If you've been keeping up to date with what's happening at Kindred, you'll know that we're not your run of the mill PR or advertising agency. In fact, we're a little bit different. Not only do we work with clients spanning the charity, public sector and private sectors, but we also offer a whole range of marcomms 'solutions' from PR and stakeholder relations, to design and brand development, to advertising and social media.

We currently have a very exciting opportunity for a Senior Account Manager.

You would be leading and working across a number of clients, including automotive and health & beauty. We are looking for strong integrated media skills, particularly TV, Press, & digital. Additionally as part of the role you will be required to help on New Business and pitching from time to time.

Start date: March 2012
Term: Permanent
 
If you think you've got what it takes to join our team and would like to receive further information, please contact recruitment@kindredagency.com or call 0207 010 0800 and ask for Hannah Jones.

**No recruitment agencies please**

We look forward to hearing from you!

Senior_Account_Manager_JD.doc Download this file

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..that BabyCentre, the #1 pregnancy and parenting destination worldwide, has appointed Kindred to deliver a year-long national campaign of consumer-facing communications, showcasing the site's wealth of information and how it supports new and expectant parents, as well as handling targeted communications with the trade media.

BabyCentre, which is visited by more than two million people in the UK every month, has been looking out for a PR agency to help ramp up its sales and marketing activities in order to increase brand awareness among parents, as well as highlighting the features of its unique life-stage marketing platform to the media community.

Aimee Geller-Promisel, Director, Public Relations for BabyCenter LLC said:  “BabyCentre currently serves over 24 million families worldwide every month, with a blend of expert advice and mum-to-mum wisdom personalised to the age of her child.  Our mums trust us to share in their private journey, which is a hugely privileged position. We wanted an agency in the UK which could help us tell our story, demonstrate our leadership in this space and communicate our offer to complimentary brands."

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Post by Creative Director, Anton Ezer

Malaria No More UK

They make a difference everyday.

Everything they do, every penny they raise, saves children’s lives.

That’s why we wanted to work with them.

We did it because we wanted to help them get their message across to a wider audience.

We did it to help them raise more cash.

We worked with some fantastic people to make it happen.

A world renowned wildlife photographer.

The London School of Tropical Diseases.

One of the UK’s leading retouching studios.

They all helped us at no cost.

They wanted to make a difference too.

In their own way they have.

If the work we’ve produced helps to increase donations then Malaria No More UK can continue to make a difference.

They can continue to save children’s lives.

MAL02S0001_Nowhere-to-Hide_MV1-264.mov Watch on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

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This week sees the launch of a whole new look for The Brewery, the historic Whitbread brewery that is now the leading conference and event venue in the City of London. We have developed a new brand (with in-house design agency Unreal) that is being extended throughout the venue, and created a stunning new website designed to engage with audiences and drive more enquiries. And we’re pleased to say the client is delighted... 

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Kindred have been appointed by People 1st to run a six month brand awareness campaign for their UKSP careers website. Director, Lorna Gozzard spoke to PR Week about our involvment:

"As an agency, we have a great deal of experience working in the careers and training fields, as well as with Sector Skills Councils, so we’re delighted to be working with People 1st. In particular, we’re looking forward to producing an effective PR and digital campaign which will produce some really measurable results.”

Click here to find out more.

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Post by Hattie Fitzgerald, Senior Account Exec

Us Kindredites are on a bit of a winning streak at the moment and last night’s PRCA awards were no exception, as we picked up the award for the B2B campaign of the year.

The campaign in question was the ‘Compare The Manager’ campaign that we ran for the Chartered Management Institute. Aiming to get audiences thinking about their management styles we devised an app which told you what type of manager you are. It also cannily deduced which celebrity manager – for example Richard Branson or Fabio Capello - you are most like.

Over 6,000 people completed the app in the first month and the accompanying news story, which focused on negative management styles and dream celebrity bosses secured over 200 pieces of coverage, including 23 national hits. Highlights included the BBC News Channel, ‘Today’ on BBC Radio 4, ‘Drive Time’ on BBC Radio 5 Live, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and Metro.

We also developed an ad burst asking unsuspecting commuters if their management style was more ‘Branson than Brent’ or ‘Karen Brady or the Brady Bunch’.

So all in all a great result for a great client, and just the type of fully integrated campaign that we like at Kindred.

Kindred&CMI_integrated.pdf Download this file

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Yesterday we launched a new Facebook app for Blistex, promoting their new Lip Brilliance lip balm. A cool little competition to win £150 of Topshop vouchers. You can check it out here. Already 3500 entries since yesterday! 

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Post by Community Manager,  Abhilasha Punj
 
Wednesday night was a very exciting evening for Kindred’s ‘make mine Milk’ team.  We won two Some Comms Awards (awards which cover the social media and digital comms industry). 
 
Award number one: Best Use of Facebook
 
Best Use of Facebook looked at the ‘make mine Milk’ Facebook campaign over the last twelve months.  The Facebook page, which now has almost 90,000 Facebook fans, is positioned to improve the attitudes of British teenage girls towards milk. This was done through creating a community for teenage girls to find out about the latest celebrity gossip and news whilst encouraging them to contribute with comments and upload user generated content. So far we've had our 'Milkers' - as we like to call them! - uploading milk-tashed photos, milk related T-shirt designs, poems and milk challenges (downing a pint of milk in the fastest time).
 
We had some really tough competition for this award, including, Smirnoff’s Nightlife Exchange project so it’s fantastic to walk away with top prize!
 
Award number two: Best Use of Social Media
 
Best Use of Social Media looked at the entire ‘make mine Milk’ campaign over the last twelve months.  The work we did included various events and tactics to encourage community engagement with the campaign on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Some examples are:

• The Milk Challenge, which asks celebs and fans to film themselves downing a pint of milk in the fastest time possible. This was launched by Justin Bieber, whose video generated over 300,000 views.
• The Wanted secret gig, which took place on a ‘make mine Milk’ double decker bus down at Tower Bridge, London with over 3,500 attendees.
• The 2% Fashion competition, fronted by American singer Alexis Jordan, encouraging participants to design their own t-shirts including the colour green and the number two – communicating the message that semi skimmed milk is less than 2% fat.

We had a great night and it was great to see so many great social media campaigns being celebrated.  We are very pleased and honoured for taking home these awards in face of such strong competition.

For more information about the campaign click here:

www.facebook.com/makeminemilk
www.twitter.com/makeminemilk
www.youtube.com/makeminemilk 
www.makeminemilk.co.uk 

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If you've been keeping up to date with what's happening at Kindred, you'll know that we're not your run of the mill PR or advertising agency. In fact, we're a little bit different. Not only do we work with clients spanning the charity, public sector and private sectors, but we also offer a whole range of marcomms 'solutions' from PR and stakeholder relations, to design and brand development, to advertising and social media.

We currently have two very exciting opportunities for an Office Administrator and Art Worker.

Office Administrator: If you’re looking for your first job in the city and would like to start a career in office management, then this is the role for you!
Start date: November 2011
Term: Permanent

Art Worker: This is an opportunity to dip your toes into a variety of projects, working on material such as; poster, press ads, flyers campaigns and corporate newsletters. If you work well unsupervised and are experienced in this area – we’re looking for you!
Start date: as soon as possible
Term: 3 month contract – potentially perm
 
If you think you've got what it takes to join our team and would like to receive further information, please contact recruitment@kindredagency.com or call 0207 010 0800 and ask for Hannah Jones.

**No recruitment agencies please**

We look forward to hearing from you!

CREATIVE_ARTWORKER.docx Download this file

FOH_Job_Description.docx Download this file

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All of us at Kindred were thrilled to learn this morning that we have been shortlisted for four awards!

Kindred has received three nominations for the PRCA Awards and one nomination for the The Grocer Marketing, Advertising and PR awards (GMAP).

In the PRCA Awards, our ‘make mine Milk’ campaign is up for the Digital and New Media Award, alongside the ‘Compare the Manager’ campaign we devised for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). The CMI campaign is also up for the B2B Award, so it will be a busy night for Kindred! The full shortlist can be found here.

The ‘make mine Milk’ campaign has also been nominated for the Integrated Campaign of the Year Award at The GMAP awards! More details can be found here.

We are really pleased to have our campaigns recognised by such prestigious awards - it gives a real boost to everyone at the agency to know our hard work is being recognised.

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How exciting - Kindred is Gorkana's case study of the week. Click here to find out more.

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Post by Account Director Katie Peden

You might have heard, read or seen a bit of debate last week about a somewhat inflammatory issue known as the gender pay gap.

On Tuesday evening, as part of a partnership Kindred set up with the magazine, Stylist exclusively broke figures from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) revealing that the pay gap between male and female executives working in the same job roles currently stands at a whopping £10,546.

Given that the Equal Pay Act was passed more than four decades ago (Made in Dagenham tells the story behind this brilliantly), making it illegal to treat women and men differently in terms of pay and conditions of employment, we had a feeling the research was going to cause a bit of a stir when we first reviewed it. It’s fair to say though, what happened next surpassed the expectations of everyone here and the team at CMI.

With rich data from more than 35,000 UK executives to work with, as well as some exciting/shocking figures – great news that the pay gap appears to have leveled out at junior executive level, not so good that five times as many women as men at senior management levels are being made redundant – it was up to us to get people to take notice of the research and what needs to be done to address the issues it raises.

On Wednesday morning, the story made the front page of The Guardian (as well as a Kipper Williams cartoon) and Financial Times, with articles also appearing in The Independent, i, Metro, Daily Telegraph, Daily Star and Daily Mail (which ran three pieces). The Times devoted two pages to the research, including a case study and a huge infographic breaking the figures down by level and comparing this year’s findings to previous surveys.

CMI spokespeople were interviewed on programmes and stations including Today on BBC Radio 4, Sky News, BBC News Channel and Wake Up to Money on BBC Radio 5 Live, while the story was debated on BBC Breakfast, Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2, the ITN News, PM on BBC Radio 4, Channel 5 News, 6 Music and Day Break. More than 20 regional BBC radio stations covered the issue and a Sky News Radio pre-recorded interview with CMI Director of Policy and Research, Petra Wilton, ensured coverage across a huge range of commercial stations. The coverage prompted both the Home Office and Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, to speak out on gender pay.

On Thursday, the gender pay gap was the subject of an editorial in The Times and prompted a number of articles and blogs including pieces in g2, Comment is Free, The Independent, The Economist online. By the end of the week, even John Humphreys was blogging about it! The issue took Twitter by storm, with more than 1,900 people having tweeted or retweeted links to the story by Thursday evening.

While the coverage continues to flood in, we’re reflecting on what was an incredibly exciting and rewarding week for us. Campaigns like this are one of the many reasons why we love working with clients like CMI, taking complex research and reports and turning them into campaigns that capture the public’s imagination and really get people thinking and talking.  

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Here are some pics from last night’s fantastic Kindred Summer Fete party! We had everything from whack-a-rat and tombola – to our very own ice cream parlour and milkable cow, called Cookie.

Here are the highlights:

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University of Sheffield has appointed Kindred to run a six month corporate PR campaign after a three way pitch.

The campaign, which kicks off in July, seeks to promote the benefits of a University of Sheffield degree as well as emphasising the all-round benefits of the university.

Carrie Warr, Director of External Relations at University of Sheffield said: “Higher education is entering a new communications era and we wanted an agency with ideas that reflect that. We’ve been very impressed with Kindred’s work on Universities Week and their knowledge of the sector. In addition, we felt their capabilities across PR, creative and social media fitted well with our campaign objectives.”

Lorna Gozzard, Director at Kindred said: “The University of Sheffield has a fantastic proposition and vision and we’re thrilled to have been chosen to work on this campaign. We’re living through some of the biggest changes the higher education has ever seen, so to be able to continue our work in this sector is hugely exciting.”

In June Kindred worked with Universities UK, the representative body for university Vice-Chancellors, on its Universities Week campaign delivering outstanding media coverage and a well-received Twitter campaign. 

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Post by Associate Director Jessica Green

Kindred has won a brief from the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The IET, formerly the IEE, is Europe’s largest professional society for engineers and technicians. Kindred has been appointed to help reposition the institution as the authority on industry regulations across the UK’s electrical and electronics sectors.

The repositioning brief comes as the institution undertakes the launch of the IET Wiring Regulations 17th Edition, BS 7671:2008 incorporating Amendment No.1, 2011, which is published jointly by the IET and the British Standards Institution (BSI). This recent publication sets out new requirements for which all new electrical installations must be compliant from January 2012. In September, the IET will also be working with Kindred to launch a Code of Practice, which gives guidance on the installation of charging points for electrical vehicles.

In repositioning the IET brand as the voice of industry regulation, Kindred will be undertaking a major trade media campaign to launch the IET Wiring Regulations and Code of Practice. In addition Kindred will also target contractor industry bodies and compliance managers at some of the UK’s leading electrical organisations, in order to raise awareness of the IET’s long standing expertise in the sector.

Sue Bishop, marketing manager at the IET, said:
“Having recently changed the name of the organisation to the IET, we have asked Kindred to support us in repositioning the new brand as the authoritative voice on industry regulations and those issues relating to them. Starting with the launch of the IET Wiring Regulations and new Code of Practice for electrical vehicles, we hope to raise awareness of the institution’s expertise among those working in the electrical and electronics industries in the UK. Most importantly, we want to ensure that the UK continues to be compliant with the very highest standards of electrical safety.”

Lorna Gozzard, Kindred’s client service director and IET account lead, said:
“Kindred has a great deal of experience in working with industry and technology based clients, so we are well placed to use our expertise to deliver excellent results for this brief. We’re excited to have the opportunity to help the IET reposition itself as the leading voice on regulation and correct practice. The IET is a vast repository of information on these issues, and we want to make sure that it is the first port of call for those in the UK’s electrical and electronics industries.”

Notes to editors:
•    The IET is Europe’s largest professional society for engineers and technicians
•    The IET has over 150,000 members in 127 countries
•    The IET is an independent authoritative voice on the impacts of technology on society

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Post by Client Service Director, Katie Treggiden

commsgeekJun 29, 9:59am via HootSuite
I'm @ Mktg Week Live. 1st up "making the most of your ideas: creating a culture of shared risk & accountability" Syl Saller Diageo #mwl2011

commsgeekJun 29, 10:02am via HootSuite
I'll tweet the interesting bits in quote marks - not necc my opinions but worth sharing...#mwl2011

commsgeekJun 29, 10:04am via HootSuite
"Diagio brands are decades sometimes centuries old - do you want to be the brand manager that screws that up?! Huge responsibility" #mwl2011

commsgeekJun 29, 10:07am via HootSuite
"how to get buy-in to ideas... Big ideas are inspiring, have scale, are differentiated and simple" #mwl2011

commsgeekJun 29, 10:08am via HootSuite
"huge budgets, loads of people - anything's possible - but need buy-in. Data and personal pusuation crucial" #mwl2011

commsgeekJun 29, 10:11am via HootSuite
"If not you, who? If not now, when? JFK"#mwl2011

commsgeekJun 29, 10:11am via HootSuite
"harder to gain buy-in to big change on a global scale... Responsibility + risk + real relas = shared risk and resp" #mwl2011

commsgeekJun 29, 10:13am via HootSuite
"Risk: real vs perceived - is it a risk or an opportunity? Very culture-dependant. Create the right attitude to risk" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:17am via HootSuite
"johnny walker sponsoring F1 = risk vs JW / F1 responsible drinking campaign 'join the pact' = opportunity #mwl2011

1 retweets
 commsgeekJun 29, 10:20am via HootSuite
"Development risk - not everything you develop will work." #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:21am via HootSuite
"Personal risk: risk to your reputation. The opponent in your head is more formidable than the one on the other side of the net"#mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:22am via HootSuite
"Behaviours develop around personal risk. Blocking behaviours vs freeing behaviours."#mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:24am via HootSuite
"getting everyone's buy-in vs having courage to decide" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:24am via HootSuite
"being too careful, drowning in analysis vs acting with confidence and inspiring others"#mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:25am via HootSuite
"focusing on language, inputs and perceptions vs outputs, results and what's best for the brand" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:25am via HootSuite
"perceived risk is the enemy of pace, decisiveness and growth" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:27am via HootSuite
"Relationships create shared ownership for success and failure - help you to pick yourself up from failure and get back on track" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:30am via HootSuite
"positive intent / win-win, deep understanding / empathy, genuine respect, trust and candour" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:31am via HootSuite
"question what you think you know about people, look hard to find what people can offer, find common ground, have moments of truth" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:32am via HootSuite
"Great relas --> shared ownership --> shared risk. Nothing happens unless everyone's on board" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:34am via HootSuite
"Big ideas are the easy bit. Creating a culture of shared ownership to make them happen is the hard bit" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:34am via HootSuite
"You have to expect great things of yourself before you can do them. Michael Jordan"#mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:35am via HootSuite
"you have to chose between the pursuit of greatness and your perceived risk"#mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:37am via HootSuite
"Everybody is a leader - think of yourself that way. It makes you bigger." #mwl2011

1 retweets
 commsgeekJun 29, 10:38am via HootSuite
"Embrace failure and learn from it. You grow the most from things that make you really uncomfortable" #mwl2011

 commsgeekJun 29, 10:41am via HootSuite
"The tone for creativity has to be set from the top. Swing for a 10 and occasionally get a 3, rather than consistently get a 6" #mwl2011

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Post by Client Service Director, Katie Treggiden

We are inherently affected by the space around us. Just think about how different you feel on the inside when what’s on the outside is a windswept beach versus a jam-packed tube.

(Southwold Beach: Photograph copyright Katie Treggiden)

And what’s around you when you work has a massive impact on the quality of your work. If your job requires you to be creative, your environment should stimulate that creativity. What surrounds you needs to be in tune with what you need to achieve. For most agencies, what we need to achieve are great ideas. To come up with ideas we need space to think, space to collaborate, space to share our thinking, and space that inspires our thinking.

(Kindred’s café space: Photograph copyright Katie Treggiden)

And whilst the outside of a building can be inspiring on a daily basis (I can still remember the feeling of pride walking between the two black cats at Greater London House every morning as an Account Executive at Wunderman), it’s really the inside that counts. What’s around us every minute of every day.

If you’re reading this at work, look around you. What colours can you see? Colour theory is fascinating, and whilst the influence of colours varies from culture to culture; it’s incredibly powerful in all of them. That’s why fast food restaurants are usually red and yellow, those colours encourage you to move quickly. And spas are often in blues and greens because those colours help you relax.

What else can you see? Are there things that inspire you? Things that inform you? Things that help you think and collaborate?

The physical workspace is one of the most ignored, yet most important factors in creating good workplaces. And it doesn’t have to cost the earth. Of course we’d all love offices like Pixar’s, but little things can make all the difference.

At Kindred our brand colours of blue and grey are reflected throughout the office; both calming colours that counterbalance the adrenaline-fueled nature of our jobs. 

We have an agency blackboard where ideas can be expressed, shared and grown as people add new thoughts to them. It’s also a great place for a bit of fun and inspiration.

(Max Wright, Strategy Director writing on Kindred’s blackboard: Photograph copyright Katie Treggiden)

We have a photo wall of each of us holding an object we’re passionate about to bring some of that passion and inspiration to the office – and to help us to learn a little bit more about the people we work with.

We have breakout areas like the sofas and the café where people can get away from their desks for a change of scenery and a change of perspective – and as another place where we can share ideas and collaborate. These spots often play host to Kindles – our own special brand of strategic brainstorm. (And of course the compulsory agency table football table!)

But perhaps most importantly we believe in the old adage that ‘everything is more interesting than your desk,’ so we really don’t care where our people work – if they find their best ideas come to them in the bath, that’s where you’ll find them!

This week’s blog post is by Katie Treggiden, Client Service Director. In her other life, Katie writes award-winning design blog, confessions of a design geek, which includes a series called creative spaces, featuring the working environments of creative people.

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Our social marketing director Sue Nelson will be hosting an excellent session for the PRCA on social marketing on Thursday 15th December. This session will be held between 8:30am – 10:30am. The schedule has just been published so click here to book your place now! Further information about the event will be available closer to the time.

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It was Universities Week last week. Kindred is proud have run this campaign alongside Universities UK, the organisation which represents universities across the country.

The aim of the campaign is to show how the benefits of higher education to the UK’s society, culture and economy. We got right to the heart of the issues – how do universities across the UK work with small businesses for mutual benefit and how universities are making a real difference to their local communities and wider society.

We also launched Big Ideas for the Future – an outstanding report which showed the top 100 pieces of research currently taking place in UK universities that will change our lives in the future. Did you know that researchers are looking at how humans might one day live under the sea? Or how salt in our diets could be replaced by seaweed or that researchers are on the verge of being able to manufacture blood?

The campaign generated some outstanding coverage. The Sunday Times, Observer and News of the World and Mail on Sunday all reported Universities Week – as well as the front page of Monday morning’s Metro. We were also on BBC Breakfast with Universities UK’s Chief Executive, Nicola Dandridge, talking tuition fees. Thursday morning saw Lloyd Grossman appear as a Universities Week ambassador on ITV 1’s Daybreak.

At Kindred we love working on campaigns like this – taking big issues and communicating them to the public in new and exciting ways. In fact, it’s what makes us Kindred. 

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We're in PR Week this week celebrating a new business win with Universities UK and GuildHE to tell students about their right to adequate accommodation. Our client service director Lorna Gozzard will be heading up the team. Click here to find out more.

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