Milestone and RAC were celebrating a win at the Corp Comms Awards this week. We won best corporate publication for the RAC Report on Motoring. It was a great team effort from everyone involved that made it an award winning entry this year. Milestone’s Peter Wilkinson and Paul Napleton from RAC accepted the award from comedian host Alun Cochrane.
This week the Milestone team have been digging out their aprons and baking in aid of Children in Need. The turn-out has been fantastic (except Peter, who is exceptionally lazy), everybody donated their yummiest cakes and biccies for the good cause.
Our vast array of treats has included: Lemon drizzle cake, banana cupcakes, cheesy scones, plum crumble cake, focaccia, Pudsey biscuits, cookies, tiffin, tarte tatin and apple traybake.
Children in Need is now richer … and we are now fatter!
If you think electric cars are for tree huggers only, think again. We went along to the RAC’s Future Car Challenge on November 5th. Like a London to Brighton run in reverse, it was a showcase for the latest EVs (electric vehicles) with a finish line in Regent Street. Grand Design’s Kevin McCloud was taking part in a Delta E4 Coupe – just one of a new wave of British electric sports cars. Pictured here is the amazing Lightning GT.
For more information about their range of electric sports cars visit the EEMS Accelerate website.
The technique of vinyl wrapping makes cars the perfect vehicle for your creative marketing ideas. Why not take a leaf out of Lex Autolease’s book and go electric too. This is the new Nissan Leaf electric car with a full body wrap designed by Milestone. Used as a city run-about it helps promote their fleet business and supports their leading edge proposition. And it’s zero emission. Why not lease one from Lex Autolease? The wrapping process is simple, using a heat shrink technique to wrap full colour printed vinyl around the bodywork. Just think of the possibilities…
I was allowed to escape from the studio yesterday to go and visit the lovely Denman team at Salon International, the main trade fair for the hair and beauty industry. Having worked on the Denman brand refresh for the last couple of years, it was very rewarding to see the stand in its full glory, complete with a huge display of the new brush packs and brochures.
Denman also had a dedicated stand for the new Jack Dean product launch which has been keeping us busy for the last year. The stand brought together all the new branded products and marketing assets with a very powerful Jack Dean look. Peter, our creative director, has used the word ‘Nowtro’, meaning – retro and yet up-to-date for the feel of the brand. (For more about Jack Dean see our case study page). Denman Marketing manager Jonathan King was full of praise for Milestone’s involvement in the look and feel of their new brand and the extremely positive response from the trade. Look out for Jack Dean at your local barbers or hairdressers. Or you can buy direct from the Denman website.
This week Milestone helped out with the judging of The Institute of Ideas Debating Matters competition – a national debate for sixth form students. I was invited to be judge at the Hertfordshire Qualifying Round at Luton Sixth Form College. The topics included; After Fukushima, The Government Should Take Tougher Action on Unhealthy Behaviour and We Should Maintain the Union.
The quality of debating was of a very high standard and the it was battled out between Ashlyns School, Luton Sixth Form College and Roundwood School. After a really impressive debate on the Scottish Union between Ashlyns and Luton, Ashlyns were decided as the overall winners.
To find out more, take a look at the Debating Matters website.
Goodwood Revival is an intoxicating mix of classic cars and shameless nostalgia. Although there is no strict dress code, most people couldn’t resist the chance to dress up in their favourite period outfits. And I (normally a fancy dress party pooper) slipped willingly into some tweeds and a flat cap.
Surprisingly, even Tesco got in to the spirit of the event with a carefully created replica of a 1960s supermarket, complete with shelves of replica retro packaging. It was a unique opportunity to see how clear, simple and bold the branding of the time was in context rather than in a museum or book. Very little 3D lettering effects or photography were used – just flat colour and bold minimalist typography.
Ironically it was even busier than the Goodwood gift shop…
I was up bright and early this morning to speak at a breakfast meeting – thankfully just down the road in my hometown of Marlow. Our client, accounting firm Rouse Partners was launching its new identity and website – courtesy of Milestone – and I was there to regale the story. The audience was a mixture of customers and contacts, marketing professionals and business owners. They’d been lured out of bed at an early hour with the promise of breakfast and branding and a guide to social media marketing. The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s head of insights Thomas Brown followed my talk with the latest thinking on social media including a host of scary statistics, examples and case studies. Apparently, there’s been more hours of film watched on YouTube than broadcast by all of America’s TV stations since 1948. The big and exciting challenge for marketers is how to form effective social media strategies – we’re all still experimenting and learning…
A quick poll of the audience identified that all were on LinkedIn except one. And only one had a website optimised for mobiles – Rouse.
For more details, slides and links visit the event page on Rouse’s website.
Brand strategy, tone of voice, ideas and innovation…
See Brand Workshops for more information.
