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Friday 25 June 2010

Spare a thought for those at Glastonbury this weekend...

BEWARE THE FLIP-FLIP CHALLENGE!!!!!!

This has been making us all laugh in The Lounge this afternoon! Turns out flip-flips become a complicated, athletic challenge after a few too many...



Happy Friday Everybody!

Monday 21 June 2010

EastEnders reaches out to the “the endz”

In celebration of the BBC1 prime time soap's 25th Anniversary, this year EastEnders launched a series of youth orientated webisodes known as E20.

The show, written and starred in by 17-25 year olds was first transmitted on the EastEnders website in January. The show identified immediately with young people from the title as the E20 is the make believe postcode of the endz (area) EastEnders is set in. E20 is undoubtedly the East London rival of Channel 4 youth drama Skins (with less explicitness) and a heavy competitor for the Hollyoaks audience. The four main characters are perhaps more realistic modern day teens than those portrayed in Skins...

Zsa Zsa Carter (Emer Kenny)

Beautiful, outspoken badgirl on the run.







Arthur Chubb preferably known as "Fatboy" (Ricky Norwood)

The comedic wannabe hustler of the group who overuses slang to fit in but is secretly a spoilt mummy's boy.





Mercy Olubunmi (Bunmi Mojekwu)

Church-going good girl with a life-changing secret.







Leon Small (Sam Attwater)

The sexy, effortlessly cool heart-throb struggling with an alcoholic father and a damning weakness for the opposite sex.





The first series attracted more than 3 million views on the EastEnders website. E20 has been described by BBC executives as "the most ambitious and successful multi-platform projects". Over 17,000 young Facebook fans called for more episodes, and in response EastEnders not only commissioned a new series, but also brought E20 from the small screen to the medium screen by airing prolonged episodes of the web drama on BBC3. The show is one of the UK's most high-profile web TV series to date, with over 2.1 million views.

The characters enabled more young people to engage with EastEnders by speaking in colloquial East-End terms, making references to things today's youth can relate to and dealing with issues they can identify with. Since May 31 2010 all four characters have been integrated in to the main show and they stand to boost EastEnders' popularity with its younger audience.

Edwina (Miss Hardy)

Monday 14 June 2010

Lounge trendhunter Matthew discusses the top 5 uses for the iPad!

iPad, MacBook, iPhone, iPod and MiniMac - Do they count as my 5 a day?

You would have had to be living in a cave not to have heard at least some of the buzz surrounding Apple’s new ‘wonder device’, the iPad. I myself (a self confessed Apple junkie) have been looking forward to its release for some time (although I didn’t queue for 20 hours outside the Apple store on the day of its release – I was only there for 17 hours).

“After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly.”
– Walt Mossberg

Like the launch of the iPhone back in 2007, Apple have spared no expense in creating as much hype as possible prior to its release, and now it’s finally here. Will it change our lives forever as we know it? Probably not, but not to worry, this isn’t yet ANOTHER review of the iPad. 74 million reviews have already been posted this past week alone (yep I counted!) Instead, I’m going to talk about just how Apple manages to create such a buzz about a product launch and share my thoughts on what to actually do with it if you get one.

"There has only been one iPad ad shown (during the Superbowl) and the amount of free advertising this thing is getting is nothing short of amazing. Wherever you go and whatever you read has coverage of the device.”
- Gaurang Donovan

How have Apple been able to gain this amount of coverage? I actually spent about 15 minutes thinking about this question. In those 15 minutes I logged onto Twitter to reply to StraceyJ, aka Alan, to say that I categorically wasn’t going to camp out with him outside the Apple store to get one. Next, I logged onto Facebook and was bombarded with status updates from friends saying they were either for or against the iPad. Then it hit me: the launch of the iPhone in 2007 was backed by a multi million pound advertising campaign. The iPad too is using an advertising campaign, but alongside social networking portals. These portals engage with our generation and get us all talking about it. Genius really.

So what do you do with it?

Ok, so if you’re thinking about getting an iPad – or indeed already have one - there are loads of Apps out there that you should get if you want to look really intellectual when you’re on your morning commute, such as: Scrabble, The Guardian, WeatherBug Elite, TomTom, blah blah blah… BUT! If you really want to look super cool with your new gizmo, here are my top 5 best uses for the iPad:

5.
Piano – Don’t have the space for a grand piano, or worse, can’t afford one? Fear not, as at a fraction of the cost you can just buy an iPad and download the Piano App called Pro Keys. Next time you go to Starbucks for your morning coffee the staff will be in for a treat.

4.
Phone – Want to turn your iPad into the biggest mobile phone in the world? There’s an app for that.

3.
DJ Set – Forget using Vinyl, forget using CDs and forget using your laptop to DJ. Use your iPad! Rana Sobhany (self proclaimed first iPad DJ) uses apps like Groovemaker House, Looptastic HD, iDaft, AC-7 Pro, Pianist Pro and Sonosaurus Rex to mix beats with her iPad. Gone are the days of lugging heavy equipment to gigs.

2.
In car system - Turn your iPad into a touch screen multimedia system for your car.

1.
The best name tag in history. Speed Dating will never be the same again!


By Lounge trendhunter Matthew Gray

Thursday 10 June 2010

The Lounge Group's MD James Layfield talks to Marketing Week about 'how to use youthful brand ambassadors'

James Layfield is featured in today's article in Marketing Week, Mini Marketers should be treated with Kids Gloves:

'With concerns about using children for peer-to-peer marketing being voiced in Whitehall, brands are under pressure to demonstrate they are handling this youth channel responsibly or risk a backlash....

James Layfield, Managing Director at agency The Lounge Group, says its research on teenage consumers and people in their 20s indicates that brands do not need to promote their products in a “drug pusher fashion”.

His advice is to “produce something brilliant and they’ll talk about it.” (see How To Use Youthful Brand Ambassadors).'



Thursday 3 June 2010

A SKYN Revolution - coverage in PR Week

The Lounge's campaign for SKYN non-latex condoms for Mates (Ansell) is featured in PR Week, 'A Revolution Over Skyn Condoms'.

The campaign ran across 5 European countries calling for another sexual revolution... to Stand Up For Better Sex!

Watch the manifesto and join the SKYN revolution: www.skyrevolution.co.uk

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Response from Stephen Fry's people!

So we sent a link of the iPad launch footage to Stephen Fry's people and got this lovely reply:

Dear Louise,

Many thanks for this link which I shall forward to Stephen Fry with pleasure.

So glad to have seen it - makes me feel I was there, rather than glued to my desk at the time.

All best,

Jo
PA to Stephen Fry

iPad launch London UK: Interview with Stephen Fry and the crowds

The Lounge hit the Apple store on Regent Street, London, on Friday 28th May 2010 for the launch of the new iPad on behalf of Brand Republic magazine.

We spoke to some of the 1,000 people who had been queuing for up to 16 hours. And we ran in to Stephen Fry!!



According to 63336, the majority of people in the queue - 56% - were buying the iPad based on reviews, international success and pure faith in Apple products, without having tested the product first.

Check it out on Brand Republic too