Hails & Fails – November 22nd 2024
Winter isn’t coming, it’s arrived. With much of the UK waking up to snow this week as temperatures plummeted to as low as -11C.
But as the temperatures dropped, creativity soared!
H&M launched their holiday collection with a brat, Wicked’s Emerald City came to London, and 02 used AI to beat scammers at their own game. While bakery Gail’s made a poor first impression…
HAILS
Brat summer continues
Fashion brand H&M partnered with pop star Charli XCX to host a surprise open-air performance and screen take over in the legendary Times Square.
The British pop sensation whose latest album ‘Brat’ inspired a cultural phenomenon coined ‘brat summer’, invited New Yorkers to party with her via a random alert shared on social media to celebrate H&M’s Holiday Collection and to mark the arrival of the brand-new Times Square store.
The star performed from inside Broadway’s giant billboards – lighting up the entire area brat green!
El Fisher – Office Manager/PR Assistant: “Just imagine walking home from work and stumbling into a free concert! This is how you surprise and delight your customers!”
AI Granny
O2 created a human-like AI “Granny” with one job: to answer calls from fraudsters and keep them on the phone for as long as she can – away from 02 customers!
Made with cutting-edge AI technology and real-life insight from scam-baiter Jim Browning, “Daisy” the granbot has teamed up Love Islander and scam victim Amy Hart to expose typical fraudster’ tactics to help 02 customers avoid becoming a victim.
In fact, “Daisy” is so lifelike she’s able to interact with scammers in real time to beat them at their own game.
Alice Lee – PR Senior Account Manager: “A lot of people are being scammed out of money by clever AI deep fakes etc, so it’s interesting to see a business use AI against the scammers! And for me O2 is the first brand that’s taken an active step tackling scammers in this way, as opposed to the ‘education’ banks try to give people or compensation.”
A Wicked makeover
London’s Royal Borough of Greenwich became GreenWitch this week ahead of the release of Wicked in cinemas!
Internationally known for being located on the Prime Meridian – 0° Longitude – where east meets west and as one of the UK’s most popular film locations, the borough has worked with Universal Pictures to become a part of the film’s release.
The magical rebrand includes the University of Greenwich becoming the University of GreenWitch, as well the GreenWitch Student’s Union, Visit GreenWitch, GreenWitch Market, GreenWitch Picturehouse and the GreenWitch Cafe.
Jess Redfearn – Midweight Creative: “Partnerships can sometimes feel a bit forced. But this is meant to be! So magical!”
FAIL
Bakery forced to serve fresh apology
After months of speculation, the artisan bakery chain Gail’s opened its first location in North Manchester in the suburban town of Prestwich… but failed to spell the village’s name correctly in their signage, forgetting the “t”.
Prestwich locals quickly noticed the mistake with many running to socials to laugh at the embarrassing slip up. “I won’t be going there for my ‘T’, joked one customer.
The bakery has since apologized.
We think free pastries are in order?
Rebecca Cohen – Head of Social, Influencers & Content: “Local marketing can win over a community… or turn them against you. London bakery chain Gail’s has shown the need for attention to detail (or at least hiring a copywriter) by misspelling Prestwich, generating negative sentiment on social media. Someone needs to download Grammarly…”
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