BAFTA Winning Actress is ‘Born Again’ In Haunting New Film For Illamasqua

BAFTA winning actress Vicky McClure, famous for her roles in ‘This is England and This is England ’86’, is the star of the latest film created by Propaganda, for cult British beauty brand, Illamasqua.

The film ‘Born Again’ elevates the make-up brand beyond its products and explores the two themes at the very heart of Illamasqua: self-expression and the celebration of the alter ego.

The six-minute masterpiece, directed by the acclaimed Paul Gore, Flynn Productions, is set in the middle of no-where and at no specific time, and tells the story of a strikingly beautiful young woman on a journey that will define who she will be for the rest of her life.

The pinnacle of the film is a breathtakingly eerie underwater scene, which was shot at Pinewood Studio by legendary underwater cameraman, Mike Valentine, whose previous work includes the stunning “Casino Royale”.

Propaganda’s Creative Director, Mark Williams, oversaw the entire project and is thrilled with the finished result. He says: “Born Again takes us on an incredible tense and emotional journey – we see Vicky’s character fighting for her very soul. The reward at the end of the film is simply breathtaking.

Julian Kynaston, Propaganda chairman and Illamasqua Founder, comments: “The film celebrates a great partnership of two emerging forces in the UK, Illamasqua and BAFTA winning actress Vicky McClure. Her portrayal of Lol in Shane Meadows ‘This is England’ resonated with the Illamasqua brand values of freedom, self-expression and cultural tolerance, and we love working with her. She completely understands us and delivers perfection every time.

“This film takes make-up branding into a whole new and unexplored dimension.

You can watch the film at www.illamasqua.com/bornagain

Weight-loss, Social gain

Continuing in our strong relationship with Cambridge Weight Plan, we are working with them to develop an exciting social media strategy.

With the knowledge that social media is a major influence on consumer buying decisions and that the new consumer is savvier than ever, we recognised the need for a strategy to integrate and amplify our existing marketing activity for the brand.

Standing by our principle of knowledge before assumption, our journey will start by conducting online market research as part of our Digital Intelligence process, to monitor the brand’s reputation and identify key online influencers and channels to engage with consumers. We’ll also be exploring how the new, changing consumer will happily share their experiences – positive or negative – within a social space, particularly in the weight-loss arena.

Establishing our digital share of voice and brand sentiment will allow us to confidently put our stake in the ground within the digital landscape and join existing conversations with our audience. Our key measures of success will be to create, facilitate and grow an engaged audience via appropriate online campaigns and channels.

Kristal Ireland, Head of Digital said “At Propaganda our activities are informed, strategic and never operate within a silo of the wider digital marketing context. We truly get to the heart of a brand both on and offline. We believe the opportunity is now for a weight-loss brand to take the lead share of voice online and Cambridge Weight Plan are primed and committed to being that brand. We are all very excited about working on the project.”

You can read more about the Cambridge Weight Plan Discovery process and results here.

Illamasqua’s First Fragrance Comes to Life

It is already hotly anticipated and on Monday cult British make-up brand, Illamasqua, held a shoot in London for its first fragrance. A film will also accompany the launch and Propaganda’s Mark Williams, Creative Director, Charlotte Jackson, Art Buyer and Natalie Hargreaves, Illamasqua Account Director, were all in attendance to oversee proceedings. Natalie said: “The shoot was just amazing, it’s going to be beautiful and we can’t wait to see the finished result, it’s going to be magical.”

This will be no ordinary fragrance launch but a way to celebrate your alter ego through another sensory experience. You can find out more here.

Posted by Phoebe Findley.

Illamasqua’s Final Act of Self-Expression

Illamasqua has unveiled a new offering, the Final Act of Self-Expression. The cult British beauty brand has teamed up with family funeral directors of 220 years, Leverton & Sons, to launch an innovative service bringing ritual beauty to the final act for those who have enjoyed a lifetime of self-expression.

Illamasqua encourages people to self-express and embrace their alter ego in every way and this service, which is applied by a specially trained Illamasqua make-up artist, allows for a celebration of life and one final glamorous look.

You can find more out about the service here: http://www.illamasqua.com/about/final-act-of-selfexpression/

Posted by Phoebe Findley

SOPHIE Tolerance Game Launches at London School

Entering the next phase of the foundations success

Almost four years ago, Sophie Lancaster, and her boyfriend, Rob Maltby, were savagely beaten by a gang of youths, simply because they chose to dress ‘differently’. Sophie died from her injuries.

Following Sophie’s death, her mother, Sylvia, set up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation with one aim to: Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred and Intolerance, Everywhere.

Propaganda and Illamasqua has worked closely with charity since its infancy and now with the help of client, Huthwaite International, an educational game has been developed to show young people how to be more tolerant and open minded to accept people, despite lifestyle or appearance.

The game will launch initially as a pilot scheme today, 8th July, at Kidbrooke Secondary School, Greenwich, London, where Sylvia will guest host a game session. The ultimate aim for the game is for it to be widely used by teachers in PSE or RE classes throughout the nation on a long-term basis.

30 game cards represent many common ethnic, religious, social groups and subcultures; players are set a series of tasks, which challenge preconceptions and encourage development in problem solving and team working skills.

Sylvia Lancaster, Sophie’s mother, who has pioneered and worked towards launching this scheme since Sophie death, says: “To teach young people to be tolerant of others is giving them a crucial skill that will enable them to get on in life. Working many years as a youth worker has taught me that one of the biggest stumbling blocks for young people with aspirations is their inability to understand or relate to people from different walks of life. Our game should show them simple techniques to help them break through this barrier.”

Sylvia continues: “This game has been my dream since 2007, and it is one of the key things we, as a charity, can do to ensure my daughter didn’t die in vain. If this scheme can make young people stop and think twice about judging others on appearance that will be a massive accomplishment for our society.”

Sandeep Phagura, Curriculum Team Leader for Personal Development, Kidbrooke Secondary School, said: “We are delighted to take part in this project. We feel that this is a very important issue and want to promote the need for respecting diversity and differences amongst people, no matter who they are or what they dress like. The class involved are very excited about being part of piloting the game and I hope that other schools will also use this game and opportunity to educate young people today within their curriculum.”

You can find out further information about the charity and the game here

And find out more about our work with SOPHIE here

Illamasqua launching in Exchange Square, Manchester

We are thrilled to announce that this September Illamasqua will be opening their fourth store with retail partner Selfridges, at Manchester’s Exchange Square.

Selfridges are having a huge refurbishment of their beauty hall and have asked Illamasqua to come on board to inject the alternative glamour they know Illamasqua will bring!

We can’t wait for the launch party!

Posted by Natalie Hargreaves.

Goodbye salt Hello flavour are here

Today sees the launch of our new Seabrook Crisps campaign, for a brand new range of crisps. Because Seabrook have gone and made the perfect crisp. In fact, it’s the kind of crisp the world’s been waiting for.

They’ve called them Goodbye salt Hello flavour and they taste great despite containing at least 90% less salt.

Who wouldn’t love a crisp with no added salt in them?

Well, salt for a start. Which is where our campaign concept came from.

We figured if salt could talk it would do anything it could to try and stop people from trying these brilliant new crisps.

So we created a collection of salt pot characters who, right up until Goodbye salt Hello flavour came along, were happily employed at Seabrook Crisps.

The salt pots will star in a national press campaign that will appear in magazines like Hello, OK!, Now, Heat, Cosmopolitan…in fact, pretty much every woman’s magazine in the country. They also take centre stage in a new campaign website where among other things they try and bribe crisp fans NOT to try Goodbye salt Hello flavour with the chance of winning a fabulous £10k cash prize, plus daily draws for £200 worth of Love2shop vouchers.

Look out for the campaign from Today.

Posted by Mark Williams.

Illamasqua’s Toxic Nature.

The Illamasqua Diaries – Day Three – In the wilderness

Vicky McClure and the rest of the Propaganda gang just got enough phone signal to send us these exclusive behind the scenes shots taken in thelee Welsh wilderness…

Posted by Phoebe Findley.

The Illamasqua Diaries – Day Two – On the road

After an incredible and exhausting day at Pinewood Studio’s yesterday we’ve been on the road for most of today travelling to the next, ever so slightly less glamorous, but beautiful location, of Brecon in Mid Wales.

We’re keeping what we’re doing here under wraps for the moment – sorry, you’ll just have to wait and see – but after yesterdays stunning yet eerie performance by Vicky McClure you certainly won’t be disappointed.

You can take a look at the previous films we’ve made with Vicky for Illamasqua

Posted by Phoebe Findley.

The Illamasqua Diaries – Day One at Pinewood

After the huge success of the Illamasqua short films, starring the wonderful and talented Vicky McClure, we’re back shooting once again and this time it’s going to be bigger and better than ever.

Today is the first day in a whole week of shooting and if it’s anything to go by we’re in for an exciting week. Propaganda’s Mark Williams, Creative Director, and Nicki Casey, TV Producer, are with Vicky at the legendary Pinewood Studios where today she is filming underwater scenes in the studios tank, which holds an incredible 1,200,000 litres of water.

Legendary cameraman, Mike Valentine, who has worked on a whole host of amazing music videos, TV programmes and films, including Casino Royale, is filming the underwater scenes and we are delighted to have him on board. Take a look at this “making of” film to find out more about Mike Valentine’s work and see exactly where we are shooting today.

Directing the film is Paul Gore of Flynn Productions, he is one of the most sought-after directors in the industry and has worked on a huge range of projects including music videos for Massive Attack and The Noisettes, find out about more of his work.

Tomorrow we’re hitting a secret location to continue filming but keep a look out for behind the scenes tweets (@propaganda_uk) and another blog tomorrow!

Posted by Phoebe Findley.

Boost rockets to No.2 Energy Drink spot.

We’re giving a big high five to Boost Drinks, who were officially ranked as the second largest energy drink brand in the UK* according to latest figures published by AC Nielsen.

In fact, we’re pretty chuffed for Boost in general, since 2008, Boost has experienced continued growth and is currently outperforming the dynamic energy drinks sector as a whole, with annual sales up 44.2% year on year!

Pretty impressive we think!

For further details, visit Boost’s website, or see some of our Boost creative.

Posted by Claire Windsor.

* Excluding private label