Friday always brings a warm fuzzy feeling to the team at Focus PR but even more so today for one particular pod which consists of Holly, Sasha, Lauren, Dettie, Preeya and me (Ali), plus guest diner and desk neighbour Hilary, whose office is next to our pod.  At our marathon auction fundraiser a few weeks ago we outbid all rival pods to secure a four-course lunch extravaganza, courtesy of Petrina (financial controller) and Adrienne (executive assistant). Petrina donned her apron all morning and somehow managed to juggle ice-cream making, data inputting, lamb stewing and invoicing – this woman is a dream, Nigella Scmella! We all wanted to marry her until we found out it was actually her husband who had spent all day Thursday preparing the dishes, and now we want to marry him! Big shout out to Mr Day – nice croutons!

Adrienne was the perfect hostess, pirouetting in and out of the boardroom with tray upon tray of mouth-watering dreamy goodness, topping up wine glasses with a tasty Wairau Cave 2011 sauvignon blanc after every sip, and plugging us into the lunchtime broadcast of Home and Away – rock ‘n’ roll I know!  

After a first course of smoked salmon, second course of Moroccan lamb or poached chilli salmon, and boozy berries with zesty ice-cream for dessert, the last thing we needed was a cheeseboard the size of the boardroom table!   There was ZERO chance any of us could possibly eat another morsel…..oh, hang about…er…whoooops….in it goes!!

Well done podettes and a BIG BIG thank you to domestic goddesses Petrina and Adrienne – DREAM TEAM! The Blue Cross and Beating Bowel Cancer will share the £87 + gift aid donation we raised today.

After more than a month of dreary wet weather (when spring should have been in her element and flip flops enjoying their first outing), everyone I spoke to, whether at work, the school gates or in the supermarket, complained of feeling “down”. 

Even the heartiest of souls, never usually prone to SAD or low mood, were feeling the negative effects of a lack of Vitamin D and too much mud.  All confirmed that the weather was influencing their mood and therefore their behaviour.  I was at the front of the queue researching holidays to exotic places I couldn’t afford, buying a new face serum that claimed it would make me glow and still filling my family’s plates with food to keep the winter bugs at bay (“Not more broccoli, mum!”).

The fact that my mood and behaviour were being partly controlled by dark clouds, coupled with reading alarming newspaper articles on how the poor weather was affecting retail sales in an already tough market, got me digging a little deeper into this phenomena. 

I learnt that sensible exposure to sunlight improves people’s mood: directly correlated to the production of serotonin in the brain (chocolate does this too!).  We spend more when the sun shines.  Fact. Weather is the second most influential factor on retail sales, after the general state of the economy and even a few degrees change in temperature dramatically influences spending patterns.

Did you know that a 4% increase in temperature sees the sales of burgers go up by 42%, while a 10% increase means 50% more coleslaw is sold in the UK?  Weird but true.  And when the sun shines sales of green vegetables decrease by 25%.  I can hear my children celebrating … 

Tesco tells us that its weather prediction software saves the company £6 million every year by keeping shelves stocked with the right products and ensuring less waste.  Weather affects overall sales in the UK by 4.5%, which can be the difference between profit and loss in these times of lean margins.

So, in the world of PR if would seem that time spent researching campaigns that are seasonal but can react quickly to unusual weather patterns (like the coldest May on record!) is crucial.   

Food for thought (but not ice cream just yet!).

Adrienne at mile 25 (just behind the chap in red, looking at the camera)

While the team here are no doubt fed up of hearing me mention the words “running” and “marathon”, with a bit of luck I can get away with it once more by coupling it with how proud I was on Friday 20th April 2012 to have them as my colleagues. My reasons for this on other days could fill quite a few sides of paper, but the new reason that day was because we’d all congregated in our boardroom to raise money ahead of me running the London Marathon two days later for The Blue Cross, plus also Trina Day, our financial controller, running it for Beating Bowel Cancer – two charities close to our hearts.

We’d all agreed to an auction of promises, with Hilary as our auctioneer, and a Jimmy Choo stiletto as her hammer. Opening the auction was a promise to keep a desk tidy and the printer clear for a week. It sold after joyful team bidding with the addition of desk drawers also being cleared. Shortly after followed a promise to provide fresh eggs straight from the hen house every day for a month. All the team joined in humorously and after a few minutes the Jimmy heel went down on this too. Dozens of other promises flowed, and each time the team got behind them, drove up bids, and helped ensure that Jimmy continued to hammer. Ranging from a Boris Bike induction, a Tweetdeck seminar by our in-house social media guru, and Trina and myself waitressing a three-course home-made lunch for one of our office pods, also included were promises of cakes and macaroons, cocktails, beauty applications, designer dresses, Britney singing (including dance moves), plus even a pole-dancing video featuring one of our very own team. Everyone present, and even those who weren’t, joined into the spirit of this, bidding against each other, laughing and joking along the way. The final result then really proved how supportive our team is – in under an hour we’d hit £674. Available to add to this was nearly £100 following our Gold Cup and Grand National sweepstakes, plus another £50 or so from a raffle involving the other offices in our building. My £1,500 target was smashed and here lay an awesome illustration of the adage that there’s no “I” in “team”.

Come that Sunday, this pride went further. Despite the torrential rain earlier that week, at the start of the race the sun was shining and the streets were lined, at times four or five rows deep. This couldn’t have just been London residents, this was also people who’d come from further afield. I’ve no doubt that, had the rain been present, they still would have been there. Being the first time I’d participated in an event of such distance, I relied on their energy too, and they didn’t disappoint. The entire route I heard constant clapping and cheering of my name, was regularly able to grab anything from jelly beans, orange segments, banana chunks, energy drinks and water, and see jubilant people urging me on. What a community spirit!! Certainly keeping me running, this was boosted by seeing Paul, Mum and Dad, Hilary, plus various friends at differing mile points as my vital energy gel fuel stops. Every part of this spurred me on and helped me reach the finish line in 4h 22m.

Our nation has a special way of coming together – think the Golden Jubilee, Kate and Will’s wedding, and surely soon the Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics. For me, the marathon belongs on the same list – the supportive words of encouragement, the generous donations, and the coming together of people. Runner or not, I’d recommend it to anyone - it belongs on the list of ”Fifty things you must do”.