Independent PR and Digital agency, The PHA Group, announces its appointment by HiPP Organic (UK), the family run business that has been producing organic baby food for over 60 years. Founded in 1932, HiPP Organic continues to be a family run business, today led by Stefan Hipp. Championing natural ingredients, organic quality produce and animal welfare, HiPP Organic also announced in 2022 it is now climate positive. This means proudly working to reduce and offset emissions, to become the world’s first baby food and care manufacturer to offer climate positive products. The PHA Group has been appointed to support online growth of the UK website. Through a combined SEO and PPC strategy, PHA will be working to drive online success across HiPP’s range of organic products and increase awareness of the popular HiPP BabyClub. The PHA Group brings digital expertise spanning SEO, PPC, Insights and Content across PHA’s London and regional offices in Manchester and Leeds.
Digital marketing agency, ClickThrough Marketing, has opened a second office, located in central Manchester, alongside their already established Lichfield office. With several ClickThrough employees based in the North of England, specifically Manchester, it was the perfect place for a new hub to open. The new office gives ClickThrough Marketing’s employees a second base to work from. The Manchester office will also serve as a new meeting space for clients based in the north of the country. Post-pandemic, both staff members and clients are favouring face-to-face meetings, and with this office expansion, clients based in the north will be able to meet up with their ClickThrough Marketing teams more regularly with a shorter travel time.
Nordic event agency group LIWLIG, has acquired Danish event agency Welcome A/S, one of the largest event agencies in Denmark, with revenue of around €6 million. Welcome provides event and meeting services for most industries, with special emphasis on the healthcare, IT, finance, industry and shipping industries. The acquisition is an important strategic milestone for LIWLIG Group in its Nordic expansion, as it enters the Danish market, and thus has operations in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Welcome’s owners will continue working in the company, while becoming shareholders of the LIWLIG Group. Welcome joins Finnish and Swedish market leaders Tapaus and Eventyr Nine Yards in the LIWLIG Group, as well as previously acquired Norwegian 6. Sans. LIWLIG Group event agencies produce over 1 000 events in around 50 countries yearly. The group aims to reach an annual revenue of around €100m in 2023, and it has around 260 employees. Welcome will provide new services within LIWLIG Group in the form of facilitated events, which will be available in all the Nordic markets. In addition, the acquisition brings the global competencies of LIWLIG Group to Welcome’s clients, bringing a real competitive advantage in a Danish market mostly populated by local event agencies.
Creative agency Impero unites with International Development Charity, Christian Aid, to deliver an inspiring campaign centred around five powerful messages of hope. Brought to life by a Ugandan artist and transformed into a stained glass-inspired ‘Beacon of Hope’- the extraordinary installation will be erected on the grounds of Southwark Cathedral between the 16th – 29th January. Bursting with light and colour, the three-metre-tall beacon, a first of its kind, is designed to lift the spirits of the nation on Blue Monday whilst raising awareness of injustices and inequality. The activation forms part of Impero’s wider creative platform, ‘United by Hope’, to demonstrate how injustice can be overcome when we take a positive stance. The bright five-sided stained-glass prism, lit from within, conveys important messages around food, equality, health, climate, and injustice. Goodstuff Communications will take the installation online through a bespoke media partnership with Time Out London. Through their social accounts, Christian Aid will sponsor Time Out’s popular First Look social series which will deliver beautifully shot content of the installation itself through their backstage pass type filming style. Christian Aid will also be the key feature in their “Blue Monday Beaters” listicle – 7 things to do in London to beat the Jan blues this week.
CanopyCloud has announced it has rebranded as Storyteq, bolstering its automation capabilities to help major clients including Renault and Haleon with savings of 50% per campaign and 40% of their marketing operation costs. Storyteq is an end-to-end creative marketing operations platform built on a powerful creative automation engine, that enables brands to collaborate, scale, and activate their marketing campaigns in a faster and more cost-effective way. The platform supports both marketing and creative teams to collaborate through full end-to-end creative work management, dynamic workflows and seamless approvals. They are empowered to scale creative production through automation, and activate campaigns of any size through easy localisation of omnichannel assets (including TV, online video, banners and print) to deploy content across multiple markets and touchpoints. Through Storyteq’s end-to-end ecosystem, marketing teams are afforded greater control over their creative production process and distribution on a global level through the construction of a creative infrastructure from a single platform.
Louis Vuitton has launched a brand-new collection with world renowned artist Yayoi Kusama. To celebrate the launch in a standout way, Louis Vuitton has projected a colourful, moving Yayoi Kusama polka dot design onto the façade of Harrods; the first brand ever to do this. Running from 6th January – 13th February, Kusama’s mesmerising, multicoloured, and immersive, vision will inhabit the iconic department store. Lighting up the entire Harrods building façade with the new Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama polka dot artwork, the design continues to evolve using Harrods’ façade as the canvas, running from Sunday 9th – 18th January. Alongside the Harrods façade, Louis Vuitton is taking over the historic Piccadilly Circus Lights OOH site, currently showing a 3D version of the new Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama suitcase line. In addition, a 30-minute domination of the site took place at 7pm on Friday 6th January. To add further exposure, similar ads can be seen at other OOH sites such as the Brompton Banner and Knightsbridge Gateway to be unmissable in the area until the end of January. To spread word of the campaign even further, special Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama ads are running in print across the Times, Telegraph and a never been done before full wrap of the Financial Times. A vertical skylight is running on the Telegraph in another media first. The campaign is underpinned by digital activity running across Vogue and Elle to tap into fashion and luxury audiences online, as well as a WeTransfer takeover. The campaign will also see takeover formats running on Pinterest and TikTok, as well as a lens on Snapchat to further engage audiences. This is alongside further activity on Meta, all of which will be running until 27th February. Media planning and buying has been handled by LVMH’s media agency Publicis Media Luxe, with projection activity led by brand experience agency ENERGY, in partnership with Pixel Artworks.
Sandsoft Games, the mobile-first game developer, publisher and investor powered by AAA talent, has proudly announced that it has invested USD $3.25 million (EUR €3 million) in The Tiny Digital Factory (TDF), an independent developer of world-class mobile racing and motorsport games. The investment in the France and Canada-based studio represents a significant addition to Sandsoft Games’ portfolio and will enable the two companies to continue to trailblaze player-first mobile gaming experiences into 2023 and beyond. Sandsoft Games has an established global presence, including its flagship internal game development studio and publishing team based in Riyadh, as well as further publishing teams in Barcelona, Helsinki, and Shanghai. The Sandsoft Games leadership is driven by senior games industry talent, including CEO David Fernandez, and Head of Publishing, Miikka Lindgren, who will team up with The Tiny Digital Factory’s highly experienced team to expand the studio’s successful game development plans. Additionally, Sandsoft will publish TDF’s games in the MENA region, taking advantage of its localization and marketing capabilities to attract players from the Arab world. The Tiny Digital Factory is led by a veteran of iconic racing game franchises such as Test Drive Unlimited and V-Rally, Stéphane Baudet, who has since created successful mobile-first games including GT Manager.
Onfido, the global automated identity verification provider, announced it has achieved certification for high confidence profile H1A under the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (the trust framework). The certification serves use cases where a higher confidence level in digital identity verification is required. The trust framework is part of the UK government’s wider plan to make it easier and more secure for people to prove their identity online. It provides a set of rules for organisations to adhere to in order to provide secure and trustworthy digital identity. The Home Office now recommends companies use identity service providers (IDSPs) that meet the trust framework standards for Right to Work, Right to Rent and Disclosure and Barring Service’s (DBS) screening checks.
Productsup, the product-to-consumer (P2C) software company, has officially announced that L’Oréal Australia & New Zealand (ANZ), part of L’Oréal Group, the leading beauty player, has selected the Productsup P2C platform to enhance its commerce operations by delivering rich, relevant, and accurate product information to consumers. As its feed management partner, Productsup will help accelerate L’Oréal ANZ’s go-to-market strategy in the APAC region, enabling the company to reach more consumers across more channels than ever before. Productsup’s P2C platform enables L’Oréal ANZ to gain complete visibility over its product feeds and automate manual processes, providing the control and agility needed to manage a strong omnichannel brand presence regardless of the channel.
Krispy Kreme has launched the world’s first SADvert, a light-emitting billboard designed to help boost the moods of Brits struggling with the lack of sunlight in January. The idea was created and launched by integrated PR & social agency Good Relations with support from sister agency VCCP Media as well as Open Outdoor and Clear Channel UK. The SADvert campaign has been developed in response to research from Krispy Kreme which reveals that one in five Brits admit to getting no more than 15 minutes of sun each day during January even though more than half of us (56%) believe direct sunlight is the best way to boost a low mood. Krispy Kreme intends for the joyful special build site to be a welcome addition to passers-by in January when sunlight levels are at their lowest and those suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) may be struggling the most. To activate the billboard passers-by will just need to touch a button for light therapy. The high-impact 3D special build site has been constructed in Salford, a location selected due to the region getting less than 2 hours of sunlight per day on average during January. The billboard features giant decorative doughnuts from the brand’s irresistible new 195 calorie range including the iconic Original Glazed, Berry Burst and Lemon Crunch in the Krispy Kreme dozen box. The SADvert campaign has been created to launch Krispy Kreme’s new creative platform, Joy Unboxed, as the brand sets out to lift the mood across the nation by creating chain reactions of joy.
Violife, the maker of vegan cheeses, launches its latest unmissable OOH Veganuary campaign with the help of its media agency VCCP Media to encourage people to introduce plant-based cheese into their diets. Following the success of last year’s Veganuary campaign and their activation campaign centred around the Clapham Colossus in October last year, the ‘Veganuary 2023’ campaign aims to continue to build brand fame and ensure it is front of mind for people who are looking to try alternative dairy products around the world when it comes to buying alternative cheese products. This year their hero OOH activity will take place in Shoreditch, which has a well known eclectic dining scene that features many vegan restaurants. The campaign will appear on the Shoreditch Canvas, which is the heart and soul of the area and is one of the most impactful advertising sites in the capital city. The Canvas is unique as it incorporates two individual banners encasing a central portrait digital screen with the additional option of the neighbouring 96 sheet. Data reveals that the brand’s ethical eater audience – vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians – spend nearly 2 hours a day exposed to OOH, more than the average adult. The billboard created in house by Violife features two people, one enjoying pizza and the other enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich on either side of a digital ad showing a lasagne with the tagline ‘Cheezy… the way you like it’.
whynow, the UK-based media company, has announced a three year partnership with CNN International Commercial to relaunch its award-winning digital platform, Great Big Story. The agreement between whynow and CNN will see the former restarting the popular video storytelling brand with new and existing content. Between 2015 and 2020, Great Big Story created mini-docs, series and films about the people, places and things that change the way we see the world – and each of our individual roles within it. Launched by CNN, Great Big Story told thousands of stories from over 100 countries, winning awards and critical acclaim along the way. whynow will be re-launching Great Big Story in early 2023 with new content from around the world, but will keep all the favourites that have kept followers coming back to the site over the years. The Great Big Story brand identity and social channels will remain the same as under its previous ownership at CNN, meaning fans won’t need to change their viewing habits or follow new accounts in order to keep up with the content they love. Based in London, the whynow production team will be working with crews around the globe to keep telling the engaging, captivating and awe-inspiring stories loved by GBS audiences.
Last mile delivery specialist, Stuart, is partnering with bodo, a logistics platform for eCommerce brands, to provide sustainable, same day and instant deliveries across London. The collaboration will enable eCommerce brands to provide their customers with more flexible and convenient delivery options, as consumer demand grows for rapid turnaround on items. Stuart saw a 255% volume increase from October to December in 2022 in bodo deliveries, with volumes for the first week of January 2023 amounting to almost double that of the whole of October. Through their partnership, Stuart and bodo will provide a broad range of fast and convenient delivery options for partner brands, helping to continue the growth trends seen at the end of last year and into 2023. The Hyperlocal deliveries provided will allow customers to access a precise 30 minute delivery, whilst the partnership will also enable a city-wide, same day service, using a fleet of 100% electric vans.
