More shameless self promotion...

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

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...

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

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.