LBi London

Quality worth every penny…

Posted by Laura JB June 4th, 2009

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.

Tags: celebration, launch, M&S, website, work

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Refuse to be labelled: creating grass roots action for the Red Cross

Posted by Laura JB May 31st, 2009

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.

Look beyond the label from British Red Cross on Vimeo.

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).

You can check out the site and all the ways you can help here: http://www.lookbeyondthelabel.org/

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.

Tags: charity, movement, Red Cross, refugee, social networks, work

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Drawing blood…

Posted by Laura JB May 20th, 2009

Here at LBi we’ve just launched the campaign to promote D&AD New Blood’s 10th Anniversary exhibition, at the end of June. Its been a labour of love, something that I’m really proud of for the best (in my opinion) and most important part of the charity.

This campaign is about getting industry down to New Blood to support graduating students. First off don’t let’s forget the message here – we’re trying to build our collective future. New Blood has been suffering from growing apathy amongst us agency-types for a while now. In the last downturn, internships and placements just evaporated for graduates. For a few years students stepped out into an industry that just wasn’t paying attention. These graduates went elsewhere, and as anyone trying to find mid/senior talent, particularly in digital, can attest to – the whole industry lost out, and work has suffered for it. Its our collective responsibility to grow one of the most dynamic and amazing industries out there.

Call me naive (and I’m sure you will) but we wanted to try to get us all off our arses (or out of them) and take a minute to think about what New Blood is all about, where we might have been 10 years ago, and to make a personal pledge to give these new talents the support that they deserve: there’s no denying its going to be really tough for them out there.

The hero photos represent only a small part of this campaign, but a lead that we hoped would put New Blood on the industry radar again, and cause some intense discussion about why its so important (job done there, I guess ).The images are tongue-in-cheek but the message they contain is seriously important. The point is that these people aren’t the seven most important people at the event, its the students, and its also each person that stops navel-gazing and actually contributes to its success.

These industry ‘icons’ were selected because they are actively helping New Blood already, offering their scant time (extra big thanks to Nadav) and profile to help get the conversation going, and who have committed to the New Blood event – they are the first step towards creating some solidarity with our brightest young stars by challenging you to do more yourself. And it’s working.

For those that haven’t seen the whole campaign, please check it out. For those lucky enough to be judging D&AD professional and student awards this year, there was a booth set up (using the 2 of 2006’s Best New Blood Winners – David Horwich & Paul Mansley) where everyone could pledge their support… and  of course the hub of activity is that everyone is encouraged to upload their own photos or video committing to being at the event. “I’ll be there”

We’ll also be asking agencies to use their prime window real estate to create their own statements of support – a lot of us have the best street-level ad space in our areas.

On top of that we’re providing free space for all students to have a web presence within the same matrix, and a great digital system for tagging your favourite work at the event, so that all that fiddling about with trying to contact your favourite future teams afterwards is as painless as possible.

So please, continue with the discussion as much as you like, but know it came from the right place. Most importantly take a moment to think about what it was like when you were entering an industry with your vivid optimism and desire to do what we all do every day intact – and pledge your support.

After all, the more voices we get online, the more those you don’t agree with will be drowned out by the noise of the industry pulling together.

Tags: comment, D&AD, New Blood, user generated, work

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