Friday 23 December 2011

Happy Christmas - and what a year!












What a year 2011 has been!

We started off freezing in the January rain, working alongside ActionAid to create the world’s first ‘Happy Bubble’, a place where the best things in life were given freely to passers-by, alongside giant plasmas playing footage of the life saving work that the charity does in the developing world. Together with our survey, which revealed the things that truly make us happy, we achieved wipe out national broadsheet and tabloid coverage and quite a few radio interviews. We’re proud to say that we were chosen to be featured in PR Week’s Campaigns of 2011 (at news-stands right now!) for this very successful integrated communications strategy.

March saw us manning the media room at WOW, the inaugural Women of the World festival at London’s Southbank Centre. We were excited to be working with Annie Lennox, Kate Nash, Paloma Faith and VV Brown. Thank you to Grazia, the Daily Mirror, Radio 4 and Marie Claire for some great press support.

As spring and the Royal Wedding approached, we were delighted to learn that our jewellery client Robinson Pelham had been asked to design a collection of jewellery for HRH the Duchess of Cambridge to wear on her wedding day. The pieces they created are now recognised all over the world, and our invitation to comment on the wedding live from the media centre at Buckingham Palace meant that we had the ear of the most influential global media. It was a day we’ll definitely not forget in a hurry!

As summer set in, we had to fire fight for online dating client, BeautifulPeople.com, which once more had to cull members who didn’t belong on the site. The decision to remove 30,000 ‘shreks’ went viral – for the third time in twelve months, the site was featured across global news platforms, from tv and radio to websites and blogs.

Our campaign brought us to the attention of Pussy 100% Natural Energy Drinks, who were gearing up for a global launch with investment from Holly and Sam Branson.



This announcement received over 3,000 pieces of online coverage and a great piece in the Sunday Times. Here’s what we got up to with the Bransons and Jonnie Shearer at the Kensington Roof Gardens one blustery autumn day!


On the 21st of September, it was peace day. Golden Goose PR manned the press office leading up to the event, and the media room at the O2 Arena for the live Peace One Day concert. Broadsheet, radio, showbiz and entertainment media gave us a great show and helped us launch the countdown to the first ever global truce day: the date for your diaries is 21st September 2012.


Towards the end of the summer, we worked with the late, great Gerald Laing; the British pop artist whose striking portraits of Brigitte Bardot and Amy Winehouse are instantly recognisable throughout the world. Gerald was planning his Amy Winehouse tribute exhibition at Thomas Gibson Fine Art in Mayfair. Thank you to Aidan Radnedge at Metro for featuring the exhibition so prominently. We were very sad to hear only a month later that Gerald, aged 75, had passed away. It is a huge honour to us that we worked on what turned out to be his last exhibition.

October and November also came with heart warming projects; firstly for the British Red Cross, to create and man the world’s first ‘Food Insecurity Market’ (we simultaneously contained a front page news crisis for our client Jani-King live from Spitalfields) and then for the European launch of mothers2mothers, an incredible charity that reaches one in five of the world’s HIV positive women. It was wonderful to work with Annie Lennox, XIX and the amazing Kim Chappell of Chappel Productions once again.


As November drew to an end we were busy celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Royal Exchange as a luxury shopping centre with the Girly Show.


Finally, we’ve gotten up to a great deal in December. But if we tell you about just one thing, it has to be the fact we generated over 100 pieces of coverage this month for one client alone: Access Self Storage. Our ‘countdown to Christmas’ advent idea, revealing a room at a different Access Self Storage filled with toys donated for local children’s charities has been an out-of-this-world success. It even got Julien Macdonald to donate Fashion Barbies at his local store!

As the New Year approaches, we have two new wins to announce. One is the most exciting digital fashion launch for young women and the other is an iconic cartoon character that anyone who grew up in the 80’s will love and know. But that’s all we can say for now!

We are really looking forward to the next 12 months.

HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS!!!!

Wednesday 14 December 2011

The Snow Queen casts a spell over the heart of the City

In early December, as excited children eagerly opened advent calendars and edited letters to Santa, a magical spell was cast over the Square Mile.

Christmas in the City was the brainchild of the Cheapside Initiative. For the very first time the Dickensian thoroughfare became a traffic free zone as a Bollywood Brass Band, St. Paul's Choir and mince pie enthusiasts came together for a day of festive retail Nirvana.

Further delights were in store at luxury shopping and dining destination the Royal Exchange.

Visitors to the Grade 1 listing building were invited to open a magical jewellery box and awaken an enchanted Snow Queen who lay sleeping inside. Situated between the pillars of the main entrance, the art deco box – over-spilling with pearls and trinkets large enough to grace the necks of a giant - had a spell cast over it every hour, when the Snow Queen rose from her wintry slumber and danced for all to see. Bustling shoppers could not help but be distracted as the Snow Queen ballerina pirouetted to the Nutcracker Suite, illuminating the heart of the City.

Golden Goose PR worked with installation artist Emma Winter to build the gigantic jewellery box and bring the City to life. Please visit Emma's site to see more of her fantastic creations.