Big Cat Events are now back from sunny Spain after having built and opened the fantastic Star Trek: The Exploration exhibit.  The exhibition is now running until Feb ‘11 in the science museuem in Valencia’s stunning Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias.
The build of the exhibition took 2 weeks during which Big Cat worked [...]

After recently completing a degree in Theatre, performance and Event Design at Birmingham City University, I began scouting around online for event companies that could offer me an internship. With my aspirations in mind, I contacted The Custard Factory Events team enquiring about possible work placement opportunities. I have always loved The Custard Factory and [...]

A brief account of how I came to work at Big-Cat.
The recent economic downturn has turned a competitive industry into a recruiting dog-fight, leaving students pining after a foot in the door. Work experience is certainly the key, but finding this much needed experience isn’t easy.
B-Hive is a competition where students in the creative sector [...]

Birmingham based full service agency Big Cat Group has been recruited by government regeneration agency Urban Living in partnership with Arts Council England to help promote their Beyond Bricks community arts campaign.
Beyond Bricks focuses on engaging creatively with local people and restoring community pride in neighbourhoods within the Urban Living catchment area.* as part of [...]

Those of you who watched I-Robot in 2004 will agree that viewers are subjected to a considerable amount of product placement.  When Will Smith wasn’t parading around in his ‘converse vintage 2004’ footwear he was racing around in a custom-made Audi.  That is, of course, when he wasn’t at home listening to music on his [...]

Our graphic designer Jason Hannon has created an ad that’s both innovative and tasty. Using the literal imagery of pick ‘n’ mix sweets in the shape of a car, Jason has juxtaposed driver training with the concept of flexibility and choice within a tailored course. The ad, for RoSPA’s Driver Theory Workshop, uses a wide [...]

Robbie Earle finds himself in troubled water after his performance at the World Cup would certainly have scored low on the Capello Index.
Earle, who was sacked early last week for passing on tickets that he, had obtained through ITV for family and close friends only. The tickets somehow managed to find their way into the [...]

The Old Library came alive with energy on the 6th March when hundreds of fashionista’s flocked to get their hands on the most unique vintage items they could find. The vintage fair was founded by Louise Whitehead, who after running her own chic vintage store in Sheffield decided to open her horizons into the world [...]

Hi, I’m Louise; I’m here at Big Cat to get some work experience in copywriting. I’ve just finished my second year studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. Having only been here for a day or so, I haven’t had a chance to get really stuck in yet. Still, I’ve been flicking [...]

When opening the post last week we came across the latest edition of Midlands Business Insider featuring this years ’42 under 42’ supplement, identifying the regions cream of the crop in entrepreneurial talent. You can imagine the surprise on our faces when we reached page 28 to find Big Cat CEO, Nick Morgan within [...]

Sunday 2nd May saw the first big music festival of the summer in Birmingham and unsurprisingly it was bitterly cold as revellers enjoyed music from Fatboy Slim, Calvin Harris, Chase and Status and Annie Mac. Located slap bang in the middle of Digbeth in the heart of Birmingham’s Independent Quarter, the Electric Carnival entrance was [...]

And it was a bigger mistake than those swim shorts!

A belated appraisal of Tiger Woods’ return to golf

In 2008 Big Cat were responsible for the PR account for the inaugural Hello Digital festival designed to bring together non-techies and techies alike to explore the new developments in the digital world.
 The efforts of Big Cat generated a PR campaign worth an estimated £180,000 and was spear headed by a publicity stunt involving a [...]

Nick Clegg and David Cameron need not flex their creative muscles when it comes to smearing the current PM as it seems that Gordon Brown, shovel in hand, is more than happy to dig his own gave.
Having been advised recently to engage more with the public as it was felt he was previously seen as [...]

Celebrity Cruises have put an indefinite hold on the launch program of their latest super vessel the Eclipse. It was scheduled to begin a week’s worth of events to celebrate the launch including onboard parties with some very special guests. But in the wake of the chaos reaped by the Icelandic volcano the cruise company [...]

The ability of the internet to be accurate and factual has long been in question and now as social networking sites spiral out of control the question has been asked-when does news become noise?
A new survey of senior journalists featured in PR Week, has revealed the implications that the sudden and exponential rise of social [...]

Recently Big Cat Idea had the great opportunity to work on the CSI: The Experience advertising campaign. CSI: The Experience is an interactive exhibition in which you become the Special Agent. We were given the task of creating a new campaign to promote the event. We obviously had the normal print based advertising (i.e. flyer [...]

Recently our client RoSPA briefed the design team on creating a new campaign for their advertising. Within the brief they added that they would like the new ad campaign to clearly ‘follow on’ from the last style of ads. They wanted their adverts to have a fresh new look and feel.
We then spent some time [...]

Heading up the event division of a leading communications agency I fully embrace and push for the integration of digital communication and live events to enhance the quality of content and delivery of a specific project, but during my daily commute I read an article entitled ‘Twitter dating for tech-savvy singles’ which I had to [...]

Birmingham based 360 agency, the Big Cat Group have been awarded the PR contract to support Birmingham City Council’s Working Neighbourhoods Fund promoting the success of the SMEs that have benefited from the funding.
The Big Cat PR team have been brought in to help the Birmingham City Councils communications teams to raise awareness of projects [...]

According to a recent study, Marketing Directors feel that PR agencies are better equipped at delivering social media strategies than advertising agencies.
90 per cent of the participants thought that PR agencies were better placed to work with in social media then their advertising counterparts.
Obviously this is music to our ears here at Big Cat, having [...]

How many places are you Mayor of? Have you got the Superuser badge or maybe you’re a Superstar?
For many people this might look like some playground game, but in fact it’s the latest application to hit the social media world by storm.
Foursqaure, a new geotagging application available on iPhone, Blackberry and Web Browser, allows you [...]

Hello all.
My name is Joe, and I am the brand new Marketing Intern in the Big Cat office. I sit next to Dan, opposite to Jenny, and diagonally from Ben. My view out of the office window is of a canal and a few buildings. I regularly bring a sandwich and a bottle of water [...]

If you hadn’t guessed by the title, I thought I’d do a blog about one of the latest social media platforms to hit our computers; Google Buzz.
It’s almost every week that we are introduced to a new way to communicate with friends, upload pictures and note down our thoughts on the web, however its only [...]

I came across a blog last week entitled “10 reasons why you should get rid of your PR firm”. Personally I feel all the reasons are rubbish, well for Big Cat at least.
In response to the blog I thought I’d do my own “10 reasons why you should hire a PR company”
Now I’m not one [...]

The Big Cat event team is becoming busier and busier with loads of exciting events coming up over the next few months. With a new exhibition launching  in the next few months the events team are in need of a new work experience person to help the team.
If you are looking to break into the [...]

Since joining the Big Cat events team this summer I have been a part of organising many wedding receptions. However, last week was the first ceremony that I have done at the Old Library, and what a lovely event it was. Though I was slightly gutted to be on guarding the door duty and didn’t [...]

Is Health and Safety in danger of suppressing all human inhibitions? I recently spent a weekend in Torquay (not the best destination, but still enjoyable) and on arriving went to enjoy the outdoor swimming facilities which overlooked Torquay Bay, however I found the view obscured by no less than eight warning signs. No diving, No [...]

We all think that our director is pretty brilliant but now we see that the industry agrees. Event Magazine has published the Event 100 Club this month and after a crazy year in the events industry with the level of innovative event solutions being higher than ever before, the readers had plenty of choice for [...]

Now before I get down to business I would like to wish everyone a happy New Year from all the events team. This is an exciting New Year for events and some changes have been made within the company that needs to be celebrated. The main change for the events team is that former Senior [...]

Well it’s been a busy old few weeks here at the Big Cat office. Usually during the run up to Christmas people start winding down, brew the mulled wine and pop open the mince pies…no such luck here, it’s been hands on deck.
Last Friday saw the launch of NEC Funworld, Europe’s most exciting funfair, which [...]

Are we as designers now depending on using a computer to do the work for us?
As a team in the studio we often have discussions on how we can give a greater service to our clients, how we can make life ‘easier’ and more productive between the clients and us. One of the issues we [...]

Hi I’m Chris, 22, originally from Wolverhampton, now living in Birmingham. My favourite film is “A tale of 2 sisters”, favourite food is Cornish pasty and favourite band is Epica.

Right, that’s the introductions out the way. If you’d hadn’t guessed from all the tweeting I’m the new Senior Account Executive here at Big Cat, working [...]

The NEC call on full service agency to promote Europe’s most exciting funfair.
BigCat will be responsible for a full scale publicity campaign including PR, media buying and social media as well as designing and distributing the Funworld event’s branding and promotional material.
Funworld will run for 22 days from 18 December in Hall 5 at Birmingham’s [...]

In the interests of Social Media and idea sharing, I would like to do a small post on our work with Bournville College.
Bournville College is a sixth form and adult education establishment just outside Birmingham city centre. They’re an extremely innovative college that were looking to use social media as a tool for connecting with [...]

Yesterday was the press day for Bodies Revealed that was very well received from all and sundry. A lot of press photographers had a field day with a lot of the exhibits. Two friends of the company and superlative artists in their field, Karen Strunks and Alex Hughes applied their skills to the exceptional specimens [...]

The question here is…do you need to fancy up a logo to have a lasting impression on the audience that it is aimed at?
My personal opinion is no…simplicity is the key.
Take for example a recent logo, uploaded by the Big Idea team. Now on Logo of the Day.
This logo is a ‘logo of the day [...]

Some time ago I wrote a blog post about what might be the future of the Custard Factory, claiming that its capacity as a music venue had somewhat reached its terminal velocity. Every big night is full but you can’t expand financially until you expand physically.

Time for the Custard Factory to fulfil its potential

The answer [...]

Having completed an English degree at Aberdeen University in June, I was fully aware that I had one more chance to revel in the spoils of what would be my last summer as a student, before I embarked upon what was to be, if not a career, at least something that would fill my pockets [...]

Visit www.bodiesbirmingham.co.uk
After traveling the world and receiving spectacular reviews from New York to Athens, with the help of Big Cat group, Bodies Revealed is here!

The extraordinary anatomical exhibition is coming to the heart of England and can be seen from the 30th October at the Custard Factory, Birmingham. Without a doubt this is one [...]

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This weekend Artsfest 2009 is upon us bringing its usual mix of eclectic musical tastes and drip feed of theatre.
Free for all public events is what makes a city in my opinion; it gives you a reason to live or visit somewhere and, credit where its due, Birmingham City Council do make proactive strides to [...]

Written by Anthony Tattum on 26 Aug 09 at 10:20am
I am no expert on film making. There, I have said it, so my following comments are based on observations and research. Film making is changing. More specifically: how to make a living from it as a small indie.

Nora playing the piano

I was participating in [...]

Last Week it was announced that Entertainment Weekly, the US’s weekly entertainment guide (obviously), would be the first printed publication to include a video ad in it’s pages.
Pepsi will be the first company to be advertised on the small mobile phone screen sized display advertisement, along with CBS network previews. The technology used is similar [...]

Birmingham YMCA has recruited 360o agency Big Cat Group to support them in an ambitious fundraising project. The target £1.5 million to be raised will enable the YMCA to build community facilities that will feature as part of the £13.5 million re-development of the current site on Reservoir Road, Erdington.

BigCat will be project managing aspects [...]

The real world, but not as we know it. The film industry has a great influx of new digitally mastered films, with the likes of Transformers being a massive hit. There are more masterpieces in production, so I thought I would examine a few, that I think look amazing.
Tron: Legacy
Tron Legacy is a contemporary version [...]

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Twitter recently changed it’s own branding…
However when I searched for new the Twitter branding, I found that everyone seems to have there own various of the Twitter bird? Why is this? Is this good for the brand? Below are a few examples I thought you could look at……

As a creative, one of my key roles within the industry is Art Direction. Mostly this involves steering the way projects end up, both strategically and aesthetically, through the use of substract, type, image, shape and colour and on the odd occasion with the use of light and/or moving image.
My most recent AD assignment took [...]

Quick blog…I recently came across this great piece of footage of a Mac that transforms…don’t believe me? Check the video out at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=adf_1245828170
What’s amazing about this video is that it seems so ‘real’, the camera never really changes focus, there is still camera shake, as though this is ‘really’ happening, and the commentary finishes it [...]