We just keep getting cooler and cooler! The other week we went to the SB.TV Xmas party, and then on Friday, Marketing Zone’s Robin attended comedy gig, Kojo Live N Kicking, at Hackney Empire.

It’s all part of our celebrity product placement service, that saw us rubbing shoulders with England footballer Carlton Cole, and British rapper Angel.

Live N Kicking was also attended by UK sports and entertainment stars, among them songstress Jamelia, and stars from Eastenders and the music world.

If you want to get your product seen with the stars, talk to us on 01763 274440.

As advocates of good copywriting, we couldn’t believe our ears when we heard that book chain Waterstone’s is denouncing the apostrophe in their company name. Giving the reason that ‘in a digital world of URLs and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling was required’; Waterstone’s will now be known as Waterstones.

We’re up on our high horses here! For a company that sells books and encourages reading, surely they can’t spell their own organisation name incorrectly. If McDonald’s and Sainsbury’s can cope, there is no problem.

We can understand that Waterstone’s is a brand name now, rather than traditionally known after its founder, Tim Waterstone. So we can see that for their website address, having an apostrophe isn’t essential, but nor have they ever been in urls. And apostrophes can create broken links on website headings as they are not picked up by the website’s coding system. But to alter the company name and spell it incorrectly within the copy on their website is just not on!

We’re very possessive about the apostrophe at Marketing Zone!

Ever the multi-taskers, Marketing Zone has come up with a great way to raise money for charity at the same time as developing prize draw marketing promotions for our clients. From the heaving mailbags of competition entries that we receive into the office on behalf of our client’s, we give the stamps to the Wood Green Animal Charity, who use them to raise funds for their animal centre in Cambridgeshire.

Prize draw promotions can be a cost effective way of generating PR and getting your product published in magazines and websites. Or a good way to increase readership of eNewsletters by offering a prize that can generate extra interest, and increase open rates.

Marketing Zone has developed numerous promotions for our clients, including a professional institute, fashion brands and parenting clubs to name just a few. In a time when customers are looking out for great offers, we’ve seen an increase in the level of competition entries. It’s even a professional business for some!

We can source prizes, create the competition, liaise with the press for campaigns and handle the winner fulfilment. To find out more, just get in touch.

Are you in need of a little inspiration? If your brand’s crying out for a blast of fresh air, we might have just the ticket.

No matter what your budget allows, there’s always a way to inject new life into a marketing campaign. And as we head into 2012, how’s these for starters. Whether you’re looking to spend just £34 or if you have millions to spare, both of these demand attention, and make you ask ‘now who is that?’

Morph suits – the costume phenomenon
If you’re looking to take part in field marketing as part of your campaign, a morph suit is sure to make people stop and take notice. Dressed head to foot in breathable spandex, your marketing team would attract a lot of attention leafleting business parks with your promotional flyers. It’s a great way to create a stir!

Is it a limo, is it a yacht?
You can be unmissable, in a private exclusive kind of way. If money is no object, we can all dream can’t we, for those with a spare £132 million, how about a yacht shaped like a limo? Take a look!

Marketing Zone's Robin celebrity spotting at the SB.TV Xmas Party.

The SB.TV Xmas Party was a great success last night. We spoke to many television and music celebrities, including British actor Adam Deacon, Eastenders star Devon Anderson, up and coming superstar Chanelle Williams, aka Lady Chann, and SB.TV founder Jamal Edwards.

It was also great to make a number of connections on behalf of our sunglasses client, and we’re busy following up the promotional leads and potential PR opportunities that arose at the event.

We could get used to the special treatment – VIP passes, goody bags, speaking to celebrities, it’s all in a days work at Marketing Zone!

Here at Marketing Zone we’re young at heart! So tonight we’re heading to Camden for the SB.TV Xmas Party. We’ve arranged a sunglasses product placement at the event for one of our clients, so we’re attending the party to show our support, and to listen to the likes of Tinchy Stryder, Cher Lloyd Mr Faizer and Labrinth.

As the UK’s leading youth broadcaster, SB.TV has come along way since its humble beginnings, when its founder Jamal Edwards started filming gigs and broadcasting them on YouTube.

Today that’s all changed. SB.TV has 50+ million YouTube views and tens of thousands of subscribers, Facebook fans and Twitter followers, who view the interviews, music videos and viral adverts of some of the world’s most highly respected, globally recognised artists.

It’s going to be a great night!

It’s been announced that Marketing Zone has been short-listed for an award, for the transformational marketing work we have done for Polaroid Eyewear in 2011.

The entry showcases the marketing campaign we created for Polaroid Eyewear’s heritage sunglasses collection, Best Under the Sun. Marketing Zone has helped to move this brand to the next level through PR, blogging, partnerships and more. The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s national Marketing Excellence Awards are highly regarded within the industry, and level of entries they’ve received this year has been phenomenal.

As a short-lister in the Retail Category, we’re competing with PepsiCo, Unilever, Marks and Spencer and Britvic. We’ve worked with Polaroid Eyewear for over 5 years, when we re-launched their sunglass brand in the UK. It’s great to see them recognised amongst other household names. 

It just goes to show what you can achieve when you work well together and apply creativity to everything you do. The winners will be announced in February at the ceremony at The Grosvenor Hotel in London.

It must be nearly Christmas as the much anticipated John Lewis Christmas advert campaign launched today, with its debut on Facebook and YouTube today before hitting our TV screens tomorrow during the X Factor.

It’s another beautifully crafted ad to stir the emotions with the ‘80s band The Smiths track ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ sung by Slow Moving Millie.

It’s the perfect start to the festive season and its already creating a buzz online.

Rebel Magazine is a fashion and lifestyle magazine, focusing on creative industries including designers, art, film and music. That’s why it’s great to see Marketing Zone’s fashion designer client, Alex Seroge Ignatian, featured this month.

Take a look at the website we developed for Seroge, and view his featured collection in Rebel magazine on pages 54 61 below.

We’ve been working with British fashion designer, Alex Seroge Ignatian, to design and develop a portfolio style website to showcase his collections.

Alex wanted his website to represent his unique designs and to clearly display his latest collections. We developed a high fashion website which is simple to navigate and directs potential fashion buyers seamlessly to his most recent creations.

Alex is delighted that he received enquiries through his new website from fashion buyers on the day it went live!