My Year in Review

It’s the end of year, so it’s the round-up at least two people have been waiting for (????). But before I get into the work, it’s worth (briefly) reflecting on ten years of The Academy, a milestone we hit in March and celebrated in the summer on our own private island, naturally. As you’d expect from a couple of PR practitioners, Mitchell Kaye and I launched with a clearly defined positioning, an ambitious mission, and a bold vision (all things you can read about in The Academy Way), but when you’re not taking a wage, have a mortgage to pay and young mouths to feed, it’s tempting to stray from your values and compromise on your principles. I’m most proud of the fact we’ve never done this. Every client strategy has been thought through for genuine business (not PR award jury) impact. Every creative idea has been an original, not a repeat. Every production has been crafted regardless of the tight timeframes or budgets we’ve been given. And every piece of earned media coverage has been genuinely earned. We’ve delivered two business plans, getting the agency from ￡0 into the top 20, but we’ve done it the right way, with work that’s worked for clients, and an ethic that’s hard to match. It’s not easy (I hope it’ll get easier!), but it is exhilarating. So, now the foundations are laid, a crack team of Academics are assembled, and the office is looking the part, let’s see what’s next.

We put out 691 stories in 2024 (yes, I counted). Here are my top 10, from A to Z (apologies to those not mentioned, but there’s always next year).?

For Amazon we celebrated its partnership with The King’s Trust by emblazoning school walls with words of advice from inspirational role models including entrepreneur Sara Davies, musician Jorja Smith and actor Will Poulter. Amazing to think our murals could potentially spark invention and innovation for school kids across the country. We also hammered home the speed of Prime delivery messaging by recruiting GB’s fastest sprinters, Zharnel Hughes and Dina Asher-Smith, to make special speedy deliveries for Prime Big Deal Days. And opened a Hype House for Prime Day to celebrate Prime for 18 to 22 year-olds. And created Amazon’s first ever chat show for Black Friday Week, fronted by everyone’s favourite host, Rylan.

Burger King gave us the opportunity for big, integrated work, firstly for its (now infamous) Bundles of Joy campaign, which saw us work with Mumsnet to recognise and reward new mums with a free Whopper as a food-filling post-birth meal. And secondly, with Burger King Unwrapped, a simple data-led story revealing who ate what where, which was turned into a national advertising campaign. Delicious.

For Fuller’s London Pride, we recreated rugby legend, Sir Ian McGeechan’s, ‘Be Special’ speech, but this time directed at the fans. The tactic delivered plenty of coverage across sport media and fired up the fans as the film played out through the Twickenham Tannoy ahead of the Premiership Rugby final.

We produced and served the world’s first biofuel breakfast for Heathrow to raise awareness of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and demonstrate the airport’s commitment to helping the UK aviation industry reach Net Zero by 2050. And it won every award it was entered for.

We continued to pick up more awards for our work on Holland & Barrett, positioning the brand as a National Wellness Service, and walking the walk by upskilling its 4,000 colleagues and making over 600 qualified Women’s Wellness Coaches available for free in-store and via a dedicated menstrual health helpline online. Big, and important, wellness work.

The Marie Curie team turned a novel insight into a memorable creative campaign using the most requested music nurses are asked to play at the end of someone’s life as a hook to communicate the breadth of support and care the charity provides to anyone who needs it. A simple news-led idea supported by an official playlist and an emotional podcast hosted by Edith Bowman seemed to touch a nerve with the nation.

We celebrated Mastercard’s sponsorship of The BRIT Awards by shining a light on a group of trailblazing individuals driving positive change in the music industry including: Geo Aghinea, an electronic artist who creates soundscapes that sonically reflects their experience as a deaf artist; Kris Haplin, a disabled artist who makes music with repurposed MiMu Gloves, a groundbreaking wearable instrument; and Sooree Pillay, a producer for Orchestra Live, which brings young people with health or wellbeing issues together to heal with music. Again, big and meaningful work.

For Tinder, we went where Gen Z were and opened up a nail bar to encourage conversations around healthy dating. Much more than fancy nail art, the Nailing Dating Nail Bar hosted media, influencer and dating experts, serving as a prop for news and features and an event space for Tinder users to meet and talk dating. Smart, effective work from the team.

The Prime Video team is the best in the industry hands-down. In 2024, they delivered countless premieres, press conferences and junkets for massive titles including Fallout, The Boys and Citadel. Not to mention creating all the #hype around the Next Gen of content creators, showcasing the on and off-screen women of Prime Video and Amazon AGM Studios, and introducing the slate of live sports and unmissable documentaries at Prime Video Presents Sport. Unbelievable, Jeff (that’s a sporting reference to Prime Video reuniting Jeff Stelling and Chris Kamara for those at the back).

And finally, Zurich. The team promoted Zurich’s new insurance product, Accelerate, which gives fast access to medical care experts and services, by highlighting the issue of cancer waiting times. Working with three cancer-surviving musicians, Soprano Monica McGhee, Tenor Toby Spence, and pianist Lee Michael Walton, we produced a song called About Time, which gave a voice to people waiting for treatment. A hard-hitting campaign that created emotional headlines and awareness of the problem (and product) across the board.

Phew. Thanks for making it to the – Ends –.