View This Poll
online surveys

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 ensure Birmingham is regularly updated with municipal events.

Frankfurt German Market, Taste of Birmingham, International Food Market, the list goes on. Every month or so an event worth attending rears its head, not only that, a (usually) free event. Music (or perhaps arts) and food seem to be the common themes and, although not particularly varied, they are themes worth persuing.

Art representation grows year on year in Birmingham with Digbeth as its cradle and champion, while food has unexpectedly put Birmingham on the map, with its newly awarded Michelin star restaurants as its flagship. Perhaps food shouldn’t be such a surprise, Birmingham is after all the birth place of Cadbury’s.

So get down to Artsfest, enjoy free, high quality music, because few other places offer it and few others do it at such quality.

And for once let’s doff our caps to the people at BCC who are helping to bring a new identity to the city’s public areas.

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 a conference, Hello Digital, a screen and digital media conference and festival which we [Big Cat] helped organise last year. Film makers were asking a guy from Channel 4 how to make money from film making any more when people download them for free?

The internet has forced a lot of traditional industries to rethink their business models. The media, high street retail and insurance to name but a few have seen revenues decimated by online competition.

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel. Rupert Neate reported in the Telegraph today that the Google owned website YouTube has extended a scheme to share advertising revenues with prolific creators to include one-off video which “goes viral” and proves very popular. The notion of employing global social platforms to distribute content and gain infamy or money is nothing new.

Lauren Luke, a 27-year old from Newcastle-upon-Tyne has dropped out of school and become Britain’s most successful YouTube video creator offering beauty how-to tips.

At present only US-based users will be able to participate, but YouTube has said it intends to extend the scheme internationally. But does this mean that to make a living our highly creative film makers will have to “sell out” and produce piano-playing kitten videos or film their friends doing death defying stunts?

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 to that which is used in the (utterly hilarious) singing greeting cards. The chips can hold roughly 40 minutes of footage and have rechargable batteries.

Watch it here

So when we watch films like Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Total Recall, Minority Report, even Harry Potter (see the Daily Prophet) and we laugh at the idea of a hoverboard or interactive and holographic ads, is the advertising industry laughing with us, or is it busy taking notes?

So, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s both impressive and exciting (and maybe a touch novel). At the moment, it is only brands with MASSIVE advertising budgets like Pepsi that can even consider splashing out/experimenting with this kind of marketing.

But what does this mean for the wider advertising industry?

Well if this takes off, a market which is even more competitive than it currently is. This technology isn’t going to be cheap (until they can be mass produced for a few pence), and along with the increase in printing costs, the publications are going to hold all the cards surely. To use a football analogy (if in doubt…): With their new wealth and ambition, Manchester City have single-handedly increased the market value of any player by 50% . Everton can now name a price for Joleon Lescott, now a £24m player, according to the word of Manchester City. How much would he cost to another club without if City’s financial influence wasn’t practically monopolising the market (the Real Madrid-less market that is)?

Anyway what I’m trying to say is that these ad spaces will be priced out of smaller brands budgets. Although the Video.Chip.Print ads will not be abundant for some time, therefore competition for places is going to be fierce, especially if this is successful. And the more money thats being pumped in, the bigger it will get.

It will certainly go a long way in helping create a good impression, maintaining that when the competition hits will be the next test.

On a final note, I’m waiting for the day this happens as I walk past Cineworld:

Birmingham YMCA has recruited 360^o 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 of the fundraising activity including implementing a sponsorship strategy and promoting the 18-month fundraising project through an extensive PR campaign.  BigCat were selected to assist the YMCA after the delivery of a successful PR campaign in 2008, where BigCat helped to promote the objectives of the re-development, helping the YMCA to secure the existing £12 million.

The youth and community centre, part of the scheme called The Orchard, will house facilities including a multi-use sports hall, training and meeting rooms and a ‘chill-out’ space for young people.  These facilities have been designed to create a platform for YMCA residents to integrate themselves productively into society, through voluntary activity and paid work at the project.

(Left) Anthony Tattum, Marketing & Communications Director, BigCat. (Right) Alan Fraser, CEO, Birmingham YMCA.

Costs for the Erdington development are estimated to be approximately £13.5 million, of which £12 million has already been secured.  The scheme has been included in Birmingham City Council’s ‘Places of Change’ programme – a national initiative to create places of change for formerly homeless people, and help integrate them back into the community.

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 of the ’80 cult classic’. The Big wigs in Hollywood have now made a more slick and finished version and it looks awesome. I’m not too sure of the plot, but as you can see from the trailer, the graphics will definitely impress.

TRON LEGACY

THE ORIGINAL TRON

Alice in Wonderland

The genius that is Tim Burton has re-made this Disney classic. It follows the familiar, weird, and wonderfull style of other Tim Burton films i.e. Beatlejuice? If you’re looking for an all round ‘realistic but surreal’ graphic set-up then this is one to see.

JOHNNY DEPP AS THE MAD HATTER

There is news of a new Toy Story film coming out early next year, so let’s hope it gets here sooner rather than later.

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 me down a quite unusual path as the requirements were very specific but at the same time awkward.

In short, a new client had asked for a photoshoot to help promote the launch of a new range of products. Established for over 140 years, but needed to develop and modernise the brand, re-invent themselves, new markets, new opportunities,  etc etc. Only problem was, the photoshoot that they wanted was full of high expectation… “ Can we have a 30-35 year old with an Audrey Hepburn feel/Claudia Schiffer age/Girls Aloud attitude, finally can we get it done and printed for Tuesday last week!!!

Of course we delivered, because that’s what we do! Right? Where was I going to find a FREE model of that age, hair that could be styled and with plenty of slap on could be transformed and commercially acceptable.

They say “never work with animals and children”. I’ve got one more to add to that…. THE WIFE!!!!!

Check out the before and after shots for yourself!!

Before

After 1

After 2

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 off, as you can tell that the person who is watching the transformation, can’t believe whats happening.

Great piece of video manipulation.

Mac's can now transform

When I first got wind of the Peter Andre and Katie Price break up I cynically thought that it could quite conceivably have been a PR stunt.  The Andre – Price union has been lived out completely in the lime light with OK exclusives on their wedding and a number of TV series surrounding their everyday life. Their relationship was even conceived on a reality TV show.

The break up of their 3 ½ year marriage has turned into a war, with the battlefield being the national news and TV.  Firstly, Price’s TV interview with Piers Morgan: this was probably the most sensible thing that her PR agency could have suggested. During the interview Price had the chance to portray her side of the story, pull on the heart strings of all watching whilst talking about the ordeal of being dumped.

Andre has been advised to keep quiet and appear to be the bigger man – which has worked. Photos of Price almost naked in a pool with her new boyfriend appeared on tabloids the same day as photos of Andre picking berrys with his children, that’s a point for team Andre PR.

Stories litter the tabloids about Jordan’s infidelities and drunken antics whilst Peter is on the front covers portrayed as the victim who has been left to bring up her children.  The UK’s father of the year seems to be using his positive press coverage as a vehicle to promote his album which is currently destined for a number one spot.

Katie is also planning a come back with a ‘what Katie did next’ programme. She is currently using The Outside Organisation looking after her PR; these guys are exactly what she needs if she ever wants to pull back from all of her recent mistakes. The Outside Organisation also helped Heather Mills after her recent split with Paul McCartney although we all know who came off the better out of those two.

Hi, I am Jules, the Studio Manager. When I was asked to write a Blog for Big Cat, I was a little nervous. Having never done one before, I was at a loss what to write, apart from the joys of studio admin! But then I thought why not write about my experience getting a job with Big Cat, and what I think so far…

I joined Big Cat in Jan 2009. Made redundant from an in-house Studio Manager role – which was as corporate as they come – recruitment agencies told me I would never get an into an agency, I felt a fight rise in me. I had the skills, and I wanted to show an agency what I could do. So instead of waiting for recruitment agencies, I got on the case.

I understood the fees for recruitment agencies. They are extortionate. Especially when you think that those fees could be going towards 3, possibly 4 brand spanking new macs! So an excellent selling point was that my next employer would have no hidden charges or extra fees, plus, I looked pro-active, before I had even stepped into the interview. I searched on google and contacted as many as I could. Then I stumbled across Big Cat’s website, and I liked it, so I emailed.
When Big Cat called, they had a position, and it was exactly what I was looking for. It had been 9 years since I had been interviewed so I was nervous of course, but I really surprised myself, I came across well, and I came away feeling exhilarated, and inspired. I remember the Director saying, ‘We are like a big family’, and at the time, I thought back to all the politics in my previous job, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The change in environment is a lot different. It is, well, like a family!
The first night out I had with BigCat was at the Old Library in the Custard Factory, we had the whole venue to ourselves, we had a gorgeous meal cooked by the Director’s, and were all dancing around with no shoes in this huge, stunning Gothic room to eighties music, it was such a contrast, it was amazing.

I think it is safe to say I am glad I was made redundant. And, for those of you that are in that position, take control, don’t rely on other people to find you work, be pro-active, and don’t stop until you land a great job too! There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and you are fast approaching… if you really want to be. It took me three weeks, that’s all.
In fact, go on to google now and help your self, it’s much more rewarding!!

Follow me on Twitter: @glitzyjules

I am currently studying a BA (Hons) in Graphic Communication at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. My University was very keen for all second years to gain some work experience in the summer holidays before we went into our final and most important year of our degree.

So before the end of term in June, I began emailing graphic design agencies all over Birmingham. Thankfully, Big Cat replied, and after a short interview I started at the beginning of July. I am so grateful for all the help and guidance that I have received in the few weeks that I have been here.  The opportunity has been so worthwhile and I have gained an insight into designing for the real world.

I have been on two photo-shoots, created illustrations, and produced ideas and scamps for live briefs. Nathan also joined us for a week’s work experience in mid-July, and we rummaged through rubbish bins and created letterforms. Our input into one particular brief helped to create a unique and exciting piece of design, which felt great to be a part of. I have also been around the sites of Birmingham and took some abstract photographs, and got very messy when I helped with the interior design of the Old Library at the Custard Factory.

I have had such a beneficial time at Big Cat, and would advise anyone who will soon be let loose in the real world to get some work experience. It has definitely been a wake-up call for me, and I am now wiser in what standard I need to be at by the time I finish University; it is so important to absorb yourself within the graphic design industry and begin to make contacts as soon as you can.

Thankyou very much Big Cat!

You can now follow me on Twitter: @sarah_steve

Advertising is everywhere. You cannot and will never be able to escape it.

The advertiser’s utopia of Los Angeles, as depicted in Blade Runner, is very much here and now (see Times Square below). If there’s an unoccupied piece of land, advertising companies will snap it up and whack an ad there.

Home-owners are even willing to offer out the road-facing side of their houses as a billboard, because it faces heavy traffic on a long commuter route. These selfless vigilantes are on a mission to help local businesses promote their products and services. An intention twinned no doubt, with an almost rabid thirst for cash.

Understandably, blanket advertising can get people’s goat. The characteristics affiliated with advertising are greed, lack of ethics, ruthlessness – typical fat cat traits that give the industry a rotten reputation.

Sure, brands like Coca-Cola and Tesco have practically monopolised their industries by pumping billions of dollars into their advertising campaigns. How do you compete against these monsters with this much financial clout? You can’t, leave them to it.

But what about the thousands and thousands of other companies, genuinely competing for custom? How do you persuade one person to buy Evian Water instead of Vittel? Bore them into submission with a few stats about minerals? Why not offer a new perspective. Does the advert have to be based around the springs at Lake Geneva? I’d love to have been at the meeting when the creative team had this idea:

Evian Babies

Brilliant! Babies dancing to Rapper’s Delight. I’m thirsty, might go grab an Evian…

Seriously though, this demonstrates perfectly the creativity and “outside the box” thinking which is becoming so prominent and practically unconditional in the advertising industry. This advert has achieved viral status, forwarded to colleagues, friends and family and has currently attained nearly 10 million views on YouTube.

To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Olympus created this stopmotion video. The PEN Story is a staggering piece of work by any standard. A 3 minute advert using over 60,000 pictures, 9,600 prints and 1,800 pictures had to be re-shot.

The artist is Mr Taijin Takeuchi

The PEN story

That companies are commissioning incredibly talented artists to create pieces like this, stretching their imagination and raising their profile simultaneously, is surely proof that advertising provides opportunity and pleasure.

Subliminal Advertising mentions must go out to Cadbury’s (yes, the drumming gorilla – seen it?), and perhaps the pioneer of the genre – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2VCfOC69jc.

Is this Subliminal Advertising by definition? Or is the term evolving?

As a the senior creative at BigCat I guessed it was about time that I contributed to this new world of  social tweetchatter ( I’ve trademarked that one!)

All the other guys in the office seem to be right on it and it became apparent the time had come for me to get myself immersed.

I stumbled across this guy from Seattle, USA. His name is Lee Le Fever (cool name) and he makes these really simple but effective information videos to help people (like me) to understand the nature of  Social Networking, Twitter, RSS, Blogs, etc.

I found them useful and thought I would pass the links on to anyone else that needs a bit more info in their locker before they come out.

I watched them all, the zombie one was a bit of a curve ball!!

http://www.commoncraft.com/
follow me on Twitter: @jayism

Wow, this is my first EVER blog post. I’m one of the designers at Big Cat and I’ll be leaving posts up here every now and again with anything interesting that’s caught my eye.

In particular, Modest Mouse return with new material, as well as a new video for ‘King Rat’. Directed by Heath Ledger after meeting with Isaac Brock in 2007, the video focuses on the illegal commercial whale hunting that occurs off the coast of Australia. The video features a reversal of the roles between the hunters and whales where, as the video progresses, the message becomes clearer.

There’s also an interesting blog by Daniel Auber on the making of the video. It was finished by The Masses, the film/music company Heath Ledger was part of. If you get the video off iTunes, the proceeds from the first month of its release go to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who campaign to save the habitat of wildlife and protect ecosystems in the world’s oceans.

Follow me on twitter:
@norbertlegs

Millions of people go into work everyday and log onto the online version of their preferred newspaper. They do this because it’s free!

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber has recently said in a Channel 4 news interview that the newspaper industry must charge people for reading newspapers online, and that free content on the web was the biggest mistake the industry has made in the past ten years. Is this the beginning of the fall for the online newspaper?

The FT currently has 117,000 paying web subscribers, which represents 10% of those registered on FT.com. Surely this new approach to online news would result in a huge decline in the online readership.

Lionel wants this future business model to create revenue lost from lack of online advertising which supports the free online content. He also wants other newspapers to do the same. Perhaps this is too little too late?

Many newspapers such as the Guardian, Times Online and many regional newspapers have put time and effort into pushing there online capabilities: creating communities around there newspaper, with thousands of people following them on twitter and interacting with them via blogs and commenting. Will they follow in the footsteps of the FT? Would you pay to read an online newspaper?

Hi there

Welcome to Big Cat Strategy’s blog. My name is Daniel, I’m pretty much a year into my role in the Big Cat Strategy department, so I guess I’m relatively new to marketing. I’ve learnt a lot in that time and have been involved in some great projects. I’m looking forward to learning more and am excited, intrigued and a little bit scared by the unknown.

My plans for this blog are simple.

I don’t profess to be an expert, but I will be able to offer a different viewpoint to other marketing blogs. I’ll also be coaxing the Strategy Director to share his abundant knowledge of the marketing, advertising and social media industries on this blog.

I’ll be interested in hearing your thoughts. I actively encourage both rage and praise.

Follow me on Twitter @danielbigcat

Twitter is like fire; exciting and can spread fast.  It is rapidly becoming a vital Marketing and PR tool with a lot of companies utilising it to give there brand a voice. Social media is winning the race marketers have been keeping there eye on: social media VS word of mouth. We have some social media none believers in the Big Cat office – here is an example of how wrong you are!!

Our Marketing and Digital Director Anthony Tattum was out and about in Birmingham when he stumbled across what he thought was a Banksy on a wall in the Jewellery Quarter…

Thinking that his followers would find this interesting, Anthony tweeted a Twitpic. This simple act resulted in a wave of retweets across Anthony’s 712 followers.  The next day a picture of the ‘Banksy’ appeared in the two top regional news papers Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail (no one can accuse the Birmingham Post & Mail journalists of not being on top of their twitter!!)  There was a photographer down on Henrietta Street within a few hours of the first tweet.

Even @banksynews responded to the tweet… Sadly the picture was a fake, but it is useful to demonstrate the power of twitter and the Birmingham online community.  Would things have moved so fast without Twitter? I don’t think so!

Important social media tools Twitter, Facebook and WordPress have been the centre of an ever-growing debate about brands online presence, leading to the million dollar question – ‘Should brands be on twitter’?

This question has been talked about cloak and dagger amongst the twittersphere and the marketing community for months now; cropping up on blog posts, tweets and more recently into the media with a feature about it on BBC Radio 4 this week.

One of the major factors in the debate is that brand tweets are lacking the personal touch. I think that is the point: at Big Cat, most of the team tweet about everyday life, work and general things of interest. We have built relationships, become part of the community and will continue to do so…. We also have @bigcatcomms which is the ‘faceless’ twitter account supporting this blog. We want the @bigcatcomms twitter account to engage in a different community than the personal staff accounts, @bigcatcomms will tweet only about PR to the people that want to listen!

What are your thoughts? My answer: YES companies should have brand presence online!  Social media is the new word of mouth, a way to engage a target audience. Companies utilising these tools are not doing any harm (as long as they don’t spam you).

Well what an exciting week we have had at the Big Cat office. The whole office has been buzzing over the Old Library refurbishment which is starting next week. The £100,000 refurbishment will give our fabulous event space at the Custard Factory a much needed facelift. A new lighting system will be installed, as well as new flooring and an entire repaint, leaving the venue looking it’s best for the upcoming events. So expect lots of pictures next week of the entire process, including all of us in our overalls getting covered in paint. 

As the newest member to the Big Cat Group, I am reporting to you my experiences of various events from a new perspective. One of the recent events that has caught my eye is the T-Mobile’s new Life’s for Sharing campaign’s flash mob event, that made quite an impact throughout the world. The first event was the hugely popular impromptu dance off in the middle of Liverpool Street station that, considering 6 million of us watched on YouTube, I am sure you will have seen it?

So here’s my question of the week: What do you think of flash mobs? Do you know what they are? Love em? Over them already? Whatever you think, Birmingham needs one. Soon! Hmmm, this could be worthy challenge for Big Cat. Do you want to see 500 dancers – or jugglers? mime artists? opera singers even? – in Victoria Square? I know I do! Watch this space….. 

The new events girl, Leila. 

Sarah Brown: wife, mother and Public Relations genius!

Besides being the wife to the most talked about man in politics, Sarah is using her strength as an expert in Public Relations to do a damn good job of PR for brand Brown.  Sarah is venturing outside of the realms of the women before her, appearing at Glastonbury with Naomi Campbell and partying at charity functions with Paris Hilton, not sure what message this is portraying, perhaps personality, an area in which her husband fails?

I was surprised to see Sarah guest editing last weekend’s issue of Fabulous. As patron of Wellbeing for Women she themed the issue on women’s health with articles such as miracle pregnancies, Jools Oliver’s traumatic pregnancy and how the ‘Wellbeing for Women’ has helped women to realise there dreams off motherhood. The Editors letter featured a thought provoking phrase ‘Britain’s army of women – mums, sisters, daughters, best friends – is what helps keep the country going.’ I did muse over this being either a key message of Wellbeing for Women or a public joke about Sarah’s belief that she’s keeping the country together?

Sarah has her foot firmly in the PR door keeping up with the latest industry trends by becoming a social media wizard – a PR must!  With her @sarahbrown10 twitter account receiving more than 400,000 followers and a blogging from G8 summit on downing streets website (wonder if she had to persuade Gordon to let her do that?)  Having worked within the industry for many successful years Sarah certainly knows what she’s doing.

A recent article about her self promotion on Independent online received a lot of negative comments and ridicule about herself and her husband. Unsure of the objectives of Sarah’s actions / strategy – herself, her husband, the charities she represents or her future carer – Sarah is only doing her job.  As a wife and a PR.

Hello and welcome to the BigCat Communication blog…

If you are interested in the PR industry then this is the blog to read! We will be commenting on the industry, our own campaigns and other peoples.

If you like the posts or hate them comment – all thoughts and opinions are welcome.

You can follow me on Twitter @nataliebigcat if you would like to have more frequent insights into the mind of the person behind of this blog.

Hope you enjoy!