Bruce on Yeo Valley in the Metro

Bruce appeared in the Metro this week giving his analysis of the strategy behind Yeo Valley’s latest TV campaign. You can read the review yourself here.

Bruce in the A-list

We’re pleased to announce that Bruce is once again featured in the Campaign A-list for 2011. The supplement itself was published this week. If you want to find out about his views on the future of the industry, his greatest extravagance and his idea of perfect happiness then take a look for yourself here.

New Business? Simple!

Not one, but two great new business stories this week. They’re like the proverbial buses. We’re delighted to confirm that we’ve been appointed by Simple to originate new work across TV advertising and through other integrated channels. Simple is the UK’s number one skincare brand and we’re thrilled to be working them. Here’s a link to the news story in case you missed it.

Pernod Ricard appoints Audacity to develop Malibu positioning strategy

As reported in Campaign, we’re pleased to announce that we’re now working with the lovely people at Pernod Ricard on their brilliant Malibu brand. We’ve been brought in as ongoing strategic partners to begin work on the communications planning and positioning for 2011. We’ve already started getting to know the brand and it’s consumers – we’ll keep you posted with developments.

Digital Design Sensations

We’ve had some really exciting news on the new business front this week. It’s still confidential for now, but hopefully I’ll be able to tell you all about it once we’ve dotted the Is and crossed the Ts. Watch this space!

Although it’s been busy, we’ve also been having some fun this week arranging activities for our CPD programme. We’ve decided that some horizon-expanding is in order so we’re arranging a trip for everybody at Audacity to the new Digital Design Sensations exhibition at the V and A. If you’ve any great suggestions for interesting exhibitions, talks and presentations, please let us know!

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like and Research Group Month

Further to last week’s entry, this article gives a good overview of the highlights from the SuperBowl . Some interesting work there as you’ll see, although in the eyes of Audacity none beat this fantastic new US ad for Old Spice.

Back at Audacity HQ, we’re busy preparing some great ads of our own. It looks like March is going to be the month of the research group and our planning team will be jetting (well training) off around the country to hear feedback to our concepts straight from the consumers’ mouths. Fingers crossed!

The brutal new Splinter Cell and the cost of a Super Bowl spot

One of Ubisoft’s biggest titles of 2010, Splinter Cell Conviction has been confirmed for an April release, and we’ve been working with the client team this week on the launch campaign. It’s a spectacular release. Take a look here to see how the game was introduced to the world at E3 (the world’s biggest gaming expo) last year. We’ve been lucky enough to play the final build - it’s gripping and brutal stuff. Definitely not one for the kiddies.
The creative teams have also been working on an interesting new business brief, and there are already lots of brilliant ideas coming out. Looks like it could be a fun project!

Finally, it’s the Super Bowl on Sunday night, and although we’ve no inclination to stay up until the early hours watching it, it’s fascinating to see the ads on show in the breaks and the buzz that surrounds them. In case you were wondering, a 30 second Super Bowl spot this year costs a cool $3 million and is watched by around 90 million people.

A new starter and more Just Dance success

It’s the last week of January, but the first week for our new starter Rachael who’s made the switch from the legal world to join us at Audacity as Account Executive. Welcome to the team Rachael. It’s only days since she joined, but Rachael’s already got herself involved in new business proposals, research analysis and Clearcast negotiations. It seems she’s a fast learner!

On the TV production front, we’ve got campaigns on air this week for Bueno, TRESemmé and Just Dance, so a busy week beckons.

And, following on from the news of Just Dance’s success in last week’s entry, Just Dance has just achieved the unthinkable and knocked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 off the charts! An amazing success. News story here

Ubisoft's Just Dance at No. 2 in the UK Charts!

Well, this week sees the continuing success of Ubisoft’s Just Dance, which is riding high at number two in the UK charts: Click here.

We launched the game with an integrated advertising campaign that began in December and we’ve since seen sales go through the roof. If you have a Wii, try and get your hands on a copy. You won’t regret it.

It was a good week for snack-craving Audacity-staff (but a bad week for new year diets). That’s because we’ve received the welcome delivery of a gigantic pyramid of Ferrero Rocher from the lovely people at Ferrero. It looks like there’s enough to last a month, although I suspect they may all be gone very soon.

We’ve had a busy week on new business and hope to have some exciting new news next week.

Happy new year from everyone at Audacity!

2010 still sounds like a year from the future, but I’m sure we’ll get used to it by mid February. And then there’s the whole “what do we call the decade?” debate to be had: (The Tens? The Tennies? The Tweens? Discuss.) Whatever you decide to call the decade we hope it’s a prosperous one for you.

So what does the year 2010 hold for Audacity? Without revealing too much, I can say that we’ve got a busy January ahead with some really exciting new projects ahead - which should lead to some great work being produced. After a period of “under construction”, we’re also going to launch a new website very shortly – so watch this space. As you’d expect from Audacity it’ll be slick but unpretentious, giving you chance to learn a bit more about our campaigns and our people.