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September 1st, 2011 by

Sister Power!

Another day, another ‘must-have’ miracle cream hits the shelves of the UK’s beauty aisles. This time it’s Visionnaire LR2412 by beauty giant, Lancôme Paris, whose scientists claim is the product they’re most proud of to date. Why? Well, after 12 years of research and 2412 molecules later (hence the name) they created a new molecule – LR2412, which can self-propel through the layers of epidermis to set off a series of micro-transformations to the surrounding tissue. In layman’s terms it diminishes the appearance of wrinkles, enlarged pores and combats uneven skin tone, by helping skin to self-repair and heal – hmm sounds all too familiar?!

So why is this particular new miracle cream selling out above all others? Three words, ‘The Middleton Effect’.

Kate and younger sister Pippa were amongst the lucky few to get their hands on the desired product, prior to its launch. The two sisters were sent complimentary samples of the serum, prompting an insider at the brand to confirm that as ‘loyal customers’ of Lancôme, they would have been sent the product to try as a ‘goodwill gesture’. This has sparked a frenzy – Lancôme beauty counters have been inundated with customers signing-up and pre-paying, waiting lists are well into the thousands, filled with signatures from women wanting a tiny slice of the Royal life at a mere £57 (for 30mls).

After all, Lancôme had previously spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on celeb endorsements with the likes of Kate Winslet, Uma Thurman and more recently, Emma Watson, and yet a short, well-crafted comment with a Royal name-drop has led to mass sales beyond their expectations. It doesn’t look like the Middleton’s influence on female shoppers will be waning anytime soon, nor will brands’ desire to be associated with them.

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June 7th, 2011 by

Celebrity endorsement – ego pieces vs customer loyalty?

With a new single recently launched and yet more promotional deals under her wing there is little doubt that J Lo is officially back!

With a bag of million dollar companies giving her their full backing, Mrs Lopez will never again need to purchase Gillette Venus razors, Gucci Clothing, L’Oreal shampoo or mascara again!

After seeing an article in the Daily Mail about Jennifer Lopez ‘flaunting’ her long legs whilst promoting L’Oreal’s new mascara there has been a backlash as to why she continues to keep herself in the lime light. The most obvious assumption would be to keep her at the forefront of people’s mind but it does bring into question the impact this may have on the brands she promotes if consumers start to find her overexposed.

Big brands love the idea of using celebrities to endorse their products because there are so many people out there who will buy products hoping to achieve the look of their favourite celebrity icon. I myself have bought fake eyelashes in the past to achieve the long luscious lashes of Cheryl Cole. There are quite a few products on the market that have been created by the same company and repackaged but I am a firm believer that if the same product was also promoted by Davina McCall I would still opt for the one with Cheryl on the packaging, even though I think Davina is hilarious. The reason behind my choice would simply be because she is almost double my age and married with kids. This is why she is a perfect for a product like Garnier Nutrisse where the advertisement showed her on the phone to her ‘mum’ discussing how to cover grey hair. Although this did backfire a little bit when it came to light she hadn’t spoken to her mother for years…

Brands like Garnier clearly value their customers but it is starting to become quite worrying how some brands are appearing to forget that they need the right face for their audience, leaving them isolating their original fans.

Take Nivea, for example. To celebrate 100 years of skin care Nivea chose Rhianna as their official spokeswoman. Nivea was originally seen as a prominent skincare range for the older, mature woman. By introducing Rhianna it became apparent they were trying to attract a younger clientele. In order to entice a new audience but by still making themselves come across as appreciative of their loyal followers they would have been better off introducing two spokespeople, as opposed to someone half of their original consumers would never have heard of or can relate to.

This makes me question their loyalty. Are they trying to sell products, sell the stars as ego pieces to the company directors or, for once try to really give their loyal customers more bang for their buck.

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April 20th, 2011 by

Oh the hard toil’s of PR – why my life is more stressful than a Docs

Today I read that the lovely people who put together CareerCast.com’s 2011 report have finally highlighted the plight of the PR. In fact, they have found that PR is the second most stressful job (after pilot); whilst working in the healthcare industry provides you with the least amount of work pressure. PR more stressful than being a doctor? Can’t see why that wouldn’t be true…

I mean we have all had those days when you receive an email at least once every 5 minutes asking you to ‘action’ something – whether it be finding an image for a journalist, drafting an award entry that’s deadline is only in a month, or pulling together a press release that’s already been scheduled to go out in just two weeks’ time. These tasks are often only broken up by the extraordinarily pressurising act of pitching for new business…where you are so desperate to come up with a creative idea that you hold brainstorm after brainstorm (which is essentially just people screaming random and hilarious ideas at you for an hour). Then these heart-pulsating days are finished off with the hyper stressful client and journalist after-work drinks…where God forbid you have to actually act like a normal human-being for the course of an evening. It is days like these that I think…why didn’t I just become a doctor, what’s at stake then? People’s lives…pfff…how’s that ever gonna be stressful.

Now as much as I may have just mocked the stress involved in PR, the fact is there are some pretty tight deadlines and quite heavy workloads. And considering the fact that most people that work in PR (myself included) haven’t actually done a day of hard-labour in their life – I can see why they would answer a survey and say their job is very stressful. However, I do have to question those healthcare professionals who said they don’t have pressure at work…it is one of the few industries where decisions can actually be life and death. I would think that would bring with it a certain amount of pressure. Pilots can clearly see that having people’s lives in their hands comes with a fair bit of pressure…why can’t the doctors and nurses of this world take the responsibility as seriously.

To be honest, I think I have come up with the reason the reports results has come out like this. We all know how terrible the Healthcare sector is at basic administration work, there is every possibility that they just filled out the survey incorrectly. Also, Dieticians came in as second least stressful job…I have to ask, did anyone take into account the stress the weighing scales in their offices under-go every day?

I also, enjoyed the fact that the reason given by Tony lee, publisher of the report, for PR being such a stressful job was: “As traditional forms of communication transition to digital, those who want to remain employed need to embrace new technologies or find a new career.” I have to admit; learning how to use Twitter has sent my heart racing with angst on almost a daily basis. Lee followed that amazing justification with a superb clarification on what a non-stressful job, unlike PR, entails – “Professions that involve low stress usually have very little danger and minimal physical demands.” – I must say that when I was younger I never fancied myself as a daredevil, but now I have seen first-hand the high amount of danger involved in my day-to-day routine as a PR; it is clear I was born to be one. And, well as for minimal physical demands; clearly all the miners up North have it easy compared to us PR’s – mining for coal…pff…try inserting a whole wad of paper into the photocopier at work – that’s physical exertion.

Finally, I’d just like to say that advertising account executive’s came sixth – four places below PR – I knew we were more important!

April 12th, 2011 by

Tried and Tested: Why Women Stick to Bargain Buy Favourites

By Sarah – Jane Robinson

Glamorous and glossy they are not, but cheap and trustworthy they are – today the top essential five beauty products that woman claimed to rely on the most, were listed. Four in 10 women over 50 (surveyed by The ) claimed that some of their most trusted beauty products cost less than £5.

Vaseline Lip Balm, which topped the all-time list of inexpensive favourites coming in at a mere £1, is a far cry from the shiny goods offered at the top end of the market. It’s therefore a mystery why women fall into the trap of buying over-priced products that do exactly the same job as a £5 purchase. 

Are woman drawn to luxury brands (with super shiny packaging) as a means to upholding an image? Yet, 20 per cent of women say they regret buying these expensive products because they believe the products do not work. Why buy Crème De La Mer’s Moisturising Treatment, at £970 a pot, when we can just pop down to Boots and purchase a tube of E45 Moisturising Cream, for a mere £1.50 that we know to be reliable as it’s highly recommended by doctors?

Pond’s Anti-Aging Cream, at just £4, is used by celeb Kylie Minogue, proving that old favourites continue to be a staple in women’s make-up bags. A favourite of mine always found lurking in the depths of my handbag is the Vaseline Lip Balm. Not only can this miracle product be used for dry lips, but also acts as a moisturiser, eyelash lengthener, a way of taming those unruly eyebrows, cuticle cream and more.

Supermarket chain Aldi not only sells competitively priced food but also delivers well priced beauty products too. Their low-cost premium skin care line ‘Lacura’ includes a range of products all for under £5.99. Their Anti-Aging Multi-Intensive Serum at just £3.49 was awarded the top beauty accolade by Celebs on Sunday readers, beating Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Intensive Serum, which cost approximately five times as much. This clearly shows that low budget and plain packaged beauty products reveal just as good results and offer up to 75% less of the price than many well known beauty brands.

So forget those expensive salary snatching products and save yourself some money and disappointment by sticking to the mass-market, everyday (and sometimes good old fashioned) brands.

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December 8th, 2010 by

Telling a journalist where to shove it

It takes a brave PR person to tell a journalist where to shove it, but an even braver journalist to take them up on the offer.

I wanted to share this brilliant article from the Telegraph this week on bowel cancer.

The research team that my wife works for released the results of their research earlier this year which has been called a “breakthrough” by Cancer Research UK’s chief executive. Flexible sigmoidoscopy screening is a new screening that can detect and prevent the development of colorectal cancer, the third most common form of cancer in the UK. And, best of all, in trials not only did people find the procedure less intrusive, the test cuts down colorectal cancer mortality by 25 per cent!

To see just how intrusive a camera at the end of 25 inches of tube really is, the Telegraph journalist worked with Cancer Research UK and volunteered to try out the test and had her large intestine explored by a nurse.

The article is a part of the Telegraph’s Christmas appeal for Cancer Research UK and can be read here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8178770/On-the-trail-of-a-common-killer.html .

It is awesome that the journalist actually tried out the test, but it does have me thinking, how awkward were the PR department calls when setting this up?

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November 8th, 2010 by

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

So, when you undertake to create the biggest online conversation about beauty amongst the nation’s women you’ve got to be able to handle the response. And boy what a response we got when we undertook the task on behalf of Tesco Beauty.

Journalists, bloggers and women who just love beauty came along to our Tesco Your Beauty event last Thursday where we revealed what 30,000 women really want from their beauty regimes and products.  And herein lay the beast – taking over the last 2 weeks of our lives pulling all of the insights together into one comprehensive report and 5 weeks prior to that running the campaign.

Key highlights included the fact that dark circles and wrinkles round the eyes are women’s biggest issue, eyelash curlers are the number one beauty tool, legs, not bums, are the thing we’d most like to alter and the beauty products that don’t rid us of our beauty demons-even though they claim they can.

It’s been huge but breakthrough.  Not only has it opened up a dialogue for Tesco with women, it’s provided invaluable insight that has the potential to steer the development of the Tesco beauty offering in terms of new ranges, pricing and promotions.

The vision is to build on this year on year so that Tesco ensures it is continually striving to really deliver.  Essentially, a great intelligence tool that can provide long-term insight to create successful strategies and a very true reflection to its own promise of: ‘Every Little Helps’.

The work continues this week to seed highlights from the report so a big thank you to everyone who participated in the conversation.

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September 15th, 2010 by

Feel like getting into bed with JLS?

If you have any taste in music or men, then the answer to this question is no, but if you are a hopeless fan, well now you can.

In a clever move, the band has teamed up with Durex to launch a range of extra safe condoms – Just Love Sex – JLS.  The band’s initials.  Get it?

Although numerous penis/JLS related puns come to mind, the initiative has been labelled ‘the latex factor’.  Due to the quartet’s involvement in ITV1’s show, the X Factor.  Still following?

Four different packs will launch later on this year, each branded with a band member’s individual colour, and face.  Yes.  Not for fan collectables or laughter, just for extra pleasure.


Still feeling in mood?

While a heartless PR consultant at times, I actually didn’t find anything bad to say about the original concept: a talentless yet popular band seen as role models teaming up with condom giant to encourage safe sex and help keep their fans STD and pregnancy free as they get it on, most probably to one of their songs.

All the ingredients are here, yet in practice the partnership feels a little bit like the morning after the night before: surprise soon followed by incredulity and awkwardness.  And no breakfast.

I may be too old or not cool enough (rhetorical questions, thanks) but can anyone above the age of 16 confirm that this won’t put them or their partner off at the crucial time?

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August 2nd, 2010 by

The Future of Makeup?

My makeup bag, dressing table and bathroom cabinet runneth over with the unused makeup I have purchased either through misguided necessity or impulse buy.

Why have these glorious cosmetics gone to waste when they were so obviously a must-have at the time….? While yes, a lot of the time it transpires that I have amazingly managed to duplicate a previously purchased gem, but for the most part it is because the new Arizona Tan bronzer makes me more oompa loompa than sun kissed beauty or the Raspberry Crush eye shadow gives me the sexy look of festering conjunctivitis that I hadn’t anticipated.

Now the days of clashing cosmetics with my pasty skin tone are numbered as a new technology is set to revolutionise how we buy our makeup (apparently). Cosmetics giant L’Oréal is piloting a range of digital mirrors which take a snapshot of a customers face and ‘applies’ the makeup of their choice to the image once the product barcode has been scanned. You can have a wee play to see how it will look here .

Will it put an end to those iffy beauty purchases? In an ideal world…perhaps. I love the concept and think a valid alternative to the bacteria-infested ‘testers’ is long overdue. But…do I trust Boots to not let them break after the first weekend of heavy use and to leave them taking up valuable floor space? Erm, quite frankly, no.

I would love to be proved wrong and although L’Oréal would like us to believe ‘we’re worth it’ in terms of enhancing our cosmetics shopping experience, I’m afraid this may be less one step closer to Minority Report and more one off (very expensive) gimmick. We’ll see….

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July 8th, 2010 by

Run, Fat Kids, Run

(Written by guest blogger, our lovely work experience girl, Emily)

Whether at the gym or the local tennis club, nobody likes to join in on exercise if they’re the only one with a bit of wobble. It doesn’t just make you feel self conscious but can make you stop wanting to do exercise completely! So it’s understandable that kids that put weight on tend to stop doing as much exercise. School is the time where you’re constantly looking at everyone around you, wondering if you look the same as them, ‘am I normal?’ Self confidence is so fragile when you’re young, one step in the wrong direction and its gone.

So, wouldn’t it be better for us to advise children in the benefits of a good nutritional diet? Well, reading the piece on the BBC’s website would suggest so. A new paper, Archives of Disease in Childhood, suggests that children stop exercising when they gain weight, not before. The paper talks of educating children in nutrition as well as exercise. After all, we’re always told that it’s both exercise AND nutrition in that leads to a healthy diet. Not just exercise.

Maybe if we educated children in nutritional values we would be able to restore some self confidence in those children that are overweight and get them feeling more comfortable within themselves and back into exercise.

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March 25th, 2010 by

Back to the 90s – passive smoking

Trends are cyclical things. If it hangs around long enough, a product, idea or a person can have more than one shot at the zeitgeist. Provided everyone understands that between those two spells in the limelight are long periods spent hanging around in second-hand shops or bad dissertations, and doing summer seasons at Butlins.

For gauging whether something or someone’s time has come again I usually apply what I call the ’10 and 20 year rule’. Which means that if it was ten years ago, it’s disgusting (hence why J-Lo’s in the doldrums right now), but if it was 20 years ago, it must be amazing. So watch this space for the 2Unlimited revival – because it’s the 20th anniversary of ‘Get Ready For This‘ in 2011.

This rule, however, assumes that we might want a concept back in a million years. And there are plenty of exceptions for this. So while it’s unfortunate that we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of negative equity with…yet more negative equity I do doubt whether there are trendsetters sitting in coffee shops saying:

“Ohmygod, shelling out for a new-build flat four years ago and finding out it’s worth 30 grand less than you paid for it is SO HOTRIGHTNOW. My friend Serge is totally doing that.”

I’m detecting there’s even less enthusiasm for passive smoking. This seems to have climbed out of the yellow label bin of public health scares and back into the collective consciousness this week. Bringing us such retro headlines as

Smoking ban proposed - BBC News
Smoking in cars: a ban too far – The Telegraph
Doctors demand smoking ban in private carsReuters
(And 208 other results, according to our friends at Google News.)

Putting aside the ethical considerations of smoking around your kids in a confined space for a moment, I can’t think of a more 90s concept than passive smoking. It’s like Tamagotchis, All Saints and POGs, which gripped us twenty years ago, but seem quaint and inconceivable now. And let’s not have it back, shall we?

So, for the good of all our sanities, let’s take the national unconscious decision to smoke less in the car. Because you know what’ll happen if we don’t. There’ll be a preachy TV advert campaign. We’ll have Ed Balls doing his unconvincing “think of the children” act all over the BBC. And someone, somewhere will inevitably think that it’s a good idea to use Twitter as a public health preaching platform, thus creating the new portmanteau word of ‘Tweaching’.

And that last reason alone is, I think, reason enough for us not to welcome this little bit of the 90s back into our homes.

But I’ll leave you with a piece of the 90s that is worth saving. Corona’s Rhythm of the Night, which is awesome.

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