The Minimart movie night at The Soho Screening Rooms was a brilliant way to spend a Thursday evening with friends from the AAR, creativebrief, journalists and a few of our business partners. Fuelled by Rubicon inspired cocktails (conjured up by a fantastic mixologist) and lovely girls serving us nibbles, we settled down to watch The Descendants (DVD release 21st of May 2012) kindly provided to us by lovely people at Premier PR. It also gave us the opportunity for us to give everyone a sneaky peek at some of our new TV work and behind the scenes footage of our recent shoot in Cuba for Rubicon. From the great response we are even more excited to see what the wider reaction is when it goes on air on the 14th of May 2012.

See full photo album here

We have had a rush of new talent this past month. Our Head of Planning,  Paul Kenny,  joins us with an armload of experience with over 20 years integrated experience in B2C and B2B; planning across everything from brand strategy,  channel planning, market research, digital & social media,   to strategic and communication planning… not to mention a few years as Strategic Data Planning Director earlier in his career.  He’s worked across financial services,  charities,  consumer electronics,  retail,  leisure and FMCG,  for brands such as… Sony,  Samsung,  Philips,  First Direct, American Express,  Shell, Disney,  Emirates,  adidas… to name just a few.  When he’s not trying to unwrap what matters most he follows his other passions of football and Liverpool FC,  as well as part time zoo keeper to 3 ponies,  2 dogs,  a stray cat and a warren of rabbits that have made their home in the back garden.

Our lovely Director of Fun, Gabbi, has been promoted to help out in Sales and Marketing and Production.  After a long, rigorous and gruelling series of interviews and tasks we have at last found her replacement.  Isobel Nelson is a recent graduate from Birmingham University.  She spent four months in Tanzania based at a primary school near Mount Kilimanjaro building a toilet block and a kitchen.  She combined this with teaching English to a large class of 5-6 year olds.  This was followed by extensive travel through Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. As President of the Geography Society at Uni and in charge of over 300 students,  she organised socials,  academic debates,  a trip abroad to Paris and the annual geography ball as well as supervising three sports teams.  She’s already arranged The Minimart Darts competition (more about that later).

A huge Minimart welcome to all of them.

Maxitone, aiming to attract new customers into the health and fitness nutrition category, has just launched its new campaign targeting the benefits of protein and the desire for body confidence triggered by special occasions. We showed aspirational women taking this literally; using calorie burning exercises and Maxitone’s protein bars and shakes to get rid of those tempting treats.

Maxifuel is the fuel of athletes, both amateur and elite. From GB hockey to GB triathlon, marathon runners to sprinters; our brand ambition is to ‘Fuel British Sport’. The role of the advertising is twofold; to demonstrate in a dynamic and energised way, the effect Maxifuel has on athletes and to inspire both elite and amateurs alike to aim higher- especially in this Olympic year. The campaign shows Maxifuel as a powerful energy source driving the UK Youth Cycling Team to the finish line, pushing Ultra Runner Brian Cole to new distances and flowing through the GB Tri Team as they stand proudly as if on the podium (where we expect to see them in July). Our headlines are intentionally rousing; designed to drive elite athletes to the brand whilst also inspiring the millions of weekend runners, cyclists and tri-athletes to use Maxifuel to push their own personal best.

Read more…

Information graphics, or infographics as they are more commonly known, are everywhere. Only yesterday we at The Minimart were analysing the personality traits of the male members of the team using a ‘Trust worthiness of beards’ timeline. When done well, an Infographic is a simple way to convey information clearly. They can be anything from maps, timelines, flowcharts, graphs, diagrams, facts, charts and data presented typographically. We enjoy infographics, particularly when they are fun. Here is a little one we made about our love of tea.

England Rugby features in the latest instalments of the already successful ‘Team Behind The Team’ campaign by supporting the sponsorship deal with the RFU with outdoor and press during the 2012 6 Nations Championships.

Using the team’s high profile sports ambassadors to inspire and build trust, we developed a campaign that focused on the credibility the coaches and nutritionists give the brand as they highlight the vital role Maximuscle plays in the athletes’ training. The creative was supported with additional filmed content and engagement online as part of a strong social media element that allowed people to get closer to, and follow the stories of, the players and their support team, with a behind the scenes look at their Twickenham facilities and training regime.

Our role as an agency is to connect consumers and brands.

People don’t connect with things as discrete fragments, they make sense of the world as a multi-sensory human and with the context of their experience and cultural framework.

The way we operate as an agency, reflects this. Our flexible agency model and open approach means we’re not boxed off into departments and we definitely don’t work in silos and can therefore respond to the ever-changing interplay of humans, organisations and technology.

We are made up of a bunch of dedicated people, who love what we do and bring a rounded skillset to the table. Of course we have specialisms and different skill biases but we’re all-rounders interested in the bigger picture.

Basically, we put the human need at the core and work out from there. This approach means we can blur the lines across different disciplines to deliver clients what they need to engage effectively, whatever the objective.

Today at The Minimart, as we approach Remembrance weekend, Laura, our producer in the office has got the paint pots out to fashion everyone with an intricately designed poppy on each person’s nail for a donation of £1 per nail.

I love people giving me cocktails.
I love Sunbathing in 32-degree heat beside a pool.
I love meeting fun, genuine, beautiful, creative people.
So, when the founding partners of The Minimart interviewed me and my copywriter (Baz) for a job and then asked us if they could fly us to Marrakech for a weekend to do all those things… all I could think of was:
“I. Can. Not. Update my Facebook status quick enough!!!”
Three days later Baz and I were sitting at a champagne and oyster bar in Gatwick (now they’re just showing off) and meeting our 15 new work mates. We hear a lot of names, shake a lot of hands and walk towards the plane struggling to remember a single one of them.
Luckily Tim and Ed (the Founding Partners I mentioned earlier) had put everyone in 4 smaller, easier to remember groups for some challenges for the weekend. The first of which, started on the plane. What happened to the cocktails by the pool?
The teams had three and a bit hours to think of a film and reduce it down to a tiny two minutes – which would then be acted out to the rest of the teams back at our phat villa. And boy, was it a phat villa! 10 colourful bedrooms, a cook, waiters, a private driver, two swimming pools – they’d forgotten to fill one – but that’s not the point, it had two swimming pools!
After a lovely banquet, our teams took to the makeshift stage. ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’ eat your heart out. I was really impressed at just how good they all were for such a short amount of rehearsing and it was such a great way to get to know everyone.
My memory of the next few hours does get a little hazy for some reason. But my hangover the next day reminds me exactly why… Ahhh the cocktail making challenge…. so that’s why I feel like I’ve got a coconut in my head!!! Never mind, a quick dip in the pool and a spot of breakfast gets us all ready to kick back for some presentations.
Kicking off by announcing promotions, new board appointments and three new starters – including myself, Baz and Nikki a lovely design intern they’ve recently snapped up – set the tone nicely. We then brainstormed around some really cool ideas for the future of the agency before settling down to lunch.
The next challenge was for the teams to fill out a briefing form for a made up product. A nice way to demonstrate we understand what a good brief is. I’ve got to admit, having the Founding Partners and the Head of Planning on my team was a slight advantage. But never the less, our hard work and tenacity paid off as the rest of the agency voted our product and brief to be the best of the best!!!
A dip, a quick sunbathe, and a power half-hour snooze set me up for the next challenge. Our teams had 500 Dirhams (that’s around £40) and half an hour to run the gauntlet of the Marrakech market and get suitably dressed up for dinner at a rather nice restaurant. Gok Wan? Gok Who! My team came up trumps again, well joint winners with Baz’s team anyway.

So a succulent shoulder of lamb, Mojitos, belly dancing, a crazy lady dancing with a tray of fire on her head, good chat and good times was the perfect way to finish the final night.

The mandatory breakfast, dip in the pool and lounging in the sun was the perfect start to our last day. And, as the flight back home got nearer and nearer I couldn’t help but feel a little sad. But, having said that, I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a Monday morning at work before either!

Of course, they couldn’t let us leave without one last game: The Headless photo. Pictures will do this infinitely more justice than my words ever can, so please have a gander and no doubt a good laugh at them on The Minimart Facebook page. Oh and whilst you’re there take a look at the overall winner of all the challenges – drum roll please…. it was ‘Nikki the New Girl’ who took Alex’s crown for 2011. But I fully expect to see my name engraved on the trophy in 2012!
MY FIRST DAY AT THE MINIMART (by Baz)

I agree with everything Daz said. Except it’ll be my name on the trophy in 2012.

Wieden and Kennedy’s loss is our gain here at the Minimart. We’re pleased that Natasha Markley with her great award winning brand experience has joined our team and look forward to utilising her experience in 360 advertising integration. We’re mildly concerned about her musical taste but we’ll be happy to share those wild strawberry mojitos with her.