They say time waits for no man, or woman, and that’s certainly been the mantra here on Bridge Street of late. Our offices have never felt more alive with activity, from new campaigns and ideas to fresh faces joining the team, stand out in-house achievements and incredible extra-curricular efforts on behalf of charities, the phrase ‘it’s all going off’ comes to mind.
October, for example, saw us hold out first (but not last) blogger insight event. Conceived on behalf our beloved client roster, the idea was to welcome the best of this new breed of content creators, writers and editors, host discussions with them on how they do what they do, why and where they want that to go, in turn learning valuable insights as to how we can better serve their needs.
The talent in our headquarters haven’t been doing badly in terms of print and broadcast media coverage, either. On-brand messages have appeared across a host of high profile titles and outlets for companies like Silentnight, Tyres On The Drive, Leeds University and Bright HR. It’s been a lot of fun helping these names get the attention they deserve, whether that’s due to industry-leading academic research, road safety campaigns, or attempts to help Britain drift off better, and lead a healthier lifestyle in the process. We can’t wait to do it again.
We’re delighted to have welcomed another young upstart to the fold, too. Heather Hutchinson is a student at Manchester Metropolitan University, currently in the midst of a Digital Marketing degree. As part of the MMU Agency Life programme, she was looking to undertake real world, in-house work to give her the necessary experience to ensure that, once graduated, she can hit the ground running, and is ready to show off her skills and expertise to any employer. As Smoking Gun has always been committed to nurturing and developing the next generation of industry pros, we were only too happy to help.
That’s not the only addition to our merry band, either. Rob Fowell (pictured above) joins as Junior Account Executive, turning down several job offers he received at the Juice Academy recently to join us. In his own words: “With the craziness of the Juice Academy boot camp day; Smoking Gun and more importantly Rick stuck out as something i’d love to be a part of. He made a point of saying i’d be a proper member of the team; I’d be thrown in the deep end and the skills and experience I can bring to the table would be valued. This was exactly the sort of thing I was looking to achieve through the Juice Academy. When Rick offered me a place it was a no brainer. I’m loving it so far.”
The last few weeks have also been significant for Kineta. One year ago she underwent major brain surgery without general anesthetic, and last month she marked the anniversary by holding her own fundraiser- the Brains and Balls Ball in aid of cancer research. The event was a roaring success, increasing awareness about the disease whilst generating vital funds, supported in no small part by our own legendary publicity machine, with media manager Emma Lowe on the case, securing international headlines for the initiative. It’s not over yet, either; you can still donate by clicking here, and to learn more about Kineta’s experiences, click here.
Add to all that our impending meeting with the Juice Academy, whereby we’ll be handpicking our latest recruit from a batch of the best recently-qualified creatives, and some of the quality content we’ve created for ourselves- such as the Twitter Pumpkin and #nationalhandwriting videos- and it doesn’t take a genius to work out why we haven’t had much chance to sit back and relax. In comparison, it does take a genius- or rather a crew of ingenious geniuses- to keep all these plates spinning, without dropping a single one. Until next time, then, you can find us here, doing what we do best.
