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Great design examples: 13 terrifyingly good horror movie posters

With the UK’s most significant regional film festival currently underway in Leeds, and boasting a retrospective on acclaimed horror director John Carpenter, we thought it would be fitting to consider the importance of aesthetics in sending out a message. Everyone here at Smoking Gun knows that a picture tells 1,000 words, as the saying goes. Great looking … Continued

PR News

Meet Generation Z, your next customers

By now we’ve all heard about the demographic that will be the future of our sales, irrespective of what it is we’re selling. A new market has emerged simply because time has progressed, and if you’re not up to speed on how they consume content and information, you might as well put a sell by … Continued

Rick's Rambles

Brands: Don’t get blinded by numbers, spiel or predictions

Last week, The Guardian ran a high profile interview feature with one of the most important players in modern digital media. He goes by the name of PewDiePie, a Swedish-born, London-living star of online video who, by 2014, ranked higher than the group editor of Trinity Mirror- Britain’s largest regional publisher- in the same paper’s … Continued

PR News

Rick's Rambles

CIM Digital PR Bootcamp – Public Relations measurement and preparing for a crisis

CIM Digital PR Bootcamp at MMU Business School Last week I enjoyed the opportunity to speak at a Chartered Institute of Marketing event called CIM Digital PR Bootcamp at the impressive MMU Business School. Organisers asked me to look at two areas; effective measurement and evaluation of modern pubic relations and preparing for a crisis. The … Continued

Our News

I Heart You

Hi SGPR readers! It’s Heather here, a second year student from Manchester Metropolitan University, studying Public Relations and Marketing. I moved to Manchester in September last year after I decided it was time for me to leave the small Yorkshire village, to study in a big, bad and busy city, celebrated for its unique attractions … Continued

The Blagger's Blog

The Blagger's Blog 30th October 2015

Your weekly digest of media news and talking points, sans effort Quote of the week “It’s so easy to make fun of because it’s new and different. But once you get into it and understand it more, you realise that it is something cool and awesome.??? ‘King of YouTube’ PewDiePie, discussing YouTube’s rise as a … Continued

Marketing News

How far is too far when it comes to brand identity?

As if blogs based in Manchester didn’t already have enough Tony Wilson quotes posted up already, we thought we’d add another. When asked about our hometown’s claim to the unofficial title of Britain’s second city, the late, great spokesman for this northern metropolis famously quipped that ‘London and Birmingham can fight that one out’. OK, … Continued

Marketing News

Things marketing professionals were excited about in 1985

As you may or may not have picked up on, today has been christened Back To The Future Day. The reason being that in the second episode of the Hollywood franchise, Marty McFly and The Doc set the clock on the DeLorean time machine to 21st October 2015, flinging themselves 30 years into the future. … Continued

The Blagger's Blog

The Blagger's Blog 16th October 2015

Your weekly digest of media news and talking points, sans effort Quote of the week “We are proud to be a growing UK creative business… …Our success means that we paid £3m in tax last year, 684 times more than Facebook.??? Matthew Freud, owner of PR firm Freud Communications, commenting on Britain’s inability to make … Continued

Social Media

Social media: Twitter Moments- Looks good, sounds good…

By now half of England has read that American guy’s status update on the positive differences between life in the States and our fair isles. If you’re in the half that hasn’t, the distinct absence of visible guns is mentioned several times, along with the joy of pubs, manners, education and the healthcare system people … Continued

The Blagger's Blog

The Blagger’s Blog 9th October 2015

Your weekly digest of media news and talking points, sans effort Quote of the week “Theresa May’s immigration speech is dangerous and factually wrong.??? The Daily Telegraph responding, via a rather direct headline, to the Home Secretary’s views on economic migrants, as voiced at the Conference in Manchester this week. It goes on to accuse her … Continued

The Blagger's Blog

The Blagger's Blog 2nd October 2015

Your weekly digest of media news and talking points, sans effort Quote of the week “A Ukip MEP said I would have little in common with consumers of food. … I do eat food and much of it is produced by British farmers.??? Shadow Environment Minister, Kerry McCarthy, talking to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton this week. … Continued

PR News

Food PR: Top social media marketing apps for restaurants

Whilst the press has been full of stories surrounding the apparent demise of British nightclubs- with around half closing their doors in the last ten years- it would seem bar, restaurant and cafe culture is in rude health. This is certainly the case here in Manchester, Smoking Gun’s hometown. The city has witnessed an exponential explosion … Continued

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