Go to the PrettyGreen home page | skip to main menu | skip to content

Sealed With A Loving Kick

Picture the scene.

He opens the door, walks in and the missus is standing there arms crossed with a face like thunder. Is it her birthday? Did he tread in something?! Has she seen Marilyn’s Massage Parlour on his credit card statement?! The answer to all of these of course is a resounding “no,” (unless your name is John Terry or Avram Grant) The reason he’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight is he’s forgotten the most romantic day of the year… Valentine’s Day.

Whilst the alpha-idiots try and re-assure themselves (year-on-year that) “she doesn’t want a present, she isn’t like that” or “it’s just a Hallmark holiday,” the fact of the matter remains, he’s in BIG trouble.

So this year, we felt it was about time that the saviour wasn’t at a slap-inducing bunch of weeds from the BP forecourt, but an uber-handy Valentine’s SOS package from Nando’s that is less ‘in the doghouse’ and more ‘give the dog a bone.’

All he has to do is head to one of the selected Nando’s, armed with the password from the blog and he’ll be given a free card, rose and other X-rated goodies that will put the smile firmly back on her face.

It’s as easy as 1,2,3 and  he’ll end up looking as smooth as a cashmere codpiece.

Now is it a coincidence that Nick (with some help from Hamish) were behind this promotion and that Kate and Claire have been invited to a special “hot” night out on Sunday (Peri Peri sauce anyone)

The next thing the guys have to worry about is her birthday… (now come on Keri, help them out, give them the brief).

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

All Change

chameleonWhen you walk into the office and wonder where all these people came from, you realise that you’ve actually gone from a couple of people hanging out at Red Bull to a ‘proper’ Agency.

We’ve got a few new faces on the team with Danny, Dani and Ravi, and we’ve got a few more on the way, but we’ve also lost the lovely Mike “Bronstein”, as he decided that he needed to pursue his academic pursuits and has decided to go back to college to study PR.

There also have been a number of debates:

- Should we admit we loved Celebrity Big Brother
- Should Big Brother just become Celebrity Big Brother
- Should John Terry lose is captaincy and does it matter that he plays away from home
- Is Precious a film we actually enjoyed or just that the subject matter is so harrowing it makes you feel like you should say it’s brilliant
- Is it true that a womans toilet ‘matter’ smells different to a mans (Nick, you’re a little weird)
- Is it true that we asked people to vote for us at the MCCA Awards, but the date for voting has closed

If you’re reading this you’ll also see that we’ve decided to refresh our website, great work as ever from Nat from Design Friendship (I know Chris helped but Nat actually did all the hard work) and thank you for putting up with Strings!

We’ve also got new Accountants, a new bookkeeper, a new kitchen, new campaigns about to break, and a couple of new Clients. It’s definitely all change, but hopefully its adding to what we’ve got, rather than changing it too much.

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

Red Bull Music Academy Touches Down in London

Picture 11

Getting us extremely excited in the PrettyGreen offices (and keeping us exceptionally busy) is the UK’s very first visit from the global audio extravaganza that is the Red Bull Music Academy. From 7th Feb – 12th March London’s most inspiring venues will be hosting this unique and diverse festival of sonic innovations.

The incredible line-ups feature a who’s who of music legends, including Soul ll Soul, Goldie, Carl Craig, A Guy Called Gerald, to the Heritage Orchestra, The Scientist, Roots Manuva, Red Bull Music Academy alumnus Flying Lotus, and many more. And here’s the academy bit: they’ll share studios and stages with the Academy class of 2010, 60 of the hottest young tune slingers from all around the world.

In amongst the multitude of events are a four-way soundclash dedicated to the history of Sound Systems at the Roundhouse, the finest orchestral techno-jazz explorations served up in the Royal Festival Hall, a surround soundwave assault committed deep down in the loading bay of the Royal Albert Hall, a full clip of Academy workshops, panels and performances at the ICA…..phew!……we won’t go on about it now, just click HERE for the full events calendar and get yourself down there!

However, what’s even more exciting is the fact that Red Bull’s recording studio is finished this week and we’re hoping to be able to sneak in to pretend we’re music legends (for those of us who have witnessed Claire at Lucky Voice, be afraid).

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

Stratospheric Manhattan Heights

Picture 8Our International duo, Lisa and Ravi, have returned to the PrettyGreen mothership from the uber cool and cold New York (thankfully for Lisa as she was starting to think she’d relocated to Manhattan… you are not Carrie Bradshaw!), and are still wide-eyed after involvement in the launch of Red Bull Stratos.

With a project that has been a closely guarded secret for quite some time, it was a real moment when on Friday, 22 January 2010, we saw lift off to the world.  The global news conference, with a backdrop from the spectacular 40th floor of the New York Academy of Sciences, announced the scope of the mission.

After so many months of being embedded within planning there can be a danger of losing a sense of emotional connection with a project.  However, this is a project that has never stopped keeping our brains alive, and will continue to do so as the months continue.

Lisa and Ravi were certainly kept busy whilst away, working as anyone would to launch a global project – hard! – but the exhilaration of witnessing global media interest unfold was in their words “incredible”.   The morning of the news conference started with Felix and Joe Kittinger on the sofa of NBC’s Today programme and ended quite a few hours later with Felix being interviewed by one of Sweden’s biggest tabloids.   And we have to salute a Russian TV news crew who hurriedly appeared at the conference to interview Felix ‘post jump’… ahem, a little premature.

Picture 9

Our globetrotting two also cite being a part of a first-class project and Client communications team as a real high too – with the team collectively celebrating the launch in true Manhattan style: cosmos all round.

And this is just the beginning… stayed tuned as events unfold.

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

It Could Be You

Last week Lucy spent the day at a talent I.D. session run by the British Paralympic Association, as Cadbury, provides volunteer support as part of their London 2012 sponsorship.

The day was a chance for sixty or so young men and women with various disabilities to try their hand at a number of different sports, from wheelchair tennis to sitting down volleyball, in the hope that some may have the raw talent to be signed up to the Paralympics GB squad.

The BPA say that they can turn a novice into a medal hope within 18 months so there is a very real chance some of the attendees yesterday will be on the podium in London in 2012.

The day was inspiring and educational – did you know that you don’t need to be in a wheelchair to play wheelchair basketball?

It made us think that talent I.D. days should be held for everybody, disabled and able-bodied. We may have a whole county full of people who are naturally suited to the bobsleigh but because they’ve never tried it, they stick to computer games and football instead…

What was more eye opening, was the brutal fact that most people aren’t born disabled, it’s luck or bad luck that in the majority of cases leads to a disability. We hope that London 2012, helps show the great British public that disability doesn’t mean mentally or physically unabled, it’s just (extra) ordinary people playing sport.

After last week we’ll definitely be queuing up for our tickets to the Paralympics come 2012 and will be rooting for Jeremy, Chloe, Sarah, Fiona, Liam, Stephen and Phil to all win medals!

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

To Be Alone At The Edge of Space

There’s something romantic about mans desire to push the limits, to go where no man has gone before. There’s also something very beautiful about how the world looks at 23 miles. When you combine the two, you end up with a film like this one.

We don’t think that you can help but be inspired and mesmerized by the thought of Felix stood alone at 120,000 feet, with only the sound of his breathing and one mans voice in his ear (the only other man to have achieved something similar).Then stepping off the capsule into nothing. The fear of the the unknown, the sense of there’s no turning back, combined with the adrenalin of what you’re potentially about to achieve – This is what dreams are made of and amazing to be part of this true spirit of adventure.

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

Red Bull & Felix Jump From The Edge of Space

Picture 3When you get a phone call from a Client to meet about a project, it’s not really a big deal. When you then meet the Client and they can’t talk because their sooo excited, you know you’re about to embark on something special.

When you’re then told that Red Bull and Felix Baumgartner are heading to the edge of space on a project called Red Bull Stratos, and the plan is to break four World Records, including the first person to ever travel at supersonic speed, you get why everyone’s so excited and you sign-up.

So for the last year we’ve been working on the craziest project anyone’s ever been involved in. Lisa’s spent more time living out of hotels in the US than in the UK, with camera crews, scientists, astronauts, fighter pilots, space suit makers (yes people hand make space suits), and it’s great to be able to finally reveal Red Bull Stratos.

Here’s to the next 3 months and helping create a bit of history as well as helping further the cause of space travel.

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

PrettyGreen Best Newcomer MCCA Awards?

On Valentines Day last year we commented on how interesting the MCCA Award nominations were and how one day we hope to be able to throw our hat in the ring (click here to have a re-read)

Well 10 months on, here we are, hat in the ring and shortlisted as Best Newcomer. Have to say we’re pretty happy with that. We’re up against Table 19 and Life Marketing Consultancy, not sure what the competitions like, but imagine it’s good – May the best hat win.

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

Marketing Neologisms

Picture 7We were reading through a media presentation yesterday and we stumbled across the wonderfully silly  word (we’re being kind) VIRALOSITY. What does it mean, we hear you cry? Being clever marketing people we realised it meant the speed at which a viral video speeds across the internet to impregnate the lives of digital explorers – Or at least we think that is what it means.

Always delivered in meetings like they are actual words they so quickly become part of the marketing vernacular and we accept them as the norm. So, it our own etymological study we thought we would paw over and enjoy some brilliant examples of words and phrases that we have heard and admittedly used recently.

  • Greenlining – making your office more ‘green’ (we think)
  • Infomotion – fast moving information
  • Brandstorming – ideas for brands
  • Interflop – a failed website
  • Twiggles – Laughing outloud at a Twitter post
  • Downtrending – not sure
  • Eventize – making an event out of something
  • Recessionista – Ew!

Basically what this shows you is that as marketeers we haven’t got enough to do and not only do we not have enough to do, we also believe that current 500k words that are in the Oxford English dictionary aren’t enough and we need some more.

For the record Shakespeare had 50k words to draw from and he seemed to do alrighterville.

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd

Two thousand and then…

Picture 1As we crawl out of our imposed hibernation from the comfort of our family homes, we realize with harsh reality that watching re-runs of The Wizard of Oz and every episode of Come Dine with Me is not normal or acceptable behaviour. Fortunately not everyone spent their Christmas under a blanket as some people (namely Strings and Emma) have returned with sickeningly glorious tans. Humph! Christmas sun is a clever option and snow is just cold (yes Strings we know you like Dubai, but we didn’t go, so enough now).

But back at our desks and thawing out we’re ready for a year ofcultural stimulation and mind expansion… Our collective resolution being to do a few things we have never done before as well as doing more of the things we love; go to more gigs, book a theatre ticket once in a while, attend a lecture at the school life, send birthday cards, ride a horse, … in fact if you want some really good suggestions then Time Out have compiled a superb list of quirky ideas with not one mention of joining the gym or putting down our wine glasses. We are working our way through things to do:

Weirdly, it was Vampires, that prompted Mike to start fulfilling his ‘get active’ resolution and go to more gigs which also prompted the debate about the recent obsession with the fictional blood-sucking creatures! Moonlight, Twilight, Being Human… they’re everywhere!

What’s the fascination? Half the office would say it was the fantastical and exotic depiction of forbidden love, the other half would say ‘vampires aren’t real and this obsession is very silly’.  The initiative that caught Mike’s eye, however, was from Vampire Weekend who are working with Rough Trade and giving away free tickets to their exclusive gig to anyone who buys a copy of their album. Smart! These are clearly clever and wise vampires and they can stay. The rest can go straight to DVD.

Note to Mike: Getting more active does not mean walking to Virgin Active every lunchtime just to swipe your card and earn more vitality points – it’s not illegal but it is cheating- tut tut! Get ye to squash club – Nick’s new ‘get active’ project for the New Year. We will see how that fares.

Sticking with ‘getting out more’ and Red Bull Music Academy has announced its event programme for London and it’s looking incredible. Confirmed sites so far, for this epic month of music include The Royal Festival Hall, The Roundhouse, Southbank Centre and The ICA plus a unique Roller Disco, a 3D SoundClash an event devoted to the history of Sound Systems (Metalheadz, Soul II Soul, Trojan) and a special edition of Book Slam: Check out the full listings here… and there’s still even more to come…

So the snows melting, our brains are thawing out and we’re nearly back in the swing of things, but it’s got to be said, it’s not been easy landing in 2010, but there’s definitely a sense of excitement in the air.

Pass it on...
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Tipd