The build of the exhibition took 2 weeks during which Big Cat worked along side the venue’s in-house crew (muchas gracias) and Victory Hill Entertainment who designed the show.  Long hours and hard work paid off as the finished show looks amazing.

You can check out photos of the build and completed show as well as a daily video diary here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigcatevents/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixyBIHHoc-s

http://www.cac.es/prensa/noticia/?contentId=115554

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 it has been an ambition of mine to work at events there. Within a week, I had an interview at Big Cat, quit my part time job, worked at my first event and began my 3 month internship as an Event Executive. Fortunately, my course prepared me for the fast pace of the events industry so this was all second nature to me. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week in the company of all the lovely staff at Big Cat and am quickly learning the roles and responsibilities of a member of the events team. I look forward to my first wedding next week at The Old Library and to many more exciting events in the future.

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 an ambitious regeneration programme which aims to improve housing and living conditions for thousands of people. The scheme is one of a number of projects which Urban Living has established in order to increase community cohesion within the area.

Big Cat will support the campaign by handling the PR for a number of artistic projects and workshops taking place over the next four month which are being managed by community arts organisation Multistory. Activities range from creating a local magazine to erecting community statues, allowing residents to work together and celebrate their community.

Anthony Tattum, Managing Director, says: “We are thrilled to be working on such an important project for the communities of Birmingham. The Beyond Bricks campaign has a community spirited message with the aim to bring people together. We are excited about being involved in such a worthwhile venture.”

Tess Randles, Urban Living’s PR and Communications Manager, adds:”We wanted to ensure that the Beyond Bricks campaign would really get noticed and engender the kind of pride and involvement that makes a tangible difference. This is why we brought Big Cat in and the signs are that the campaign is already getting noticed.” 

I-Robot 2004

The new rules, which are due to be incorporated into UK law at the end of 2010,will allow product placement in TV series, films, entertainment and sports programmes, but not in children’s and news programmes. So to reassure those of you who are concerned – Bob the Builder will not be fixing things with a Black & Decker multi-purpose saw. What we might expect to see however, is a Carlsberg tap at the Rovers Return or even Clear Blue pregnancy tests on Jeremy Kyle.  This will provide a new channel for advertising so maybe now it’s time to think inside of the box (for a change).

Needless to say, both Big Cat and RoSPA were very impressed with the outcome. Check it out:

Final Advert

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 hands of 36 female Holland supporters who just so happened to be pulling an advertising stunt for Bavaria Beer.

This landed Earle in big trouble with FIFA, the FA and England supporters. FIFA have launched into legal action with the Dutch beer company, whilst 2 of the 36 females have found themselves in South African Court, possibly facing jail for illegal advertising.

England fans have been complaining that pundits shouldn’t even be able to get their hands on anywhere near the number of tickets Earle had managed to buy from ITV at a discounted rate.

Somehow, I don’t think Earle will be able to pass off the troop of young females as his close family and friends, and the ex Wimbledon and Jamaica international has even been dropped as an ambassador for the 2018 World Cup bid.

This is the second issue ITV have blundered into since the World Cup began, after their HD coverage missed Steven Gerrard’s early opener against USA. With all the bad press around at the moment, they’ll have certainly been hoping for a Gary Lineker love rat story to break at any moment for them. However in true fashion bad things do tend to come in 3’s, and although we can’t firmly put the blame on ITV for England’s lacklustre performance and 4-1 capitulation to Germany so it would seem they are now through the worst of it.

They missed one of England’s 3 world cup goals, one of there pundits sold on tickets and made them and himself look like rather stupid, and before they could redeem themselves England managed to knock themselves out of the competition. Never mind, 4 more years!

• To communicate the subject (SME core criteria) simply and quickly
• To be easily trademarked
• To be easily reproduced on relevant resources
• To be uniquely identifiable as belonging to RoSPA

The logo was made with the idea of RoSPA being at the ‘core’ of all things health and safety. We decided to keep the imagery fairly literal, and used the inner part of a an apple instead of the ‘o’  in CORE. Since the logo has been produced, RoSPA has re-used this in it’s latest exhibition as it’s main theme.

In addition to a carefully planned marketing and PR plan, Big Cat Communications also developed a social media campaign to trigger hype and raise awareness around this exhilarating attraction.

Due to the target market, Big Cat felt Facebook, Twitter and YouTube would prove to be appropriate tools, allowing for easy interaction between ‘fans’ and ‘followers’ whilst distributing content continually throughout the campaign.

Facebook was used to issue picture and video content to ‘friends’, enabling them to see some of the incredible rides within the NEC. The videos were a great success, as the rides at Funworld were all incredibly visual.

As part of the launch event for Funworld, X-Factor stars John & Edward performed a number of songs down at the NEC. The Facebook page became swamped with ‘Jedward’ fans who wished to know details about their appearance.

Post-launch event a number of videos were uploaded with fan’s singing tributes to their idols. All of the videos were uploaded onto the Funworld YouTube account and then distributed amongst Facebook and Twitter pages in order to increase audience numbers.

Utilising a number of social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Wordpress, the Communications team issued daily updates with fun facts, photos and videos which generated large interest around the attraction and reached a far greater audience.

The Facebook profile and fan pages allowed for easy interaction with members of the public who were interested in the attraction, answering quires regarding costs and visiting times. It also triggered a number of debates around the unusual facts that were uploaded about the human body.

A Wordpress blog was set up on the Bodies Revealed website, informing people of forthcoming events such as an ‘Art Night’ and a number of celebrity appearances including Jamelia, Birmingham City Football clubs youth team and Su Pollard. Numerous offers and competitions were also announced via the blog and distributed via Facebook and Twitter.

YouTube also played an important tool in the campaign, allowing visitors to view testimonials from the exhibition which were recorded on specially designed high tech pods.

Utilising a three tier program across Facebook, Twitter and Wordpress; daily updates were posted with fun facts, photos, links and videos. Questions were also asked and answered as a way of gauging people’s opinions on the attraction and to increase awareness of its location within Birmingham’s Bullring.

A Wordpress blog was written by CSI: The Experience’s very own special agent, Inspector Ricky Parker who kept readers informed of the latest goings on down at the attraction as well any special events that were occurring.

Midway through the campaign, Big Cat Communications launched a series of interactive competitions through the various platforms. The idea behind one of these  was to get members of the general public to design their own crime scene by whatever means they want; photography, drawings, collage etc and then to submit the entry via Facebook.

To demonstrate the educational aspect of the attraction, Big Cat teamed up with one of the UK’s leading forensic institutes, Staffordshire University. They provided an abundance of video footage, answering Facebook ‘fans’ questions around the subject of forensics. This footage was gradually released throughout the campaign via Facebook and Twitter.

Based on the global hit TV series, CSI: The Experience allowed visitors to become CSI agents for the day, using the latest in forensic technology to crack a series of cases and catch the crook.

The three month PR campaign operated through a number of mediums including national, regional and trade print, broadcast and social media.

The launch of the exhibition kick started with a press launch where members of the press were invited to test out the equipment for themselves, followed by a sold out VIP event.

Highlights of the campaign include a double page feature in the Daily Mirror, coverage in The Times, The Independent and a 20 minute slot on Radio 1 with DJ Greg James who came down to the attraction and attempted to crack the case. Snippets of his visit were played throughout the day on Radio 1 and their website featured a full image gallery of his trip to the attraction.

Situated within Birmingham’s creative community The Custard Factory, The Old Library was the perfect venue for such an event. It’s souring vaulted ceilings and stunning stain glass windows streamed an almost holy glow of light onto busy shoppers, creating an electric energy which only facilitated in the ferocious exchange of money for goods.

Queues streamed down Digbeth High street with people of all ages, willing for the chance to enter The Old Library and be part of the whirlwind of sales within. Inside there was a fantastic old-school unity between stall holders creating an essence of community, which nowadays is a novelty when comparing it to the modern experience of shopping that most have to endure in more corporate large chain stores or shopping centres. This unique Buzz continued solidly from open to close, leaving stall holders exhausted and elated at their empty stalls, and shoppers with endless bags of quality exclusive bargains. To top it all off the organisers had hand-made 200 of the most imaginative cup-cakes in flavours that were truly delicious and so popular they could have sold out 3 times over.   

Not only was this a day of shopping, but a day of fun, excitement and mystery, allowing each to discover the most perfect one-off vintage item they could find. The old library has such a historic and magical essence to it, you couldn’t ask for a better venue. Is this not the sort of shopping we should get to experience all the time? The Vintage Fair returns on June 12^th for its next mini adventure.