2010 – The Highlights

Welcome to 2011. According to the Chinese calendar it’s the Year of the Rabbit, and according to the UN it’s the International Year of Forests, and the International Year of Chemistry. So, if you’re a lover of trees, bunnies, or Bunsen burners (or perhaps all three) you can look forward to a good year ahead.

But this post is not about 2011. No no no no… this post is about 2010, which turned out to be a very good year for Propaganda and our clients. So as is almost tradition at the start of a new year, we’d like to review a few of the highlights from the old year.

The year began well with a the launch of TheO by Cloud Nine. Soon afterwards we began a Discovery process for clothing retailers Republic that helped shape some beautiful new creative work later in the year.

Next up was the release of our own ‘THE WORKS’ collection, which some of you may have been lucky enough to receive for yourself, or seen featured here on our blog. The limited edition box set consisted of a series of A2 prints of work that had not only been well received by our own industry, but had also delivered tangible business results for clients. Hence the title: ‘Work that Works’. Many thanks to everyone who collaborated with us on the project, including Alex Box, Warren du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones, Todd Selby, Matthew Shave, Iain Crawford, and Alisa Connan.

As the year rolled on our short film ‘Dark Angel’ for The Sophie Lancaster Foundation continued to receive more and more attention. Working closely with Sylvia Lancaster – Sophie’s mother – and renowned animator Fursy Teyssier the film received an impressive 50,000 hits on YouTube in its first month, and was recognised by awards juries at Creative Circle, Kinsale Sharks and The Chairman’s Award at the Roses. It was a deeply moving project for all involved, and hearing Sylvia’s glowing comments about the film on BBC2 Radio was a particularly poignant moment.

Next up on the highlights reel was the shoot for Republic’s new Autumn/Winter campaign, captured by the lens of the brilliant Kareem Black. Four ads were created under the ‘Your Rules, Your Republic’ creative strategy, and marked the start of a journey to change public perceptions of Republic and position them as a tier one fashion retailer. Watch this space. (That’s an expression; don’t actually sit there staring at the screen. Nothing will happen.)

The success of Seabrook crisps was another highlight of 2010, with the news that they had become Britain’s fastest growing crisp being a particularly proud moment for us. We’ve been working with Ken and the rest of the Seabrook team for over 5 years now, so to see them also win at the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards 2010 was a real delight. Look out for more exciting work for Seabrook coming soon.

And no review of our year would be complete without mentioning Illamasqua. The brand continues to amaze, going from strength to strength, and achieving cult-status in less than two years of business. Two moments were of particular note: firstly the three short films directed by Simon Burrill featuring the incredibly talented Vicky McClure, and secondly the opening of Illamasqua’s Flagship Store in Soho on 16th September. The opening night was an incredible celebration of the unique and extraordinary, with guest appearances from Boy George and Vivienne Westwood.

Of course, we should also give honourable mentions to the snappy new campaign for Boost, some lovingly crafted television commercials for The Car People, more insightful work for Daval and Clipper, a gorgeous, fresh campaign for Xen-Tan, and a new range of pure hair care products from Daniel Field. There were many more moments of note, but the whole point of highlights is that it’s not just a big list of everything you did. Then they wouldn’t be called 2010 – The Highlights, they’d just be called ‘2010 – Everything we did’.

We would, however, like to thank everyone we worked with over the last 12 months, and look forward to an equally enjoyable 2011.

Posted by Mark Williams.