Beta Blog

HELLO GREEN AND WOOD. GOOD BYE CAMPBELL AND LACE...

2009-11-16T05:27:00Z

We're now six months old. And for all sorts of reasons Garry and Robert have decided to do something that Ogilvy, Mather, J Walter Thompson, Doyle, Dane and Bernbach, never did: take their names off the door. So now we are just (Beta). And all the beta for it.

Why?

Because losing Campbell Lace is the right thing to do. (Beta) is much bigger than Garry and Robert already. (Beta) is a philosophy...a way of being...continuous improvement...never satisfied...always new....testing...testing...testing...speaking of which, we're incredibly excited to announce...

1) Mark Wood has joined us as our chairman.

Those of you who know Mark and his awesome reputation in the world of business and finance will understand why we're so lucky to have him. In recent years Mark has been CEO of both Axa, and The Prudential. Latterly he set up pensions company Paternoster. He's also been a great friend, inspiration, and sanity check for (Beta) in its formative months.

It's thrilling for us to have Mark on board. His presence adds a dimension to (Beta) that ensures we will never be just another advertising agency. Yeee Haaa.

2) Malcolm Green joins (Beta) as a partner.

From Gary Lineker for Walkers to Howard at the Halifax, Malcolm has one of the most awesome showreels in the business. But Malcolm is not a man who rests on his laurels. Since he left DLKW he has worked with Naked Communications, directed commercials, and videos. He joins us January 1st. Happy new year indeed.

Welcome Malcolm. It is a pleasure and an honour.

We had a modest soiree last week to celebrate the news of Mark, and Malcolm, the heartless slaughter of Campbell and Lace, and to say thank you to some of our friends, colleagues and clients who have got us through the first six months.

Nat and Lol came and we were delighted to hand over their grand. The cheque was so big it needed two strapping lads to hold it up!

AND THE WINNERS ARE....

2009-11-05T04:02:00Z

We're delighted to announce that Nat and Lol scooped the Beta Blog Bonanza with nearly half of your votes!

So they get the grand. We think they might be on holiday, so as soon as they get back we'll present it to them.

So congratulations to Lol and Nat.

Thanks very much to the rest of you for your time, efforts and support.

There have been some wonderfully amusing, thought provoking, moving, and at times offensive moments.

We've had fun. We hope you have.

To Jack Gardener, who quite rightly campaigned for us to give the money to a children's charity - Jack we already are actively supporting two children's charities. The time, money and resource we give far exceeds the £1000.

And to Niail, who suggested that we were 'twallocks' for blogging and staying at the Mount Nelson instead of attending to our clients - Robert is in fact staying at the Mount Nelson with a client. They've been shooting a commercial for some days now. The shoot is going well. So thanks for reminding us Niail what our priority should be, but trust us, we're on it. You twallock.

We're thrilled Nat and Lol won.

Let's celebrate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwEMxYggoKQ

VOTE NOW!!! VOTE NOW!!! VOTE NOW!!!

2009-11-01T13:14:00Z

Entries for the amazing Beta blog £1000 giveaway are now closed. We want you to decide who wins the £1000. See below our shortlist of potential winners. At the bottom of the page is a natty polling device.

IN SUMMARY....

1) The amazing Campbell Lace Alpha blog by James Mitchell.

2) Two virals from the girls that invented virals. Nat and Lol.

3) Two virals from Danny Walsh. Apparently Danny has worked with Robert at two agencies but isn't Jim Kelly.

4) Two virals from a man called Matt Winn. Bonkers.

5) And last Claire Beale's immortal quote about Garry and dogs' bollocks.

SEE ACTUAL ENTRIES BELOW. PLEASE VOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF PAGE.

1) The Campbell Lace Alpha blog. http://campbelllacealpha.blogspot.com/

2) These two from Nat and Lol. (Scroll to bottom of page to vote.)

3) These two from Danny Walsh. (Scroll to bottom of page to vote.)

4) These two from Matt Winn. (Scroll to bottom of page to vote.)

5) And last but not least how could we forget the immortal line from Claire Beale...

"ANYONE WHO KNOWS GARRY LACE KNOWS THAT ASKING HIM NOT TO CHASE NEW BUSINESS IS LIKE ASKING A DOG NOT TO LICK ITS BALLS."

Voting ends Wednesday night. Winners announced Thursday November 5th.

WARNING. IMPOSTER BLOG!!!!

2009-10-30T12:35:00Z

A late entry comes from James Mitchell, with his Campbell Lace Alpha blog

Very amusing. Definitely on the short list.

http://campbelllacealpha.blogspot.com/

NAT AND LOLLY BACK ON TOP!!!

2009-10-30T08:08:00Z

Just when we'd drawn up our shortlist, Nat and Lolly smash it out of the park with 'Water Cooler.'

Its scary. Nat and Lolly's hold on the stuff we actually talk about is too accurate to be true. How did they know that Garry's pet name for Robert is 'cupcake?' We're having Carnaby Street swept for bugs.

So we're adding 'Water Cooler' to our shortlist. The people's vote will start on 1st of November and last for four days.

Here it is. Enjoy.

p.s. For those of you who think the idea of Robert as a transvestive is absurd as suggested in 'Watercooler'...Unfortunately we have no pictures of when Robert turned up at the WACL Valentines Day Dinner Blind Date competition dressed as a woman. (1998?) But that night he saw off both Brett Gosper and Andrew Robertson to win a 'blind date' with Rio from the then very hot tv series Gladiators. My goodness she was big and strong. Has anyone out there still got pictures? Those were days.

DANNY WALSH, COME ON DOWN.

2009-10-25T19:56:00Z

First came the supremely witty Claire Beale with Garry licking his own balls. Then came Nat and Lolly's excellent viral.

And now, Danny Walsh - whoever he is - with his razor sharp parody of Nat and Lolly's viral.

Danny. You are currently front runner for our £1000 prize. Congratulations, mate. p.s. Who are you?

BEDTIME ANTICS

2009-10-21T10:12:00Z

As Robert slowly sank into his bed after an exhausting but highly enjoyable birthday, he only had one thing on his mind. In bed already was the love of his life and mother of his children. It was, after all, his birthday he thought to himself.

Time was of the essence since at 51,you're not quite as up to it as you used to be. Undaunted by this prospect, Robert decided to get straight to the point. "There's something I'd really like", he said starting to move closer to the beautiful woman he had met on that fateful night in New York all those years ago. Buoyed by the fact that he had not been given the immediate cold shoulder, he continued. "And, I've been thinking about it all day".

"I'd really like your hand in marriage"

Yes, we have our first agency engagement. Our resident rocker Robert is getting married to our artist in residence and all round beautiful woman, Gurmit. We are all thrilled and have spent the only profit we've made so far on new dresses in anticipation of the big event.

Secretly, we all think that Robert's done it to allow the last ten days of our blog competition to focus around everyone's views of this happy event. So, get replying, get commenting and get congratulating and you could still win that £1000. If you do, you'll be able to buy yourself a new frock.

NAT AND LOLLY. NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET....

2009-10-18T22:14:00Z

So, another week of our fabulous £1000 blog giveaway has passed.

Many tried to knock Claire B off the top slot, they all failed.

Except for two: Nat and Lolly.

We love their viral taking the piss out of Garry and Rob's discussions about closing for new business. It's currently rocketing to the top of the 'most viewed' ratings on youtube.

But please do not confuse Nat and Lolly's handiwork with this promotional video that is tagged 'Lace Campbell' on youtube.

Wow. Doesn't Robert look foxy in a wig?

Congratulations to Nat and Lolly. Commiserations to Claire B. And 'must try harder' to all the other entrants. Keep 'em coming, folks. Keep 'em coming.

You've got two weeks left to dazzle us.

SMARTARSES WANTED. £1000 REWARD.

2009-10-12T07:49:00Z

Numbers of comments on our blog took a dramatic upturn last week.

The witty, the poetic, the controversial, the wise, the bitchy all threw their hats into the ring to win our £1000 'comment of the month prize.'

Fartacus opened the batting with 'I like Lemons.' Possibly not the wittiest comment, Farty, but certainly the shortest.

Bob Ashwood proved to us that long copy is not dead. Just a little bit senile. Ironic, given that on Bob's blog he declares 'Lifes too short. A sentence can't be.' We have a one word brief for you Bob. Haiku.

Martin Thomas neither confirmed nor denied that he wears stockings and suspenders.

Mark Hurst invited us out to lunch. Be very, very afraid when you go out to lunch with Mark.

Jaqueline De Steele was front runner for a moment with her poignant poetry about her beautiful son. Until someone spotted Jaqueline was actually Robert's mum and it was all getting a little too Oedipal.

Antoine De Git shamed us.

The Original Man in the Sky penned a very well argued critique of Albion.

Jonathan Durden agreed, eventually, it was not wise for Beta to mindlessly pitch for new business. We love you Jonathan.

Richard Huntindon, sadly. declined to comment.

But the comment of the week, by a country mile, and therefore the current £1000 front runner, wasn't even on our blog.

It was in Campaign. And it was written by none other than Claire Beale.

'ASKING GARRY LACE TO STOP CHASING NEW BUSINESS IS LIKE ASKING A DOG TO STOP LICKING ITS BALLS.'

Laugh? In the words of the late, great Peter Cook, 'we nearly shat.'

Claire. You are currently in line to win £1000.

So who's gonna knock Claire off the top slot?

WE'RE CLOSING.

2009-10-04T19:04:00Z

We've had a fab five months. We've got a great bunch of people working here, and a client list that we're very proud of....

Thomas Cook. Jackpotjoy. The Outdoor Advertising Association. BUPA. Ealing Studios. A major charity who we have to keep secret. A web build for some celebs who wish to remain anonymous.

We're waiting on the result of two major pitches.

And we're getting nicely stuck into a couple of 'non conventional' ventures. (We've always promised ourselves that we'll develop our own IP as well as working for clients. And although we're not really ready to talk about this side of our business yet, so far so good.)

We're having fun. We're doing good work (fingers crossed). Why screw it up by pitching mindlessly?

So we've decided to close our doors to new business for a while. Give our existing clients the attention they more than deserve. Do some housekeeping. Persuade Campaign to take a picture of us that doesn't make us look like dodgy rozzers, etc.

Oh, and we feel we've been neglecting our blog. So to get things going again and to celebrate our good fortune so far we're going to give a prize of £1000 to the most interesting, amusing, useful, useless, outrageous comment posted on our blog during the month of October.

Garry and Robert's decision will be final. Competition ends 31st of October 2009.

Bon chance!

WE LOVE COKE

2009-09-18T07:06:00Z

Six years ago Robert got involved with a genius film maker called Jeremy Gilley.

Jeremy's vision was to create a Global Day of Peace.

If you havent seen his documentaries you should. The story of how Jeremy persuaded the United Nations to create a fixed day of peace is noting short of amazing. http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/welcome

Peace Day is September 21st.

Robert's idea was to spread the word by getting Coke to 'sponsor' September 21st on their cans.

Well, six years later coke have done it! Good on 'em.

So on Monday 21st of September make peace with someone you've wronged. Buy them a Coke and say sorry.

p.s. If anyone out there is any doubt as to Coke's 'right' to sponsor Peace Day, remember this commercial. Run against the backdrop of the Vietnam War it shows remarkable courage on the part of an often demonised corporation who want to make a difference.

IZZY WHIZZY...

2009-09-07T05:13:00Z

...lets get busy.

After a short break in August (the month when advertising sleeps) we're back.

And four months into our humble history we are very busy indeed.

We've got two major tv campaigns in the early stages of production.

One poster campaign.

We're beta testing our first major web build.

We've got another really exiting web project ( dare we say mould breaking?) in its early stages of production.

And two major IP development projects that have got nothing to do with advertising at all.

Carnaby Street has become like a laboratory of people, ideas and media. What are we building in there?

Campaign kindly call our blog 'the doing it our way blog,' and it really does feel as though we are doing it our way.

Its a lot more fun than doing it a holding company's way!

THIS BLOG HAS TURNED (RED)

2009-08-17T07:51:00Z

Friday night.

(RED) take Robert to see U2 at Wembley Stadium. Bono and the band keep 90,000 people on their feet for nearly two and a half hours. Not bad for a bunch of guys who are fast approaching fifty!

But we're not here to blog about Robert's social life. We're here to blog about (RED) www.joinred.com

(RED) is now run outside the USA by a remarkable guy called Seb Bishop. Robert first met Seb when he worked at RKCR as an art director, but since then, Seb's gone onto far, far greater things.

To date (RED) have been highly successful in the USA, but arguably lower profile outside the USA. It's Seb's job to take (RED) to the next level in the UK, and internationally.

So just for the record, this is how (RED) works. And what (RED) has achieved since Bono and Bobby Shriver launched it at Davos in 2006...

1) (RED) is a brand. It is funded by other brands. (RED)'s role is to engage the private sector in the fight against HIV/Aids in Sub Saharan Africa.

2) Other brands pay (RED) a fee to licence the (RED) brand.

3) Other brands then launch (RED) branded products. eg The (RED) ipod. And the (RED) Amex.

4) A significant percentage of profits from those products then goes direct to the global fund to fight aids. The money goes direct to the 'front line.' None of the money is wasted on overhead. This is an unusually efficient way to get the money direct to where it can make the biggest difference.

5) Apple, Converse, Armani, American Express, Dell, Microsoft, Hallmark, Gap have all 'turned (RED).' In fact, (RED) now has hundreds of (RED) products selling in over 60 countries around the world. And there are more in the pipeline.

6) (RED) has raised over $130 million to date through the sale of (RED) branded products and services.

7) (RED) money has touched over 4million Africans, and currently supports over 117,000 people on daily ARV's (anti retro viral drugs).

8) (RED) has provided over 70,000 HIV positive pregnant women with preventative antiretroviral therapy. This therapy significantly reduces the risk of mother-to-child transmission.

We think even the most cynical would agree that (RED)'s achivements to date are significant.

So why are we telling you this?

Firstly, because we think ideas like (RED) are the future. Brands that fail to put social good at their hearts are going to struggle. Consumers are going to demand the brands they buy add social value, as well as washing their whites whiter.

Secondly, because Campbell Lace (BETA) would like to play our part in helping the (RED) go onto even greater things.

Bono, Bobby Shriver and the guys at (RED) have had a brilliant idea, from which everyone benefits. The consumer. Brands. And most of all, those in Africa afflicted with HIV.

As an industry we'd be crazy not to embrace (RED).

CONGRATULATIONS TO STEVE HENRY AND ALBION.

2009-08-13T23:46:00Z

We're delighted to see our great friend and fellow blogger Steve Henry has taken up a non exec post at Albion.

Steve joins Mandy Pooler on Albion's board. Mandy is a dear friend of ours too. Not to mention one of the greatest names in media. Years ago when Mandy and Robert both worked at WPP, we did joint speeches at conferences on the future of media. It seems so long ago now.

Anyway, according to Albion's press release, 'Steve's role will be to mentor Albion’s creative director Nick Darken and his team and help take the agency’s creative output to a new level.' Excellent.

It's great to see Steve getting back involved and rolling his sleeves up. There is no greater talent than Steve.

However, it seems we've upset Albion recently. Something we said. And for that we're sorry.

Consequently they've been twittering away about what a couple of old plonkers Garry and I are. Someone's even opened a fake twitter account in our name and is sending abusive tweets. (Obviously we can't be sure that's Albion, but understandably we have our suspicions.)

In normal circumstances we wouldn't give a monkey's what Albion said about us. We're big enough, and ugly enough. But as two of our best mates are on their board, it would be a shame for there to be bad blood.

Perhaps once you've got your feet under the desk Steve, you'd like to bring the guys at Albion over to one of our bloggers' breakfasts.

You never know, they might even find they like us.

LET BETA HYPE SKYPE...

2009-08-07T15:20:00Z

For the first time in our short but incredibly enjoyable history, we are going to use our blog to unashamedly get something off our chest. At the same time, hopefully, we'll make it onto the radar of one of the most, if not the most, brilliant technological innovations of the last 2000 years. Skype.

Hands up anyone who knows what Skype is? Hands up anyone who knows how Skype works? Hands up anyone who knows how Skype charge you? Hands up anyone who has ever used Skype?

We ask because we believe passionately from the bottom of our Skypelorn hearts that Skype is one of the great untold stories of our generation.

In amongst the Facebooks and Twitters of this world, if anyone had told us five years ago that you would be able to make telephone calls to anybody from anywhere in the world and not be charged for them, while at the same time being able to see their lovely shiny happy face on a computer screen, we would have thought that they were having a laugh.

Well they weren’t, because Skype exists. It’s brilliant but nobody knows what it is or how to use it. Why is that ?

SEE NO SKYPE? SPEAK NO SKYPE? HEAR NO SKYPE?

The overwhelming conclusion we draw is that Skype has consistently and religiously worked with communications agencies that have failed to define one of the best customer propositions we’ve ever encountered.

Millions, no, maybe billions of people are gagging for Skype. Its just that they don't know it. Skype needs to happen and we’d like to help. We think your product is the best in the world and we’d like you to call us.

Our telephone number is 0207 734 2949 and that is the direct line of one of the founding partners of an agency that is only three months old but desperate, yes desperate, to work with you. Please call.