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You heard it here first. Whether it’s the latest social media trend or headline-grabbing industry data, we’re sharing the knowledge - and our opinion.

First things first – one lump or two? However you like your news, we’ll deliver it to you in a digestible format. Keep your eye on our expert speakers at industry events, or flick through our blog for useful hints and tips.

And don’t forget, we always like to explore new topics – so if you’re looking for inspiration and insights, get in touch.

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Rick's Rambles

Stats, lies, and video views: Why Facebook must be held to account

Mistruths have been a common theme over the last 12 months. From Brexit to the U.S. election, porky pies, or at least major errors on which decisive details have then been based, are rarely out of the headlines.
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Seen This?

Living dolls: 10 Mannequin Challenge clips you need to see

  It’s this year’s Harlem Shake, and thankfully less painful than the Ice Bucket Challenge. People around the world are pretending to be shop front dummies by freeze framing life, capturing it on camera, and broadcasting the results worldwide. We even got in on the act earlier this month.
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Technology

6 surprising uses for 3D printing (so far)

It’s one of the most revolutionary technologies to emerge in decades- the ability to create pretty much anything, complete with moving parts, based on a computer image.
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Our News

November 2016 in the Smoking Gun study

With Christmas just over three weeks away you might think the last month would have been defined by watching what we eat and avoiding champagne. But, thanks to a sweet new client and yet more award ceremonies (not to mention wins), nothing could be further from the truth. Who can blame us? After all, it’s … Continued
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The Blagger's Blog

Blagger's Blog- Buck Pal refurb, Corona 'myth', image is everything

A weekly roundup of media news, sans effort Quote of the week “Welsh builder says he can do Buckingham Palace for £200 cash.”
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Christmas adverts

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Smoking Gun’s Great British Christmas Ad-off

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Social Media

A social media marketing lesson from that Guardian piece on Facebook politics

So this month the world started to change, potentially irreversibly. D.J. Trump, multi-billionaire, business mogul, reality TV star, and patriarch, will be sitting in the White House’s Oval Office by mid-January, taking up his position as the world’s most powerful man, AKA President of the United States. It’s the kind of situation that could only … Continued
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Advertising

Minority Report and facial recognition advertising today

No matter which sanctuary you try and hide out in, it seems someone is there, lurking, waiting to have a big chat about targeted advertising. Love or loathe, we’re still only on the cusp of what it can offer. In digital it’s old news, from one perspective at least. When you’re browsing the internet chances are … Continued
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Digital marketing

Instagram has plans to make e-commerce easier

It’s amazing to think eBay was first founded back in 1995. That’s more than 20 years ago, or over two decades since, if you really want to make it sound like ages. A lot can change in that length of time, but in many ways, when it comes to retail at least, that change has … Continued
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Our News

October 2016 in the Smoking Gun study

From our own CIPRs, to the Oscars in early 2017, the Christmas build up and of course the ever growing Halloween, there’s so much to get distracted about, unless you work at Manchester’s most dedicated ingenious PR firm. Always keeping our eyes on the ball for clients, the last four weeks have been no exception … Continued
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Innovative eats: The convenience food PR wars

October 2016 will be remembered as the month of food fights. Brexit chickens began coming home to roost as Unilever dealt a substantial blow to our hopes of not noticing the impending change to the passport queue, asking UK retailers to pay more for products. Tesco battled back, whilst last week Morrison’s passed that inflation … Continued
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The gig economy and companies without assets

News hit on Friday of a landmark court ruling here in the UK, meaning rideshare behemoth Uber will no longer be able to classify its drivers as self-employed. Instead they must be ‘employees’. One word difference, in reality this is a sign of impending upheaval. Until now, the taxi-alternative has been able to get away … Continued
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One for’t LADs – How banter became big news, in (almost) one click

Controversial, throwaway, outrageously successful, challenging, pointless, forward thinking… and, most of all, socially astute. The list of ways to describe rival websites LADBible and UNILAD could go on for much, much longer. The digital media giants, both based in our own hometown of Manchester, have been branded as everything from trashy to bigoted by critics, … Continued
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    Our Awards

    Why stop at global stardom and incredible sales? When our clients work with us, they get the silverware to boot. We’re not into tooting our own horns, but the awards we’ve won with our clients are too good to miss…