TNS erm....

We believe we are connected and understand our target audience, however we may have a thing or two to learn from TNS about how we communicate this.

Check out the terrifying TRUth

We've had a little visit from a Bullet Babe

A-hum

By God after Ashley's recent post regarding the i-Tunes festival I felt compelled to attend one for myself. So Ashley and I ventured out to A-ha. Now whilst not quite as new to the music scene as Mumford & Sons you'd hope that old faithfuls A-ha would titillate the audience of 30-35 year olds with solid hits.

Sadly this was not the case. A-ha had the stage presence of a corpse and the rapport of arch enemies. As a result even the now 30 year old women blinded by teen infatuation with lead singer Morton could not "get into" these i-Tunes.

My conclusion, A-ha are shit live. Fact.

The iTunes Festival

OK, so before I get “blogging”, allow me to introduce myself. My name’s Ashley James, female, aged 22. I’m one of the new additions to the team.

Interests: Boris Johnson (!)
Skills: Having the remarkable ability to refer to Boris in any topic of conversation
Dislikes: Abbreviations, bad manners, P.D.A (public displays of affection)

If I’m honest, I’m a blog virgin - yup that's right, this is my first time! I’m slightly more traditional when it comes to writing, so don’t expect too much of me (or any cyber chat!).

Anyway, let’s get down to business. I thought I’d write about the iTunes Festival I went to at the Roundhouse in Camden last night. I applied a while back because one of my favourite bands, Mumford & Sons (check them out), were due to play. What an amazing bonus that The Temper Trap and the one and only Stephen Fry were added to the evening’s line up! I invited one of my best friends, Amelia, as it was her birthday a few days before – and being a recent graduate, my bank is still suffering (or is it the credit crunch...) so I couldn’t splash out on anything for her.

So, in chronological order ... Stephen Fry! Taking us right back beyond even his years (no offense Sir) to the time of the caveman, Stephen talked us through the history of music. Here’s a great fact (it interested me anyway) – tape cassettes were invented by the Nazis during World War 2! He also, somewhat controversially, defended illegal downloading – if you’re a student and you love music but can’t afford to pay for it, then you cannot be labelled a criminal (according to Mr Fry – I’m staying out of it!). Next, the Temper Trap – what an amazing front man, his voice is incredible. I love the song Sweet Disposition, which I knew before, but I found their other stuff a little heavy, although I definitely can’t knock their passionate performance. And now the main act – Mumford & Sons. They were aaaaah-mazing. The lead singer, Marcus, is a born performer. They all play so many different instruments (all at once) – I really hope they go far.
Something else that really can’t go unmentioned is the couple that were stood in front of us – other than their uncomfortable displays of P.D.A - when the guy went to the loo, the girl was slightly edgy about being parted from him for so long and continued to call him non-stop (he was in her phone as fiancé)... !

All in all an amazing evening – you can’t knock anything that is free. I recommend applying for one of their other evenings.

Anyway, in the words of Bugs Bunny... That’s all folks!
Ash xx

Ellies Blog as a word cloud

Lounge Trendspotters

One of our 8,000 peer network was recently featured in the August issue of Bliss.

Danny Cipriani to host A&L Sport Master Class

The last few months have seen The Lounge working extremely hard with Alliance & Leicester in securing some top talent for this years 'Inspired Choice' campaign.

England and Wasps rugby player, Danny Cipriani has been named as the first celebrity mentor for 2009 and he will be holding a sports master class for 21 lucky account holders in July. It's all very exciting and over the past couple of weeks we have been extremely busy filming his podcast, launching the campaign and talking to lots of media....

We'll be announcing the next celebrity mentor very soon so watch this space.

For more information check out http://www.prem21.co.uk/

Mouse in da House

I'm proud to say that Kate managed to first entice and then kill a mouse through a sheer mountain of tat under her desk. Miss Thurlwell had the largest collection of bags, shoes, hats, and other items that man has ever seen stuffed under her desk. Luckily Kate's tat and the dead mouse have now been removed.

< half decomposed mouse. Pen lid for scale.

Clarity is key

We believe that it is much stronger to have one clear single minded thought routed in strategic thinking than 3 creative ideas.

Roll on pitch!

New for 2009

Hello peeps,

We at the Lounge are running a competition for the best art work of my face. So far we have had just one entry but we'd love more.

What's stopping you?

Fresh Business Thinking Article

Our fist thought would be that the economic climate should not genuinely effect how well one medium performs at reaching the right audience versus another. The right medium should be the right medium. What I hope this new economic environment will do is to get marketers to reappraise their “traditional” marketing mix and genuinely question the value of a TV ad or print ad in connecting with their core consumer. The Lounge specialise in connecting with under 35’s and for this audience we are often surprised at just how much money is spend on traditional channels at the expense at more targeted ones.

We believe that out of home, brand experience and outdoor, is significantly more effective at engaging this audience than either print or TV. In absolute terms you may see a lower reach however you will get significantly more engagement and therefore effectiveness from these “non-traditional” routes. These routes when combined with other channels such as digital will get your clients much more bang for their buck.
The key element that is going to effect how well your brand engages with your audience is how well you understand them. Brands that actually invest in smart marketing, marketing that is targeted genuinely to the needs of their consumer, will see a big difference in this economic environment. Non-traditional routes enable more subtlety, and enable a much more tailored solution therefore, if you employing smart marketing then the non-traditional channels will perform better for you. If you are just grinding out the usual parp then best of luck to you.

Goodbye Itunes no more Buy Buy

If you have not seen it. Then click the title of this article.

Spotify is here. It is simply the ultimate legal music application, the Itunes killer and possibly radio killer.

Every tune you could want, streamed to you. It changes how you think about music. It's no longer about ownership and having to store tracks. Its about having access to broadband and an unlimited music library at your finger tips.

Run it on your mobile, or your Mac / PC. Winner.

It's from teh guys behind Skype. You need to try it.

An oldie but a goodie

Sometimes things just really work. You may well know of this site, www.stumbleupon.com, but if not then you really should. If you are looking for inspiration then this is a fantastic tool. Effectively you join Stumble, a community of Stumblers, and enjoy sites that other Stumblers have found and liked. You can Stumble individual sites, so stumble around Wired or the BBC, or a category like photography.

You'll rediscover the joy's of the internet, and expand your horizons.

So go on. Get Stumbling, click the title of this blog post and you'll be whisked off!

James

Play your cards right

With the current furore around the success of the GB Olympics Team, I was interested to hear a debate on the radio last night started by an online petition to get Poker to be introduced as an Olympic sport in London 2012.

The idea of sport generally conjures a mental picture of being out of breath, sweaty and a lovely shade of beetroot (or is that just me?) But these guys argued that Poker players need similar attributes to other sports men and women such as stamina, strategy and the strength of mind to out wit your opponent.


It does seem a bit unfair that the other athletes have to put in so much effort for their sports. One of the reasons our Olympic cycling team is so good is because they can withstand immense amounts of pain to push themselves to train even harder . Compare that with a poker player who can prepare by eating a junk food and drinking a beer...not exactly challenging yourself too much.

But, as poker's now the number one participation game in the world, attracting more and more players every day, particularly online, even sponsors are moving away from traditional sports like snooker and putting their money into poker. So, maybe it could happen.


It would be pretty amazing to win a gold medal in the Olympics, so even though I'm not entirely convinced it can be classed as a sport, I think given my poor record in all the others I've tried, poker could be be my best option if I ever want to win one... and I i don't even have to give up pizza!

Rain rain rain... GO AWAY! Who would ever remember to pack an umbrella to take to a festival??Yes, I forgot mine and I really regretted it!!Thank God for my yellow poncho!

I was saved by the vibrant and fun Tuaca Cabaret Lounge.. Great cocktails were served, burlesque dancers, artists from our discover campaign and energetic dj's put a closure to the Tuaca Cabaret Lounge each night.

Livorno cocktail or Tuscan Mule?? Decisions...

On Sunday, I woke up to realise that our tent was about to blow away and noticed that our neighbours had invaded our space... Not by choice! The wind had moved their tents early in the morning - COSY!

I departed on Monday and I have never looked so forward to my bed and shower!!

See you all there next year.. JS

P.S The famous wishing tree... My wish still hasn't come through!!

Cocktails and entertainment in Manchester

Hey there!

Reading previous blogs entries you may well be aware of one of our clients, Tuaca. Tuaca is a gorgeous Italian brandy liqueur which has actually been around for years but it's debut in the UK is a fairly recent thing....unless you've spent some time in Brighton. A lovely couple from Brighton found Tuaca when they were snowboarding in Colarado. Everyone was drinking it apres ski so they decided to be no different! They fell in love with the drink and brought it back to Brighton where they owned a bar and literally flooded Brighton with it. Since then Bacardi Brown Forman who now own the brand have brought us on board to get it out to the rest of the UK....and so we have.

Discover Tuaca is a nationwide campaign we've been running live since May. Sweeping the country with a one week drinks promotion in each of 7 carefully selected bars and pubs in 9 cities - the drinks promotion ends with a night of free live entertainment in each bar. The ethos of Tuaca is one I can personally really relate to so it's fantastic to work on something you feel so genuinely passionate about. Tuaca is all about something a little bit different and new, electic and down to earth so the artists that have been performing in each city are an assortment of some truly original entertainment.

This week our activity in Manchester and Belfast kicks off and with locally sourced talent from each city, it gives a real personal touch to the entertaiment and the vibe of the night. If you're in either of these cities in August or September, it's well worth checking out the list of bars and nights we're running and getting down to enjoy a few Tuaca cocktails http://www.tuaca.co.uk/ There's also a chance to win a holiday to Colorado just by visiting the site so it's certainly worth a virtual visit at the least.

To give you a glimpse of what's coming up in Manchester, check out these guys for a perfect demonstration of the quirky and hugely talented artists we've 'discovered' on our travels. They are fabulous - Dr Butlers Hatstand Medicine Band - if nothing else, the name delivers on the brief of electism http://www.myspace.com/drbutlershatstandmedicineband but I think you'll agree, these guys do have an edge playing an array of unconventional instruments from the washboard, jews-harp, spoons, ukulele, kazoo, jug, guitar, banjo, clarinet, harmonica, double bass and the piano

Tuaca is stocked in over 400 bars and pubs in London so look out for it and give it a whirl. The Tuscan Mule is my favourite and is perfect for summer drinking (if you can call this a summer) but it's good to get in the mood regardless. Bottoms up! Clare

The Emotions of Business

I absolutely love having my own business. If you get off on the thrills of life then having your own business has got to be up there as one of the most thrilling ways to spend your time. I can't think of anything else which can offer this emotional rollercoster.

This last 7 days has been no exception. We've had some nail biting moments but in this short time we've also had a fantastic few days, with some massive highs as we've won a fab new clothing retail client, a head to head pitch on a phone, and some new deo business. We've had fun and games with a Premiership footballer, had some new members join the team and been sad at seeing some long time loungers leave. We've won a legal dispute with a crazy client and started looking for a new home having out grown this one.

Clearly it's not always easy but, I am proud to say, we have a bloody great team here and when The Loungers are pulling together we can deliver some amazing results.

So this weekend if you want to see us in action and you are at The Bloom Festival please come and check us out. Our client Tuaca are going to be kicking up a storm at their Cocktail Tent, letting people Discover some amazing new talent.

A happy and bouncy James

Rain does not stop play

Welcome our new Head of Client Services Emma, seen here with Sara at Lounge HQ

Yes it's team LIC



Lou takes to the stage



The Lounge got itself off to Wireless on Thursday last week and despite natures best efforts and we all had a really lovely time.



At the end of the night who survived.....