants work on everything from traditional media relations to digital and experiential campaigns.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, please send your CV and covering letter to cvs@launchgroup.co.uk stating your desired salary and one of the team will be in touch.

We can’t wait to hear from you!

It’s been pretty exciting recently here at Launch, we’ve had lots of events and photocalls with various accounts, we’re pulling together plans for our big 10^th birthday bash and looking forward to our end of year conference, but the most speculated topic in recent weeks has been the infamous office ‘Desk Move’.

Now, as you might imagine, there has been a lot of speculation surrounding this topic, with the usual corruption and bribery that come with these types of things. Katie had to resort to pulling the plan together in a different office for fear of foul play!

It is interesting to see how people get so attached to their desks, they seem to become a little ‘home from home’ with specialist filing systems (often seen by outsiders as messy piles of paper), decorated with photos and weird pictures of animals. We also get attached to those sitting around us, building relationships and calling on them when we’re are in need of an extra pair of eyes, or just a bit of support.

So you can see why it might be daunting to be told you have to move to an unknown desk. But in actual fact, with Katie’s hugely organised plan of action, everyone moved with ease, decluttered their working lives, sorted out new modern filing systems, and got to know their other colleagues that little bit better.

I can’t quite believe that this year marks my fourteenth anniversary of being in PR – but  seeing coverage we’ve achieved for clients which makes a difference to their businesses still makes me jump out of bed in the morning or sprint up the stairs when I get to the office.

When I started out, we got sworn at by reporters (and soon learnt what their deadlines were), made hundreds of calls to collect ‘trannies’ (doesn’t happen these days) and got countless paper cuts from sending faxes and stuffing envelopes in to the early hours …

But seeing the coverage appear has never lost its appeal.  In fact, my favourite cuttings are still stored at home …

Indeed, in the postcodes where PR girls (and boys) live, there are newsagents who still hear shrieks of excitement as a newspaper is nervously opened and a survey, picture, feature or profile we’ve worked on with a journalist leaps out. Now, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing an early morning e-mail from the team reporting that a story has gone ‘viral’, an opinion-former has re-tweeted a positive piece or that a client’s SEO ranking has rocketed.

Journalists teach us such a huge amount every day about what does and doesn’t work for them and whether we’re talking on the phone or meeting them for a coffee, they really are our second set of clients.  It doesn’t hurt to have a few of them in-house here at Launch either.

So, high fives, big-ups and well dones to Team Launch this week for hitting the phones (including on a Sunday – thanks Team Corporate) and setting up hundreds of pieces on everything from CSR to apprentice schemes, retail to regulation and beautiful pens – the coverage buzz is the best and it’s our bread and butter too!