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.

SIX3NINE trainer Dan Baines works on journalist Mark Peacock’s hip flexor

Last night saw the exciting and much-anticipated launch of SIX3NINE, a brand new personal training practice in the heart of Covent Garden. We were joined by a selection of top health, beauty and fitness press, all eager to explore the space and meet James Mitchell, the founder and lead trainer, whilst enjoying some deliciously-healthy sushi and sashimi, refreshing Zico coconut water and fruity anti-oxidant-filled Stolichnaya Premium vodka cocktails.

Throughout the night the energetic team of trainers flexed their muscles and provided demonstrations of the state-of-the-art high-tech equipment, including the stretch cage, kettle bells and hypoxia machine, as well as carrying out body composition analysis and massage therapy on guests.  It was a brilliant opportunity to engage press and consumers with the unique and exciting space, designed and dedicated to personal training and getting the best from a workout. 

With guests already waxing lyrical about the contemporary space and brand and with membership capped at only 200 places, SIX3NINE is set to be a sell-out success and is on course to achieve waiting list status.

Last year

Our launch campaign in 2011 on Parker 5^th Technology and its first collection – Ingenuity – achieved extensive editorial coverage in key targets such as FT How to spend it, Telegraph Ultratravel, pocket-lint.com, Live, T3 and Stuff. This year, we were briefed to continue promoting the launch.  Old news you might say, however, it challenged us to brainstorm new angles for a not-so-new launch. We got to work and identified a key advantage of the pen technology: its resistance to temperature and pressure-induced leaks (which can happen with a fountain pen) as a strong story angle for the travel media…it won’t leak on the plane!

This epiphany inspired us to create a specific PR activity capitalising on this particular element. We are currently focusing on targeting key national travel press such as The Sunday Times, Financial Times and London Evening Standard with a creative mailer of travel essentials including the all-important pen to trial on-board their next flight with accompanying notepad, a book of their choice and some tinned sweets. As a result, Parker is encouraging other markets (including Japan, Russia and USA) to follow Focus PR as “industry experts” and do the same.