What is happening in Primrose Hill???

Evening Standard released a story about ''yummy mummies" who are the main problem why so many cafes are closing down.

It comes up the matter of posh mummies demands to have more places to sit down with a cup of coffee and have a nice chat on Sunday afternoon. But the story made a enormous switch which comes about rent money and greedy landlords. So who's fault is that so many businesses cannot afford to stay near Primrose Hill?

Apparently, Trojka, one of the oldest and greatest  Russian tea rooms, closed down a couple days ago because of 70 per cent increase in the cost of a new lease. There is nothing about " yummy mummies", it is about landlords who are trying to get the advantage of economy and get as many benefits as they can.

I live in Camden area myself and understand how the place change into a massive Starbucks empire. All over the place there are so many cafes and just couple bars or pubs. The nicest cafes are closing down because of high rent and become a very posh people meeting point. Like Amit Jain, who runs the long-established Shepherd’s cafe, estimates that one in three businesses on the street is now selling food and drink. He said: “I don’t think people realise that soon Primrose village will be cafe village.


In my opinion, the problem is the demand of people who are living near Primrose hill. If there are so many wealth people around then obviously the price of rent will go up and landlords will take as an advantage.

Big and foolish demands taking place but do people think about others? Well, I guess no.

2 Minute Silence

One of the most touching campaign I ever found. It is all about Remembrance day to commemorate those who lost their lives at war.

In 2010, The Royal British Legion wanted to amplify messaging around the work it does supporting the Iraq and Afghan generation of serving and ex-service troops and their families. The biggest aim was to reach younger audiences via modern media and receive as much support as they can.

The strategy was set by the  Burson-Marsteller (B-M) which is leading global PR and communication firm. They decided to make a completely silent track entitled “2 Minute Silence” and releasing it into the UK music charts along with a celebrity-packed “music” video for Remembrance Sunday 2010. 

  Burson-Marsteller (B-M) campaign targeted young generation via social media: creating Facebook page, Twitter account and having "2 minute silence" on the radio. It was very successful as it reach youth centers, young communities. The campaign achieved high interest of young bloggers  which were sharing the fantastic campaign all over the world.

At the end the great results were achieved:

More than 20 leading celebrities secured to appear pro bono

More than 260 pieces of media coverage

More than 35,000 Facebook likes in three weeks

More than 200,000 views of video trailer on YouTube

More than 16 million reached through celebrity social media support

The video is really touching and emotional as there is no sound accept of background noises. It catches the attention and all the people shown in the video shows how many people support the Royal British Legion. That two minutes of silence make to respect, remember and to think about those who gave up their lives in the war. 

Who cares about confidentiality?

All PR practitioners have to follow rules and restrictions about their professionalism. I was reading the Guardian article about chef Gordon Ramsay and his published personal information which was not supposed to be to public.

According to Guardian the information was sold by Phil Hall to Daily mail and had shocking results. In a court spokesman said that Hall "absolutely" did not know the provenance of the emails but the harm was done so there are no excuses.

He made a public apology and agreed with donation to Ramsay's charity. But even the apology doesn't change the fact that PR man did not follow the rules and did not care about his client's confidentiality.
Next time he has to read the rules again!

Mission completed: 100 Club saved!

100 Club is famous for its historical heritage because it has seen performances from acts as diverse as The Sex Pistols, Muddy Waters, Hugh Masekela, Lee Konitz, Oasis, Lonnie Donnegan, Jimmy McGriff and Travis to The Clash,The White Stripes, Yank Lawson, Sinead O'Conner, Nico, Chris Barber and Beverly Knight. 

Unfortunately, the venue certainly needed help. According to Guardian. co.uk, the venue Amid rising costs, higher rent and lower revenues, the venue that helped launch acts such as the Sex Pistols was on the verge of closure. I think that government has to support such venues which are important to cultural life and music history. Especially for London, it will have better image in young peoples' eyes and more people will trust the government. 

The funny fact is that punk club was saved by Converse!!! Absolutely different attitude and understanding about music. But 100 Club was really struggling so they got a great deal and the music venue was saved and not changes. 

Still there are some questions about changing the name and becoming independent. But as Horton said: "They were the first people to come and see me and ask if they could do anything to help ... The fact that the club will remain independent [is what] appeals to them so much." 

He hopes that the club is going to be opened another 68 years.

Fingers crossed!!!

Go back to the beginning!

In the beginning of my course I had a lecture about Radio 1 and the way they work by choosing which tracks to play. We got the task to choose some song from A, B and C list and to share with others.

A list songs are the most popular and are played very usually. B are on the radio not so often maybe for a spacial day or for certain period of time. And C list songs are not popular at all, so they have a very little chance to be played. 

So may Playlist A includes these songs: 

Owl City - Strawberry avalanche
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDbguzrZap4

Tracy Chapman - Cold feet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmgxyXcpfCQ

The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS9o1FAszdk

Playlist B

Whitney Huston - Wanna dance with somebody
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH3giaIzONA

Bon Jovi - Livin' on the prayer
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDK9QqIzhwk

Lanny Kravitz - Fly away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvuL5jyCHOw

Playlist C

Fun. - We are young
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6dMFF_yts

Panic! At the Disco: - New perspective
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3sA5plF6kE&feature=related

Finch - Letters to you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_I_6lZSCnU

Social Media Week London: case study

Social Media Week is one of the world's most unique global platforms, offering a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries.

In just under three years, Social Media Week has expanded to 21 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Istanbul, London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Glasgow, Berlin, Moscow, Beirut and Hong Kong. Starting in 2012, SMW is adding Tokyo, Singapore, DC and Miami.
Annually, SMW attracts more than 60,000 attendees across thousands of individually organized events, with half a million connecting to the conference on-line and through mobile.

One of the events in London was about social videos which were the most popular on the web. During the event people could enjoy free drinks and vote for the best one and share their opinions about what they saw.

The idea about making a film from the most popular videos brought a great success and received many positive feedbacks.

One of the videos was Carlsberg advert called "The date". It was one of the best adverts I have ever seen. Rude and agressive bikers really scared off people and it was not so comfortable environment for lovely couples. The challenge was not to get confused and scared of bikers and still find the seats in the middle of the audience. And those who did it received massive applauds and cheers from all bikers. The adverts touches some key point. Firstly, the image of bikers. They are the same humans but because of their bad reputation and image people are afraid to get in touch with them. 

The Carlsberg stunt below is a good example of low-risk, high-reward guerrilla marketing. Carlsberg introduced its new strap-line at the beginning of the year to promote itself as a beer that stands for tradition, quality, great taste and right choices. This idea has been a fantastic success and with this video they made really good choice.

Lithuania's name in London Olympics 2012

London impatiently waiting for a big event and started preparing for it with new campaigns and surprises for Londoners. It's couple of months left but Tfl already started to prepare. Recently they released its Underground Olympic Legends Map, which has swapped out the names of London's 361 tube stations and replaced them with the names of famous Olympic competitors. It was created by sports journalists, Alex Trickett and David Brooks. They mentioned that they faced a few misunderstandings and conflicts about the names but they are happy what they done.

The big surprise is that one of the stations has one of the most famous basketball player's name from Lithuania.Arvydas Sabonis was the best basketball player in Lithuania as well as in United States. 

So if some people will try to analyze the map they will relate this to my country and more people will get to know about it. 

Of course, sports fans know that Lithuania is good at basketball, as it is one of the best team in Europe. But this small campaign will help to promote the country.