We’ve recently worked with Manchester United TV and Sky on a pre-season marketing campaign. It included Direct Mail with a personalised letter from Sir Alex Ferguson. He’s a huge fan of MUTV but not of stamps, so we put those on the envelopes. We also produced welcome emails and follow-up emails highlighting the programmes to look forward to and provide direction to key sections of the MUTV website.
Just a little thank you to the Manchester Metropolitan University: 2nd year BA (Hons) Graphic Design students (pictured above) and The University of Salford: 3rd year BA (Hons) Advertising Design students who both recently had to endure me talking about this weird and wonderful industry we call work. They went easier on me than I expected during the post-talk Q&A and from my perspective not too many eyes glazed over so overall, it seemed to go rather well. I hope that everyone concerned now appreciates Lawnmover advertising more than ever!? Thanks for having me, Simon Rowlands.
P.S. I would love to know whether the young lady with the laptop was taking notes or playing solitaire?
Eating yummy food while watching The Gruffalo with the kids – our response to Matter’s festive photo competition. If you weren’t aware of Matter, they offer a nifty service to subscribers which tailors Direct Mail according to specific tastes. You just tell them what you like and Mr Postie delivers a box full of stuff you’ll be interested in, for FREE! Is this the end of junk mail? The last box to land on our doormat had a bar of Cadbury’s chocolate in it. Yummy!
This Christmas we thought we would keep the scary Santa outfit in the wardrobe and leave the giving to some experts. We gladly passed on a sack of great, new toys including Tombliboo and friend (pictured) to the lovely people at Wood Street Mission to help them achieve their Christmas Project goal.
The Mission aims to help local families in need and ensure that their children all have a present to open on Christmas Day.
We would like to thank all of our clients, partners and suppliers without whom we couldn’t have made this donation.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We’re proud to say that Stiff Rowlands is two today. We’d like to thank all our clients, collaborators, partners, friends, family and nails for your support over the last two years. Thank you and here’s to many more happy memories.
Our heartfelt congratulations to Speech Debelle on her Mercury Prize win this week. Speech features as one of the latest acts to perform on our pal David Tree’s excellent Watch Listen Tell series. See if you can spot the Stiff Rowlands pegboard title!
We were asked to contribute to a Drum article titled ‘What does your desk say about you?’. Here’s what our desk said:
Executive toys, photographs of loved ones, wilting plants, receipts and ‘I wish I had done that’ reference books are all things that seem to occupy our desk space at the moment. This doesn’t stop us seeking further inspirational work stations as we know that sometimes the best ideas don’t always happen when you’re chained to your PAYE desk. Those dongle things and the free Wi-Fi that’s bloody everywhere these days are liberating and make desk sharing or sitting in the park an easy, workable alternative for us.
More desk talk here.
It’s not everyday we are encouraged to think stupid but Howies Summer 2009 Catalogue proves that it can have its benefits. It certainly makes a welcome change from thinking outside the box or in this case, envelope. In fact, the result is far from stupid (this is stupid) we actually consider it to be pretty smart. Maybe we could all benefit from asking more dumb questions?
PS: Although the above catalogue looks well-thumbed, we can assure Howies that the postman delivered it in pristine condition!
What inspired you today? That’s the question The Drum asked our very own Mr Stiff. Read his response below or if you’re seeking further inspiration read the full feature here.
Music is a constant source of creative inspiration but the business behind the music we enjoy can often appear to be so far removed that it’s hard to understand how the two are connected.
There are exceptions to every rule though and any business that takes its name from the industry term for a dead duck, has to be worth a second look. I’ve always been intrigued by the story of Stiff Records, partly due to the name that we share but more importantly because of their seemingly uncompromising lack of respect for conventions and their stubborn independence.
Their artist roster and marketing were so gleefully haphazard and anti corporate that they really could only have got away with it in the late seventies and early eighties before the label imploded and went on a 20 year hiatus in 1986.
The legendary Barney Bubbles was responsible for much of Stiff Records’ early graphics and his eclectic style helped to create some of their most iconic sleeve artwork. A personal favourite has to be the Crown wallpaper sleeve for Ian Dury & The Blockheads’ 1979 album “Do It Yourself”, which came in 28 different patterns!
Direct Mail. You either love it or hate it. But if only everything was as beautiful as this little, limited edition (only 150!), screenprinted book we just received from illustrator Andy Smith. The observant amongst you might recognise Andy’s unique style – he worked with us on the D&AD winning Big Bang Book for Tequila Manchester a while back. We all know that DM is a great medium to personalise but how the heck did he know that when we opened it, it would be raining outside? Genius! Can’t wait for the follow up “Sunny Season”.
