HAPPY NEW YEAR!

- Here's to the first New Year I'm seeing through as a Blogger -

Look out for lots more from me in the year to come - 2011!!!!! 

 Cheers to 2011 and POP THAT CORK!

Or like us - have your own fire works show... so far its proven quite lethal! 

So heads up all! 

HERE'S TO A 'CRACKING' NEW YEW!  

And don't forget about your New Year resolutions! If you're stuck for ideas of things you want to do (and not keep) - here are a few suggestions!

• I will do less laundry and use more deodorant. 
• I will give up chocolates totally. 100%. Completely. Honestly....(on Mondays)
• I will try to figure out why I *really* need nine e-mail addresses.  
• I will avoid taking a bath whenever possible and conserve more water. 
• I will spend less than one hour a day on the Internet. This, of course, will be hard to estimate since I'm not a clock watcher. 
• I will read the manual... just as soon as I can find it.
• I will think of a password other than "password." 

Then there is the same old ones:

• Lose weight
• Stop Smoking
• Write a novel...blah blah blah 

Let me know what you make as your New Year's resolution!

Mine is to be more spontaneous and to live for the moment! I'm going to grab every chance I can to do something fun this year, life is too short!

Create Your Own Wallace and Gromit Character!

Meet Bertrood - My Wallace and Gromit Character! 

(She's a Beaut.)

This is the Wallace and Gromit character I created, her name is Bertrood and shamefully I found it quite funny to create. You can make your own, just go to: https://www.wallaceandgromitstamps.com/index.php.

Royal Mail's 2010 Christmas PR campaign kicked off with the launch of 'special' Christmas Stamps! Proximity London developed a dedicated website for Royal Mail to support this year’s Christmas stamps, which feature the Award winning global screen stars, Wallace & Gromit.

Did you spot then? Or win any?
I didn't even see them despite being quite spoilt this year, getting lots of presents in the post (must of been a good girl!)

Royal Mails campaign, I can't help but think was a bit lazy. It involved a LOT of competitions and posters, prize wins etc... (and relied heavily on Wallace and Gromits 'celebrity status') maybe they could have been a little more creative?! I mean come on, it's Christmas AND Wallace and Gromit are renown for being silly!
Maybe they were relying on stamp lovers eager to add to their collections to buy them!

Personally I'm quite sad when it comes to Christmas and give in to all those little extras despite the fact I didn't have the funds to do so this year. I don't love Wallace and Gromit, but could have been tempted to buy some for other people to enjoy when they receive their presents from me in the post.

They had their own website and utilised social media sites really well I think - could they have done something different and better though?
Let me know if you create you own Character - Post your link on here!
Can't wait to see them!

No Room At The Inn - Not With Travelodge!

Mary's and Joseph’s got free rooms at Travelodge over Christmas!

This campaign was done quite a few years ago now, but I came across some critical opinions about it online. I personally love what Shine Communication did. Have a look on the PR Week website and let me know what you think http://www.prweek.com/news/479669/Campaign-Consumer---Mary-Joseph-stunt-lifts-Travelodge/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

The challenge they faced was that Travelodge struggle to generate sales of rooms around the holidays so wanted to address this issue. Yes, what they came up with was a little cheesy as people suggested, but it was also appropriate for the time of year, festive and fun! They didn't use a massive budget, carried out the campaign in a short timescale and got national coverage. Pretty impressive I'd say!

SKYPE ME... on Facebook?

Intergrated Skype and Facebook! 

(I know this happened in October - but better late than never!)

This is a partnership of massive proportion! As we all know, the amount of people who use facebook on a daily basis is insane, something like over 250 million. Skype itself though has around 560 million users as well! Personally I think it was a great move (which will benefit both!) All I can say is poor MSN. (I forgot about that YEARS AGO... but more fool them for not keeping up.)

I heard about this a while ago, but just haven't got around to doing it myself. I'm on Facebook too much of my time anyway, but always forget to log into my Skype account (the reason to blame for that is probably down to the fact I'm a bit of a  novice on it still - shamefully despite creating the account months ago!) I should be using Skype more if not only to lower my phone bill! I'm slow with new apps, so getting around to adding my Skype onto Facebook now.

I started searching how to 'link' my two accounts and came across a great website that puts it into 3 easy steps, so thought I'd share it with you all:

1. Log in to your Facebook account. Go to http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2383452981 to add the Skype Me application to your Facebook profile.

2. Click the "Go to Application" button in the top-left corner of the page. On the next page, enter your Skype username into the box; select a call button to be displayed on your Facebook profile and then click "Save."

3. Click "Add to Profile." A Skype Me box will now be added to your Facebook profile to let people know when you are on Skype. It will read "I'm Online" or "Skype Me!" Friends can click "call," "chat" or "add" to add you to their Skype friends list.

Hope it helped!

Sainsbury's went 'GREEN' for Shrek Forever After

I clearly haven't been to Sainsbury's in too long! (I blame that on my ever depleting ‘student’ account – Asda all the way! Or Tesco when feeling richer, this generally happens 3 times in the year - Sept, Jan and May! Yes, you guessed it! The good old student Loan)

Known for its orange logo I didn’t think Sainsbury's would ever alter their logo so dramatically - even for the final Shrek film release! (I wonder whether a good old cheque book was involved.) I can’t help but think they could have altered it for a much better cause? That would have actually benefited them a lot more!

Check it out:

It has certainly got people talking though – most coverage being along the lines of: ‘First time Sainsbury have ever changed their logo in its history, 114 years! The more cynical of us out there have questioned the claims though, because Sainsbury’s did in fact change their logo 10 years ago from J.SAINSBURY to its current one.

I think changing the colour of the S and giving it the famous Shrek ears does count as the first change! Before was a revamp so to speak – this was a change of image to boost sales of Shrek Forever After, the last ever Shrek films. The film was on sale for £8 during the first week, now it’s gone up to £13.99, I missed it! That was one hell of a way to kick of a movie release; I bet sales went through the roof. Did you miss out too?