December 2011
Clarion's best of 2011

Here's a snapshot of some of our best campaigns for this year.

November 2011
Clarion Wins Consumer PR Agency of the Year at The Grocer Marketing, Advertising & PR Awards

We're proud to say Clarion has been awarded Consumer PR Agency of the Year at The Grocer Marketing, Advertising & PR Awards which recognises creativity and business excellence in the FMCG industry. We were also Highly Commended as Business/Trade Advertising Agency, which demonstrates our breadth of skills. This followed hot on the heels of our PR Week Award for Campaign of the Year and the energy and buzz in the agency is palpable!

In addition to these creative awards, separately we were also given our highest ever mark for business management by our industry body the PRCA.

October 2011
Clarion Wins PR Week Campaign Of The Year Award

25th October 2011 - Clarion has won the top award at the PR Week Awards, the PR industry's 'Oscars'. In front of 1,200 of our peers we collected the Campaign Of The Year Award, presented by host Alastair Campbell, former No10 comms director. Commenting on the winning campaign 'Lakeside's Living Christmas Fairy' the chairman of the judges DJ Collins, VP public policy and comms at Google, said "The best ideas are the simplest ones and this was a great example of how an idea reduced down to its core will shine".

We are delighted that in our 25th year we are at the top of our game creatively. We are well on the way to attaining our stated company vision... 'Proud to deliver famous award-winning campaigns for our clients'.

September 2011
Clarion re-appointed by Warburtons to work on £2.4m campaign to 'own lunch'

Clarion Communications has been retained by Warburtons - the UK's biggest bakery brand - to work on a new £2.4m marketing campaign commencing later this month.

It follows a three-way pitch earlier this year, which resulted in Clarion winning the brand's Grocery Trade PR account and retaining its National Consumer PR account. And it means Clarion continues a 13-year relationship with the Bolton-based family firm, having originally been awarded its PR account in 1999.

The new £2.4m marketing campaign by Warburtons - which is also the UK's second biggest grocery brand after Coca-Cola - is aimed at driving incremental bakery sales at lunch, and commences with sponsorship of new ITV1 weekday show There's No Taste Like Home, fronted by celebrity chef Gino D'Acampo.

Richard Hayes, Warburtons Marketing Director, said: "As the media landscape continues to shift, we felt the time was right to bring our trade and consumer PR activity together under one roof, while ensuring we have the right agency for the job."

September 2011
Clarion Communications Celebrates Its 25th Birthday

It was September 1986, and London was full of padded shoulders, huge mobile phones and Yuppies – and in an office off Oxford Street, brand new PR agency Clarion Communications was opening for business.  With a staff of just two.

Things have changed a bit since then, not least staff numbers increasing twenty-fold - while the PR industry itself has seen some seismic changes since those far off pre-internet days.

The agency's client list has also grown from humble beginnings, ranging over the years from iconic brands like Coca-Cola, Polaroid and Huggies to current clients including Warburtons, Vue, Unilever and Magners.

Since the turn of the new Millennium, Clarion has become part of WPP, the biggest communications group in the world – and in 2006 it moved home once again to the current offices in Clerkenwell Road.
Happy Birthday to us.

June 2011
Chantelle on giant Christmas tree stunt wins award

A Clarion stunt which involved putting Big Brother star Chantelle Houghton on top of a 60ft Christmas Tree - and which generated over £0.5m worth of media coverage - has won an award.

The December photo stunt was for Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex, and involved hoisting the celebrity Essex Girl into the air - while dressed as a Christmas fairy - and placing her on the tree to highlight the start of the festive season last year.

It appeared in 48 different titles, ranging from The Sun and Daily Mail to Heat and OK! magazines and to ITV’s Daybreak and Heart FM - while tweets from celebrity writers on national newspapers and consumer mags ensured thousands of people saw it on Twitter.  In fact across print, online and broadcast media, it reached an astonishing 49m people – generating coverage with a value of £532,446, which represented an astonishing return on investment of 32:1.

Now the ‘Living Christmas Tree Fairy’ stunt has won a Purple Apple, the annual awards held by BCSC, which is the industry body for retail property in the UK.

April 2011
The Search Is On To Find Britain's Best Potato Dish

Celebrity chef Jean Christophe Novelli has been touring the UK with a Clarion team over the past few weeks on a hunt to find the nation's best potato dish.

It's part of a six-month campaign which has seen the Michelin-starred chef encouraging potato fans across Britain to upload their recipes to www.manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk. The competition closed in March and since then 25 budding shortlisters have been battling it out at five regional heats, cooking up their favourite potato dishes before hundreds of people in shopping centres across Britain.

Each contestant has until May 15 to avidly encourage supporters to log on to www.manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk and vote for them as the regional winner. The five contestants with the most votes will win the 'once in a lifetime' chance to star in a national TV advert with Jean Christophe himself this July - and during the advert, one lucky winner will be crowned Master Spud 2011.

Jean Christophe said: "The competition offers budding chefs all over the UK the chance to not only show off their cooking skills to the nation but also hopefully inspire even more people to cook withpotatoes."

1 April 2011
Baby Shark Puts Spanner In The Works

Stunned Clarion staff believe they are about to witness a world’s first – after a hammerhead shark mated with a spinner shark at Chessington World of Adventures to create a SPANNERHEAD shark.

The miracle birth is due to take place in the next few days at the Surrey theme park after the mummy and daddy mated 12 months ago - and incredible ultrasound scans which took place yesterday (left) reveal the astonishing image of the baby spannerhead.

The story has spread like wildfire across Twitter after it appeared on several news sites including Mail Online, with a Clarion team working alongside staff at Chessington to answer press queries worldwide.

Jon Fish, of Chessington World of Adventures, added: “To our knowledge this will be the first ever spannerhead shark, and certainly the first to be born in the UK.”

March 2011
Costa Del Clapham

Clarion turned part of south London into a mini Spain to celebrate a new partnership between the UK’s biggest loyalty programme Nectar and the UK’s largest airline easyJet.

Model and former air hostess Danielle Lineker was on-hand for the launch event in Clapham, which means Nectar’s 17.5m collectors can now exchange points for any easyJet flight across their network of 550 routes and 130 destinations in 30 countries.  The initiative is backed by Nectar founding partner Sainsbury’s.

Danielle - currently touring the UK in Calendar Girls - was joined by a selection of suitably attired ‘Brits abroad holiday makers’, including a number of the Clarion team, who gamely braved the early Spring weather.  Danielle said: “I have such fond memories of my time in the sky.  In fact, I think learning the safety routine may even have prepared me for memorising theatre scripts.”

The event also gave ten lucky winners the chance to win easyJet flights and £300 spending money, with similar competitions taking place in Newcastle, Manchester, Edinburgh and Bristol.

February 2011
Never Mind The King’s Speech – We Taught Mr Firth How To Tweet

He might be a Hollywood A-lister and Oscar winner - but Colin Firth was a Twitter virgin until we showed him the ropes as part of a Vue Twinterview.

Colin and The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper teamed up for the live event at the Apple Store in central London - the latest in a series of hugely successful Clarion-organised Twinterviews - with hundreds of movie fans asking questions online about the making of the film of the year.

After successfully getting the hang of Twitter, other revelations from Mr Firth included admitting that he’s always wanted to appear in TV’s Doctor Who - and that a movie role he would love is Sherlock Holmes’ archenemy Professor Moriarty.

January 2011
Chessington World of Adventures Resort Hires Clarion

Clarion Communications has won a four-way pitch to handle PR for the Chessington World of Adventures Resort.

The brief covers all elements of the Chessington Resort in Surrey, including the theme park, Chessington Zoo, SEA LIFE centre and Holiday Inn Chessington. Other activity during 2011 will include the second annual search for Britain's Most Adventurous Family, as well as the 80th anniversary of Chessington Zoo. Chessington World of Adventures Resort is part of The Merlin Entertainments Group, which also includes Madame Tussauds, LEGOLAND and Alton Towers Resort.

The Clarion team will be overseen by managing director Amanda Meyrick, who said: "We will be working with Chessington to deliver a PR campaign which further establishes the Chessington Resort as Britain's Wildest Adventure."

December 2010
Picture This

As someone once said, a picture paints a thousand words – so what would they have thought about two separate photo-led client projects which saw Clarion generate amazing nationwide media coverage in one week?

The first was to promote a festive promotion at Essex shopping centre Lakeside – and involved ex-Big Brother star and Essex Girl Chantelle Houghton being hoisted 60-ft in the air onto Lakeside’s giant Christmas tree.

At the same time, a Clarion team was crossing the UK on behalf of bargain train travel site bestvaluefares.co.uk, touring models of iconic buildings made from hundreds of thousands of used train tickets – and issuing photos to local press on a daily basis as the tour progressed.

Both creative photo campaigns resulted in major national and regional media coverage – and highlight just how powerful a good photo can be in PR.

October 2010
Men United

Clarion Communications has set up a new Men’s Panel, featuring a cross-section of males for client research projects, to complement its successful Women’s Panel. The panel consists of men across all UK regions, ages and demographic groups – and is designed to give clients an instant, online insight into what, where, how, why and who they like (and dislike).

It follows the launch earlier this year of the Clarion Women's Panel, which has been used to identify current female trends for a number of recent client PR campaigns.

For more information on the Clarion Men’s Panel, contact Debbie Jackson at Clarion on 020 7343 3110.

October 2010
Gramia Slam

Clarion Communications scored a hugely impressive double whammy at the prestigious Gramia Grocery Marketing Awards 2010 this month - scooping gongs for both Best Consumer PR Campaign and Best Trade PR Agency.

In fact Clarion picked up a total of EIGHT awards at the glittering ceremony at London’s Savoy Hotel, including the Best Consumer PR Campaign award which was for a Fox’s Biscuits project: part of a spoof ‘British Biscuit Advisory Board’ marketing campaign, Clarion created national news with a fictitious biscuit safety campaign targeting councils nationwide, which revealed genuine Health and Safety procedures for biscuit-related accidents.

Other Gramias were presented to Clarion on the night recognising work for clients including Surf, Unilever Deodorants, Ben & Jerry’s, Gaymers Cider and Nestlé. Clarion CEO Gary Freemantle said: “We’re delighted to have received recognition for our unique ability to deliver highly creative work across both the Consumer and Trade sectors.”

September 2010
Potato Council Appoints Clarion to Promote Fresh Potatoes

Potato Council has appointed Clarion Communications to deliver the UK execution of a three-year integrated PR and marketing campaign to promote fresh potatoes across France, Belgium and Great Britain. 

The campaign is aimed at spreading a consumer message about the health benefits of potatoes, with a targeted marketing strategy focusing on making potatoes relevant in the modern kitchen.   

The award of the contract, which covers implementation in the UK, follows a tender and pitch process which involved a total of 60 PR and marketing agencies, and is worth over £1.25 million over three years. 

August 2010
The Mother of All PR Campaigns

A Clarion campaign for Bernard Matthews Farms which involved hugely influential forum Mumsnet has been described as ‘the best recent example of a brand working with the network’ – by the co-founder of Mumsnet.

The 'change your meat not your menu' activity involved recruiting a group of Mumsnetters, who were encouraged to supplement turkey into their weekly family menus - and culminated in a turkey cooking session for the mums with Bernard Matthews Farms’ brand ambassador and former Michelin-starred chef Marco Pierre White. During the event, they were given free rein to ask the brand any questions they liked.

Mumsnet co-founder and managing director Justine Roberts praised the Clarion campaign in the Aug 25 issue of Marketing - and Lorna Cousins, Bernard Matthews Farms marketing communications manager, added: 'Online networks continue to grow and are of increasing importance to most consumer brands.'

Click here to watch the webcast

July 2010
Clarion Annual Charity Day

Everyone from Clarion recently took part in our annual charity day - which for 2010 involved giving a major facelift to part of a Bethnal Green community primary school.

The day’s hard graft at Stewart Headlam School involved renovating an overgrown garden area, including a rockery, flower beds and gazebo - none of which have been accessible to children or teachers for a number of years.

Delighted children and staff presented the workers with a thank you card after successfully finishing the job – followed by a few celebratory drinks for the Clarion team in a local pub.

June 2010
Clarion Cleans Up With Spontex Appointment

Clarion Communications has been appointed to handle a consumer PR campaign for Spontex, one of the UK’s biggest cleaning product brands. 

Based in Worcestershire, Spontex designs, produces and sells a wide range of domestic cleaning products covering all aspects of cleaning including mopping, scouring, dusting and washing up.  The campaign was awarded to Clarion after a two-way pitch. 

Consumer activity will include a nationwide search for the UK’s ‘Queen of Clean’, fronted by Aggie MacKenzie from C4’s How Clean Is Your House. 

Anita Bubb of Spontex said: ‘We were really impressed by Clarion’s creativity and their passion and drive, we’re very much looking forward to working with them on this campaign.’