Cadbury FC, the brand’s partnership with the nation’s favourite football clubs, is launching a new content push featuring football legend Ian Wright as part of its Club Together community initiative, to support Grenfell Athletic FC. The campaign was developed in partnership with creative agency elvis, global marketing agency MKTG Sports + Entertainment and Grenfell Athletic FC’s creative agency, Brothers & Sisters. Earlier this year, Cadbury kicked off the new phase of its Club Together programme by pooling the resources of 14 top professional clubs to create a ‘Common Ground’ for Grenfell Athletic FC – a pitch to act as a home for Grenfell’s Men’s and Women’s teams, where the wider community could come together. The brand donated much-needed assets to the club, such as goal posts, dugouts, training equipment and expertise from their league club partners, while the Cadbury Foundation also made a cash donation. To mark the installation of the new Common Ground pitch at Grenfell Athletic FC, Cadbury hosted a launch football match, inviting ambassadors and club legends including Wes Brown and Carlo Cudicini to watch a game between Grenfell Athletic FC and Cadbury All Stars, where attendees enjoyed an afternoon of music, food and drink to celebrate the opening. Following the match and as the culmination of the campaign, elvis has partnered with Cadbury FC to produce an emotive 5-minute film celebrating the success of the Common Ground initiative, starring football legend Ian Wright. The spot sees Wright introducing Grenfell Athletic FC before meeting its founder, Rupert Taylor, who talks about how he launched the club and worked with Cadbury FC to help the club grow. The film also tells the story of the launch match, revealing how it came together and showcasing some of its highlights, thanks to the generosity of its club partners.
Samsung has unveiled the Samsung Gaming Hub Challenge, the first ever livestreamed gaming event on London’s 3D Piccadilly Circus screen.The initiative was developed in partnership with Cheil UK. Samsung is aiming to connect with gamers and non-gamers through a captivating and thrilling world-first livestreamed gaming event, which will see influencers @ApparentlyJxck and @Vatira5 go head-to-head playing Epic Games’ Rocket League in a live battle, with the winner taking the title of Samsung Gaming Hub Champion. Leveraging these gaming influencers and their followers, the initiative seeks to tap into gaming communities and also engage with non-gamers, creating buzz and excitement, and driving appeal for the Samsung Gaming Hub and associated products. In the run up to the event, Samsung and Cheil built anticipation by highlighting friendly rivalry between @ApparentlyJxck and @Vatira5, with engaging communications running across digital and social channels. The brand invited followers and fans to watch the live head-to-head battle online while it could also be seen on the famous Piccadilly Circus screen. At 4pm on the 15th of December, Samsung will take over the Piccadilly Circus screen with a 30-minute live 3D broadcast, including live gameplay from Samsung’s King’s Cross store, and ad breaks featuring game-related Samsung products. Whether watching online or in attendance at the event, fans will be able to interact with the live gameplay by sending a selection of emoji reactions, to appear on the big screen. The live event is being amplified with activity across Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and S.com, supported by PR.
Independent creative agency Pablo has launched the Pablo Living Wage, guaranteeing all full-time staff a minimum annual salary of £30,000 next year. This is in a bid to tackle both the diversity crisis in advertising and soften the cost-of-living impact for junior staff. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that young people from privileged backgrounds are five times more likely to make it in the creative industries compared with their less privileged counterparts. Pablo hopes their new living wage initiative will help redress this imbalance which also sees just 8.1% of the 1.9 million jobs in the creative industries filled by those from underrepresented groups. The aim is to create an industry where all members of society have equal opportunity and challenge the notion it’s only for the privileged few. Pablo’s launch of the industry’s first Gender Neutral Parental Leave policy last year was the start of the agency taking action to meaningfully open-up an industry in desperate need of diversification and better representation – a problem only being exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. This is just the beginning of Pablo’s focus on tackling one of the often-forgotten pillars of DE&I: Access. The Pablo Living Wage is Pablo’s first step on their journey to opening up access to our industry and creating more tangible opportunities to individuals who might not otherwise have been considering or aware of the careers here. Their next step will focus on a radical overhaul of recruitment practices as well as the acceleration of the Pablo Starters programme supporting entry level talent from ‘non advertising’ backgrounds and without higher education into an apprenticeship style programme that develops skills from the ground up. As it stands, the national minimum wage equates to £18,964 annually, and the London Living Wage £23,302.50. This means that those team members earning the Pablo living wage will be £6,697 better off.
Manchester-based brand & communications agency, Agent, is proud to announce that its annual ‘All You Read is Love’ campaign has so far donated £14,000 worth of books to children in the region. Now in its fourth year, this impressive achievement exceeds the initial goal of £10,000, making this year’s campaign the most successful to date. Agent, in partnership with global book distributor Publiship, launched the ‘All You Read is Love’ campaign with the objective of countering the impact of reduced book budgets on young people in Greater Manchester. The campaign aims to spread the joy of reading and improve literacy levels among children facing socio-economic challenges. Working closely with clients and partners, Agent has created a cherished tradition with ‘All You Read is Love.’ This year, in collaboration with Publiship, the agency called upon individuals across the region to participate by donating new or excellently conditioned children’s books at their Manchester and Liverpool Studios. These books will be distributed to charities and community groups working with children in the North West region. The impact of the campaign has been substantial. Last year, Agent gifted over £8,000 worth of diverse books to more than 1,000 young people, including works by renowned authors, emerging talents, and voices from BAME and LGBTQ+ communities. In support of this year’s campaign, Publiship rallied numerous publishers to donate hundreds of books, demonstrating their commitment to making a positive difference.
Immediate Media has partnered with Morrisons to launch the Host with the Most Awards: a multi-platform campaign and competition that celebrates the unsung champions of the Christmas feast. The Host with the Most awards will shine a spotlight on culinary masterpieces and festive heroes, urging the nation to nominate those bringing loved ones together during this special season. Accolades include ‘Show-stopping centrepieces’, ‘Prep like a pro’ and ‘Love your leftovers’. A panel of expert judges from Immediate Media’s food team and Morrisons will acknowledge the magic-makers in various categories. Morrisons is targeting home cooks in two of the UK’s most beloved brands synonymous with Christmas – BBC Good Food and Radio Times. With these brands reaching 51% of all UK adults this holiday season, Morrisons will remain at the forefront of everyone’s minds during this festive period. A dedicated microsite will bring some festive cheer with the heartwarming stories of the winners and will also include a definitive guide to hosting tips from the winners. It will offer mouthwatering recipe inspiration and a treasure trove of tips and tricks from BBC Good Food experts – all designed to give Morrison’s seasonal produce the perfect stage. It will also showcase the best competition entries on a rotating carousel. The campaign will reach millions of Christmas planners and hosts on various platforms including: landing page takeovers of key Christmas content across Immediate’ market leading food portfolio and Radio Times.com, a social media outreach and traffic campaign promoting the Host with the Most winners through BBC Good Food’s channels, a print advertorial in the Christmas issue of BBC Good Food with a QR code for microsite access as well as an e-newsletter, and a pioneering collaboration between BBC Good Food and a commercial partner on TikTok for six ‘Hosting Made Easy’ videos. The partnership was developed by Wavemaker and Immediate’s award-winning content studio, Imagine, who oversaw the creative strategy, development and execution of the partnership, including video content and imagery.
Brand communications agency, Scoop, has extended its partnership with hospitality industry trade show, Northern Restaurant & Bar, and the UK’s biggest LGBTQ+ radio station, Gaydio, to deliver PR and event support in 2024. After the inaugural awards ceremony in 2023, Scoop will be partnering with Gaydio, once again to deliver the full press office and event support for the 2024 Gaydio Pride Awards, which celebrate the extraordinary efforts that bring Pride to every corner of the UK. Also joining the agency’s events roster for 2024, having worked with the team for the last two years, is Northern Restaurant & Bar, now run by Diversified Communications. Scoop will be responsible for a hard-working press office aimed at cementing NRB’s reputation as the leading event in the North for operators and suppliers in the hospitality industry.
Initials CX has announced that it has been appointed as Pilgrim’s Food Masters’ consumer experience agency as the result of a competitive pitch process following a strategic review. The agency was selected thanks to its strong legacy experience in FMCG and brand activation credentials. The appointment comes as part of Pilgrim’s Food Masters’ wider strategic drive towards developing their iconic brands in 2024 and beyond. Stretching across various channels, the agency’s remit will include social, experiential, influencer and digital, to help Pilgrim’s Food Masters’ reach consumers in all stages of their purchase journey. The first piece of work will be going live in the new year.
Independent digital agency, Embryo, is celebrating a strong end to 2023 after taking home the Best Use of Search B2B (PPC Large) award at the prestigious UK Search Awards. Their work on TIO was remarked to embody “Unprecedented PPC practices yielding transformative results”. Earlier this year the agency was shortlisted for an impressive 13 categories, and at the awards ceremony last week the team celebrated one fantastic win, making it a hatrick of awards over the last three years for the PPC team at Embryo.