Some of you may be aware that we ran this ad in the Drum a few months ago.

It really doesn’t matter if you remember it or not, or even if you like it or not: the problem is we had to buy a table football game for a film we shot for one of our clients. What’s even more unfortunate is that people have actually started playing on it. So, in the interest of Rixy’s sanity and in keeping with the festive season, we’re giving it away. All fifty quid’s worth of it.

For your chance to win*, simply answer this mutiple choice question:
What did Jonathan Rigby recently name his daughter?

a) Adam
b) Simon
c) Martha May

We’ll pick the winner from a hat of correct answers when we’re back in the New Year. Collection only, I’m afraid. (And we’re based in Manchester, in case anyone’s reading this in Siberia). Until then, have a very Merry Christmas from everyone at LOVE.

*Competition is not open to employees of LOVE, or friends of Gre, Chris, Wez, Jono, Steve, Mark or Lucy.

A good friend of ours asked us what our album of the year was. After much thought we came to the conclusion that nothing recent had really blown us away, although Dude’s eagerly awaiting Leon’s debut album next year sometime. The best thing we’ve heard all year was some old vinyl we bought on eBay by Cilla Black when she went into her psych/prog/cabaret period.

The album’s called ‘Surround Yourself With Cilla’. Wander over to YouTube and check out Surround Yourself With Sorrow. See what she did there? Genius.

Other contenders were:
‘Suite London’ The Peddlers.

and ‘Paint America Love’ Lou Christie.

Enjoy.

Our digital geniuses put together a brilliant pitch to re-design the Crown paint website and overhaul the general digital strategy for Crown. We were pitching against Digerati and Code.

It was one of those pitches that couldn’t have gone better on the day. It was also really enjoyable to present. We were really proud of the work and the Crown clients seemed impressed with our understanding of the Crown brand and the issues it faces.

But sadly, after waiting nervously for a couple of weeks for the result - we found out we lost out to Code. Shame.

So, well done to Code who have, I guess, consolidated their relationship with Crown after doing various projects with them in the past. We’d like to think that we pushed you all the way and we look forward to taking you guys on in a few more ‘head to heads’ next year.

In the meantime - congratulations to the LOVE team for producing some great work. We’ll be watching Code’s progress on Crown very closely….

So addictive.

Here’s something that most of you will be fully qualified to help us with.

We’re writing a thinkpiece on the future of British pubs and how they might evolve as society, family, communities, the economy, leisure activities, social habits, personal tastes etc evolve.

Although there are still over 100,000 licenced premises in the UK and the pub remains an integral part of British culture, things are changing. A pub closes its doors permanently every week, staying in has been the new going out, the smoking ban has changed the pub experience, drinking hours have changed, food is becoming increasingly essential, real estate prices have made alternatives uses for pub buildings and land more attractive.

But that’s all the bleak stuff - the pub will remain forever, right? - but in what form?

Please could anyone with pub-going experience (ahem) give us their point of view. We’re looking for interesting concepts or themes you’ve seen around the world, personal predictions, important societal trends to consider, your ideas for the perfect modern pub.

Does the whole concept and layout of pubs need to adapt ? Is the busty landlady and the grumpy landlord the only way? Do pubs need a bar in the corner and circular tables dotted around? Is replicating the personalised in home experience the answer?

And if you’re feeling really up for it, what’s your vision for the pub experience of the future?

We’re trying to pull things together for Monday of next week, so any help would be much appreciated.

And as an extra incentive, the best 5 respondents will receive a reasonable amount of their tipple of choice.*

*respondents must be over 18 and not have too serious a drink problem

Just when we were looking for an excuse to continue the festive celebrations, we received a phone call from Andrew at Taylors of Harrogate to say we’d won the pitch to produce a new national advertising campaign. Woo-hoo!There’s no better feeling than winning pitches. Even better, the decision was made really promptly (we pitched on Friday). And best of all, we’re really excited about producing the winning work.Unusually for LOVE, we went into the pitch with a range of 5 different creative ideas and intentionally didn’t make a recommendation. Instead we got the ideas on the table and used the time we had with the Taylors team to talk through which route was right for the brand for next year.Sometimes this approach works and sometimes it doesn’t, but this time round it was the right approach to take.There’s a real desire from Taylors Of Harrogate to create a fresh, modern, vibrant and confident campaign for their coffee range. It’s really great to work with a clients who are keen to develop less ordinary advertising ideas.
We’re off to the pub to celebrate.

Chris, Jono, Leanda and the rest of the digital chaps have just won themselves another juicy project. Zygo is a mobile social networking brand that Techcrunch this week described as “UK’s Twitter, but with revenues”.

So far, we’ve developed a new identity for Zygo (designed by Gre) and created a holding page and corporate page. The all singing, all dancing website for a Beta launch is in development and due very soon.

We did our creative pitch to Andrew, Clare and Kevin at Taylors Of Harrogate on Friday. Pitches are always a bit nerve-racking, so it was nice to receive the usual warm welcome from our clients at reception. Fingers crossed.

We all spend thousands of hours in our respective offices, but do we really know every little nook and cranny of them? As part of Wednesday’s jolly japes, Wez has (tee-hee)hidden Frank’s Ripple - with photo clue - somewhere in LOVE and though we all kind of recognise where the location might be, we can’t for the lives of us find it or pinpoint where it is.

Try a similar hilarious wheeze in your office and see if you really know every bit of the place you spend most of your week.  Hours of fun guaranteed.

Clearly the talent recruitment drive starts early at TBWA/Manchester. Those nice Didsbury chaps sent a TBWA branded romper suit for Martha May Rigby, (the 3 week old daughter of Jonathan) in a thinly veiled attempt to lure her to the dark side at a tender age.

Thank you so much for the gift and here’s the deal. When she is a little bit bigger, we’ll let her try on the TBWA strip and the beloved LOVE strip and let her decide for herself.  That’s how confident we are….x