Big Cat gets Little Fish

From a fly on the wall to a fish in a bowl, Sharkey and George, the newest members of the Big Cat family will be reporting to you from their home – the Big Cat boardroom!
 
April has been an exciting month for us; we have settled in our new home, met our new family and even listened in on some top secret meetings!…

This month in the boardroom has been a busy one; the PR and Marketing teams are once again collaborating to finalise the social media strategies for a number of different businesses and governing bodies – obviously we only have a short memory so didn’t catch a lot (especially anything that Kenny said!)

Witness, our favorite rapper, dropped in to see us; he’s working with the West Midlands Police on a charity fun run. Personally I think that it should be a swim-a-thon, Witness wasn’t to keen on the idea, never mind.

We became very excited to overhear that some of the family will be working away from the office this summer. The Big Cat Events team will be working with Jägermeister at lots of cool festivals such as Download, Wakestock and Creamfields – if you see them make sure you say hello! We’d go but the mud is too thick to swim through.

Our uncle Jason from the design studio is putting together a brochure for Wella, we have been lucky enough to see a sneak preview into next season’s new hair trends! Not sure any of those styles will suit us but we might give one a go, just incase some ladies come to visit us soon!

Next month we will be bringing more news from the boardroom….

Sharkey and George x

Events placements needed

Calling all events people! We have some very exciting events work going on this summer at music festivals, Custard Factory, etc etc etc and we are appealing for local young people who are looking for a little bit of work experience to come down and get their hands dirty.

You will be working at festivals such as Download, Supersonic and general event management at the Custard Factory.

All people welcome and we are flexible with the amount of hours and days you can work.

Replies to m.sirett@bcguk.com or call 0121 200 0910 and ask for Melanie.

Big Cat goes social – Birmingham Post

As some of you may be aware; ourselves and web whizzes, Substrakt, have joined forces to help deliver social media to regional companies and organisations. We have already collaborated on accounts with people such as West Midlands Police, NHS, Hare and Hounds and The Bull’s Head.

Yesterday, Creative Republic speaker Anna Blackaby wrote a piece documenting our new partnership in the Birmingham Post. I know its bad etiquette to document about yourself, but it is a nice indulgence from time to time.

Big Cat on Midlands Today

Our glorious leaders, Nick Morgan and Anthony Tattum, enthralled the Midlands all day Friday with their witty business insight on regional BBC news programme, Midlands Today.

The delightful Matthew Cooke ran an interesting piece on the winners and losers of the recession. Friday was the turn of the events industry, and after much sleuthing, Matthew chose Big Cat and the Custard Factory as an example of recession busters.

Please have a look at the link above and tell us if you think there are other venues that are winning at the moment that need a mention.

Creative Republic’s Media Skills Masterclass

The good people of Digbeth and Birmingham were treated to a masterclass in media skills with guest speakers Ian Taylor (Marketing Birmingham), Anna Blackaby (Creative industries editor, Birmingham Post), Marverine Cole (Sky News) and Jon Bounds (All round social media good guy). They were all pooled together by the much thanked Lyle (@creativerepublic.org.uk), who was treated almost like a prophet and weathered the compliment tidal wave like a seasoned pro.

Ruth Ward (Rewired) and Helga Henry (Fierce Earth) chaired and compered the event respectively, while an American gentleman (apologies there was alot of names to remember, and I’m not good with names at the best of times) presented the final activity, a press release crash course (with some car crash results!).

The wine was provided by Barefoot, which was happily endorsed by Helga and manifested in a Churchillian speech about Birmingham’s creative industry.

The evening started with light refreshments and some light networking with an ever increasingly familiar group of creatives. Followed by the four speeches and a press release workshop. I shalln’t go into to much detail of the minute by minute activities of the evening as I don’t think that’s necessarily the most significant thing about Creative Republic evenings.

As much as I enjoy the content of such meets (and I do), what Creative Republic do excellently is link together all the sections of Birmingham’s proudest industry. It was said last night (I forget by whom) that one of the best things about Birmingham is how well connected it is, and I have to agree. I moved to Brum in June and love the fact that at every event you go to, everybody knows everybody, and not only that, everyone supports everybody. Everyone in Birmingham’s creative industry is passionate about shouting about it and passionate about the talent in the city.

360 Links for April 16

Apologies for the lack of action recently, but I have now returned from Spain (tragically not as brown as I would have hoped).

Events: Creative Republic Media Skills Masterclass

Good event coming up on Tuesday 21 April at Fazeley Studios, Digbeth hosted by everyone’s favourite republic. If you’ve never been to a Creative Republic event, I strongly suggest you do; Helga Henry and Stef Lewandowski et al are really switched on and do some great work educating, promoting and bringing together the creative industry in Birmingham. To sign up for the event, free of charge, follow the link.

Social Media: The Benefits of Social Media and SEO

Top tips from Lee Odden on increasing SEO as well as running through why social media is such a strong marketing tool, if used correctly.

Marketing: 5 Marketing myths worth testing

Randy Vaughn highlights some marketing myths, some I agree with, others less so; but a good read non the less with an interesting viewpoint on marketing a business.

Creative Design: Sprite design challenge

Some of the results from the Sprite design competition (always a great way of getting good designs for next to nothing).