Free Your Mind: The launch of Aviva Studios, home of Factory International

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 12 months, then you will know all about Manchester’s newest cultural juggernaut Aviva Studios, home of Factory international.

We’re seriously proud of being from the North and culture from our region is always close to our hearts, so we have been waiting with baited breath for this venue to fling its doors open.

When the Factory International team got in touch with us and asked us to support them with on the official Aviva Studios opening event, we jumped at the opportunity.

The launch event was a live, interactive launch party, built around the venue’s opening show Free Your Mind, a journey into The Matrix through dance and immersive design, directed by Danny Boyle, with hip hop choreography by Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy, a powerful score from composer Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante (co-founders of Boy Blue); we’ve worked with these three wonderful people before on Emancipation of Expressionism, but that’s a whole other story.

The breathtaking production also featured eye-opening staging from world-leading designer Es Devlin, alongside words from acclaimed writer Sabrina Mahfouz and costumes by iconic fashion designer Gareth Pugh.

It goes without saying that the event was absolutely sensational; a fully immersive experience with giant white rabbits running around everywhere, fully costumed barrel walkers, dancers, amazing food and drink by the venue’s food and drink operator Super Serve, a massive party with music provided by quality DJs spinning hip-hop and soul, and of course a flawless performance of Free Your Mind.

A massive night for Manchester, welcoming one of the most important cultural venues that the city has ever housed, and it has been an honour of the highest order to work on it with such brilliant people… but those red carpets don’t walk themselves, and now it is most definitely bedtime!

Sundae x

📸: Jody Hartley 

My Pride Song

What a way to end the summer! Projects like this are what we are all about at Sundae, and this one in particular is a movement close to all of our hearts… the team at Pride Classical, the trailblazing organisation dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ history and culture through the power of music, invited us to raise awareness and confirm contributors to their new initiative My Pride Song, a celebration of Pride and allyship.

My Pride Song called upon as many LGBTQ+ community members and allies as possible to contribute a video message with the story behind their choice, the importance of the song, and why the music of Pride matters to them.

Any new contributors would  join prominent LGBTQ+ community members and allies including actress, presenter, author, television producer, and activist Dame Joanna Lumley, winner of season 4 of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Danny Beard, renowned actress and activist Julie, Coronation Street actress Dolly-Rose Campbell, comedian Jason Manford, global cabaret queen Alison Jiear, and Olivier award winning actor Matt Henry MBE who had already joined the movement.

My Pride Song was born out of and inspired by Pride Classical, a brand new event that celebrated the music and history of the LGBTQ+ community. Premiering at the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, across the opening weekend of Pride Month in June 2023, Pride Classical presented brand new arrangements of beloved songs by iconic artists, performed by a full professional orchestra of LGBTQ+ musicians and allies.

We’re so proud to say that we placed features in I Love Manchester, GScene, DIVA Magazine and Canal Street Online, as well as confirming contributions from Coronation Street stars Anthony Crank and Jane Hazelgrove, It’s a Sin actor Neil Ashton, Waterloo Road’s Hollie-Jay Bowes, prolific actress and writer Sue Vincent, Hollyoaks’ Ashling O’Shea and Annie Wallace, Rise and Fall’s Connor Fisher and drag queen Kitty Scott-Claus.

In the words of Patsy Stone of Absolutely Fabulous fame: “Cheers, sweeties! Thanks a lot!”

Sundae x

📸: Joshua Croft Photography

Canyon Del Muerto

Just last night, we attended and managed press and social media for the very special advance, exclusive screening of brand-new feature film Canyon Del Muerto, directed by Coerte Voorhees, starring Tom Felton (Harry Potter) and BAFTA winner Abigail Lawrie (The Crown), which also featured a Q&A with the cast and director.

Canyon Del Muerto is a stunning historical epic and the important true story of Ann Axtell Morris, North America’s first female archaeologist who worked with her husband Earl Morris (the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character created by George Lucas) and the Navajo in the 1920s, to uncover America’s first civilization – the Anasazi. 

Ann struggled to prove herself in a male-dominated profession, but she was overshadowed by her husband’s accomplishments and virtually left out of the history books. 

Their trek across the magnificent Southwestern United States was fraught with danger as their Navajo guides discouraged them from their descent into the canyon, which they believed was cursed.

The incredible supporting cast includes Hanako Footman (The Crown), Academy Award Winner Wes Studi (Dances with wolves, Last of the Mohicans), Academy Award Nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), James Hillier (The Crown), and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (The Queen’s Gambit, How They Run).

With the importance and type of subject matter, and the advanced and exclusive nature of the screening, we spoke to a very targeted selection of media and generated interest within a very specific sector. In the audience, we had The Express, The Guardian, New Scientist, Current World Archaeology, Minerva, and British Archaeology, with an in-depth feature on the Q&A running in The Express  just a couple of days later.

We looked after the press in attendance and made sure they got what they needed from the evening, and in addition we devised and managed birth of the Canyon Del Muerto official Instagram account, as well as the gathering of all social media content inclusive of all cast and director interviews and audience vox-pops before and after the screening.

It has been a brilliant journey working with the Canyon Del Muerto team and we cannot wait to see what’s next for this hugely important story.

 

Tom  x

 

Pictures by: Shoib Ahmad and Olivia Ross 

 

Festival of Libraries 2022

As the long awaited sunshine finally beamed upon Manchester, team Sundae has been busy creating the buzz around the return of Manchester UNESCO City of Literature’s annual Festival of Libraries

Running for five days in June, the festival celebrates Greater Manchester’s 133 libraries and their librarians with a varied and vibrant programme; the perfect opportunity for me to explore some of the very best ones across the city!

Last year, Manchester changed the game by investing in its libraries as an essential resource. Festival of Libraries was born as an yearly commemoration of the promise, made by the city and the Art Council of England, to build that commitment and celebrate libraries as sanctuaries and culture hubs. 

Being an avid fan of all things cultural, I was spoiled for choice with over 90 live events, showcasing a vast selection of digital art commissions, exhibitions, dance, performance, panel talks and walking tours.  

Fronted by ambassador, author Lemn Sissay OBE himself, the festival captured the wise words of several crowd-favourite library-loving creatives. Actress and activist Julie Hesmondhalgh, modern restorer and TV presenter Jay Blades, historian Greg Jenner, broadcaster Mike Sweeney, poet Jackie Kay and artist Abigail Reynolds all spoke on the importance of libraries in today’s society as part of Inspired By Libraries. 

Growing up in a little town in my native Bulgaria, the small local library played a huge part in my formative years so now, more than ever, I understand the importance such institutions hold in raising inspired new generations. So the bustling halls of Manchester Central Library were the place to be on a busy Thursday afternoon. 

Meeting Lemn Sissay was nothing short of inspiring, as he laughed with the crowd and talked on why libraries need to be treasured by society, as mentioned in his BBC Radio Manchester interview, and his advice to the youngest of poets, wishing to follow in his footsteps:

“Above all things, try to be a good person,” he said, while children in the front rows listened with interest and awe. 

Indeed, the festival had something for everyone! Even though I might be a full-grown adult, my personal family-friendly highlight might just have been Look for a Book – a mass book hunt which saw Greater Manchester’s libraries planting 500 copies of Sir Lenny Henry’s new book, The Boy With Wings, for children all around the city’s 10 boroughs to find! 

The Festival touched on crucial matters like wellbeing with events like Shared Group Readings and Relax in the Library, showing that libraries can also be a place of peace. It also explored the diversity Manchester has to offer with the brilliant Migrant Voices Takeover, which saw fascinating performances by local community musicians from Olympias Music Foundation stir up a brilliant mixture of music, dance and conversation around migration. 

Manchester Central Library also took part of the Happy, Safe and Free art trail, which asked of local school kids to create an artwork on what makes them happy, safe and free, which was then folded into little boats or shredded into pieces and spread around the city in commemoration of the hardships refugees endure in the wake of World Refugee Week 2022. The festival also dedicated events to diversity, local communities, history, inclusivity, and more topics society can easily tackle with the help of libraries. 

During the press campaign we worked along with the amazing festival organisers to ensure the news was spread far and wide. Some national coverage highlights included The Bookseller and Time Out, while local outlets such as Creative Tourist, Manchester Wire, and About Manchester, together with BBC Radio Manchester, helped us give FoL the love it deserves, and we really cannot wait for next year!

 

Evelina x

ATG’s Swansea Arena launches with Royal Blood and a show-stopping visual art project

Well, as weeks go… this one has been pretty special! We have just returned from beautiful, sunny Swansea, where Royal Blood became the first music act to play as part of Swansea Arena’s launch season, in a special event ahead of their biggest European tour to date.

The brand-new Arena is simply stunning and Royal Blood were the perfect opening act; they showcased the state-of-the-art technical and sound capabilities with an electrifying show that very nearly blew the roof off the place as the packed crowd partied the night away.

We had some lovely support from the national and regional media with gig reviewers from The Times, The Express, Classic Rock Magazine, Total Production International, Wales Online, South Wales Evening Post, Wales 247 and Buzz Magazine all heading along to take in the performance and, naturally, everything that the venue has to offer.

It was also incredible to see ‘From Swansea, With Love’, a show-stopping visual art project featuring words of love and welcome from well-known musicians, actors, comedians and presenters from Swansea and beyond, that we put together with our friends at Instruct Studio, popping up around the city, to celebrate its amazing redevelopment and mark the opening of the Arena which is at the centre of the £135m Copr Bay development.

Beautiful phrases, celebrating Abertawe and its music, sunshine, art, creativity, memories and, of course, the gilt edged coastline, have been contributed by Cerys Matthews, Keith Allen, Luke Evans, Michael Sheen, Rachel K Collier and, friend of the venue, Huw Stephens.

The visual art appears on poster sites, digital screens and hoardings across the city, in addition to screens at Swansea Arena and two hand painted murals from Swansea’s own, Fresh Creative.

Its launch also garnered huge press support on a national and regional level with coverage appearing in The Independent, Evening Standard, Wales Online, ITV.com and hundreds more news titles from around the UK, while Broadway and Hollywood’s Luke Evans was posting about it live on the day, and Cerys Matthews and Rachel K Collier also offered some lovely social media support.

We were over in Swansea for just a few days but we even had time to make a film with Huw Stephens which sees him give us a guided tour of the brand new Arena and the visual art project… 

Our friendship with the lovely folk at ATG goes back a number of years now and we have been working on the communications campaign around the development of  Swansea Arena for nearly four of them… we just can’t wait to see what the future holds for this game changing entertainment venue and the good people of South Wales!

Tom x

Sundae Shakes Up New Press Campaign For Daisy & Ollie! 

It’s been a very surreal year so far for Sundae, one that we would never have anticipated. 

One of the biggest challenges to the lockdown has been leaving our office and working from home. Not only do we miss the social aspect but we miss the buzz of working together as a team, bouncing off creative ideas, celebrating successes and meeting with our clients. 

However, even though we have had to completely change the way we work and exchange physical meetings for Zoom meetings with our cats, we have achieved some amazing results through hard work and determination. 

We also came to the realisation that everyone is in the same boat and have utilised that opportunity to develop even stronger relationships with journalists by mucking in together and helping one another. Whilst they all sensitively share all the breaking news that comes with a global pandemic, they are also keen to keep audiences and readers entertained with more positive news. 

Our main highlight so far has been working with our lovely client, Hoopla to launch a brand new series of Daisy & Ollie on its new home on Channel 5’s Milkshake! in March. 

Daisy & Ollie, which is voiced and exec produced by British comedian Jason Manford, is a 2D animated show, which aims to help preschoolers explore the world around them and helps to  answer some of life’s biggest questions. 

Before the Coronavirus lockdown, we had planned an autism-friendly preview screening in Manchester to celebrate the very special episode created in collaboration with the National Autistic Society (NAS), hosted by a presenter from Milkshake! along with NAS ambassador Christine McGuinness but then the Coronavirus outbreak changed the world, and we found ourselves in the midst of breaking news and a whole new way of PR life. 

We had to think on our feet and approach the publicity campaign in a brand new way. The new series was still set to launch and we were armed with an array of amazing celebrity cameos including Paddy & Christine McGuinness and stand up comedian Romesh Ranganathan. Either way, we were determined to make this a success for not only Daisy & Ollie but to also shine a light on the fantastic work that the National Autistic Society do and World Autism Awareness Week 

In the following weeks, we worked closely with all parties in order to deliver an incredibly impactful press announcement for ‘How Do I Make Friends With Theo?’, the special Daisy & Ollie episode which aired on World Autism Awareness Day. 

Sundae delivered an outstanding nationwide press, digital and social campaign to launch the new series and as a result, landed blanket coverage for Daisy & Ollie in nearly all key national newspapers including Mail Online, Daily Star, Daily Express, PA, The Sun, Metro Online and The Daily Telegraph.

With daytime shows such as This Morning and Good Morning Britain also in the midst of constant breaking news and adapting to a new way of working, airtime was like gold dust and we were delighted to land some key interviews for Christine McGuinness and Jason Manford on these shows via Skype, raising even more awareness around the campaign. 

Other broadcast interviews followed, including Granada Reports, BBC Radio Manchester and also Channel 4’s brand new daytime programme The Steph Show, in which Jason was able to announce Romesh Ranganathan’s special episodes. 

The Romesh press announcement  was also picked up by comedy title Chortle and the Daily Star, which was fantastic. 

To support the campaign further, Sundae also worked closely with Hoopla and the celebrity guest stars’ press teams to promote the show via their social channels, resulting in some fantastic reach.

Overall, the press campaign and celebrity cameo announcements resulted in some amazing national coverage stemming across entertainment sites, trade press, television and broadcast news outlets. It was amazing to see Daisy & Ollie receive such wonderful recognition for the special episode and the new series. 

MC x

On-set at The Circle….heart emoji kiss kiss SEND!

Ok, I’m just going to be straight up and put it out there. We absolutely LOVE The Circle here at Sundae, so when we were invited to work with our good friends at Channel 4 on publicity for series 2, there were high-fives flying around the office like no-one’s business!

The mission we gladly accepted, was to create a media and social buzz around the Friday night live shows, showcasing its Northern location; very handy as it’s coming straight outta Salford.

The Circle is the next big global format to be rolled out and its incredible to know Studio Lambert is also making the international versions of the show in our home city.

As I write,  the live final is just hours away and it has already been an amazing ride. We’ve had the pleasure of inviting press and influencer fans of The Circle to be in the audience for all of the live shows, and we have been inundated with excited requests to interview the show’s voice-over star, Bolton born and bred, Sophie Willan.

Over the course of the live shows we have had a ball in the studio audience with BBC Radio Manchester’s The Dead Good Show, Your Mcr, The Mancunion, Manchester’s Finest, Manchester Confidential, Gaydio, JOE.co.uk, I Love Manchester, Hits Radio, Manchester Evening News, BBC Radio Manchester’s Breakfast Show and The Manc along to enjoy the evening.

No-one is immune to The Circle’s influence, and we’ve also had a whole host of celebrity fans on board, including Alexandra Mardell (Coronation Street), Dave Tag (Hollyoaks) and Ellis Hollins (Hollyoaks) and Hollie-jay Bowes (Hollyoaks).

Time’s a tickin’ and the final is edging ever closer and here at Sundae Towers there is a familiar notion of mixed emotion; we love the show that much that we don’t want it to end yet we cannot wait to see who wins!

Our guestlist for the final is full of wonderful people, we’re ready, Emma Willis is ready and like all circles, when it ends we will be right back at the beginning and waiting for next year’s instalment.

See you there!

Tom x

Image Credit: Channel 4

 

Sundae puts parents to the test with Daisy & Ollie survey campaign

It’s been an exciting summer so far for Sundae with plenty of festivals, events and new shows in the calendar but one of our highlights has been working with Hoopla Animation on a summer holiday story about the studio’s much loved pre-school show Daisy & Ollie.

Daisy & Ollie airs on Cartoonito and is voiced and exec produced by British comedian Jason Manford. The 2D animated show aims to encourage pre-schoolers explore the world around them and help with the answers to some of life’s biggest questions such as ‘Why do we have to wash?’, ‘How many stars are in the sky?’, ‘Why do we dream?’ and ‘How do you stop the hiccups?’. 

Sundae devised a successful nationwide press, digital and social campaign to keep the brand front of mind for parents throughout the summer months.

We quizzed 1500 parents of 2-6 year olds from across the UK to find out all about the difficult and sometimes challenging questions their inquisitive little ones put them on the spot with during the summer holidays.

The survey discovered that on average inquisitive little children each ask their parents a huge 55 questions every single day of the summer holidays – that’s 2310 questions per child over the six week summer break.

Overall, the findings of the survey were incredibly news worthy and resulted in some amazing national coverage for Daisy & Ollie. Highlights included The Guardian Online, Mail Online, Mirror Online, MSN, Mail on Sunday, The Guardian G2 and The Sun, with other major regional titles such as The Sun and Irish Mail on Sunday also covering the story.

Family titles also included Raring2Go, Parent Talk, Mummy Fever and Nursery World.

To support the resulting news story, Sundae worked closely with Hoopla to deliver two social media videos that put UK parents, and Daisy & Ollie exec producer Jason Manford on the spot to answer the most difficult questions faced by parents every day such as ‘Where do babies come from?’, ‘Why do we have to go to bed?’ and ‘How come you’re allowed that and i’m not?’. 

The videos were a hit with fans on social media and we worked closely with Jason Manford’s social team to amplify the campaign, delivering overall social reach of over 9.7 million.

Luckily for UK parents, who face these questions year round, Daisy & OIlie is always on hand to help, and we’ve got some exciting news to share for the brand in the coming months….

Watch this space!

MC x

On-set at The Tez O’Clock Show….in yo’ FACE!

We’ve been building towards this moment for weeks and now it’s here…. and of course we’re here!

Team Sundae is at MediaCityUK, on-set, on the ground at RX1 of Tez Ilyas’ The Tez O’Clock Show by Expectation for Channel 4.

The studio is bubbling with the vibration of hushed excitement; amongst the audience are some of Tez’s friends and family, some key media, and some well known Manchester faces.

Speaking of faces… our Wednesday evening has been made even more special by the presence of TJ and Sara who are here to do a BTS interview feature on Tez and the making of the show for, the iconic and newly re-lanched, The Face

TJ is taking care of words for the article so we get the ball rolling by making sure he has a great spot within the live studio audience for the duration of the recording. Next, we speak to Sara who is taking care of photos to figure out just how she is going to get the shots that she needs – turns out that this can only happen by all of us moving very (VERY) quickly!

We’re ready!

John Bishop has just turned up and is getting ready to go on stage. Everybody is already in stitches as Tez is warming up the audience – if you have ever seen Tez do stand up then you can imagine how hilarious this is – and when John joins him it goes next level.

And we’re off!

The record starts and the talent are doing their thing, the photographers are doing their thing and as much as we’d love to pop our trotters up and enjoy the show… we are now doing our thing.

We’re thinking about tomorrow’s newslines and clips; what will make in the morning? What best represents the show? What are the hot topics? What will people find funny?

Thanks to the talent on show, by the end of the record we’ve got more than enough material for the morning.

We work with the amazing production team at Expectation to decide which of our selections are the most newsworthy for them to turn into slick, perfectly edited clips overnight for us to issue first thing – John Bishop talking about the audience taking to the streets to overthrow the current government and make Tez Prime Minister (see video below) is a no brainer!

It’s late at night now but Sara’s got her pics, TJ’s had the Tez experience and we’re all set to tell the press what to expect from tomorrow’s show.

TJ’s meeting Tez round the corner first thing in the morning for the interview portion of the feature… we better get to bed!

Tom x

(Images: The Tez O’Clock Show / Expectation / Channel 4 / Joseph Scanlon / Stuart Wood / publicity shots)

Everyman in the mid90s

The mid 90s you say? Jonah Hill you say? A film you say? Launch events you say? Well that’s four of our favourite things right there… throw Everyman and some skateboards into the mix and that’s a cocktail team Sundae will drink all day long.

When our good friends over at the amazing Everyman came to us and asked us to look after their launch events for the UK release of, Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, mid90s at their venues in Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool we were massively hyped – mainly because we love Everyman and we love Jonah Hill… everything else was a bonus.

Everyman isn’t every cinema – they do things differently. We wanted these events to be fully experiential and to convey exactly what Jonah Hill was trying to communicate through mid90s and partner it with Everyman’s relaxed and welcoming approach to cinema.

We took to the OST to garner some knowledge on the writer’s perspective; the OST is hip-hop heavy and within it are snippets of an interview with Jonah in which he describes both hip-hop and skateboarding as emotive, empathetic, accepting, family based and judgement free scenes that gave him an identity and a home throughout his formative years.

Hill disagrees with how both scenes are represented in films generally – intimidating and aggressive cliques that don’t allow outsiders in – and wanted to flip the script, show them in their true light and let people know that everybody was, and still is, welcome.

This became our inspiration.

We wanted to use our friends in the skate and music industries to continue that family feeling in the events – our mission was to recreate the film’s atmosphere outside of the cinema and make the guests feel at home and welcomed by the hip-hop and skate worlds respectively to put them in the correct mindset for the film that they were about to watch.

First we tapped up our mate Tez at Black Sheep Skateboard Store, home of the best skate team in Europe, for some advice – he gave us better than that; they became our skate partners for the entire project. Result.

Next we had a chat with our pals Poppy and Nik over at the Marcus Intalex Music Foundation (MIMF) about coming on board as a music partner and their answer was simple: we got you. Ideal.

Sundae’s friend Lei-Mai LeMaow is known for her incredible skateboard art (amongst many other talents) so she came on board as a live art partner. More than safe hands!

Down in Birmingham we hooked up with the B-SIDE Hip-Hop Festival which is organised by the Hippodrome and they joined us as an event curation partner; they wanted to supply breakdancers, skaters and DJs and cross promote their upcoming Festival. Works for us – the more the merrier.

After much planning and negotiation with the various shopping centres that the Everyman cinemas operate out of, we were good to go.

In Birmingham, upon arrival, guests walked through a live skateboard and b-boy display outside the cinema with the mid90s OST booming in the background. Once inside, they were greeted by DJ Silence tha Nomad on the 1s and 2s spinning beats pre screening…. after the film, the party started in the bar.

The event was also well attended by members of the city’s hip-hop and skate scenes and with the display being outdoors, a crowd formed and there was plenty of cheers and applause for the performances on show resulting in maximum authenticity.

Next up was Leeds. The guys at MIMF arranged for, local hip-hop heavyweight, DJ Weston to supply the soundtrack while Lei-Mai LeMaow did some awesome bespoke live skateboard art in the bar (later given away on Insta) as the guests arrived and, once again, after the film… the party continued.

And now, here we are in Liverpool at the final event of the trilogy, we’ve moved the skate display inside the shopping centre and with the soundtrack blasting, this is the edgiest of the three events.

As the guests move through the display and into the cinema, Liverpool legends No Fakin’ are on the turntables (again courtesy of MIMF) and are taking zero prisoners. Liverpool’s leading skate store, Lost Art, were out in force and after the screening….. well, you know the rest.

Three cities, three venues, three awesome events, insane skateboard displays, breakdancing,  great music, an amazing film, family, friendship, acceptance, authenticity, lots of happy faces… and thanks to our videographer, RCLC, we’ve got evidence.

Until next time.

Tom x

(Images: mid90s / Everyman / RCLC / publicity shots)