apt blog

Are you ready for the ride of your life?

We're really excited here at apt marketing & pr as there are a number of sponsorship opportunities available for the penultimate stage of the OVO Energy Tour of Britain 2017!

This September, our hometown of Cheltenham will host the penultimate stage of the Tour Of Britain. The stage will see the world’s top professional cyclists race through the Cotswolds to arrive in our historic spa town on Saturday 9th September − and for the first time, a stage finish of the Tour of Britain (TOB) men's race.

Residents and visitors to Cheltenham not only have the chance to get up close to the world-class race, but to also see the town transformed for another major festival, celebrating cycling, accessible to all.

There is an exciting variety of sponsorship and business partnership packages are available to suit all budgets, from finish line tickets and corporate hospitality, to naming rights for the festival and the Tour of Britain stage. All of these fantastic sponsorship opportunities are available on the new dedicated website: www.cheltenhamcyclingfestival.org.uk

Many of the packages feature exclusive opportunities not available on general sale, such as seats in front of the finish line, or one of four tickets to ride in the guest car for the full Stage.

Tracey Crews, director of planning at Cheltenham Borough Council says: “To make the very best of this world-class event, we have a comprehensive package of business partnership opportunities available to suit all budgets, from finish line tickets and corporate hospitality, to naming rights for the festival and the Tour of Britain Stage.

“This is a thrilling and high profile event for Cheltenham that will have an international reach, attracting large numbers of visitors to our town.”

There are also one and three-year packages available to help support the event and make it a huge success for the town and the local community.

As well as having some of road cycling's world-class greats in town, the festival will also feature competitions, a street fair, a demo zone, a kids zone and much more besides, encouraging everyone to get onto two wheels. Organisers are expecting thousands of people to flock into the town to enjoy the festivities.

For more information and to take advantage of these opportunities, contact Victoria Petkovic-Short, our very own Account Director on 01242 250692 or email [email protected]. We're really excited to be working on this local event and look forward to hearing from you!

 

apt proud to be a part of the Great Minds Campaign

Here at apt, we are extremely pleased to announce that we are the runner up in the Imagine’s Great Minds 2016 Campaign!

We have been awarded the runner up prize of £50,000 worth of media and content, after developing an exciting campaign idea for local tour operator, Compass Holidays. The ‘Tour de You’ idea was submitted into the competition back in July when the team pulled together their creative ideas over a good ol’ cuppa!

The competition was hosted by Imagine, the new creative studio from special interest content and platform company, Immediate Media Co. The brief was to design and create an innovative campaign for a client using Immediate’s portfolio of internationally famous brands. These include Radio Times, BBC Good Food and Lonely Planet Traveller and many London based media agencies across the UK contributed to the competition. Specifically, the campaign needed to optimise the power of Immediate’s 18 million monthly UK audiences across special interest sectors as diverse as Food, Cycling, Weddings and Gardening.

The judges commented our exciting ‘Tour de You’ idea used great brand insight to perfectly match the passion areas of the Immediate brands to Compass Holidays’ breadth of offering. The campaign is set to focus on brands including BBC Countryfile, BBC Wildlife and Olive to focus on the range of specialist tours Compass offer.

We are all so pleased here at apt, especially as we were shortlisted with some big London based agencies! The full shortlist for Great Minds 2016 is as follows:

• Airbnb entered by Starcom Mediavest
• Compass Holidays entered by apt Marketing
• Hellmann’s entered by Mindshare
• Sainsbury’s entered by PHD UK
• Thomas Cook entered by Dentsu Aegis Manchester
• Thomson Long Haul entered by MediaCom

Our MD, Angie Petkovic says “We entered the competition back in July after having a brainstorming session over a cup of tea and the excitement could definitely be felt in the office. As we’re a small agency, words cannot express how proud I am of my team and the hard work they put into the brief has most certainly paid off! We’re all now really excited to get the ball rolling and to work with Imagine.”

 

The apt annual #AprilFools round-up ceremony 2016

The 1^st of April is finally upon us and as you probably already know, it is apt tradition to write a blog rounding up all of our favourite pranks from around the world. Just in case you didn’t know, the 1^st of April every year is well know by pranksters everywhere as April Fools’ Day and practical jokes and hoaxes are created by many, including newspapers and big brands.

To keep in with the tradition of our April Fools’ Day blogs from previous years, we have pulled together our top five favourite pranks of 2016 – enjoy!

5. Google’s ‘Drop the Mic’

This year Google introduced a Mic Drop button in Gmail. The function of the ‘Drop the Mic’ button would end an email thread forever by muting all future responses and after, a GIF of a minion dropping a mic would be played too! The prank, however was immediately taken down after many people felt it might come across as unprofessional.

4. Virgin ‘Steam’ Trains

Virgin Trains announced that soon, commuters would be able to catch a steam train to work and that the original Flying Scotsman locomotive would be joining their fleet later on this year. We can imagine it would take a lot longer to get to work each morning...

3. ‘Wasp Honey’ from Rowse

Popular honey manufacturer, Rowse tricked customers into thinking that the UK’s first wasp honey was available. That would definitely add a kick to your brekkie!

2. Pimm’s takes over Big Ben

Quintessential English liqueur, Pimm’s tried to convince the nation that they’d worked with the government to secure a sponsorship deal to advertise on Big Ben. To show the nation that any time can be ‘Pimm’s o’clock’ the drink’s brand logo was seen displayed on the face of the iconic British landmark.

1. B&Q White Cliffs of Dover ‘Touch Up’

DIY supplier, B&Q took it upon themselves to fool customers on Twitter and Facebook with an image of the White Cliffs of Dover receiving its annual paint touch up. We all know that it is Mother Nature’s doing, however we can’t help but think you would need a whole lot of paint.

Well, that's it for another year! Let us know what your favourite prank was this year in the comments below.

Most complained about adverts for 2015

New figures released from the Advertising Standards Authority have revealed the top ten most complained about adverts in 2015. These particular adverts have made the list due to the themes and issues offending and misleading some viewers.

Of course, the grounds on how an advert can be offensive is based solely on an individual’s opinion, Guy Parker Chief Executive at ASA said “Our Top 10 for 2015 will no doubt get people talking about whether the ads are or aren’t offensive, but there are important issues at stake here. Advertisers must take care not to cause serious or widespread offence.”

2015’s top ten most complained about adverts are:

1. Moneysupermarket.com Ltd

The advert consisting of Dave strutting his stuff the Pussycat Dolls received 1,513 complaints.

2. Booking.com BV

Booking.com prompted complaints of encouraging bad language by using the word ‘booking’ in the place of a swear word. This advert received 683 complaints.

3. Paypal UK Ltd

Their latest Christmas advert sparked 464 complaints after claims that it revealed the truth about Father Christmas after two children recognised that their parents hadn’t been shopping.

4. Booking.com BV

Booking.com used the same light hearted play on words with their advert of a man swimming back to his holiday resort which received 407 complaints.

5. Protein World Ltd

After advertising a woman in a bikini, Protein World Ltd was criticised for being offensive. This campaign had 380 complaints.

6. British Heart Foundation

The British Heart Foundation fell under scrutiny after their advert of a boy sat in classroom talking to his father who had died from a heart attack was released. This advert received 219 complaints.

7. Booking.com BV

This particular advert showing a couple meeting at a hotel, received 201 complaints after the same play on words was used.

8. Department of Health

The anti-smoking campaign from Public Health England showed a man smoking a cigarette that had blood and flesh inside it. This advert received 181 complaints.

9. Nicocigs Ltd

This advert received 145 after many people thought the advertising of e-cigarettes was appealing to children.

10. Omega Pharma Ltd

An advert for their XLS Medial slimming aid received 136 complaints after viewers felt that it an irresponsible approach to body images.

Every Typo Helps: Tesco baby grow blunder

Parents in the UK took to Twitter after they received a pack of baby bodysuits from Tesco as a gift.  As nice as it sounds, the set of F&F slogan clothing had two shocking spelling mistakes.

The 3 month old gift recipient’s parents decided to take to Twitter after discovering that two out of the five suits had spelling and grammar errors.

“Call me picky but I’d rather @Tesco spelled awesome correctly and didn’t miss out the apostrophe in Daddy’s” tweeted the child’s parents.

One bodysuit read “I was born awsome!” missing out the first E and the other read “Daddys Little Man” missing out the possessive apostrophe...Oops!

Tesco responded to the tweet and apologised “Sorry about this, we’ve made our supplier aware of this so it can be corrected for future stock.”

We are unsure of how this blunder actually happened; thank god it wasn’t a rude one!

Are you feeling #Emojinal?

It seems that popular clothing retailer House of Fraser has taken a turn for the worst, or better, we’re not sure yet, on their social media recently.

This week, they have been posting tweets using the hashtag #Emojinal, teamed up with, you guessed it, lots of emojis. With all of the hacking scams circling the internet, people quickly jumped to the assumption that the account was hacked; with some even saying it was wrongly hijacked by a work experience intern. However, it seems that this social media campaign is legit and an attempt at jumping on the emoji bandwagon. Tweets included:

Looks like our #Emojinal takeover has started! 😛😛😛😛😛😍😺😼🐶🐱🍏🍐🍊🍋🍌🍉

— House of Fraser (@houseoffraser) February 1, 2016

Whether you felt the love today or not, we hope you enjoy our #emojinal movie quiz and the treat if you complete it. https://t.co/CNk98xQ5FR

— House of Fraser (@houseoffraser) February 1, 2016

Even though it left their followers amused and confused, it seems that emoji lovers are in for an exciting treat. They launched the website www.emojinal.co.uk– a site that contains 12 movie-themed ‘emoji codes’ which upon cracking will send balloons flying and provide you with a 10% off code to use on the House of Fraser website. Sad to say, I’ve only managed to get one so far...

What are your thoughts on this campaign? Fun and current, or off-brand and confusing? We'd love to hear your thoughts, so get in touch with us on Twitter @apt_marketing or comment on this blog!

Spooktacular Halloween ad campaigns

It’s October and it’s almost time for the Halloween celebrations. Pumpkins, ghouls and witches are all recognised with the increasingly popular holiday and this year highly recognised brands have truly got involved with the Halloween spirit.

Read on to find out more about our favourite Halloween campaigns:

Tesco Spookermarket: Every little fright helps

The popular supermarket brand went all out this year by scaring its customers and catching it all on camera. The advert opens to what seems to be a seemingly innocent Halloween display complete with pumpkins and masked mannequins. One of the ‘mannequins’ however is ready to scare and gives shoppers a fright when they suddenly move.

One shopper is haunted by a phantom trolley while looking at the vegetables and a gruesome scene of bloodied hands in ice is displayed for shoppers at the deli counter. Other shoppers are also greeted with quite a fright when reaching for their toilet rolls and ordering their cold meats at the deli as spookily dressed workers jumped out to give them a scare.

Let’s just hope none of the shoppers were so frightened that they ran out without paying for their shopping!

View the advert for yourself:

 

Scary Special Offers from Pizza Hut

How can you ‘win’ at Halloween? Well, Pizza Hut has all the answers for you in their spooky Halloween advert; ranging from how to don a top notch costume, to the tasty treats and mean tricks! The opening scenes feature some jump scares, resulting in many people falling over (and into a river, even) making it laughable at the get-go.

Narrated by a lady donning a jester hat, firstly they cover Halloween costumes. She explains that you need to “get creative” with them, showing us a slideshow of photos of people dressed up, including their pets! There was a dog wearing a hotdog costume (get it?) as well as a cat dressed as a pirate; my personal favourite.

Next is treats! They’re very important and you can never leave a house without one, or five. During the narration, there is a montage of clips showing children devouring their sweets. But what is the best treat of all time you ask? Pizza of course! The parents proceed to hand out to the children a combo of Pepsi and pizza and they do look very happy indeed.

Last but not least, the tricks. Leading on from the opening scenes of the advert, a longer montage is shown of these classic jump scare pranks ranging from a ‘dead’ man being thrown into a lift, someone jumping out of a bin and dancing scarecrow!

The adverts’ signoff is a special offer – “order the twisted crust pizza and add any Pepsi 2L for $1” – not bad! All in all, this is a very funny advert and it definitely put a smile on my face – even if it was at the expense of others...

Take a look here:

  

Airbnb: Stay where during Halloween?!

Airbnb conjured up an extremely spooky campaign this year. The accommodation / holiday rental site is offering guests the chance to check in to the Paris Catacombs for a night of relaxation. Home to around six million souls, the house rules include ‘no tricks, but plenty of treats’ and ‘no bobbing for apples in the Catacomb pools.’

Well Airbnb, we’d like to say thanks but no thanks; how can you relax with six million skulls watching you? We’ll pass...

Check it out here: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/night-at/paris-catacombs

Tetley Tea, ahh that’s better...

After reading about all of the frightful campaigns Tetley tea have gone for a more, well less spooky affair. The video shows a pumpkin being intricately carved into Gaffer’s face in a time lapse sequence. Although there is some creepy music going on it’s a lot less scary and fun for all to enjoy!

View the Tetley tea ad here:

 

 

 

 

Happy 60th Birthday to the TV Advert!

The first television advert was aired 60 years ago in black and white to 100,000 homes; the advert was for Gibbs SR toothpaste and was just a minute-long. Today adverts can be seen almost anywhere, you can’t even click onto a YouTube video without watching an advertisement first! With that being said, we thought it would be fitting to celebrate TV adverts 60^th birthday with a list of our very own favourite adverts:

Ahh Bisto

The nation’s favourite gravy granules since 1908 have pursued a number of great TV advertising campaigns. The ‘Ahh! Bisto’ slogan is still instantly recognised and is always repeated when making the gravy to accompany that roast dinner!

 

R Whites Lemonade

Before writing this blog, the team were asked what their favourite adverts were and our MD Angie burst into song “I’m a secret lemonade drinker, R Whites Lemonade!” Composed by musician Ross McManus, the ‘I’m a secret lemonade drinker’ jingle will be memorable for anyone who listens to it!

 

It has to be, Heinz

We’ve all seen the advert where people are sitting down to enjoy their dinner with a mystery condiment bottle which it is immediately recognised as Heinz, because well it just has to be Heinz...enough said.

 

Fairy Liquid

The popular jingle “Hands that do dishes can feel as soft as your face with mild green fairy liquid” was sung by one our MD’s Angie good friends. Simple yet memorable, in fact we’re sure you’ve probably got it stuck it your head now?

 

Haribo

Here at apt, we all have a sweet tooth and love the Haribo adverts that depict adults with children’s voices. We’re sure that everyone can sing the jingle too ‘Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo!’

 

Snickers

Snickers have produced some very interesting advertising campaigns with the help from a few celebrities including Mr T, Mr bean and Joan Collins. The slogan ‘Get some nuts’ and ‘Eat a snickers, ‘cos you’re not yourself when you’re hungry’ is sure to have made you giggle in the past!

 

Compare the Market / Meerkat

‘Compare the Market.com’ was the first memorable jingle from the insurance company and was sure to keep playing around in your head after listening to it on the radio or TV. In 2009, however, Compare the Market upped their game by introducing cheeky fluffy meerkats named Aleksander and Sergei. Their campaigns have featured everything from a Jacuzzi to meerkat adoption and more recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

Cadburys Gorilla

Using the iconic purple in the background and a gorilla drumming to a legendary Phil Collins record, Cadbury’s managed to create a brilliant memorable advertising campaign. Cadbury’s are very creative with advertising campaigns and never cease to amaze us with their enjoyable and memorable TV adverts.

 

Levi’s Flat Eric

Levi’s jeans have done some iconic adverts in the past, but our favourite has to be one which involves a certain yellow character. Flat Eric, a humorous puppet built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, featured in the Levi’s Sta-Preast One Crease Denim advert back in 1999. The song that Flat Eric is dancing to, called ‘Flat Beat’ by Mr Oizo took the pop charts by storm!

 

American Old Spice

We’ve saved the best for last... American Old Spice have created some extremely interesting adverts throughout the years; in fact we’re not even sure what some of them mean but we still think that they are great! We can’t explain why; we suggest you take a look at their YouTube page to see what we’re talking about!

 

 

Finalists announced for the Gloucestershire Business Awards

The Gloucestershire Business Awards 2015 finalists were announced today by the event’s host Gloucestershire Media.

In its eighteenth year, the Gloucestershire Business Awards is an opportunity for the county’s businesses to come together and celebrate their growth and achievements. This year there was a total of 134 Gloucestershire businesses that entered the 14 categories that the awards have to offer.

Here at apt, we would like to congratulate all of the finalists on their success so far and good luck for the event in October. In particular, we would really like to congratulate Pretty Bald who has been nominated for Marketing Campaign of the Year for its success and achievements over the past year.

The finalists for each category are as follows:

Business of the Year

Direct Online Services Ltd

Green Gourmet

iPipeline Limited

Small Business of the Year

Classpeople

Guardian Preservation Services LLP

I2i Recruitment

Rush Skatepark

Family Business of the Year

Allcooper

Badham Pharmacy Ltd

Cotteswold Dairy

Young Business Person of the Year

Catherine Anderson, Anderson Recruitment

Daisy Hawkins, Daisy Knights Ltf

Fiona Leathly, SOHO Coffee Co

Export Award

Advanced Insulation Limited

Eden Halls Greenhouse Ltd

Prima Dental

Tungum Limited

Business Innovation

Advanced Insulation Limited

iPipeline Limited

MicroEnsure

Stewart Golf Ltd

Marketing Campaign of the Year

BAM Agency

Barrington Ayre Shirtmaker & Tailor Ltd

Pretty Bald Limited

Rock the Cotswolds

Best Place to Work

Attivo Group

BAM Agency

iPipeline Limited

Growth Business of the Year

Advanced Insulation Limited

Attivo Group

Four Anjels Ltd

Corporate Social Responsibility Award

Sustainable Direction Ltd

The Wiggly Work

Willans LLP Solicitors

Best Individual Contribution by an Employee

Tim Partridge, Cheltenham Racecourse

Jacqui Vilela, Darlings Who Do Limited

Tom Cuddy, Exceptional Thinking (UK) Ltd

Environmental Business of the Year

The Big Green Cleaning Company

Cheltenham Racecourse

The Renewable Energy Design Company

Sustainable Direction Ltd

The black tie event will be hosted by Gloucestershire Media at the Centuar, Cheltenham Racecourse on 1^st October 2015. Don’t forget to keep up to date with the latest updates of the awards on Twitter, using the hashtag #GlosBizAwards.

 

 

Sweetie Spots: Atomic Candy vs. Skittles Pox

You may have read our blog about the latest Skittles campaign titled ‘Skittles Pox’ and how here at apt, we found it rather strange. Well, while on our internet travels we have come across another and maybe even stranger sweet advert that involves using disgusting situations.

American candy store, Atomic Candy was voted as Ad of The Week by The Drum and the US Creative Department Readers. Titled ‘Explore’ the ad showcases the colourful candy that is extremely similar to Skittles in an odd light.

The advert features a man stood in his bathroom, concentrating on a red spot on his face; you can probably imagine what happens next. The man squeezes the red spot and it pops off his face and into the sink. Gingerly, he picks up the colourful sweet, examines it for a moment and sticks it into his mouth without hesitation. Upon looking up into the mirror, the man notices another different coloured sweetie spot in the location he had just squeezed and we’re sorry for putting this image into your head, but yes, he does squeeze it again! This time hundreds of Atomic Candies are released from his face, filling his sink with colour. But after he’s finished squeezing he just digs in!

We’re not sure which advert came first, Skittles Pox or Explore by Atomic Candy? Although we do know that sticking these colourful sweets to people’s faces is slightly strange and here at apt, we have been left wondering ‘whatever next?!’