Aside from TED talks, it’s not often that I sit transfixed for 8 minutes watching an online video.

But I’m glad I made an exception for Jeff Bezos, who founded the mighty Amazon fifteen years ago.

If there was ever a testament to the power of great customer service and social media, this is it. Amazon have bought Zappos – a superstar online shoe-shop with a reputation for extraordinary customer service – for a whopping $928 million.

The three founders of Zappos figured that, rather than spend shed loads of cash on advertising, they would instead develop an exceptional company culture, and leave it to delighted customers and a buzzing workforce to spread the word. And that’s exactly what’s happened. As annual revenues hit the $1billion mark, we couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming positive chatter across Twitter and an army of blogs.

So, will the buyout by Amazon damage Zappos reputation? Well, it shouldn’t. As you can see from the video, Mr. Bezos states that this exceptional focus on the customer was the very reason behind the decision.

Around 7 months ago a friend who works for the National Deaf Children’s Society did something rather unfriendly. He got a group of us together, got us drunk, and signed us up for the Three Peaks Challenge.

In the hazy light of the following morning, we all had to agree that yes, those were indeed our scrawled signatures on the dotted line, and we would now have to be true to our (slightly inebriated) word. Conquering the three highest mountains in the UK in 24 hours – how hard could that be????

7 months quickly flew by, with training weekends in the Cotswolds, walking daily to and from work, and numerous trips to outdoor pursuits shops to get all of the latest gear. Before we knew it we were in a Youth Hostel in Stirling with the prospect of the challenge looming grandly ahead of us. The next 24 hours, as outlined here, were a blur of pain, elation, Mars Bars, walking poles, attempted sleep in a minibus and of course many, many blisters………..

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I spent two weeks ‘experiencing work’ at Launch Group, and I wish I didn’t have to leave….. :( Here’s a list of the things I’ll miss most:

1. The water cooler – simple but I found myself using it most of the time…
2. The fact that I have a phone on my desk;  so what if no one called me, it was nice to know it was there!
3. The special key that beeped me into the building – endless fun
4. Newspaper reviews – which were always funny
5. The location – Soho has a very nice noodle place…
6. Everyone was always in a happy mood J
7. Launch Group’s ‘Launch Lander’ game on the website – incredibly addictive even though I never managed to get to the top of the leader board
8. Sorting out the ‘magazine library’ upstairs meant that I got to read A LOT of Hello magazine
9. Everyone was VERY nice all of the time

I don’t want to leeeeaaaave!!!

Can an Easter Egg Hunt remind us of a simple business message?

Easter is over for another year, but what can we learn from the great English Easter Egg Hunt?  For me, the ‘hunt’ is a chance to get competitive. I know it’s supposed to fun, but I come from an extremely competitive family – my surname’s Keene for a reason! 

As I spent the best part of Sunday hiding, then trying to remember where I had hidden eggs for 15 kids in my family garden, it dawned on me that the Easter egg hunt is something that we, in business, could learn valuable lessons from. Now, I’m not trying to say that we should all eat more chocolate, or treat our clients as kids! My point is that this yearly event evokes a bit of healthy competition. In the current economic climate, being competitive is healthy. Actually, I think it’s essential.

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Are you Twittering? That’s the question being put to friends, family and colleagues alike. It’s difficult to remain ignorant of the micro-blogging sensation that’s been gripping the UK, the subsequent celebrity endorsements and the vocab overhaul that’s seen people sprouting incomprehensible expressions such as tweet, twit and twitterer. But if you somehow missed the phenomenal uptake of such things (where have you been?), you may want to head on over to the official site that started it all.

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I seem to spend my life writing lists – shopping lists, birthday lists, and things to do. I like the satisfaction of ticking things off as I go, and better still, finishing a whole list. I’m essentially a bit of a geek really! Life, both work and personal, seems to be very hectic at the moment, and the lists keep things in order. Since I started at Launch in August 2008 (which seems like forever ago) I have had the chance to be involved in lots of different projects, each one with its own list! And knowing what is planned for 09, I am sure I am going to have plenty of chances to tick things off!

Looking at my current to do list, it seems as if the next few months are going to be hectic!:

1) Write my blog (tick!)

2) Write up my notes from the agency end of month meeting. There is so much going on and getting the agency all together at the end of each month gives us a chance to see what everyone else is up to, and each month it seems to come around quicker!

3) Finalise my plans for the mentoring team – we are rolling out the first official Launch mentoring scheme which is great – I can’t wait to see all of the hard work from before Christmas really making a different to our people here. Mentoring is a great development tool and for a company of our size is a real bonus.

4) Interviews – I really enjoy interviewing, especially when they are great candidates who are excited by Launch and our work

5) 3 Peaks – I am doing the 3 Peaks challenge in June (Ben Nevis, Snowdonia & Scarfold Pike in 24hrs!) and I really need to get going with sponsorships, buying hiking boots and getting fit – only 5 months to go!

6) Make tea

Well, number one is done – I think I’ll skip to number six (I am unofficially the second floor tea lady!)

When I first started working in PR, working with a high end champagne brand was one of my aspirations, so when the opportunity arose to work for Moët & Chandon I was ecstatic!  I had images of sipping chilled glasses at London Fashion week adorned with a Louis Vuitton handbag…

Moët was opening the Atelier Moët, the UK’s first pop up champagne boutique where customers could have their bottles of Moët encrusted with Swarovski crystals.  Charlotte, the assistant on the account set about personalising what felt like hundreds of bottles of varying complexity:

‘Christian’
difficultly level 4
nine letters

‘Pumpbling 2008’
difficulty level 6 
lots of letters and a strange message

‘Market Kitchen’
difficulty level 7 
unhinging a giant Jeroboam box,trying to move the huge bottle, put letters on straight and then having to carry it up seven flights of stairs – it wasn’t a fun experience

‘Night with Nick’
difficult level 8
too many letters, three rows of words and we were running out of ’n’s at this point too

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I’m Adam, Account Exec at Launch. I’ve worked on the DVD launch of eight Momentum Pictures titles and each one has been very different and exciting. As a total movie geek myself, the chance to work on some varied titles, such as Never Back Down (urban street fighting), Smiley Face (stoner comedy with Anna Faris) and Teeth (story about a girl with teeth where there really shouldn’t be teeth!) has been really exciting and challenging. The best bit about getting a new title is the creative brainstorms we have beforehand. We know the title and the synopsis; from there we put our minds together to think of the best, most original and creative ways to promote the films.

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One of my favourite projects so far during my time at Launch has to be Chivas Studio UK, our three day event extravaganza!

I loved this project for many reasons, especially because of the amazingly interesting people we got to meet and work alongside throughout. Take Fashion Designer Todd Lynn for instance. He collaborated with us to produce a stunning limited edition Pewter hip flask with his trade mark gothic edgy appeal marked by a raised dagger through the middle of the design. Having worked closely with Todd throughout its creation, I really felt I had a part to play in its final production and must admit I felt more than a tad proud when I saw it exhibited for the first time in the stunning venue, One Marylebone Road!

In addition to Todd, Alexander McQueen, the de Villeneuve sisters and Jefferson Hack, we also worked closely with the London College of Fashion who provided some amazing photography for the event. Having always fancied trying my hand at photography, it was really awe inspiring to see some of the most up and coming fashion photographers in action.

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