We’re really excited about our latest work for Sailor Jerry rum which goes live this week. The idea behind the site is pretty simple: lots of great content for the brand already lives in places such as YouTube, Flickr and blogs, having already been created by Sailor Jerry fans. Plus we know that SJ aficionados don’t like being marketed to, so pulling in authentic content seemed to be a ballsy and appropriate thing to do. Also, it’s always interesting to rekindle a fiery debate about the nature of content – Modernista, Skittles….

Take a look at the site here.

Normally us Weapon7ers are very humble individuals, but we’re chest-puffingly proud of our win at the New Media Age Effectiveness Awards. The judges thought our work with Cadbury, launching The Natural Confectionery Company in the UK and Ireland, was a worthy winner for the Consumer Products and Services category. We would have posted the news on Friday but the celebrations went on long into the night…

The new E-Class Saloon and Coupé were launching at a challenging time. Car sales were falling, with the premium market suffering in particular.

It is Mercedes-Benz’s most important new car launch for several years - the model most associated with the Mercedes brand, and considered to be the flagship by which the brand is judged.

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Channel 4 is about to become the first UK broadcaster to make all of its archived programming available, free of charge, via its website.  From next month, viewers will be able to stream 10,000 programmes, including classics such as Brookside, Queer As Folk and Drop The Dead Donkey. The service will be supported by pre-roll advertising. Weapon7 CEO discusses whether old world techniques work on new media technologies.

The full article.

Our googlemaps banner for smart has won this month in the IAB Creative Showcase, which is a nice surprise. Leeds to Luxembourg, here we come! We also noticed the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class site was website of the day on Design Licks on Tuesday (26th May). Have an eyeball of it here.

Hello to two new additions to our merry band of Weapon7ers. Jason Cascarina (the Phil Daniels lookalike on the left) joins as an associate creative director from Elvis, and David Blaseby as a senior account director from Wunderman.

Jason has 14 years experience working as a senior copywriter at agencies such as Banks Hoggins O’Shea and FCB London, and is often to be seen furrowing his wisened brow with words and concepts. At Wunderman, David was responsible for car launches across 22 markets and before that was client-side at Nissan. He is a total petrol head – even his dissertation was on the motor industry. Welcome, guys!

smart have been making über-compact and efficient cars for years now, but the launch of the new smart fortwo diesel this March really was the pièce de résistance. Boasting all of the features you’d associate with the petrol model – great looking, safe, compact, low emitting, etc – it had the added extra of being one of the most fuel efficient cars on the road. From one tiny 33 litre tank it can squeeze out some 621 miles. That’s 85.6 miles to the gallon (combined).

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Well, here we are – in our brand new home at 196 Tottenham Court Road above Heal’s. Our new space is light, bright, and packed with interesting features ranging from an open plan kitchen in reception to a blackboard room, and of course the customary living room. And there’s more to come in the coming weeks. Watch this space. Literally.

Sony have added some cracking new surround sound kits to their latest Bravia Home Theatre range. Golf ball-sized speakers, hidden sub-woofers, even a six-foot pillar of glass offering 360 degree sound. Pretty cool.

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We’re delighted to welcome two fresh faces in our planning team. Joe Cusack joins as Network Planner focusing on social media strategies, and Jono Smart who joins us as Data Planner.

Prior to joining the W7 team, Joe and Jono worked at PR agency Bite Communications and ListLab, which is one of the UK’s largest list and media brokers, respectively. Both will work across all clients. And both are experts at crafting a finely-tuned cup of tea to complement a finely-crafted spreadsheet, which helps.

Mercedes-Benz briefed us to help drive consideration of their new B-Class amongst young families with children.

These are active people who use their car as a workhorse. They are people who are also increasingly aware of environmental issues but still want to get the most out of life and out of their car.
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We’re launching the new smart fortwo diesel in the UK with an integrated campaign set to break in March.

Each execution explores the fact that you could drive 621 miles on one tank. We’re mailing a 54 page flick book of the journey from Luxembourg to Leeds. We’ve created a magazine insert of routes around Europe. And we’ve developed a clever MPU that uses Google Maps to find destinations unique to your postcode.

Watch this space for more in the coming weeks, or read more.

Citroen’s new identity and brand campaign is currently a hotly-debated topic in the marketing press and in online forums. Is it wasted money? Will it really make any difference in these turbulent times? Will it make the public reassess the brand? Chris Westlake, Weapon7’s Managing Partner and automotive specialist, gives his opinion in the latest edition of Marketing.

We are really excited to have won our latest client First Drinks. We will be working with them as their lead creative agency on their rum brand Sailor Jerry. The ideas are exciting and we are looking forward to getting stuck in. You can read more about the pitch on Brand Republic.

“How do you grow a new brand of sweets using digital?” asked Cadbury.

“You use a holding page, Facebook, YouTube, free samples, skyscraper/MPU/local connect banners, CRM, SEM, a website, a few great applications, some singing sweets and a sugar bear,” we said.

“Of course you do,” they said.

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