MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM EVERYONE AT ST LUKE'S

With only 4 days to go, here are 4 elftastic members of our team to get you in the festive mood!

And if that's not enough... have a cheeky look at our festive homepage to see what these pictures are all about!! Visit our festive homepage!

Dad Dancing Elf!

Twinkle Toes Elf

Karate Kid Elf!

"Look mum no hands" Elf 

Paid Client Services Internship

Fancy becoming part of the team?

We are looking for a Client Services Intern to help support our Account Management team. 

To find out more contact lpoole@stlukes.co.uk for all the details.

Strongbow wins Heineken marketing award

A hugh congratulations to the Strongbow team at Heineken who won the best brand comms award last week at their internal marketing award ceremony!

You definitely did EARN IT!

A star studded evening at the Very on ice fashion show!

Earlier this week we were lucky enough to be invited to watch the Very.co.uk fashion show on ice at the Tower of London.

We had a brilliant night watching the spectacular show which was packed full of the latest Very fashions and had fun spotting all the stars from TOWIE and MIC who also turned up for the evening!

We even saw our Very HQ girls swapping their roller skates for ice skates!

If you missed out then you can watch the video here - Very on ice video

And check us out below in our front row seats! :)

Check out our special behind the scenes footage from the Littlewoods Christmas ad shoot! We have exclusive interviews with Myleene Klass and Santa Claus himself! 

Our new Christmas ad for Very.co.uk!

Following the success of our Autumn TV advert,

 our brand new Christmas ad for Very.co.uk has just launched!

Watch Holly Willoughby & Fearne Cotton solve all your Christmas dilemmas...

Paloma Faith's new video directed by our very own Si Allen!

We are very excited  to announce that our very own in house director Si Allen has produced Paloma Faith’s new music video for her latest single ‘Never Tear Us Apart’. Si’s artistic creation sees the British singer performing the track in a large theatre for a single male audience member whom she has fallen for.   Its already had a third of a million hits!   Loving your work Si! 

Littlewoods Christmas is coming...

3 days to go......

The Clothes Throw 2012

Came across this lovely charity idea where celebs are invited to donate their clothing and accessories to be auctioned to raise funds for the UK's busiest children's hospital, Alder Hey.

Littlewoods.com will be this year's official sponsors and some of our Shop Direct ladies, Coleen and Fearne are some of the celebs who are donating their gladrags! Other celebs include Paloma Faith, Shirley Bassey, Kimberley Walsh, Joan Collins and Wayne Rooney. 

You can view the items donated here and make a bid:
http://www.theclothesthrow.com

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/25/4937906/information-about-the-clothes.html#storylink=cpy

Very Autumn Ad - what went on behind the scenes

Have you managed to catch our new Very.co.uk advert on TV yet?

See how it all came together in our behind the scenes video: 

Our new Very.co.uk ‘Style Superhero’ advert

Exiting news! Our latest TV ad for Very.co.uk went on air last night during the X Factor!

The ad which features Holly Willoughby and Fearne Cotton shows how you can turn to Very.co.uk to help you get the style confidence you need whatever the situation.


Check out the video below to see how Very helped one girl out in a sticky situation....

Littlewoods Behind the Scenes

We had great fun interviewing Myleene, the models and of course 'Mr Gammon' (the costume designer/stylist) on the Littlewoods Autumn 'Behind the Scenes'! Also just heard that the dress she's wearing has gone on to become Littlewoods' FIRST EVER social media sell out - great news!

"Great looking, supportive underwear" Says Myleene!

Good for her! Myleene is looking stunning in her new Lingerie range for Littlewoods.

Playground: New Littlewoods ad

We are very excited to see the new Littlewoods Autumn advert on air fronted by the lovely Myleene Klass. The ad shows Myleene floating around a beautiful, nostalgic playground, the magic of the ‘Littlewoods touch’ and some beautiful cosy and stylish Autumn outfits from Littlewoods. The quirky track ‘White Nights’ is performed by Oh Land.

Check out the ad here. Enjoy!

HOMAGE TO USAIN

For everyone who cheered on Usain Bolt in the race last night, here's a tactical ad we've put together for Strongbow.

MYLEENE - NEW FACE OF LITTLEWOODS

Excited to hear that the lovely Myleene Klass has just been unveiled as the new face of Littlewoods. Here she is in a one shoulder maxi dress from her own Littlewoods collection, looking completely unfazed that she has a cheetah sitting at her feet.

Saturday saw our first piece of work run for Littlewoods - sponsorship idents for ITV's Andrew Lloyd Webber show 'Superstar'. 

SHOP DIRECT WIN

We're thrilled to welcome Shop Direct brands Littlewoods and Very to the St Luke's clan. We've worked with SD for a couple of years, helping them with Littlewoods brand positioning and can't wait to now turn our focus to producing the creative campaigns.

Time to top up our summer wardrobes we think.

Where technology and nature meet

Emart, a retailer in Seoul, have come up with an ingenious idea to get people shopping in quiet periods.  They've created 3D QR codes all over the city, and scanning them gives shoppers a discount.  The clever bit?  The QR pattern is formed by shadows, so they are only readable between 12 noon and 1pm.  Sun dials meet mobile marketing - we love it. 

LOCAL BUSINESS ACCELERATORS FINAL

We’re very excited to be attending the Local Business Accelerators Grand Final on Thursday.

Launching in October, Local Business Accelerators saw local papers selecting the most promising fledgling businesses in their area and giving them a boost – free local advertising and the support of local business mentors. BBC ‘Dragon’ Deborah Meaden is the ambassador of the scheme and Thursday marks the announcement of the overall winner.

More than 3,000 businesses have entered and the initiative has been supported by high profile figures including the Prime Minister, the CBI’s director general and the Bank of England.

 The PM said: "Entrepreneurship, creativity and ambition are essential for our economic recovery and through Local Business Accelerators, newspapers are supporting some great new British businesses to grow, and helping to boost their local economy.”

Ex-St Luker is part of BT phone box project

Look out for these amazing phone boxes all over London in the next few weeks. One of them was designed by ex-St Luker Fee Duffelen - hers is based on a circus theme. The locations are all here www.btartbox.com. Neil

EAT.ST PART TWO

More delectable delights from our favourite food stall collective that is King's Cross' eat.st:

Motherflipper

What’s a guy to do when there’s both Motherflipper and Ribman at eat.st on the same day? Hybrid rib burger of course.
JD says, “Not just the best burger on the street, but one of the best in town at any price. Get the Double Candy Bacon Flipper and ask for a few extra napkins!”

Yum Bun

‘Pillow-soft’ steamed bun they say and ‘pillow-soft’ they are, filled with wonderful crispy pork belly and hoisin sauce.
JD: “Brilliant stuff – like a really, REALLY good crispy duck pancake, but with pork belly, not duck, and a bun, not a pancake.”

Luardos

Saving the best til last: Luardos. We love Luardos so much we're willing to queue a good fifteen minutes in the rain to get our burrito fix.
JD: “The burrito is a pretty genius idea anyway and Luardos really do deliver one of the best around. After extensive testing we can now declare pork as the team’s favourite!”

EAT.ST PART ONE

 How eat.st has transformed our lunch hours.

No longer grabbed, pre-prepared sandwiches from clinical establishments. Now, a jaunty walk to the back of King’s Cross, a chat with our favourite stall holders, people watch the latest fashions at St Martins and a waddle back to our desks at St Luke’s.

eat.st boasts some of the best street food in London, with an eclectic range of stalls to choose from. Here’s a snapshot of a few of our favourites, with commentary from our resident Masterchef star JD:

The Ribman

A legend in his own right and star of both eat.st and Brick Lane, you can also purchase his homemade ‘Holy Fuck’ and ‘Christ on a Bike’ hot sauces.

JD says, “Huge fan of Mark’s – showing what happens with passion and dedication to do one thing exceptionally well. Be careful with the hot sauce though...”

Homeslice

The boys behind Homeslice have built their own mobile wood-fired oven, enabling them to pop up in garden pubs across London such as the White Horse on Hoxton Street.
JD: “How can you not love guys who bring their own pizza oven to the street? All freshly prepared and wafer-thin bases cooked to crispy perfection. Their chorizo and rocket is an absolute winner.”

Anna Maes

Purveyors of wonderful southern-style macaroni cheese with a range of delicious toppings.
JD: “Utter comfort food – Mac N Cheese topped with BBQ pulled pork is true happiness in a small styrofoam bowl.”
 
Part two to follow next week.

NEW STRONGBOW AD

Take a look at our new Strongbow ad which launched this week. The track is by The Heavy and is called 'How you like me now'.

Enjoy!

GLA'S GIGS

Here are our latest posters for Mayor of London's 'A Summer Like No Other' - a programme of cultural events in the run up to the Olympics.

Gigs is London's biggest street music competition, open to all performers aged between 11-25 years old. For any budding musicians who are interested in entering, click here for more information.

Don't go crazy... but being drunk makes you more creative

Or being sleepy too. Apparently, when it comes to straightforward analytical problems, we need to be focused. But for problems requiring a flash of insight, we need to be a bit fuzzy. In a study in Chicago, drunken students were 30% better at solving word association puzzles.

Perhaps Bowtime should start a little earlier?

Our posters on the News

BBC News ran a report on their Breakfast program that featured our new Free Sport posters for GLA.
You can see the full report here

Much more to come!

Spotted our New mayor of london posters on the tube platform...

On my way home last night I spotted our new GLA posters for the very first time, a lovely moment of pride which brought a big smile to my face on a cold and wet Monday evening! :-)



Have you seen them yet? What do you think?

Amie

JONATHAN ON MASTERCHEF

The word is out. Yes, our very own Account Director, Jonathan Dale, appeared on MasterChef last night.

For those of you who missed it, here's a little taster (scuse the pun):

Comfy gift boxes

Hello all,

So this week is one of my friend's birthdays, every year I usually send flowers which are always very well received... but albeit a bit boring and a lot of money for something that will die in a week (don't get me wrong i love getting flowers).

Looking for something different I stumbled across www.comfygiftboxes.co.uk and it is genius! A very wide range of gift boxes for birthdays both for him and for her, pamper nights in, moving house, new baby, new mums, get well soon for adults and kids... the list goes on! All the products are useful and long lasting and the best thing is THEY INCLUDE CHOCOLATE!!! Every woman's dream!! And all this for the price that a standard bunch of flowers would cost!

So my friend's birthday present is purchased and I thought I would share the love of this fab new company. The stress of finding a different and interesting present has now gone with a few easy clicks.... Comfy Gift Boxes I SALUTE YOU!

Amie :-)

LBA winner’s announced across the country!

Today the Prime Minister congratulated Local Business Accelerators winners up and down the country saying, "Entrepreneurship, creativity and ambition are essential for our economic recovery and through Local Business Accelerators, newspapers are supporting some great new British businesses to grow, and helping to boost their local economy.”

We launched LBA back in October. Since then, the scheme has gathered momentum. The Business Growth Fund, an investment initiative worth £2.5bn, has teamed with LBA to identify investment opportunities amongst the list of entrants. The Prime Minister went on to say, “It's brilliant that so many promising young companies, from such a wide range of sectors, are benefitting from this excellent initiative.”

Deborah Meaden, the LBA ambassador said, "I wish the newspapers, businesses and their mentors every success over the coming months."

We’ll be announcing an over all national winner very soon!

Dave

Bread Fit For Chanel!

I am loving a food feature on Cool Hunter about amazing, 'Designer Bakeries'. The basis is the breads should be amazing, natural, artesian, flavoursome but the environment it is sold in should be equally as amazing. They asked their readers to contribute examples and the list ranges from Greece to Italy to Australia and Japan. The list contains the most incredible bakeries that are so stylish I'd happily live in them! There didn't appear to be any examples from the UK. As 2012 is Londons year, which bakeries, that fit the 'designer' criterior, would you recommend that are located in The Big Smoke? It's kind of ridiculous as I don't eat wheat / gluten but I'm still fascinated! It's nice to 'look and 'fatten the eyes' sometimes:)

Cool Earth & St. Luke's

Hi all,

Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! The whole office seems to be on January diets/ detoxes and so far sticking to New Years Resolutions, what's yours?

So as we have blogged about before, we are partners with Cool Earth, a charity working with local communities to secure forests at risk of being destroyed ad we are pleased to share with you our Annual Statement for 2011, showing what good work our funding has gone towards.

We are very proud of what we have achieved with Cool Earth so far and look forward to continuing the good work in 2012!

Click here to find out more about Cool Earth!

Amie