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Interiors specialist

NATIONAL TEA TASTER HUNT

LAURENT-PERRIER GETS SOCIAL AT

TASTEOUTDOOR ART

ON TRESCO

INSIDE THIS EDITION…

W ild Card has acquired Parker Hobart, a homewares and

interiors specialist consultancy.

The acquisition will allow Wild Card to boost its offering in this sector, complementing its successful portfolio of FMCG, leisure, travel and consumer healthcare clients.

With a current turnover of £2.8M and growing15% year on year, Wild Card has offices in central London and Cornwall and employs 30 staff. Through the deal, the Parker Hobart team has relocated to Wild Card’s offices in Savoy Street, London.

Parker Hobart will sit initially as a wholly owned subsidiary alongside Wild Card. Sarah Harding, currently Managing

Director of Parker Hobart, will become a Divisional Director of Wild Card.

Kate Wild, Wild Card founder and Managing Director, comments: “We have been considering for some time the

options for strengthening our broader consumer brand offering and with Parker Hobart, have found the perfect match.”

“Homes and interiors have been a part of the Wild Card client base since our early days working with brands such as KitchenAid,

John Cullen Lighting and Gibson Music. This is an obvious and natural extension and there is also considerable opportunity for synergy with Wild Card’s current work. Sarah has built a great team and business around her at Parker Hobart, with a very

similar ethos to Wild Card. I am so pleased she is joining us and know it is going to bring incremental returns to both our businesses and client campaigns.

“This is our first acquisition and we are continuing to look at other options across the

industry,” Kate concludes.

Wild Card’s client roster includes household names such as Gü Puds, Laurent-Perrier, Lurpak, Tetley, Jordans, Ryvita, De Vere Hotels, Joseph Joseph, Eden Project and Visit Cornwall.

Over the past year, Wild Card has had strong client retention of 96%, added 15 new clients and had a 66% conversion on new business pitches.

Parker Hobart Managing Director Sarah Harding says: “I am delighted to be driving the business with Wild Card and look forward to working together and growing our client base.”

Parker Hobart’s current client portfolio includes Chesney’s, Villeroy & Boch, Marston & Langinger, Parker & Farr and JAB Anstoetz.

joins Wild Card team

"We have been considering for some time the options for

strengthening our broader consumer brand offering"

Incorporating

snap happy...

The Wild West team was nominated by

the London office to take part in the

#icebucketchallenge to help raise

valuable funds for Macmillan

Wild Card’s Project Baobab campaign with the Eden Project was awarded gold by the CIPR South of England in the consumer relations category

The team raised a glass with our media friends at Laurent-Perrier’s stand at

Taste of LondonWild Card went out on the road with

the Tetley Tea Folk

Virgin Atlantic surprised select guests with custom-made Gü chocolate shoes

A LOOK BACK AT THE SHOTS THAT GOT OUR CLIENTS’ FANS AND WILD CARD’S ONLINE FOLLOWING TALKING

Ryvita and Ben de Lisi

teamed up to create a

stylish new limited edition tin

Merchants Manor hotel in Falmouth

celebrated the Tall Ships spectacle

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T he Wild Card team helped deliver new sales at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, championing the Jordans Wildlife Garden for Jordans

Cereals. The post campaign research showed that Jordans’ lapsed purchasers went on to buy over two packs of their cereal straight after the event.

Based around the theme of ‘foraging’, the garden was designed by award winning designer Selina Botham and aimed to bring to life Jordans’ commitment to the British countryside and unique nature friendly farming practices. It was supported with a broad PR campaign, onsite sampling and foraging themed recipes created by former Great British Bake Off winner Edd Kimber.

The garden was not only awarded silver but also the People’s Choice Award, as voted for throughout the show by the public. Coverage generated a final SMI score of 3,042 (see page 7 for more details) with 95 editorial placements. Jordans website traffic increased by over 1,000 visitors per month in the three

months leading up to the show, and 48% of the 31,000 visitors that sampled at the show went onto purchase post-event. 66% of the consumers who tried the cereal at the show said that they would recommend Jordans to a friend - a great result.

jordans goes wild

Tetley’s search for candidates for the

As a nation of people who love a good brew, many would consider being a tea taster their dream job. This summer, Tetley gave budding tea experts the chance to embark

on a cuppa-fuelled career by launching the search for two new trainee tea buyers.

A much more complex discipline than first meets the eye, tea tasters must have strong commercial awareness, planning,

organisational and analytical skills – as well as a love of tea, of course! Wild Card stepped up to the challenge to help find the

perfect candidate for the job, whilst generating consumer coverage to highlight the brand’s quality messaging.

The result was 29 branded pieces of ‘best job in the world’ coverage, including stories with the Sun, Daily Mirror, Metro, MailOnline and AOL, and a total SMI score of 412. The PR campaign generated a huge number of applications for the job, so it’s now over to the HR team to pick the best people for the role!

‘BEST JOB IN THE WORLD’

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What’s hit the headlines this year

W ild Card took social media

integration to new heights with

an 85” interactive screen, custom

built into Champagne Laurent-Perrier’s stand

at Taste of London. The screen captured the

experiences of consumers as they shared their

pictures and comments on Twitter and Instagram

– motivated by winning a trip to Champagne –

using the hashtag #LPatTaste. It increased social

mentions of the brand by over 400%.

LAURENT- PERRIER GETS SOCIAL AT TASTE

W ild Card worked with Tresco on an

outdoor art installation - the first of its

kind in the country.

In a completely bold move to help fully integrate art into

island life, four giant canvas paintings were displayed in the

same picturesque locations they were created in and stayed

in situ during the summer season.

The team identified reowned landscape artist and frequent

Tresco visitor Anthony Garratt as a campaign ambassador.

Select media invitations were issued and a national picture

desk sell in was undertaken using compelling photography.

During the two-month campaign the team secured more

than 14 significant pieces of national and regional print,

online and broadcast coverage including: Daily Telegraph,

Financial Times, the Independent, ITV Westcountry and

a substantial feature in key regional publication, Western

Morning News generating SMI points worth more than 800.

Art in the greatoutdoors

What’s hit the headlines this year

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T his year, the world-famous educational charity and tourist attraction, the Eden Project, launched its biggest, most impressive

programme ever: Dinosaurs Unleashed – a rip-roaring fully interactive dinosaur experience for parents and youngsters.

Wild Card’s objective was to drive awareness of Dinosaurs Unleashed in the national media. The campaign involved securing key diary date and feature coverage pre and during the exhibition. More than 20 pieces of coverage in key national titles was secured including the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, familytraveller.co.uk and National Geographic Kids.

The inaugural Dinosaurs Unleashed event helped contribute to Eden’s busiest summer since 2010 and will be repeated in 2015. The world-famous educational charity has also just scooped Best UK Leisure Attraction for the fourth year running – congratulations all round!

A ROARING SUCCESS FOR DINOSAURS UNLEASHED AT THE EDEN PROJECT

What’s hit the headlines this year

What’s hit the headlines this year

THE PERFECT DESIGN PARTNERSHIP

W hen Parker Hobart introduced two clients to each other; German design brand JAB Anstoetz and international interior designer Staffan Tollgår, the relationship quickly evolved

into a collaboration, with Staffan designing a collection of rugs called Red Thread. The collection comprises of eight beautifully designed and exquisitely hand crafted rugs, each with a different story behind them. It was launched with a photography shoot, and a series of private views for the media.

To date, Parker Hobart has secured Red Thread coverage on respected interior sites such as Design Sheppard and ElleDecoration.co.uk and coverage in glossy regional magazine Kensington & Chelsea, with much more coverage expected in the 2015 spring issues. Following the success of the designs and the UK launch in September, JAB Anstoetz has decided to launch the Red Thread collection to the worldwide market at imm Cologne in January 2015.

CREATING A GO TO BRAND IN LUXURY BATH WARE

F or much of 2014, luxury bath ware company, Catchpole & Rye had limited new news so the focus was very much on feeding leading interior stylists with ideas and opening up the new London showroom as a photography space. Since the beginning of 2014, Parker Hobart has firmly established Catchpole &

Rye as the go to for luxury bathware in photoshoots. Coverage has been generated in The World of Interiors, Homes & Gardens, Living Etc, Country Homes & Interiors, Elle Decoration and Essential Kitchen, Bedroom, Bathroom magazine.

Earlier on in the year, the team began to notice the growing trend for copper and brass finishes. By promoting Catchpole & Rye as the leading craftsman of bespoke bath wares in these metal finishes, an impressive 84 pieces of coverage have been achieved through product placement, expert comment or decoration shoots all using Catchpole & Rye’s copper or brass wares - which totals more than 50% of the coverage this year.

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DIGITAL

T The digital team recently attended the PRCA’s 2014 Digital Report launch event which aimed to provide a benchmark on the PR industry’s performance within digital communications.

An expert panel participated in a lively discussion about the report’s findings and provoked much debate in the 50-strong audience. Unsurprisingly, the growing ‘digital PR’ industry was top of the

agenda, coupled with the challenges that come with the pace in which this sector continues to evolve.

Read the full event report at www.wildcard.co.uk/deck/

WHAT’S HAPPENING ONLINE

62%OF organisations

HAVE SEEN DIGITAL BUDGETS RISE

OVER THE PAST 12 MONTHS

MANY AGENCIES expect the

PERCENTAGE OF

digital revenue to rise between

21% to 30%

in the next 12 months

OF BRANDS ARE still only spending just

1-10% of their marketing

budgets on digital &social media

46% OF AGENCIES

REVEALED THAT THEY

PLAN TO PAY TO

BOOST FACEBOOK POSTS

47%

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Evaluation and digital

W ild Card has launched its own unique tailored media evaluation package: SME (Smart Media Evaluation).

Along with a rigorous analysis of the wider brand media performance, which incorporates social conversations, sentiment, opportunities to see (OTS) and message conveyance, this new evaluation offering also includes a detailed competitor analysis.

The new package is a natural extension to the current Smart Media Index (SMI) tool already in existence at Wild Card. Account handlers

use the SMI algorithm alongside campaign delivery targets as an effective monthly reporting tool.

The teams score coverage according to where it features, the quality of message, its size and whether it includes a call to action i.e. web link and if it’s a solus client feature. The bespoke tool, which was developed by Wild Card, was launched to replace Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE), a

measurement tool which is widely regarded as an out of date system to assess PR results.

The new complementary SME package is usually undertaken by Wild Card every six or 12 months.

Georgie Upton, Group Account Director at Wild Card, said: “Both Smart Media Index and Smart Media Evaluation have been designed to clearly show how a brand is performing within the media at any given time; a total health check.

“SMI has proved to be a worthy tool for accurately evaluating on and offline coverage and the launch of the SME package is an exciting addition to the teams’ evaluation toolkit. It provides our clients with a complete over-arching media insight, ideal for brand planning. The new evaluation package also offers competitor analysis to ensure a brand has a true representation and understanding of its share of voice across the media and fast-paced social landscape.”

SMARTER, MORE EFFECTIVE MEASUREMENT

INTERIORS NEWS FROM

LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL GETS BIGGER AND BIGGER EVERY YEAR WITH EVENTS RIGHT ACROSS THE CAPITAL. PARKER HOBART VISITED ALL THE KEY EVENTS OVER THE NINE DAYS OF THE FESTIVAL.

HERE IS A WRAP UP OF THE LATEST INTERIOR TRENDS:

Trend watch

MUSTARD YELLOWMedia attention has just started to turn towards this autumnal colour, but the team spotted this colour during the festival. Client JAB Anstoetz and Samuel & Sons both champion this colour with the ‘Vivienne’ fabric and ‘Printemps’ trimmings respectively. By advising new client Arlo & Jacob to include a mustard yellow fabric in its lifestyle shoot of the Wallis chair, it was then featured in the Sunday Times in October.

FLORA & FAUNATropical birds and animals, large scale leaf and flower patterns and nature inspired prints were everywhere during LDF; on sofas, chairs, curtains, rugs, carpets, blinds and cushions.

TEXTUREForget smooth and sleek, exhibitors

went tactile at this year’s LDF, showcasing a wealth of texture.

Texture was applied to everything from polished concrete floors, large scale weaves in wallpaper,

carved rugs and aged wood cladding to 3D printed lithophane

scenes of London.

Feast your eyes on this

W ild Card hosted another media breakfast with leading UK media, this time with the editor of The Grocer, Adam Leyland and Gillian Carter, editor of BBC Good Food. The event brought together food

and drink marketing professionals to discuss the current retail market as well as trends and opportunities within the food press. The group discussed everything from the ‘Horsegate’ scandal to magazine subscription fees, whilst listening to the insider scoops at both publications.

Visit:www.wildcard.co.uk/deck/ for the full summary.

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