That Friday Feeling.....

I'm currently working like a beaver on the Impulse campaign! I'm recruiting for staff to work at the VUE cinema on 4th and 5th July. It's proving to be quite a challenge but I'm ploughing on regardless!!

Tomorrow I'm working at the Sure Girl Style Exchange Party which I'm majorly excited about - am going to probably be the most star struck person there, lol! love Alesha Dixon!

Gem x

What a lovely chap

I've just had a very lovely chat with Leon Bailey Green - www.leonbaileygreen.com, have a look at what I've said on his site. Best of all have a look at his site, very intersting info on the world of marketing :)

Promo Girls Wanted for Impulse Campaigns

We're having a busy time in the Operations department at the moment recruiting staff for our "Impulse" promotions in July.


One is going to be in Vue cinemas all over the country on July 4th and 5th so if you are heading to see a film on those days, make sure you see one of our girls and get your free sample of Impulse body spray.

The other is taking place in Revolutions Bars in 50 different locations on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings throughout July. Not only will the girls be giving out free samples of Impulse in the bar but they will also be acting as matchmakers for the night - so if you want to inject some romance into your life this summer head down to Revolutions and let our Impulse girls help!

We are still still looking for promotional staff particularly in Lancaster, Carlisle, Inverness, Romford, Staines, Thurrock, Glasgow and Blackburn so if you want to work on one of our campaigns get in touch with me at emily.aylward@theloungegroup.com

Emily x

A bit of Gok on the radio

Last week we had a Radio Day with Gok Wan for the launch of new Alliance & Leicester Premier 21 Campaign, it was an early start for all - but it turned out to be really successful.

Gok was a true professional, and although he made the odd innuendo and talked about his bum hanging out of his pants, he was really good at talking about the Premier 21 Account’s Master Class Day with him. He even mentioned the research; that 52 per cent of youngsters who leave school do so because they want to get a job where they don't need a degree. All morning radio hosts seemed really happy with the interviews.

He talked a lot about his early life and how he got into fashion; apparently the first time he'd spoken about that. All in all we did all have a giggle, especially when he was asked for a Summer Style Tip and came out with, "Don't forget girls, if you're going to the beach this summer, remember to trim your bush" - and let's not forget the naked picture of a naked woman on her breakfast table, which they wanted Gok to comment on. It turned out to be one of the radio presenters for a later show. I'm still laughing now!

Worth the early start, although I felt a bit sorry for Gok as he had to run off to a shoot and knew he would be working til quite late at night.

Looking forward to the next press day though - hopefully equally as entertaining!

If you are 16-21 year you can apply to spend the day with him through www.prem21.co.uk

Paul

We're Hiring - Job Descriptions

The Lounge is an integrated agency, who specialise in the creation & development of marketing communications solutions for under 30s.

We fundamentally believe in the principle;

"only the market gets the market"

The Lounge’s vision is to be the leading authority on under 35s.

Unlike the competition this is not done through having a cool hair cut and a fancy pair of jeans but by a genuine connection with the target audience through The Lounge’s network’s of under 30s and Influencers.

We work with our networks on all our clients in order to gain valuable and unique insights that inform our strategy and creative solutions - this approach means we get it right first time round.

Account Director Job Description

As Account Director (AD), you’ll be firstly directing the day-to-day client relationship. And on specific pieces of business, you’re also in a position to guide and steer the way that The Lounge works with its clients.

In this role you’re a thinker as well as a doer. Being an Account Director means that 80% of your time needs to be spent on thinking and leading others to make things happen, with only 20% spent on actually doing the doing. You’ll need the ability to step back and to plan, yet also be a focal point in the development of our campaigns. Bring out the best in people around you and you’ll thrive. So begin to develop your leadership style to reflect the needs of the differing personalities around you.

ADs deliver their results through others. So active involvement in the way your team works is key to your career development. Let those around you benefit from your detailed understanding of the marketplace. Your client will especially appreciate your multi-disciplined/strategic understanding of their business. The Lounge will encourage you to own pieces of its business and rely on your powerful relationships with senior client personnel.

PR Director

Want to run the PR division?

Your dream is to start and run your own PR agency. Hell, you may already have a client or two that would move with you if you were to abandon your current ship. However, for a variety of reasons you haven’t taken the leap just yet. It could be financial, it could be that you’re afraid of the investment required; it could be the right time just hasn’t shown itself. Well, the time is now because you’re sick of putting in the long hours and making money for someone else, when you know you could be putting in the hours and effort for your own personal reward and financial gain.

We can offer you the infrastructure, the team, the resource, the new business manager. They just need you to have a drive and hunger to develop and grow a PR practice that can compete with some of the best.

We are looking for someone to develop the PR offering, ensuring new business growth and activity executed with excellence. You will have full P&L responsibility and lead on several high profile clients that range from record labels to cool new consumer technology. As well as run the operation you will provide senior counsel to clients, search out and field new opportunities and build the profile of the business within the market.

You are probably based in London currently and have a strong track record working with some of the best consumer PR consultancies. You are at least Group Account Director level with a keen ambition to run your own business. You are entrepreneurial, hungry for success, understand what it takes to attract the 18-35 year old to a brand/product or idea and have a large appetite for getting things done.

We want you to inspire and lead a team. A background that includes experiential activity, influencer outreach, events and the obvious kick-ass media contacts will help with your success.

Senior Operations Manager

As a Senior Operations Manager, your overall role is to direct the operations business to ensure income is generated either through staffing or insight driven research.

As the leader of this strand of the business, it’s essential that you’re a thinker as well as a doer. A significant percentage of your time needs to be spent on thinking, planning and leading others to make things happen. You’ll need the ability to step back and to plan, yet still be a focal point in the development of the campaigns and work that you deliver. It’s your responsibility to bring out the best in people around you and as a result see your strand of business thrive. It’s essential that you develop a leadership style to reflect the needs of the differing personalities around you.

Our service

• Specialist knowledge and insights from our networks needs to be at the heart of everything The Lounge do. As such you’re responsible for ensuring all account teams understand your service offering and are regularly pitching it to their client base, and including it as part of their brief response.

• The success of Operations depends on the quality, engagement and effectiveness of The Lounge Network. It’s your responsibility to develop and implement a plan to ensure the network contains right number and quality of people to meet your business needs. You should have a clear development plan covering recruitment, retention and network growth and manage the implementation of this in partnership with your team

• By developing strong relationships with your contacts you’ll be able to keep abreast of new opportunities, get The Lounge front of mind and as a result leverage better briefs.

• Integrating clients into agency life is a way of building trust and winning confidence. So where possible involve them and help ensure that they understand how we operate by planned agency immersion sessions, etc.

• Every campaign has the potential to teach us something new. You’ll be the one to recognise what learnings each has provided and share the information with the team and the wider agency, as appropriate.

Delivering results

• As the leader of Operations you get to play a key role in agency-wide rewards. It’s important for you to take ownership of profit forecasts, develop suitable strategies and take pride in delivering them. It helps when you make sure team members are being efficient and maximising revenue opportunities.

• Identifying and developing new business opportunities needs to be second nature. You should be able to predict and ultimately maximise new business opportunities for The Lounge. Combine this with an ability to bring your client(s) along with your thinking.

• Working with key people across the agency where necessary, you need to be a hot shot at negotiating fees with clients on a project-by-project basis. Do well and everyone in the agency will benefit.

• Be resourceful. In other words, manage available agency resources in the most efficient way. We’ll also expect your input into short and medium-term forecasts for resourcing requirements.

• Good financial management is critical to our long-term success. Cascade its importance through the rest of the team.

Talent

Not only are we a great PR team but some of us can sing and dance too!

Check out one of our Loungers, Paul B in a play called The Fix. We had a Lounge outing last week to cheer him and our lovely x-employee Kate B on.

The story line was quite dramatic - there were gasps of shock at some racy scenes! Centre Stage put on a great show once again.

Gok a liscious

Happy Monday from The Lounge.

The Lounge recently filmed a podcast with Gok for the Prem 21 Campaign, in which he opens up about his life, career, top tips and speaks about his experiences growing up, which he has never really spoken about before. Gok was very down to earth and a really nice guy – he looked every bit the fashionista we know and love! For anyone interested in breaking into the fashion industry or just love Gok you will enjoy the podcast….

The campaign is pretty cool. A&L are offering 21 young people the chance to spend a whole day with Gok at one of London’s most famous fashion haunts, then he will take them for a luxurious lunch and give them a styling challenge on the streets of London! For those that don't get a chance to meet Gok, there are some amazing prizes on offer such as a shopping spree, photo shoot & signed Gok goodies. If you are interested you can find all of the information on www.prem21.com

I will keep the updates coming…

B xx

Sure Girl Style Exhange - countdown!

This week we’re busy getting ready for our Sure Girl Style Exchange event next week!

It's being held in London and hosted by Alesha Dixon (we love her).

We ran a competition on the Sure Girl bebo page www.bebo.com/whatmakesyousweat for 25 girls to come to the event with a friend, meet Alesha and attend our great workshops in fashion, make-up and hair. Each workshop is run by an expert and we have Elle magazine’s fashion editor Bonnie Rahkit leading the fashion workshop. We also have hair and make-up artists to the stars Kim Menzes and Michelle Sultan running sessions too.

Check back soon for photos!

xKimberley

Sure Girl Style Exhange

Check out what we are working on today. The Sure Girl Style Exchange is happening next week!
http://www.bebo.com/whatmakesyousweat

Alesha gives some great style tips in the podcast.

The Lounge launches today

GOK WAN TO HOST PREMIER 21 FASHION MASTER CLASS PROGRAMME FOR STYLIST WANNA-BE’S

Gok Wan is the first celebrity expert to be named to Alliance & Leicester Bank’s Premier 21 Master Class Programme which launches today. The programme has been created to support 16-21 year olds who have left full time education to kick start their careers.

Research conducted by the Bank showed that almost half (52 per cent) of those questioned about the most desirable career for people in their age bracket, chose jobs for which no degree was necessary. In addition, one of the industries considered a great career path was fashion, a choice Gok, stylist and presenter of How to look good naked, definitely agrees with.

“It’s important that people realise that not having a degree isn’t the end of the world,” said Wan, “There are lots of options for young people to build a successful career in their industry of choice. However, if you’re young and starting to make money, it’s a good idea to start thinking about saving for the future. Nobody’s young forever,” says Gok.

Gok will host a Premier 21 Fashion Careers Master Class Programme in September for young people looking to break into fashion.

Andy Bayes, Head of Current Accounts at Alliance & Leicester said: “Many 16-21 year olds now make the choice to go straight to work rather than university and as a result are very career driven. We think it is important to recognise those who are just starting out in their working life and offer them support, especially in the first stages of their professional lives when they are likely to be making important financial decisions.”

“With this in mind, the Premier 21 Account has been launched to allow this group to maximise the potential of their hard earned cash. The account offers a 10% interest rate, the highest credit interest rate on the high street, to help make their money go further.”

For more information on the Master Class Programme, how to win a spot to meet Gok Wan and the market leading Premier 21 Account visit www.prem21.co.uk..