Time to dust off the awards cabinet!

It's not every day that an advert for a feminine hygiene product is mentioned in the same breath as ones for Nike, BMW or the award hoarding awareness campaign 'Dumb Ways to Die.' However, we're delighted to say that our Mooncup 'Rap Battle' won Bronze for 'Best Original Song' at the London International Awards (LIA) awards in November.

                                               
The London based awards celebrate the creativity and power of ideas in all forms of advertising, digital, branded content, design, production, music and sound. The lyrical flow of our rap battle and its unconventional content stood out amongst some pretty hefty competition, and we're delighted with our bronze trophy.

And the winning doesn't stop there! Our Moments of Truth campaign for Strongbow, which launched earlier this year has also just won a Silver in the Epica Awards in the drinks category.
     
                                

They say things come in threes, and here is our final win (for the moment!) Our Business Director Jonathan Dale has been crowned winner of The Biggr Picture, a competition run by Campaign and Flickr to find the most talented 'extra curricular' Adlander. We're very proud of Jonathan's culinary achievements and his star feature in this week's Campaign.

Mooncup crew coming to a pub near you!

Ever found yourself fiddling with beermats in the pub while you wait for your mate who always turns up casually late? Or there's a lull in conversation and your eyes flit around your surroundings in the hope of finding something quirky to point out? Well, Mooncup crew are coming to the rescue!

Our latest piece of work builds on our previous Rap Battle which launched in January. Allow us to present the Tampon vs Mooncup finger puppet beermats!

                                       

The new beermats have an image of one the of Tampon vs Mooncup girls on the front, a couple of finger holes, a quote of lyrics on the back and QR codes for you to scan to reach the original Rap Battle on YouTube and also the Rap Battle Boombox so you can create your own rap to the beat. Mooncup want to see your attempts so get sharing on Facebook and Twitter!

For those of you lucky enough to have been at Glastonbury, you may have seen the Mooncup crew there, giving out the new beermats and playing Face in a Hole as shown below.


                                      

However, for the rest of us, the mats will be live in pubs and bars across London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Brighton, Sheffield and Bristol from this week!

So keep your eyes peeled, limber up your dancing fingers and get your smartphones ready, the Mooncup crew are coming to a pub or bar table near you.

Go Sluggers!

Last night saw the debut of the St Luke's Sluggers in the London Advertising Agency Softball League!

A new team whose capabilities and experience of the game ranged from non-existent to good-but-slightly-rusty we marched on down to Regents Park with our kit and snacks, ready to sock it to Dunnhumby and see how we would fare.

Much fun was had, but sadly we lost. It was 13-8 to Dunnhumby after 5 innings, so we kept it pretty tight... but then one awful innings and the final score left us at 27-9. 

It's got our competitive team spirit ignited though and from here the only way is up! I'm off to swot up on the rules and practice my throw!

Is advertising one big Carnival?

The IPA knew just what we needed on a bitterly cold, grey and windy Monday evening in London; to be transported to the 6th largest, and arguably most colourful economy in the world - Brazil.

Freshly made caipirinha in hand, we relaxed and listened intently to Creative Pioneers delegates recount the experiences from their trip, which formed part of the Olympic handover from London 2012 to Rio 2016. The aim was to share knowledge and experiences of the crucial role of advertising during our Olympics – from sponsorship, to marketing, funding and public engagement. Our work for the GLA formed part of the creative showcase of work from 2012 that was shared with the Brazilians but sadly, none of us were fortunate enough to go on the trip.

The lucky delegates, headed up by Nicola Mendelsohn (Chair of the IPA and Karmarama) shared some fascinating and enlightening facts about the state of the market in Brazil, agencies over there and future opportunities for joint ventures – especially in tech startups.

Some of the standout stats included how 40 million Brazilians have become middle class in the past 10 years, thanks to booming business, credit growth and the massive increase in minimum wage – 70% in real terms!

 Technology is booming too, with 94% of Brazilians connected to the internet, especially on mobile devices. Combined with the improving availability and quality of education, their appreciation of culture is growing as well. This all helps to form a fantastic consumer demographic for brands and advertisers, making advertising an industry definitely worth keeping an eye on.

The main drawback, and quite a large one at that, is the absence of a strong infrastructure. Too many cars and people. Not enough roads, airports or power. One thing is for sure, the upcoming World Cup in 2014 will be a big test to see whether the country and its star city Rio are on track to host a successful Olympics. 

Passion and enthusiasm are present in bucket loads, but the infrastructure will have to follow suit, and we’ll all be watching!