What's Hot April
Britain’s most trusted brands 2009
With the markets in turmoil and companies increasingly ceasing to exist, the Reader’s Digest annual survey of Britain’s most trusted brands has flagged up a couple of surprises. Nationwide is now the most trusted mortgage-lending brand, Lloyds TSB is still the most trusted high street bank and BT leads in the internet service provider category.
An interesting finding of this survey is that there are very few own-brands in the table despite retailers suggesting that consumers are choosing own-label brands in these times of thrift – a suggestion that own-brands are yet to gain the trust of consumers despite rising sales?
Source: Marketing Magazine, March 26th 2009
£440 Gucci handbag, anyone?
Head to their new flagship store in London
With the opening of their new flagship store in London’s Sloane Street, Gucci have unveiled an extravagantly designed yet lower priced range of handbags, aptly called The Sloaney Bag Collection, to poke a little fun at the Sloane Rangers of the 80s.
Source: Handbag.com, March 23th 2009
Manolo Blahnik designs for Coke Light
To celebrate over two decades of Coke Light and Fashion Week 2009, Manolo Blahnik has been asked to design a limited edition bottle for Coca-Cola. Upon completion of his 2005 Coca-Cola Light collection, British Vogue reported that Manolo Blahnik was motivated by the pleasure of "designing something that made him smile".
Source: Shoeblog.com, February 13th 2009
Do pinanas make up your five-a-day?
Arriving at the 2020 studio to the cry of “I CAN’T BELIEVE I FELL FOR THAT! I EVEN TEXTED MY FRIENDS!” is a fairly rare occurrence, but this April Fools Day we were in for a treat as one of our team fell for a classic wind-up. Following on from some great BBC efforts over the past few years, Waitrose took out a full-page ad in The Metro (London) advertising a new pineapple-banana hybrid fruit, The Pinana, which was “fresh in today and exclusive to Waitrose”.
The ad was genius in drawing the attention of The Metro’s captive audience, it got people talking, blogging and Twittering whilst subtly including an advert stating: “if you find that all Waitrose pinanas have sold out, don't worry, there's 50% off our essential Waitrose strawberries.”
Source: echochamber.com, March 25th 2009
National Geographic store, London
National Geographic has chosen Regent Street for their three-storey experience store; boasting lots of open space, exhibition areas such as The Art of Exploration and expedition photography from Mattias Klum, and many items for the adventure enthusiast including a self-DNA sampling kit for purchase.
Items and artefacts from all around the world are intertwined with products for sale to offer truly unique selling and display areas.
Source: National Geographic, March 20th, 2009
2020 takes part in Earth Hour 2009
As part of our commitment to doing our bit for the planet, all of our electronic equipment was turned off for the weekend of March 28. Elsewhere in the capital, iconic structures such as Wembley Stadium and Big Ben (pictured below middle) also had their lights turned off, oddly enough it was a lot easier to read the time on Ben’s face with the glaring lights off.
Source: Flickr, March 28th 2009
The Wire was voted the best TV
show ever
Our daily dose of tabloid ‘news’ reliably informed us this month that The Wire is officially the best TV show ever for it’s realism, attention to detail and use of ex-drug dealers as actors. “Britain can’t make anything like this because all they do is period dramas” one of the lead actors, who happen sto be British, claimed.
Source: The London Paper, March 30th 2009
Home M&S Food, Cardiff
Footfall is key in times of recession, the more people you can get in and moving around, the more likely you are to generate sales. M&S has taken this on board and launched a new format store in Cardiff without a clothing section, just home and food. This new store design entices customers in with a “domestic” feel and semi-discrete food shop located away from the main store area and accessed through a connecting archway.
Source: Retail Week, March 27th 2009
