My Year In Review

2021 has been, despite everything, a record year for The Academy.

A record year of revenue growth, a record year of award wins, a record year of new client additions, a record year of new starters.

So, on paper, all good.

But the reality is it’s felt like one very long, very hard scrap.

A scrap to get work out the door as the adrenaline of last year’s plans with a pandemic purpose wore off and we returned to business as normal, but that new normal now involves a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C. A scrap to teach, develop and retain talent, which is much harder to do virtually than IRL, regardless of what the numerous thought-pieces would have you believe. And a scrap to find and recruit the best minds when the already shallow talent pool has every agency fishing in it (a new approach is needed).

But hard work is meant to be hard, and we are lucky to have some of the finest thinkers, creators, producers and connectors in the industry who assembled (like The Avengers), faced the scrap head-on, and delivered some truly outstanding ring-the-bell moments.

Here’s this year’s work from A-Z...

We produced our biggest, most integrated events for Amazon. Prime Day Live saw us shine a spotlight on the 40,000 charities on Amazon Smile with free gigs livestreamed on Twitch celebrating their efforts during the pandemic. And we brought the world of Amazon together under one roof for Black Friday Live with four star-studded days of live music, films, books, masterclasses, giveaways and deals. Both events generated masses of PR coverage and customer engagement. Our work for Amazon Books saw us launch the careers of new authors through Oscar’s Book Prize and the Amazon Kindle Storyteller Awards.

For Amazon Handmade we celebrated artisans from around the UK through a series of OOH special builds; Murals of Mums for Mother’s Day and Unique Artisans for Christmas including a Scottish bowtie maker for dogs, woof. And for Amazon Devices we continued to make Alexa more local by teaching her the bard’s best sayings for World Shakespeare Day, partnering with lexicographer Susie Dent to add exclusive Words of the Day, and turning Alexa into a pet whisperer to calm British pets on Bonfire Night.

Other Amazon work included the Prime Video team smashing virtual junket after virtual junket, previews, reviews and red carpet affairs for all manner of titles ranging from Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and blockbuster fantasy series, Wheel of Time. We also found time to launch IMDb TV in the UK, the new TV streaming service from Amazon. Our publicists really are world class.

And it was a year of Prime sport with Amazon endearing itself to the nation by making tennis sensation, Emma Raducanu’s, US Open final free-to-air in a landmark deal with Channel 4. She was the first recipient of the Prime Video Future Talent Award, which we announced to mark Amazon’s move into tennis a few years ago, so it was good to see that initiative come full circle. The rugby team hooked in tonnes of coverage for the Autumn Nation Series and the Premier League team delivered its most successful season, including offering free Rafa Benítez and Jürgen Klopp-inspired Battle of the Beard trims to mark the Merseyside Derby. ?

For Ardbeg, the untamed spirit from the Scottish Isle of Islay, we followed up on last year’s Halloween Deliverwooooo deliveries with a spooktacular Ice Scream Truck that visited UK cities serving monstrous creations from ice-cream geniuses, Ruby Violet.

Bolt arrived in more UK cities and the worked relentlessly to publicise its product innovations.

We kicked off our work with BT by celebrating lockdown heroes with unbreakable spirit with a special Sophie Ellis-Bextor unbreakable disco to promote BT’s Unbreakable Broadband. It was fun, and purple. ?

We also started working with Canary Wharf, positioning it as a city of the future by finding new faces of its fashion retail offering with celebrity photographer Jonathan Daniel Pryce, and partnering with Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo to publish new black-authored stories through the city’s innovative short story stations.

After two years of planning, we finally launched Chase, the consumer bank from JPMorgan Chase. It was worth the wait as the team delivered reams and reams of coverage for the biggest bank Britain had never heard of. We’re glad to say we’ve helped change that.

There were too many campaigns for Disney to mention, but the standout activity was creating The Tales of Courage and Kindness Collection (available in/on all good bookstores) for Disney Princess, illustrated by up-and-coming illustrators and narrated by celebrities including Katie Piper, Millie Mackintosh, Mandy Moore, Kelly Marie Tran and Katarina Johnson-Thompson. To celebrate Winnie-the-Pooh’s 95th anniversary we faithfully created Pooh’s treehouse in Hundred Acre Wood. The idea was years in the making, but was well worth the wait with the Bearbnb listing on Airbnb surprising and delighting media, influencers and fans across the globe.

Our drinks team served up some stellar launch coverage for the opening of Glenmorangie’s distillery of innovation, The Lighthouse.

The Habito team was relentless in securing bucket-loads of personal finance coverage including the launch of the longest-term 40-year fixed rate mortgage.

And whilst Heathrow had a turbulent year due to Covid-related restrictions, we reminded people about the power of connection by launching a summer Come Fly Again campaign to mark the airs being reopened, and recreating the airport scene from Love Actually to reflect modern times this Christmas. There wasn’t a dry eye in the airport when LHR Actually eventually took off.

We helped IFX redefine payment technology in the B2B space with product and profile placements.

For K?rcher we delivered hundreds of press office review and product placement coverage as well as brand activity including partnering with the RNLI to clean graffiti its Float To Live messaging on seafront walls. ?

Lucozade Sport celebrated the return of team sports with a post-lockdown midnight football match between Rising Ballers and influencers. A smart tactic that generated lots of headlines. We also delivered press office coverage around the sport brand’s various sponsorships and its move to 100% recycled bottles.

For Mastercard we produced plenty of pan-European studies showing trends in spends, creating bespoke assets for each region to extend the reach of the PR-led stories.

We averaged a story every day for Morrisons as the supermarket continued to make good things happen for customers, colleagues and communities. There really are too many to list, but a few of my personal favourites are completing removing plastic bags, giving away millions of sunflowers (Seeds of Hope), and nailing Christmas taste tests and product placement (an underappreciated art IMHO). In a huge year for the Morrisons the product and brand teams really have smashed it and well deserved their PR Week and PRCA Awards (including PRCA’s Campaign of the Year).

For Nokia we worked with wordsmiths across the world including George the Poet in the UK, Alina Balashova in Russia, George Kagwe in Kenya and Juan Pablo Gaviria in Colombia to release hundreds of positive posts, which were designed to be spread on the brand’s designed-for-WhatsApp smartphone. And we ended the year picking up the PRCA International Award, which was also positive.

Pharmacy2U administered its one millionth vaccine as it supported the NHS and the jabs army. Our team can be very proud of its efforts in making people aware of this vital service.

We developed the communications strategy for the new social networking site, Polywork, which landed well in the US and this side of the pond, with the publicity and hype helping to generate lots of users and investment.

For Southern Comfort we developed a fully integrated strategy and calendar of activity that incorporates PR, advertising, digital, events and on and off trade marketing, complete with a refreshed brand identity to boot. Our Sink the Pink Pride Boat Party and Cirque Du Soul Halloween Party attracted plenty of new fans and followers as the iconic spirit brand got to work bringing the spirt of New Orleans to as many people as possible.

And, finally, for Zizzi we launched #MyZizzi, an influencer programme partnering with creators to generate not just posts, but crave-able content that appeals to the brand’s various audiences. So far so very good. ?

Phew.

Our mission since Day One has been to create work that gets noticed, makes a difference, and passes into popular culture. We did that in 2021 and I’m proud of what we achieved, but I’m looking forward to 2022. Not least because to continue to grow, we'll need to think different. We have a solid foundation of brilliant clients, partners and Academics to really try and push the boundaries of PR, but doing beats talking, so let’s see.