Brazil Public Relations

Creating Brand Marriages - Klick Fitness & Food Advisors

2011-12-07T10:43:00.001-08:00

It is very easy for businesses to create a page on Facebook. However, all too often companies rush onto social media without thinking about how to generate content. It’s one thing to get users to like a page but quite another to get them to stay long enough to truly engage with what is on offer. Getting the right content transforms a page from a glorified advert to a forum for discussion, leading to a genuine dialogue between consumer and business. In the past couple of weeks we’ve developed content such as giveaways, polls, Q&As, news stories and caption competitions on various Facebook pages. What has been abundantly clear is that people want to be entertained, challenged and informed; they are just waiting for the right content to capture their imagination.

We’re particularly proud of our latest partnership: Food Advisers, a new online service which allows consumers to compare different foods’ nutritional values, needs to develop a customer base from scratch – specifically individuals and families with an interest in eating more healthily. Klick Fitness, a new gym chain, needs compelling content for its new Facebook page. So, we put our two clients together and Food Advisers is now providing guides to food and nutrition for the Klick Fitness Facebook page. It’s a perfect fit for both parties – Food Advisers get the word out about their service to keen gym users, and Klick Fitness benefits from free content used to grow its Facebook presence. Simple, but very useful, and it’s something we’re working on doing more and more.

This weather is messing with my PR schedule!

2011-10-25T03:19:00.000-07:00

The good old days of PR when we waited for a cold-snap or a strong gust of wind are still with us, to an extent. But what’s the value in talking about burst pipes or how the snow has stopped us getting in to work – is it really worth all the effort? First off, so many companies will be fighting for that one piece in each national and there’ll no doubt be an ‘independent’ group or organisation who’ll be preferred by the media. And when you do get a one-line quote in one national, how much value does it really add to a brand? We’d be interested to know what you think.

It’s difficult to control, takes a lot of man-hours, can be swamped by the occasion and indeed other spokespeople but it does have a place for some. For instance, I grew up on a healthy diet of reactive work for uSwitch.com and it was great drafting a comment and speaking to all the nationals in the space of 20 minutes – loved it. And the results spoke for themselves but I do suspect that most of it was down to being ‘independent’. If you’re a brand selling fence insurance and this weekend’s hurricane is going to mean B&Q is to be inundated with stump requests, it’s a little harder. What do you say? How do you say it and most importantly, when?

It again comes back to the good old PR of having a solid strategy in place. What’s the goal – does the CEO want to be seen as an expert in fence development? The strategy has to reflect this and the tactics therefore follow. Reactive is important but that’s not to say you wait for a gust of wind before getting your kite out! Tactics come in to play and the good old ethos that relationships play a significant role when developing an individual’s or indeed a brand’s reactive capabilities. Relevant stories, exclusives, data sharing, insight and of course meetings throughout the year with key journalists will ensure that you’re in a good place when the wind picks up. It’s amazing how a mention in one major title will discreetly affect the way in which other publications see the individual or brand.

Let the wind blow!

Thanks

Sean Williams, Associate Director

Funding Circle makes Real Business’ Future 50

2011-10-12T04:18:00.000-07:00

Great news from Funding Circle, which just won a place on Real Business magazine’s prestigious Future 50 list. The Future 50 celebrates the most innovative, creative and “disruptive” companies in Britain – a perfect description of Funding Circle, and a business which we have seen go from strength to strength since Brazil has been working with them.

Funding Circle is truly a fascinating and exciting company. The concept of savers investing in small businesses as an alternative to banks seems to be capturing the public’s imagination and is truly beginning to seem like the Future.

Even George Osborne seems to be on board. His ‘credit-easing’ speech at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this week revolved around the importance of investing in small businesses to get the economy back on its feet –exactly what Funding Circle does.

The Future 50 award is in recognition of Funding Circle’s position as one of the most innovative and exciting businesses in the country. Real Business is opening up the voting to everyone. We can’t think of anyone more deserving than Funding Circle.

To review the list and vote, please see:

http://realbusiness.co.uk/news/future-50-vote-for-your-favourite-firm

Flying start for the new Honda Civic

2011-09-16T06:11:00.000-07:00

Take a look at some of the press photos from Frankfurt and you'll see some cars that make the Batmobile look low-tech: it's pretty easy to make a car look interesting if it's a concept vehicle decades away from production - stick a jet pack on the back or use doors that open upwards and someone is bound to take an interest. Getting people interested in a 'real' car though, one that will be in showrooms in 2012 and actually has to work, is a different prospect.

However, round the corner from the main exhibition, Honda unveiled the latest addition to its range - the 2012 Civic - to a packed house. Somehow, the car was suspended from the ceiling, and a sheet was dramatically removed in a pretty special unveiling in front of the assembled great and good of the motor industry.

The open mouths (and coverage) say it all, and by all accounts the event was a huge success. Hats off to the guys at Honda – although impressive and necessary for the big occasion, the new Civic doesn’t really need the grand entrance. We’ve seen it first hand and it’s a cracker in its own right – it’ll certainly fly once more come 2012.

The World (except Brazil, of course) Turns to Rugby...

2011-09-12T01:31:00.000-07:00

The seventh Rugby World Cup is upon us. Joy for rugby fans, not so much for everyone else... Being an Englishman (Sean) with only an interest in victory when it comes to anything other than football, I’ll pick it up at the semi-final stage. But we have some expert pundits amongst our client base so after discussions of car insurance, whisky and peer-to-peer lending, discussion turned to the sport I know little about. I fancy the Americans this year! But what did everyone else think? The reading is interesting...

Robin Reames, chief claims officer at AXA and swiftcover.com

Winner: All Blacks (I think that’s New Zealand)
Player to watch: Zac Guildford
And the home nations: Scotland don’t make it past the pool. England and Ireland lose in the quarter finals. Wales surprise everyone and lose in the semis

Jade Trimbee, marketing manager at swiftcover.com

Winner: South Africa (what a surprise, Ms South Africa...)
Player to watch: Tendai Mtawarira (The Beast)
And the home nations: Wales make it to the semis. Scotland and Ireland knocked out in the quarter finals. England lose in final to South Africa!

Elizabeth Obee, head of business marketing at Funding Circle

Winner: Australia (one guess where you’re from…)
Player to watch: Sekope Kepu
And the home nations: Fairly well…close to Australia’s form but not enough to beat them!

Nigel Short, chairman at Penderyn

Winner: Australia
Player to watch: George North
And the home nations: Not well, the Welsh and English being the biggest let downs

John Carter, captain of Oxford and ex Sale Sharks

Winner: New Zealand
Player to watch: Rory Lamont
And the home nations: Ireland and England will do well...not sure about the rest!

Tim Stevens, general manager at Oxford University RFU

Winner: Australia
Player to watch: Will Genia
And the home nations: All to qualify from their groups, but only one semi-finalist

Mark Davies, managing director at Scarlets

Winner: All Blacks (New Zealand)
Player to watch: Dan Carter
And the home nations: England to semis, Wales to quarters

Joshua Van Raalte, managing director at Brazil

Winner: New Zealand (with a wife from Timaru, NZ, he can't say anything contrary)
Player to watch: Israel Dagg
And the home nations: Not very well. Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England all out in the quarters

So, it looks like a New Zealand (or Oz) v Wales final! I’ve sure there would be a bottle or two of Penderyn drank in Wales if that was the case...

Now recruiting: Brazilians

2011-08-31T07:18:00.000-07:00

We’re going from strength to strength here at Brazil with new business coming out of our ears so we’re looking for new Brazilians! There are three positions available at the moment: a junior exec, a consumer SAE or account manager as well as a B2B account manager.

Brazil has some fantastic clients, ranging from household names such as swiftcover.com and Honda, as well as Penderyn Whisky, Klick Fitness (part of Fitness First), ChangeGroup, Funding Circle and Equanet (part of Dixons) – plus many more.

It’s not just traditional PR either: we’re doing more and more social media activity so you’ve got to have an interest in developing those skills too. Not forgetting new business - there’s plenty coming in so be ready to get involved! It’s an exciting time so we’re looking for motivated and passionate PROs/communicators to join an experienced, hungry team.

If you’re (or you know someone who is) a keen PR looking for a new challenge or you want the freedom to develop your career with guidance then get in touch, as we’d be more than happy to hear from you.

Either pop in and see us, call us on 020 7785 7383 or drop an email to Sean or Joshua at jobs@agencybrazil.com.

Standing out in a crowd

2011-06-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, we were appointed by Funding Circle to help them with very ambitious business plans. It’s an interesting businesses - the best place to find out about the company is on its website, but in a nutshell, the idea is that savers invest in individual businesses rather than saving through banks. Cutting out the middleman means that savers get higher returns and the good feelings that result from helping out small businesses, and businesses are able to borrow at a lower rate than they would if they were to take a loan from a bank. The idea has been extremely successful: in less than a year, Funding Circle has made more than £15 million available to small, creditworthy UK businesses, and paid out an average yield of 8.3% to savers.

However, this isn’t the only successful application of crowd funding, which, in recent years, has proved to be a credible alternative to conventional funding models in today’s tough markets. The idea has spread like wildfire, and a range of companies are now using this idea to link investors with good causes. Some of the most successful examples of this are in the arts world – a great way for artists involved to protect themselves from public sector cuts and maintain a relative degree of independence.

Two excellent examples of this are Africaunsigned.com and artsurge.org. Africa Unsigned is a website dedicated in profiling undiscovered African musicians around the world. Artists who make it through an initial judging stage are given support gain support to help them raise funds for the production, promotion and distribution of their music. US-based artsurge.org, set to launch soon, is based around the idea of “microphilanthropy”, and aims to link promising artists with donors in order to provide artists with the resources they need to bring their projects to life.

Crowd funding is clearly a powerful tool – as evidenced by the millions of pounds lent to small businesses by Funding Circle – so it’ll be interesting to see what happens when other sectors get in on the act too. Crowd-funded invention, anyone?

Funding Circle heads to Brazil

2011-05-12T04:12:00.000-07:00

A quick new business update: We’re excited to reveal that we’ve just started working with Funding Circle, the online marketplace where savers and investors directly lend to small businesses in the UK.

Founded by three entrepreneurs in 2010, the company is unlike any other, and we’ll be working closely with them to increase traffic and position Funding Circle as a true alternative to a bank for savers, investors and small businesses. We’ve already kicked it off with some great online coverage in April (in the Telegraph, the Independent and on This is Money) and May (on the BBC, in City A.M. and on MSN UK), and the team, led by Brazil associate director Sean Williams, will be working hard to keep it up throughout the year to ensure that Funding Circle meets its ambitious growth targets.

You can find out more about Funding Circle at its website, and if you’re a journalist, email fundingcircle@agencybrazil.com for further information or comment.

Made in Britain

2011-04-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

What does the Honda CR-V have in common with Brompton bikes and Aga cookers? The answer, as you’ve probably guessed from the title, is that all three are built in British factories. Since 1985, Honda has produced more than two million cars in its 370 acre factory in Swindon. These British-built cars go on to be driven around the world. Step into a Civic Type R in Japan and you may well find that you’re sat in a British-built car. British drivers are incredibly supportive of their local industries, and many motorists actively look to ‘buy British’ when they buy their new cars. The trouble for Honda is that, being a Japanese company, not everyone realises that Honda produces cars in Britain. Honda wanted a campaign that would highlight Honda’s British credentials to consumers, and together with digital agency Collective, we put together the Made in Britain campaign. The campaign encourages British ‘makers’ to submit their creations, and centres around a Facebook page. The very best entrants, British makers who are trying their best to turn their hobbies into a business, will each win a £1,000 development grant from Honda. Where does Brazil come in? Working with Honda and Collective, Brazil has put together a campaign to spread the word about the competition, and make sure that it reaches as many people as possible. The campaign only kicked off recently, so the really exciting stuff is still to come, but already we’ve lined up star judges from Shortlist, Stylist and New Design Magazine, as well as a fantastic competition with links to the campaign on the Sun’s website. So, if you want to see the best British makers out there – or better still, if you want to showcase your work – head over to www.facebook.com/hondamadeinbritain and take a look at what’s going on.

Warner Bros shows its face on social media

2011-03-21T02:10:00.000-07:00

This month Facebook announced that Warner Bros will be using www.facebook.com to allow its customers to rent and stream films.

Launching with The Dark Knight, users will pay $3 (roughly £1.85) per to rent a film for two days. Crucially, if Facebook decides to use personal data to decide which films to suggest to you, the outcome will be scarily targeted, and the move into this sector makes Facebook a serious challenger to iTunes and Spotify.

However, the ability to pause, fast forward and rewind films will have a big effect on the current user experience. This may prove something of a challenge for Facebook, as users are accustomed to rapid browsing and not staying on a single screen for more than a few seconds.

Working as a Facebook app, another issue may be content management. Facebook currently has no facility on the site to track your apps or list them in order of preference, and with more apps available than we can count, it is likely that items such as this may get lost in the games, shop and other retailers all fighting for the space on your Facebook homepage.

Stores such as ASOS already allow products to be bought directly from the Facebook page, and at this rate, it won’t be long before Facebook controls your entire web experience. It’ll be interesting to see what rivals can come up with to even the scales.

"I've been robbed - someone tweet @999!"

2011-02-18T03:40:00.000-08:00

The last thing the internet needs is another post with a five step plan telling you how to "do" Twitter. Instead, we want to point you in the way of someone who's doing it well. Last week, we chanced across Sevenoaks Police's Twitter page. What's so special about it? In a world full of social media experts/gurus/ninjas (delete as applicable), its a breath of fresh air: instead of the endless self promotion, retweets and follow Fridays that fill Twitter, this police force concentrates on original information that people following it are actually likely to find useful. it's a way for the force to demonstrate what it does, and also to get warnings out to the people it serves.

If you've read this far, you're probably thinking that this is not the first time that a police force has used Twitter, and you'd be right - Greater Manchester Police famously took to Twitter last year with a hugely successful project where the force tweeted every call that came in. However, this is no publicity stunt; police forces are using Twitter for its own sake, and it's very interesting to see what they're able to do - check out this picture of a siezed cannabis farm found by Salford North Police - especially given that these guys are operating on public sector budgets.

It's not perfect (from a PR point of view, it's probably unwise to tell people about successful speeding prosecutions) but it's refreshing to see Twitter used to inform rather than promote.

Using global to go local

2011-02-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

Plenty has been written about social media as an effective tool for global brands, and growing number of small businesses have been getting in on the act too. Penderyn, the Welsh whisky distillery, has won praise for using social media to punch above its weight and develop an international presence, for example. While researching local businesses for this month’s Swift Awards, we’ve found that more and more local businesses are getting in on the act too - using social media to keep their finger on the pulse.

A desire to attract new customers and keep existing ones is vital to local businesses’ use of social networks. As a result of its uptake, service will no longer stop when the doors are closed. People are constantly connected and a 24 hour working day is likely to become a reality, at least as far as customer service is concerned.

One Swift Award winner consistently using social media in a local capacity is Reading-based poultry breeder Widgit’s Birds. Businesses don’t come much more local than this, but enterprising staff members are using Facebook to keep in touch with existing customers and build the business’s reputation. As well as the usual customer service support, the suppliers offer free advice, particularly important when keeping animals during the winter months. It’s great to see social media catch on locally – a clear sign that it’s here to stay.

Online versus traditional coverage

2011-01-31T07:30:00.000-08:00

When developing proactive campaigns, brand mentions in the right places remain the most important thing to our clients, not necessarily how we incorporate social media in to existing plans. The core for all those in the communications industry is still about identifying the target audience before building a campaign which is relevant and interesting to the target audience; the appropriate medium – whether that includes social media or not – should always remain secondary.

What print journalists write (or indeed blog about) will always be important to brands - no question. However, a social media comment on a client’s story or brand mention is much more personal, which may well exceed the reach and power of a newspaper mention. Understanding and being able to evaluate this for a client is imperative.

With every client, we instill Brazil’s philosophy of adopting a proactive social media strategy for the right reasons, rather than simply as a ‘me too’ exercise. This approach allows us to measure exactly what we set out to do, which our clients clearly appreciate.

Brazil’s recent swiftcover.com campaign to reach mid-to-late ‘20 somethings’ about the dangers of drunk passengers in the run up to Christmas is a classic example. We prioritised social media activity alongside targeting major online news channels such as MSN and Yahoo! as well as the national newspaper websites such as the Mirror, Guardian and Daily Star – all of which we gained coverage in. The knock-on effect and planned seeding of the story resulted in thousands of tweets not necessarily mentioning the brand but each and every one linking to the coverage, which mentioned swiftcover.com throughout. A hugely successful campaign based through an online strategy – and we got significant articles in a few national newspapers too, which is always welcome!

See our thoughts on this in prmoment, or, for more information, get in touch!

PR Trends 2011 - Five of the Best

2011-01-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

PR, like any other marketing discipline, is going through major transitions, and in 2011 I think we will see a number of significant trends which may evolve our industry further.

Here are five for your consideration:

1. No More PR Boxes

Everyone has their own perception and interpretation of exactly what PR is – thus the difficulty I had in explaining to my mother what I actually did for a living. However, the boundaries of this loosely defined discipline will blur even further in 2011. We are now seeing brand owners looking for creative campaigns rather than generic PR support – so PR can’t be put in a box and must innovate and collaborate in order to maintain a stand alone image.

2. Social media – common sense please!

Possibly more of a wish than a definite trend, however we’ve becoming increasingly jaded by the plethora of “social media gurus” and specialist social agencies trying to capitalise on the ignorance of marketing directors.

Much of social media is a combination of common sense and old fashioned communications techniques – it shouldn’t cost an arm and leg to implement nor should it be mandatory for all businesses to jump on the bandwagon.

3. Bloggalists

We have journalists, we have bloggers and we also have journalists with blogs. However 2011 be the first year in which those seeking a way into journalism become a bloggers with a loyal following first, with newspapers and magazines giving commissions based on the popularity of a blogger. Those with the most followers win!

4. Mob.Com

Everyone who is anyone has a smartphone now – and 2011 will see a further evolution. While those brand owners who produced an iPhone app last year probably think they are leading the way in mobile communications, in reality "mob.com" will be about much more than designing “cool” (but often useless) apps. QR (Quick Response) codes are starting to infiltrate popular society and there is great PR potential in developing mechanisms not just for data capture, but driving traffic to websites, shops, retail outlets and brand-related events. Also watch out for how PR can use augmented reality on mobile can engage with consumers in new and creative ways.

5. The Price is Right

The retail space is constantly being challenged. Twelve years ago the revolution started when online retailers went head to head with their “bricks and mortar” counterparts, and the pressure hasn’t subsided. This year we will see how retailers can connect to savvy consumers to offer instant deals, special offers and exclusive products. KGB Deals and Groupon have already made inroads into this market, and this model will be replicated (and improved) by established retailers, and of course shamelessly promoted through social media.

More shameless self promotion...

2010-12-21T02:43:00.000-08:00

Well done to everyone at swiftcover.com and Brazil for pulling together yet another fab story yesterday! Following a Metro front page in November and the successful Digital Britain story (check it out in the Sun here), the guys did it again by hitting seven nationals including the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star.

The threat of drunk drivers is well documented so the team turned the ‘drunk’ story on its head and investigated the effect of drunk passengers on the concentration levels of drivers and whether they have been the direct result of accidents. The results were shocking and showed that drunk passengers are causing thousands of accidents and hundreds of thousands of near misses. On a serious note, we all want everyone to have a good Christmas and New Year so please take note of the story!

Furthermore, have a great Christmas everyone! A few nationals is always a nice way to wrap-up the year – although we will be doing at least one other story for swiftcover.com before the year’s out.

Feliz Natal! (‘Happy Christmas!’ in Brazilian/Portuguese)

Whisky's new world order

2010-12-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago, whisky was something old men sipped by fires, made almost exclusively in Scotland by people who claimed to have been making whisky the same way for 20 generations.

Flash forward to 2010 and the whisky industry has been invigorated by a host of whisky distilleries springing up in the most unlikely places. Much to the chagrin of the Scots, a surprising number of these whiskies are extremely good, and we should know - we’ve been working with one of the most established brands, Penderyn, for a good few years now. We never get bored of seeing someone’s face light up when they take their first sip of Aur Cymru – that’s ‘Welsh Gold’ to you and me.

However, for all the good things the experts say about Penderyn, we still find people need to taste it for themselves. To make this easier, we’ve been putting free bottles of whisky behind some of London’s best bars to keep Londoners warm, but we recognise that there’s still a mistrust of world whisky in general, which is why we decided to put on an event with the best whiskies from around the world to challenge those perceptions.

Firstly, we invited renowned whisky expert and author of The Whisky Bible, Jim Murray to host the event. As someone who takes a truly unprejudiced view of the whisky world, Jim is ideally placed to extol the virtues of our guest whisky brands. When it came to the guest whiskies, we made sure that the invited brands were not only exceptional in their own right, but also held in high regard by Jim Murray. Amrut, from India, presented their ‘Fusion’ expression, a whisky that has been awarded 97 points in The Whisky Bible; and we were also joined by the Belgian Owl, whose Single Malt Spirit aged 44 Months expression, with 95.5 points, is everything you’d expect of the finest scotch but comes in modern, cool packaging.

When someone’s really passionate about something, people watching can’t help but become enthusiastic themselves, and the lucky journalists and bloggers (including writers from Imbibe Magazine, Bar, Love Food Love Drink and The Arbiturian) were captivated by Jim, and, of course, the whisky. Despite Jim’s insistence that we spit the first few we tried to really appreciate the flavours, I doubt anyone left completely sober at the end of the evening...

So, it went very well. So well in fact that there’s already talk of us doing one next year. If you want to come along, drop an email to luke@welsh-whisky.co.uk and we’ll see what we can do...

A day at the races...

2010-12-06T04:04:00.000-08:00

As a massive petrol head and a fan of the Honda brand long before taking on the task of managing their lifestyle comms, news of the opportunity to visit the Team Dynamics Honda BTCC racing team had me running round like a kid who had been told he was being given the keys to a sweetshop.

However, I had to remind myself that this was actually for work purposes, so I had to look out for every intricacy and detail in the team in order to carve out the stories that would generate publicity for the team. And what detail there was – truly a comms professional’s dream.

The day started with us being driven around Silverstone’s BTCC circuit by veteran racer and 2010 runner-up, Matt Neal. The vehicle was a totally road-standard Civic Type-R - Honda’s outgoing flagship performance car that puts out 197 of their finest horses. The experience was special to say the least and really highlighted both the mind-blowing skill of the driver and the engineering excellence that Honda puts into its road going vehicles. I could have been chasing the menacing black Civic in a Ferrari with twice the power and not come close to overtaking it.

Fun over, it was time to get under the skin of the 2010 BTCC Manufacturers Championship-winning team to find those little nuggets of information that keep me in my job. And what an operation it is. Forget the mega-budget F1 teams, with hundreds of staff and flash offices – this is where true hard work and teamwork pays the biggest dividend. With just 8 permanent staff, some of whom have been there for over 15 years, the all-British Team Dynamics Honda team is one of the largest, most talented and longest serving in the pitlane. Not too dissimilar to Honda’s Civic factory in Swindon then, albeit on a smaller scale.

The similarities don’t end there. Despite sharing little in terms of actual components, the race car and road car clearly share the same ethos. Both are renowned for their bullet-proof reliability (Honda was recently voted the UK’s most reliable manufacturer in a survey of 1.5m cars in Fleet News). Both cars are also renowned for providing class-leading handling as opposed to headline power figures – and we all know the former is far more important for safe and fun real world driving than crazy horsepower.

Want to know more? Well watch this space to find out how Brazil creates exceptional publicity around an exceptional team...

Brazil Launches Graduate Trainee Programme

2010-12-01T05:43:00.000-08:00

Brazil has launched its new graduate trainee programme and is currently searching for a graduate to fill a permanent roll as a PR trainee. Every year Brazil will take on a minimum of one trainee to be based in its central London office.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about current affairs and the media (both traditional and online) and should be looking for a career where he or she can be genuinely creative and develop existing writing and communication skills.

Is this job for you?

· Do you have strong writing and excellent communication skills?

· Can you come up with creative and exciting ideas?

· Are you keen to learn more about how both traditional and social media informs, creates awareness and influences people?

About Brazil

Established in 2003, Brazil is a vibrant and successful PR consultancy with a broad client base. Our award-winning work covers the full range of services including media relations, social media, crisis management, message development and internal communications.

Our clients range from multi-national businesses through to ambitious start-ups, covering sectors including financial services, consumer goods, property, professional services, automotive, retail, healthcare and food & drink.

About the position

You will provide account-handling support on a wide range of clients, experiencing different skills, ideas, approaches and markets. Your time will be split between writing, research, media relations, social media work, account and general administration. For those who demonstrate a keen interest and aptitude, there is the opportunity to be fast tracked within the agency and to work on complex PR accounts and issues.

What are we looking for in our trainees?

We are looking for bright, career-orientated graduates with excellent written and oral communication skills. A keen interest in business, the media (including social media) politics and consumer trends is important, and some relevant work experience is a benefit. A good academic degree is essential, as is a thirst for knowledge. You should be intelligent, confident in written and spoken English and a good team player.

Applications

Please send through your CV accompanied by a cover letter outlining why you’re interested in this job to sean@agencybrazil.com. Deadline is Monday, 13th December 2010.

Welsh Whisky Wednesday

2010-11-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

Penderyn asked us to get more novice whisky drinkers to try Penderyn whisky – no mean feat, when you consider the fact that, as a small, independent distiller, Penderyn puts its money into making some of the best whisky around rather than expensive marketing campaigns.

So, we came up with an offer drinkers couldn’t refuse – free whisky. With Brazil’s help, Penderyn teamed up with some of London’s coolest bars to offer free warming whisky every Wednesday, all winter long.

We started last week by putting bottles of ‘Welsh Gold’ behind the bar of The Albannach, traditionally a scotch fortress, and Mint Leaf Lounge, one of the City’s most classiest hangouts. How did it go? Well, in our experience, free whisky never fails to draw a crowd, and we warmed many Londoners’ hearts that night.

Just as importantly, London’s most important bloggers got in on the act too: Dwink, Hot-Dinners, Whisky for Everyone, Love Food Love Drink and Foodepedia to name but a few, loved the idea, and showed their support by telling their readers about it. It was also a huge hit on Twitter, and the #WelshWhiskyWednesday hashtag was used to get even more people involved. We’ll be running it all winter long, and who knows – if it continues to do so well, maybe we’ll be taking it further afield...

Meanwhile, check out www.twitter.com/penderynwhisky to find out where we’ll be serving up free Welsh gold this week – hope to see you there!

Brazil launches Oxford University Rugby Community event

2010-11-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, Brazil worked with the Oxford University Rugby Club to engage with the city’s public and generate interest in the oldest rugby club in England. The event saw Blues players showing off their skills on the streets of Oxford and engaging with local children to promote the grassroots game using a series of skills exercises.

Hundreds of tickets to the London Wasps match were given away to people who had never seen a rugby match before, and the club recorded bumper crowds for the match, attended by many from the next generation of rugby players.

SMO vs. SEO

2010-11-09T03:51:00.000-08:00

Recently, we’ve heard commentators say that social media optimisation (SMO) is now becoming more important than traditional SEO. We think that’s untrue for the majority of markets and brands because, like it or not, Google still holds the key to their direct sales, leads and awareness on the internet.

Of course, it’s true that certain brands are moving more resources into social media and away from SEO, and you could make the case that ‘word of mouth’ is more trusted as a source of information than any other. Therefore it makes sense for brands to pay extremely close attention to what’s being said about them online and interact at the appropriate time, in an appropriate fashion – something we practice day in, day out here at Brazil for most of our clients (for an example of this, check out some of our work on social media with swiftcover.com).

Our opinion? Social media optimisation should not be seen as the be all and end all, neither should it be dismissed. The key thing to bear in mind is that all media is integrated, and as a result, there are very few successful online campaigns that don't utilize the unique and important values of other marketing disciplines such as advertising and public relations. Well, maybe a couple.

Brazil makes two new signings...

2010-10-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

Brazil has taken on two new recruits at associate and account director levels following the company’s move to London.

Sean Williams joins as associate director from Consolidated PR to lead the financial services division and build the social media offering. Meanwhile, Pritesh Mody joins Brazil from Ketchum and will lead the Honda account as well as head up the FMCG arm.

The appointments coincide with Brazil’s relocation to Soho, London and the launch of a new website (www.agencybrazil.com) – moves designed to increase Brazil’s proximity to clients and expand the firm’s social media offering.

Contact Sean and/or Pritesh by calling 020 7785 7383 or email them direct:

sean@agencybrazil.com

pritesh@agencybrazil.com

Brazil wins Genactis brief in four way pitch

2010-10-14T02:48:00.000-07:00

Brazil has been appointed as the retained PR agency for Genactis, an international healthcare research firm.

Genactis, which has offices in the USA, the UK, Germany, Italy and France, appointed Brazil after a competitive four way pitch. Brazil is the first PR agency to have been appointed by Genactis.

Brazil was called in to change the perception of Genactis from a market research agency to a life sciences provider, and the brief includes both online and offline work. Richard Kenyon, who recently joined Brazil from Fleishman-Hillard’s healthcare agency will lead the account, and will work closely with Brazil MD Joshua Van Raalte.

New Soho office and website

2010-10-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

Brazil has moved to 10/11 Archer Street, which is now our main office. We’ve also got new website up at www.agencybrazil.com, and a new contact number to boot: 020 7785 7383.

Let us know what you think.

Brazil

500 ways to do great business

2010-07-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

The Swift Awards, a national scheme recognising great local businesses, sponsored by swiftcover.com and run by Brazil, has just given its 500th award. It’s a significant milestone, and in the time that it’s taken us to identify and celebrate 500 exceptional British businesses, swiftcover.com has grown from the new kid in the insurance market to one of the UK’s most recognised brands.

When Brazil won the swiftcover.com account in 2008, the insurer needed a campaign that would appeal to consumers and influencers, whilst also driving brand awareness by generating media coverage outside of the personal finance pages, and in particular in local and regional media.

So, we created the Swift Awards; a PR campaign with, at its heart, a business awards scheme designed to recognise, support and reward local businesses that deliver quick, reliable and hassle-free service, mirroring swiftcover.com’s values.

The business categories reflect swiftcover.com’s insurance products, so we search for the best garages, automotive business, travel firms and pet-related companies across the UK. The awards are judged by a swiftcover.com panel of mystery shoppers, with the award winners featuring on a business directory on the unique Swift Relief website (www.swiftrelief.co.uk), developed to showcase winning firms and allow members of the public and swiftcover.com’s own policyholders to find a great award-winning business in their area.

It’s been a huge success: we’ve visited 60 cities and spoken to thousands of businesses over the last two years to find 500 businesses; but the search continues. It’s helped swiftcover.com establish itself as a household name, so far generating more than 600 pieces of newspaper, online and radio coverage, in addition to the coverage swiftcover.com gets on its own.

To find out more about the awards, visit www.swiftrelief.co.uk

Brazil drives swiftcover.com car insurance to insurance marketing initiative of the year!

2010-07-09T08:14:00.001-07:00

swiftcover.com has won ‘Marketing Initiative of the Year’ at the British Insurance Awards – beating off competition from the likes of Direct Line, Aviva and Churchill – for a multi-strand strategy that included an innovative social media and PR company created by Brazil.

The insurance market is saturated, so as a new entrant swiftcover.com had to stand out. As it was also the UK’s first fully internet only insurer, Brazil harnessed online to raise awareness of the company and engage with customers and influencers alike.

To support the launch of the Iggy Pop fronted campaign, which have now clocked up over 80,000 views, Brazil embarked on a social media campaign that used a Facebook page featuring great content based on the ‘Get A Life’ theme, plus a Twitter feed to seed online content and engage with customers.

Brazil also created The Swift Awards, a national campaign to find great local businesses, which was supported by Swift Relief, a hub of unique content including hints and tips, vox pop videos, an insurance jargonbuster and even a viral game, Dance Like A Rockstar, all of which generated online interest and supported traditional media relations.

Brazil’s work, along with traditional offline PR, marketing and advertising, helped boost swiftcover.com’s sales by 38.5% in 2009 and increase brand awareness by 90%.

Our Latest Tipple: Brazil develops an international social media campaign for leading whisky brand

2009-10-23T05:27:00.000-07:00

Brazil has just been appointed to oversee a high-intensity Christmas social media campaign for the unique Penderyn Whisky, recent winners of the “European Whisky of the Year”.

The campaign has been created to create awareness and nurture sales of the award-winning Welsh whisky in the UK, US, France & Spain, and the team will be deploying a number of “new techniques” to increase the number of conversations about the brand in the run up to the busiest period for any drinks manufacturer.

Get your rocks off...

2009-10-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

Brazil spent a day in a quarry this week, helping a journalist from the Sunday Times In Gear Magazine get to grips with Honda ATVs before he takes part in the Weston Beach Race.

Cleaner, greener boat engines

2009-09-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

Brazil secured some more excellent primetime TV coverage for Honda again last week – talking cleaner, greener boat engines on GMTV! The story ran six times during the morning, resulting in more than four minutes national TV coverage for the client.

Iggy Pop-ular

2009-09-21T05:52:00.000-07:00

Iggy Pop is to be named a ‘Living Legend’ later this year by the Marshall Classic Rock Roll of Honour. News of the honour mentioned his punk rock roots, hits such as Lust For Life and The Passenger, and of course his role this year in adverts for car insurer swiftcover.com, and in particularly the kerfuffle over the fact that swiftcover.com did not insure musicians when the ads first aired – they do now, by the way.

Being at the sharp-end of swiftcover.com’s PR this year, Brazil has seen first hand the response to Iggy’s advert, some of which has been ‘mixed’, to put it politely. Some fans are outraged, suggesting that Pop has sold-out, whilst others actually get the irony of the proto-punk rocker selling car insurance.

Some woefully uneducated people don’t know who the man is and don’t like the fact that Iggy’s naked torso is invading their prime time TV. It is unclear whether they are jealous of the 62 year old former hell raiser’s muscled physique, or just desperate to get on with the next episode of Midsomer Murders.

The controversy has been the subject of much media comment and opinion on artists selling-out and the art of selling, citing everything from ex-Sex Pistol John Lydon’s butter advert to American comedian Bill Hick’s oft-quoted: "If you do an advert then you are off the artistic register forever."

Recently comedian Sean Hughes included a rant in his stand-up show about Iggy selling-out by selling car insurance, although Hughes was even more unhappy about Stephen Fry doing the voice-over for the red telephone in another insurance ad. This was all included in a newspaper story about Hughes’ string of London dates, presumably to drum up ticket sales?

Being slagged off by a comedian must rank as some achievement in seeping into the public conscious, so as far as swiftcover.com advertising is concerned, that’s job done. Sales for swiftcover.com have increased substantially this year, partly as a result of the adverts, and many of those who have moaned about the ads have been prompted to check out swiftcover.com and have been swayed by the low cost insurance on offer.

Iggy himself isn’t really bothered, telling French news that he enjoyed the ads and didn’t give a sh*it about the controversy, whilst his latest album Preliminaires has sold better than any Iggy Pop album of recent times.

And now, even better than being named a Living Legend, Iggy as been immortalised as a Lego Rock God in the new Rock Band video game.

So, with all this activity and coverage, Iggy Pop must be inline for some kind of award as man of the year, and the inside word is that the man himself is the happiest he has been for years. Anybody that has a problem with this should take Iggy’s advice in the swiftcover.com ad, and ‘Get a Life’!

Introducing Alfie

2009-09-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

For a preview of the new 118 118 advert click here

Honda UK and Brazil Partner With Traackr To Launch The Honda Insight

2009-08-14T03:13:00.000-07:00

What does a major car company do when launching a brand new model at a time when car sales are at an all time low and communications budgets are slashed?Honda UK decided to use this very gloomy environment to take its first steps into Social Media.

The result?

The best yield possible on their communication dollars.

Traackr Builds Honda's Top Influencer List
Honda UK and their forward-looking PR agency, Brazil, understood that the first step in any successful Social Media campaign is finding the right people to engage. Traackr's proprietary influencer search and qualification technology was used to uncover a targeted list of Top Influencers driving conversations around hybrid vehicles, alternative energy, the environment, and green technology.

Traackr not only uncovered unconventional and valuable influencers, but also gave Honda UK a clearer understanding of what types of conversations would impact their launch as well as where those conversations were taking place.

Traackr's technology also demonstrated that many clean energy online opinion leaders were actually based outside the UK, which led Honda and Brazil to develop a coordinated international PR effort to engage these individuals.

Honda UK, Brazil and Traackr Collaborate To Build Honda's Influencer Engagement Strategy
As part of its influencer report, Traackr tagged influencers by location and topics of interest, as well provided detailed information on what conversations each influencer was most interested in.

While Brazil led the development of a highly customized communication plan catering to specific influencers, Honda UK coordinated across countries, and continents, to make sure internationally-based influencers would be reached.

Data Backed Engagement Proved Highly Effective
As Brazil and Honda UK launched into the execution of their influencer engagement plan, Traackr provided weekly performance reports, allowing Brazil to instantly see the successes or failures of their approach.

Based on these reports, the engagement strategies were adjusted, re-executed, and re-measured on a regular basis.

Traackr's reports showed that mentions of the Honda Insight among the top influencers increased by 300% during the engagement campaign and estimated online coverage increased by 675%!

Insight Launches And Overtakes Prius As #1 Hybrid Car In The UK
The ultimate results of this campaign were wildly positive. Even with very little mass-market spending, the Insight launched as the top selling hybrid in the UK.

For more on the campaign results and find out what influencers said about Honda, read the full story here.

Dance like a rockstar

2009-08-11T04:14:00.000-07:00

Air guitars at the ready, as a new viral campaign created by Brazil for swiftcover.com hits the web.

Fancy seeing yourself dancing like a rockstar? Try the new viral here.

Love your ISA

2009-04-08T03:35:00.000-07:00

Brazil client Principality Building Society has just launched a new regular saver ISA. Its impressive 5 per cent interest rate helped score some great coverage on Love Money’s Love it or Loath it programme which you can see here

Building Bridges

2009-03-05T01:09:00.001-08:00

Brazil scored its first coverage in China for client Pinsent Masons, the international law firm. Brazil led the PR for the announcement of the new Hong Kong Zhuhai-Macau Bridge - a 29km (18 mile) bridge which is expected to cost $5.47 billion. Construction of what will be the world's second largest bridge will commence at the end of this year and is expected to be completed in 2016. The announcement included the appointment of Pinsent Masons to lead a consortium of law firms to provide legal services for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge project.

Brazil was responsible for gaining international media coverage, with a specific brief to generate articles in the international press and Asian and European construction journals. If you can read Mandarin please see the article on the bottom left of the page above.

Mud, mud, glorious mud...

2009-02-18T04:05:00.000-08:00

A good hit for Honda this week – five minutes of primetime TV coverage at the top of Channel 5’s Fifth Gear. Former racing drivers Jason Plato and Tiff Needell battled it out on two Honda ATV’s, with Tiff taking the chequered flag by a whisker. Filmed on a bitingly cold day in a disused quarry in January – plenty of mud and water to contend with, but well worth the effort!

You can see the show here.

A bunch of bankers

2009-02-13T02:13:00.000-08:00

There was a time when ‘merchant banker’ was used as rhyming slang for something rude - now it seems that all bankers have become a dirty word.

This week some of the UK’s biggest bankers were placed in the modern-day equivalent of the village stocks, with our elected representatives hurling rotten tomatoes at them on our behalf. Now, there would have been outrage had these bankers tried to bluff it and claim they’d done nothing wrong, but when they did apologise it was dismissed as the result of media-training by their PR spin doctors.

But did we really expect tears from some of the most powerful businessmen in finance? And it is important to remember that no matter how devastating this whole mess is, even if some of them are semi-privatised, UK banks are still businesses.

The point of this spectacle and subsequent public furore was finding someone to blame, or moreover someone to pay for their actions and make it all better. But that’s not going to happen and the best we can hope for is a renewed sense of caution amongst us the public, because to be honest I fully expect the financial geniuses to come up with another sub-prime style money-maker in a couple of years.

And if you want to allocate blame, credit consumers have to share responsibility: anyone who ignored their parents’ sagely advice to save, and instead collected credit cards like football stickers; anyone who honestly thought that, even though they had previously defaulted on their loans, ‘this time’ they’d be able to afford a much more expensive sub-prime mortgage; and anyone who thought that getting a home loan bigger than the actual value of the property they were buying was a great idea.

We can’t blame the bankers alone, because whatever you think of their pay packets and their actions in hindsight, it would be foolish to think that these four bankers and their like purposely set out to wreck their institutions and the financial system.

Sub-prime was pioneered by a handful of lenders who saw that higher risk borrowers were not being served by mainstream lenders who were still smarting from the 1980s property crash. Sub-prime was regularly termed ‘dirty’ business by those in the trade and viewed with disdain by the big banks and building societies.

Until they saw the profits and the growing customer demand.

The real growth in sub-prime was fuelled by high street names and merchant banks jumping on the bandwagon like those poor souls who send thirty quid off to an advert promising a grand a week income for working three hours a day. Most of these Johnny-come-latelys were blinded by pound signs and relaxed their traditional risk aversion, partly because it was new territory they were trying to understand, but also because they were delivering increased profits to their shareholders.

Why didn’t the regulator spot the problem? As a mortgage broker friend of mine once said, ‘if the civil servants at the FSA really understood the industry, they’d be earning four times as much working for a bank’. And if the banks themselves did not really appreciate the scope and complexity of the risk, what chance did the pencil-pushers have?

The financial crisis comes down to a fundamental question of philosophy and approach to risk that is present in every business. In one camp you have those institutions who thought they understood and could manage the risk; a belief that was borne out for a while by their increased profits. In the other camp were those lenders who took a conscious decision to keep out of sub-prime and the associated wholesale markets, although you can bet your life they were under a lot pressure to change tack and follow the money.

What needs to happen now within our financial institutions is a change of culture and a shift away from the all-consuming desire for profit that drives the development of ever more complex products that are designed to give consumers the money they demand whilst shifting the risk on to somebody else’s balance sheet.

We need a return to a financial services culture where customers are put first and common-sense and sustainability is prized over super-profits and instant cash gratification. And that culture has to be promoted from the CEO right down to the front-line staff and the consumers we are communicating with. This culture still exists amongst some institutions, such as the Principality Building Society.

Take as another example a friend of mine who is high up in the comms department of a major bank, and who for the last six or seven years had been saying that sub-prime wasn’t sustainable, to which I would usually reply ‘keep on saying that mate, and one day you’ll be proved right.

Well he was proved right. And guess what? The bank he works for has been virtually untouched by these super bad debts.

So before you dig out another bag of rotting veg, remember that for a business to be successful it does not have to be run by a complete bunch of bankers.

Brazil Leads the New World Order

2009-01-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

Best selling author Adjiedj Bakas will be hitting TV and radio programmes this January courtesy of Brazil. His new book, The Future of Finance, predicts how the world will change following the current recession, including a new world order which is challenged by emerging countries such as is being launched in the UK on 16 January 2009. Dutchman Bakas is an adviser to multi-nationals and political leaders across the world, and in The Future of Finance he sets out his vision of the world’s financial markets.

The Future of Finance is already one of the most popular selling books in The Netherlands, and is one of the first books to be requested by Barack Obama’s team in preparation for the new presidential term.

Brazil has been tasked with all communications work for the promotion of this new book, covering English language business media.

What can you do in 60 seconds?

2008-11-21T04:15:00.000-08:00

Brazil has been watching the clock this week, questioning what can be achieved in 60 seconds.

For swiftcover.com, Brazil launched a viral email and online competition, challenging people to upload 60 second videos showing the most useful thing to do in less than a minute, with the best or funniest one winning a year’s free car insurance.

The competition is part of the Swift Relief campaign, designed to help consumers have stress-free experience and provide them with tips and hints for an easier life.

www.swiftrelief.co.uk

If it’s difficult it’s worth doing…

2008-11-21T04:05:00.000-08:00

In May, the first ever live TV advert was shown, featuring an amazing spectacle of 19 skydivers, spelling the word Honda in mid-air. Jumping from 14,000 ft over Madrid the team had three minutes, 20 seconds to form the letters during an advert break on Thursday, 29th May at 8.10pm.

Brazil was responsible for the PR of this unique advert, gaining blanket media coverage in all the UK national newspapers and lengthy radio interviews for Honda on BBC Radio 2, 4 and Five Live.

Welcome to the Brazil Blog

2008-11-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the new Brazil Public Relations blog