Shell Like

The tagging element of this has great potential for advertisers (see Shell Like blog posts passim).

Hello again everybody. Sorry we have been a bit quiet on the blog front in the first 3 weeks of 2009. The last time we posted, George W Bush was still counting paperclips in the Oval Office, and the banks were actually lending people money. Crazy huh?!

The reason for our slackness is that we have been out and about a bit lately. For Splenda radio (breaking on air next week) we were recording some improv scripts at the rather superb cafe, Lantana, just around the corner in Goodge Place. If you are in the area, I urge you to pay them a visit. Shelagh and her lovely staff looked after us superbly well. The blog on their site is also worth reading too.

Also last week, we were on location for T-mobile. Some of you may have seen the long version of the TV ad whilst watching Celebrities On The Toilet or whatever it is called on C4 last Friday. It’s a brilliant, flash-mob style film where hundreds of commuters at Liverpool Street station dance about spontaneously. Its all here for you to enjoy.

We spent the day accosting members of the public gathering audio vox pops for the radio campaign. Let’s just say, even though it was brass-monkey freezing, it was great fun. Special mention has to go to our interviewer Mark for wearing long johns to stave off the cold, and opting not to refer to them as a ‘base layer’. They have got a name, so use it I say!

We were lucky enough to be finalists in the Campaign Big Awards 2008!

In the Charity & Public Service (RADIO) section. Details here.

FINALIST

Title: Repetition

Client: Network Rail

Brand: Network Rail

Marketing director: Mark Shaoul

Agency: Iris Worldwide

Writer: Susan Young

Production company: Shell Like

Director: Susan Young

More success in the shape of an impossibly heavy trophy for Shell Like at last week’s Radio Advertising Awards. The Network Rail “Repetition” spot for Iris London, which we produced and directed, won ‘Best use of creative radio in a multimedia campaign’ to go with its monthly win last Autumn. The pic is of Grant (bearded) and Susan from Iris, and Mark from Network Rail picking up the gong. I was way too busy pouring the champagne to get myself in the picture, and I find Alex Zane’s hair ‘intimidating’ - Mike

PS - That smoke is not from me smoking a victory cigar, it’s from a machine.

Shell Like have been mentioned in dispatches once again (well not explicitly, but you get the idea). This time it came in the March 2008 RAB Media Briefing, in which one of our productions Carlsberg “Tactics” gets bigged up in the following fashion;

INSPIRING RADIO ADVERTISING - Carlsberg, Tactics.

Carlsberg have been using the same creative thought now for 35 years. It still seems fresh and the simplicity of the copy and late reveal of the brand works well.” - Gary Goodman, Marketing Director, Pricerunner.

Cheers Gary! We will never use another price comparison website again!

For those of you who are not football fans, the voice on the ad is Barry Fry, probably (on and on it goes) the most famous manager in England for ranting at half time. He was throwing tea cups at players well before Fergie had even got a plug on his hairdryer. And a very pleasant chap he was too. We were thinking of posting some of the out-takes from the session, but our mothers really wouldn’t like it. - Mike

Yes indeed people, Shell Like has reached escape velocity and crashed through into the Blogosphere!

We’ll be writing occasional missives here about what we are up to, as well as other bits’n'bobs that inhabit our world and hopefully yours. You may see this as a shameless attempt to jump on the zeitgeist bandwagon in the hope of wringing every last ounce of new business from an unsuspecting public - and you’d be right! But we’re gonna do it anyway. Your guides along the way will be Mike or Rich, depending on who can be bothered to do the deed. So here goes…

Exciting us at the moment - is the Action Aid - Who Pays? - Campaign. This is a neat viral campaign that we played a small part in creating (insert your own joke about small parts). Its a bit of fun to encourage people to sign up, pledge support and put pressure on the Government to regulate UK supermarkets’ actions, thereby helping workers in developing countries. You get to upload a photo of yourself and star in a your very own mini ad campaign. Ideas came from Nonsense, design and build from Fuse, with audio recorded at Triangle Post and PK Studios. Sign up here. And big Bill Bailey fans should really go here.

Here’s my effort. Listen out for some great adlibs from Bill and Katy.