As promised last month we have exciting news from Smoking Gun’s headquarters. So that’s the announcement of a major new international client, a high profile addition to our acclaimed team, and a national award win, amongst other things.
It’s difficult to know where best to begin, but we’ll start by letting you know that our social media achievements for Panda Liquorice have won the Some Comms Best Low Budget Campaign award. Despite always being confident in our work going up against the finest of British digital PR agencies obviously meant stiff competition, and so we’re delighted to have brought home the bacon. Read more on the Some Comms Awards here.
Next up we’d like to introduce Victoria Barker, who arrives in November as our new Associate Director. Joining us from Shop Direct Group, Barker will bring with her a wealth of experience in fashion, property, FMCG, and food & beverage PR. That has resulted in a sizable industry honours list commending a career spent working on brands ranging from Monopoly to Littlewoods and Nicky Clarke hair care.
Alongside our latest recruit we’re delighted to announce a huge win here at Smoking Gun.  We’ll now be looking after UK press relations and campaign work for two of Columbia Sportswear’s brands; Montrail and Mountain Hardwear.
The US company already has a fantastic reputation in the sports world, which is in no small part thanks to the quality of its products, pro-competitions and athlete sponsorships. As such we’re proud to be working with such an illustrious company, and keen to help build its British presence in the same way we’ve assisted BURRDA and Manchester United, to name but two clients.  Meanwhile, another huge firm is about call on our expertise, but we’ll leave the details of that until our plans are finalised.
Away from our Spinningfields desks it has been another busy month outside the office. The Manchester Food and Drink Festival was enjoyable as ever, and our part in the pop up gig by Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six for Blacksticks Blue certainly didn’t go unnoticed. The acclaimed band also provided the soundtrack to the brand’s advert which we’ve embedded below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=zgTi94_ZbHg
Aside from all that members of the Smoking Gun team also attended eConsultancy training sessions and How Do’s Future of Media Engagement seminar to ensure they remain ahead of the game. And we still have time to celebrate with our former office-mates at Madhouse Associates, who mark 13 years of quality creative work on the 27th. All of which just about sums up a lightening fast, frantically busy but wholly successful October, meaning our sights are firmly set on the next four weeks as the Christmas period gets ever closer.