Just launched by us here at LBi: a new site to support one of our biggest clients for their birthday. Marks and Spencer’s 125th Anniversary is not only an in-store celebration, but a fabulous exhibition called “Marks in Time” in Leeds which will show off their continued history of innovation and ethical production. Our task has been to support that exhibition, and to add conversation and continued development to the show over its 3 year exhibition period.
Growing from a penny stall so many years ago, did you know that M&S was the first supermarket to sell fresh chicken? The first to produce a mass-market melt-in-the-middle chocolate pud? And through Plan A, the first to go hydrogenated trans-fat free, and to only use free-range eggs, even in cooked produce? Well, neither did we, but surfacing these fascinating facts, and others, is one of the reasons that we’ve just loved this project so much. Focussing on 7 product innovation stories through time, the site both gives a taste of the show itself and an opportunity for people to add their thoughts and memories about M&S though writing online ‘postcards”.
Utilising large areas of Flash video (filmed in our basement in conjunction with Agenda Collective) and subtle sounds to bring the historical tableaux to life, it brings a little bit of the contemporary M&S sexiness to their wonderful history.
Through the great team in EPR we launched the 2009 campaign for Red Cross in support of Refugee Week this week.
The Red Cross is asking everyone to look beyond the label of “refugee” often placed on people,a label that’s so damaging and impersonal – and to see refugees for who they really are and what they contribute to the UK.
Not content with resting on our 2008 award-winning laurels in terms of creating PR for the event, we’ve gone bigger and better this year. We’ve created a short film (in conjunction with the brilliant Agenda Collective) starring Mission Impossible 2 and Desperate Housewives star Dougray Scott, highlighting the plight of refugees in the UK and surfacing some of their stories.
But the real meat of the campaign we’ve created is an online movement to allow individuals to show support for the cause by participating in grass-roots action:
The idea couldn’t be simpler: we’re asking people to change their online status on the 15th June (the start of Refugee Week). To ‘look beyond the label’ by replacing their profile pictures and status, tweeting about it, blogging about it and adding the call to action to their email signatures to encourage the viral spread of the action. We’re hoping to create something a little like an Earth Hour movement here (not as big, but then Earth Hour started off small at first too).
The success of the campaign depends on its viral reach, so we’re asking everyone we know to please contribute where you can. Changing your email signature over the next 3 weeks to incorporate the message is a good first step (full instructions here: http://www.lookbeyondthelabel.org/email.html); but please take a minute out of your day on the 15th or before to change your Facebook/Twitter profile pics, change your status, and make a visible show of support for the Red Cross through all your social networks. The video is on vimeo which you can link and embed into your blogs etc too.
Its amazing what a little bit of seeding even just from friends will accomplish in getting it out there.
