PR, marcomms, recruitment and all the bits in between

Top 100 Global Brands

Every year Business Week teams up with leading International Brand Consultancy Interbrand to compile a report exposing the worlds Top Global Brands.  Ranked according to Brand value, in 2007 the world’s top brand was Coca Cola, followed closely by Microsoft and IBM with brand values of $65,324, $58,709 and $57,091 respectively. 

Top 5 Global Brands, taken from Business Week Website, data provided by Interbrand.

2007 Brand Rank	2006 Brand Rank	Change in Rank	Brand Name	2007 Brand Value $m	2006 Brand Value	Change in Value From Prev Year (in %)	Parent Company	Country
1	1	0	Coca-Cola	65,324	67,000	-3	Coca-Cola	U.S.
2	2	0	Microsoft	58,709	56,926	3	Microsoft	U.S.
3	3	0	IBM	57,091	56,201	2	IBM	U.S.
4	4	0	GE	51,569	48,907	5	GE	U.S.
5	6	1	Nokia	33,696	30,131	12	Nokia	FINLAND

To read more on the world leading brands, and how they got to where they are now, take a look at Interbrand’s top global brands report 2007.

The result of the top global brands survey for 2008 is soon to be published.  Who do you think will be the number one global brand?  Email [email protected].

Olivia Taylor

PARIS AU MOIS D’AOUT (Paris in August)

Tranquille flemmard, une petite place
Entre deux rues, face au métro
Et c'est la tournée des terrasses
Et c'est le mois de l'apéro...
Voila l'été du farniente
Il ne se passe plus grand chose
Mais de balades en cafés
Ya plus qu'a voir la ville en rose

On se pose à l'ombre d'un doute
Et voila Paris au mois d'août...

Voila le Paris des pigeons
Voila la saison des pique-niques
Ya plein de gamins qui font les cons
Et même des oiseaux à musique...
Mais quand Paris te prends la main
Y a plus qu'a voir les choses en face
Se faire l'amour ça donne faim
R’faire le monde ça donne soif!

C'est l'amour avec on s'en doute
L'amour de Paris au mois d'août...
Il y a les matins les croissants beurre
Les p'tits cafés du tête à tête
Mais de p'tits dej' en p'tits bonheurs
C'est déjà l'heure de faire la fête
Et c'est reparti pour un tour
Et pourvue nuit de soleil
On se retrouv'ra mon amour
Sur l'autoroute du sommeil...

Les vacances au bord de la route
C'est vraiment Paris au m d'août

Quand un jour de pluie apparaît
Entre deux nuits, y a plus d'saisons
C'est le ciel qu'on pourrait toucher
Tellement il est bas de plafond...Alors on oublie la lumière
Et quand le cafard vous entraine
Et qu'y a vraiment plus rien à faire
On s'promène au bord de la peine...

Tombe la pluie goutte que goute
C'est aussi Paris au mois d'août...
Voila le Paris de personne
Les jours s'écroulent face au canal
Plus rien ne bouge au téléphone
Y a plus 'a ouvrir son journal
Et puis le soir, sur son vélo
Sous un ciel couleur de vin vieux
Quand on s'envole loin du métro
On a le macadam heureux...

A l'ombre d'un cœur ou d'un doute
C'était bien l'amour au mois d'août

Moi, quand l'bonheur fait banqu'route
Je r'pense au Paris du mois d'août...

Agnès Bilh – Paris au mois d’août

Rock the Polo

The Chinawhite Rock the Poloevent at the Cartier International made all the gossip pages recently with celebrities like Harry Potter star Emma Watsonattending. Performing at the event was Sparkie M’Larkie, who the website describes as “a boutique festival favourite and connoisseur of all things musical and spiritual”. We at Hanson don’t like to boast (too much) but we too used Sparkie at our fifth birthday celebrations a while back, making us obviously ahead of the times and somewhat of a trend setter, we like to think. So pay attention, the next big thing may have appeared right here on our blog…

You can see highlights of the event here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHO21lg8agA

Snake bursts after gobbling gater

Look at this!! Still the most unsettling animal picture I’ve seen in a long time...

 

This is what I think happened... the alligator took on the snake (a Burmese python, released into the wild in Florida after it got too big to look after). The snake seemed to have won after swallowing him whole. Then later burst open as the alligator tried to claw its way out. This is the result! I particularly liked the quote: "Clearly, if they can kill an alligator they can kill other species," Prof Mazzotti. Amazing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4313978.stm

Lizzy Murdoch

A girl’s best friend…..

Carrie Bradshaw has it all wrong. Shoes aren’t a girl’s best friend. Because nothing – no, not even your favourite pair of Manolos (sorry SJP) – can hide a multitude of sins like a great set of sunnies. No time for makeup? No problem. Want to hide those bags from last night’s work drinks? Done. And let’s not forget the protection from the sun’s damaging wrinkle-casing (gasp) rays. Now, THAT’s a true best friend. 

Brown's digital efforts

Since hiring Mark Flanagan in a strategic move to boost Downing Street’s lagging digital comms, Parliament has been running a range of digital initiatives including a pilot YouTube channeland a twitter feed as part of an effort to embrace web 2.0.  These initiatives have been met with hostility by bloggers and PROs according to PR Week, which reports the feeling in the online community to be “too little too late”. Digital channels such as twitter and YouTube have proven to be useful tools – Barack Obama famously used twitter to great effect in his recent campaign.

 

Indeed, following the recent launch of five short videos explaining the role of the House of Lords and encouraging young people to get involved in politics, blogger and Tech PR Nick Morriscommented that he was “just not convinced that the selection in this video are truly representative of the whole of the upper house”… a comment I’m inclined to agree with, but in terms of communicating what the House of Lords does in simple terms, it’s not half bad!

Maddy Bower

 

Charity PRs!

For my sins, this year I will be climbing a BIG mountain in Africa….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilimanjaro

Now, before you all start skipping to the next blog, take a minute to think about what charity most deserves my money!! Or, I should say, the money I intend to raise…

Last year I raised nearly £2,000 for Mencap running the Marathon so I’m pretty good at this fundraising thing now…but I’m stuck for a charity to target. I’m sure there will be plenty of Charity PRs reading this blog so let me know if there are any charities needing to raise their profile and I will do my best!

Julie Nicol

It’s all about the Brand…

Did you know that Hanson Search now recruits in branding? If you work in the branding industry, whether you are an Account Director, Strategy Consultant or New Business Wizard, we may just have the perfect next position for you. Alternatively, if you are looking for a new addition to your team, we can conduct an executive search for you, scour our database of names and ask our candidates for recommendations in the industry - getting to work straight away to find you the best talent in the industry.

If you want to have a look at some of the jobs at the moment, take a look here http://www.hansonsearch.com/jobsearch.htm.

Or if you want to have a chat with someone about recruitment opportunities then speak to Olivia on 020 7632 1419, or email her at [email protected].

Olivia Taylor

Handwriting

There seem to be numerous birthdays of late, which means the writing of many a card.  Now I’ve always favoured plain handwriting as it’s tidier and I’ve never mastered the art of cursive – that’s joined-up – writing!  This seems to amuse other ‘adults’ but I’m pleased to say that an analysis of my writing gave the following results:

 

 

- You plan ahead, and are interested in beauty, design, outward appearance, and symmetry
- You are a person who thinks before acting, intelligent and thorough
- You are diplomatic, objective, and live in the present
- You are reserved, shy, cautious, and thoughtful
- You enjoy life in your own way and do not depend on the opinions of others

The majority of this analysis was spot on, although I must say the sample above written using my PC mouse doesn’t entirely look like my usual work!  If you’re interested in seeing what your handwriting says about you, check out www.handwriting.feedbucket.com  

Carla Picard

 

Festival fever

I love festivals. They are the best thing about summer in this country – a festival every weekend means you are never far away from outdoor fun with decent live music. But are festivals in this country becoming overpriced alternatives for people who would usually be found in swanky city bars to escape to the country for a day of outside drinking? I’m sure it all (or at least mostly) used to be about the music, but more recently chatting to people at UK festivals about who they’re there to see is a waste of time – they don’t know which bands/acts are on!

Basically I am fuming because I can’t afford tickets to any of the big UK festivals this year - £100+ just to get in is ridiculous. But there is an alternative... recently I went to the relatively new Rocket Festival in Spain: www.rocketfestival.com/en

While a little rough around the edges, it’s absolutely brilliant because not only is it on the side of a mountain, so every way you look there are views of gorgeous Andalucía, but it’s in Spain. Cheap booze, actual food you can eat (they were making fresh pizza from scratch and cooking them in massive ovens – at £1 that’s the best festival food ever), lots of sunshine and no mud, at half the price of most British festivals. Everyone who loves festivals absolutely has to try one abroad this year.

Lizzy Murdock