Prima drops first full-length album ‘Scandalous’

Midication Recordings’ artist Prima is back with her first full-length project Scandalous; a truly accomplished collection of top tier R&B coming straight out of Manchester, and we at Sundae looked after the full communications campaign for the release.

Dropping just yesterday, Scandalous is 100% independent, 100% authentic and 100% Mancunian; Prima’s soft and silky vocals effortlessly deliver raw and relatable lyrics, taking us on a strong young female’s journey of self-discovery, self-love and the inevitable ups and downs of the hectic, emotional roller coaster we call life.

Fully produced by our friend JSD, Head Honcho at Midication, this is an album to get lost and found in; it will make you question yourself, your relationships, what it all means, and all-the-while hitting you in the gut with a soul-filled reminder of why we fall in love in the first place.

Prima is at the forefront of Manchester’s burgeoning R&B movement; she joined Midication in the label’s very early days and has since been making huge waves with tracks featuring on PrettyLittleThing’s (PLT) ad campaigns with Molly-Mae Hague and Tamara Francesconi, with a very special project alongside the global fashion giant soon to be announced.

 She has amassed hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify and the Manchester singer has also performed on the BBC Music Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds Festival, been playlisted by Rinse FM, and has seen the music video for her track ‘100’ premiere on Earmilk, as well as an artist feature on DJ Ace’s BBC Radio 1 Xtra show, and one of her songs being handed the ‘Track of the Week’ title on BBC Radio 1.

We really couldn’t wait to share the news of this outstanding album, and our excitement was more than matched by Manchester’s media with brilliant coverage appearing in Manchester World, The Manc, The Manc Audio, Manchester’s Finest, About Manchester and Unlock Manchester

 The future is set to be incredibly exciting for Prima, JSD and the full team at Midication Recordings… and we cannot wait to see what happens next.

Scandalous is available on all platforms now and you can catch Prima at Beehouse, Deansgate Locks, Manchester on Sat 21st May for her album live launch show, tickets will be on sale soon.

Tom x

 

Live and direct from London Remixed Festival

We’ve just left the opening night of London Remixed Festival and we’re mopping our party perspiring brows so we can tell you all about it… What. A. Night.

Everyone’s noticed a certain energy in the room at gigs at the moment, right? The palpable happiness and excitement as music fans are elated to be able to witness live performance first hand, once again? Well, tonight has definitely not been an exception; the atmosphere was electric, the venue was jam-packed and everyone in attendance was well up for losing themselves in the music.

The evening has been dedicated to a celebration of 25 years of Continental Drifts with a brass band spectacular including sets from DJ Chris Tofu, DJ Dials Davis, Intergalactic Brasstronauts, London Brass All Stars, New Car Smell, as well as the launch of Festival Lab, a new stage curated by a group of producers from its just-as-new course of creatives.

It brings us all at team Sundae so much joy to welcome London Remixed back with a full live line-up at Rich Mix Arts Centre and, after a year spent in virtual reality, the simply incredible members of the Festival team have challenged themselves to kick global London into the future with a live music culture clash by a wealth of artists and partners from around the world… and something is telling us that they will succeed!

 The two-day indoor festival is showcasing over 25 cutting edge bands and DJs from a range of cultures offering up the best in Latin Grooves, African Rhythms, Tropical Bass, Vintage-Remix, Desert Remix, Balkan Beats, Urban Roots, Acoustic Soundclash and Brass Band Remix, as well as offering creativity, fun and madness, complete with a buzzing atmosphere, but without the mud, rain or hassle of camping.

As clients and communications campaigns go, Remixed is well and truly up there with our faves due to the variety of media that the all encompassing programme allows us to engage; we’ve seen amazing support in the form of previews, features, interviews and listings from DESIblitz, London Live, London TV Online, Hackney Gazette, East London Advertiser, Rhythm Passport, BBC Radio London, BBC Asian Network, Time Out London, The Londonist and The Weekly Gleaner, amongst others.

The Continental Drifts Festival Lab programme is designed to support the next generation of event producers. Over 12 weeks, the young producers learn all about production, programming, marketing, sponsorship and audience development, culminating in them planning their own programme of activity tonight at the festival under the collective title, The Vybe Engyneerz.

Such is the innovative nature of the programme, it has attracted the attention of our friends at Total Production International and Access All Areas, who are keen to find out more about it and how it is at the forefront of securing the future of music festival production in the UK following the uncertain time we have all been through. The Vybe Engyneerz will be having interviews with both publications next week.

Right now, we’re all off for a disco nap because tomorrow will see four incredible stages filled with an eclectic selection of live acts, performers and DJs playing music from around the world meeting the 21st Century; from Future Arabic music, African, Latin remix all the way to new UK folk and very funky DJ’s, with sets from Daytimers, James Riley & Rooftop Assembly and Mina & Bryte, plus LOADS more.

We’ll catch you in the dance 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

Truly Extraordinary Portraits

Over the last few months, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Chatterbox and the BBC to support the campaign for Extraordinary Portraits, which launched on BBC One and iPlayer Arts in February.

It’s an absolutely stunning art series which matches real people with extraordinary stories to a selection of portrait makers, who are challenged to turn their experiences into compelling portraits.

Tonight’s episode sees Kelvin Okafor, a hyperreal artist who specialises in pencil portraits, draw Catrin Pugh, a survivor of a bus crash that left her with burns across 95 percent of her body. Kelvin goes to Wales and meets Catrin’s family and speaks to them about how they supported her during her physical and mental recovery. Kelvin describes Catrin as the phoenix that rose from the ashes. We get to see if, after 650 hours of work, Catrin is prepared to see every detail of herself through his eyes.

Kelvin is a hyper-realistic portrait artist, drawing both regular people and celebs. In 2017, he became the first black artist to be permanently exhibited in the House of Commons with his pencil portrait of Bernie Grant. He has drawn model Winnie Harlow, portraying her skin condition vitiligo and now provides a course in hyper-realistic art.

We managed to place a brilliant interview feature with Kelvin in The British Blacklist if you’d like an interesting read before catching the episode later on.

 

Tom x

Image Credit: BBC / Chatterbox / Robert-Douglas & Tom Grancia

 

Introducing Swansea Arena with Huw Stephens

As part of our work with Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), we look after communications around the launch of its state-of-the-art multi-purpose entertainment venue, Swansea Arena, due to launch in 2022.

Swansea Arena is a brand-new waterside 3,500 capacity indoor arena, located just a short walk from Swansea Beach, Swansea Marina and Swansea city centre.

The game-changing venue is a key part of the £135m Copr Bay Phase One development and is expected to host 160 performances across music, comedy, theatre, esports and conference events for an estimated 230,000 visitors each year. Around 60 of the events will be exhibitions, conferences, graduations and other business-led events.

Having been involved in this incredible venue’s journey since before ground was broken on the build, we arrived at a point in the campaign that we were really excited about here at Sundae; it was time to introduce tour promoters, press, as well as local businesses to the Arena and reveal a state-of- the-art flythrough, as well as some incredible digital assets.

With social restrictions courtesy of the pandemic still well and truly upon us, we planned a hybrid event that would have the capacity to revert to fully digital should the situation dictate it… and dictate it, it did.

Due to the global situation over the last year or so, we have a lot of digital event experience under our belt, so we saw this as an opportunity to get creative and quickly threw ourselves into the new plan; an online event in which a respected music broadcaster would present their guide to the coastal city of Swansea, and introduce new GM Lisa Mart with an insightful Q and A about the venue, with the reveal of the state of the art flythrough and digital assets woven in.

We contacted our dream presenter; the one and only Huw Stephens (BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio Cymru), and told him about the project. In true Huw style, he cracked a few jokes and told us he was completely up for it… we just knew it was going to be amazing.

Because our event guests couldn’t visit Swansea and see how beautiful the city is, we knew that we had to show this off in Huw’s guide; the location is what separates this Arena from other venues of its type as Swansea is one of the few UK cities located on a sandy beach. It’s fringed with a coastal footpath giving panoramic views of the city on one side and the famed Mumbles lighthouse on the other.

We scripted the film, scouted locations, hollered at our camera crew, and met Huw and GM Lisa Mart in Swansea. A full day filming, dodging rainstorms, meeting locals, fun, laughter and, above all, gathering high quality material later, and it was ready to go to edit.

After Huw casually nailed his role of presenter, he kindly introduced us to the brilliant local band Bandicoot and we were able to secure the perfect soundtrack in their song ‘Fuzzy’; with much of the film dedicated to Swansea’s brilliant music scene, it was really important to ATG and ourselves that this was represented in the film.

Our hugely talented editor Damon returned the final film to us, with the flythrough etc stitched in to show the interior of Swansea Arena for the very first time, including how the different configurations for the multi-purpose venue will work for the wide range of events it will host… and it was absolutely fantastic.

With RSVPs from our super targeted guestlist filling up our inbox, we were ready to go; the date, time and viewing platform were all set, so we sent out the final instructions… the event was fully attended by guests that stayed for the duration, ran without a single hitch and received absolutely lovely feedback.

The event and its content was shown great support by the media with coverage across a range of key regional consumer, business and broadcast outlets, and national news and trade outlets including Wales Online, West Wales Chronicle, Planet Radio Online, Swansea Bay News, South Wales Evening Post, Business News Wales, Insider Media, Commercial News Media, Greatest Hits Radio, MSN, Total Production International, The Stadium Business, Ticketing Business News and Pan Stadia & Arena Management.

We have really loved this part of the campaign and overcoming all of the challenges that came with it, but we especially love this client and this Arena, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds…as the legendary Huw Stephens would say: See you down the front!

Llawer o gariad!

 

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

A love letter to storytelling….

“You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it.” Margaret Atwood.

Working in the film and television industry in both London and the North West of England over the past 15 years, I’ve witnessed some seismic changes in its culture, from the recession, to Operation Yewtree, #MeToo (me too BTW), the growth and impact of social media, the current BBC License Fee debate, and the recent, terrifying (more so as they’re not completely surprising), findings of The Looking Glass survey.

Amidst, perhaps concealed by, all the noise and politics, and fighting hard in a business built on ingrained prejudice, there is an army of determined, talented people supporting that change, and working incredibly hard to try and make creative, innovative and entertaining television that reflects the UK’s nations and regions. 

My heroes are those whose ambition it is to create opportunity for new young content producers, from all backgrounds and cultures, to tell stories. There is a determined shift towards greater regionality and diversity in broadcasting, and a wealth of projects that take small steps that are our hope for the future of British content.

Back in 2013, when we were still a very young company, Universal Pictures entrusted us with Elaine Constantine’s Northern Soul – the film, her love letter to the scene, which we fell in love with. The film became a pivotal project for us. It was expected to hit 7-10 screens across the country, but what had been underestimated was the tremendous groundswell of support from Northern Soulers in the media and, most importantly, in the regions across the country. It became a break out top ten box office hit, our campaign won a BVA, and the film eventually screened in over 150 cinemas.

Elaine herself was a first-time filmmaker, and it took her 17 years to get her film made, even as a highly respected fashion photographer and image maker, and even with great friends, including Steve Coogan, Lisa Stansfield, John Thompson and Ricky Tomlinson, who guest starred in and supported her film.

Having seen first-hand the sheer force of will and boundless enthusiasm Elaine had to call upon to make her voice, and that of the Northern Soul scene, both seen and heard, we were inspired to find our own place in the industry, championing stories of different backgrounds, cultures and place.

Northern Soul – the film made us realise the power of the largely overlooked audience power in the regions of the UK. It made us realise that being Northern was our superpower, and that growing a specialist entertainment consultancy in Manchester was definitely possible, and absolutely necessary. 

Seven years on, proudly based in Manchester, we’ve been honoured to raise the profile of wonderful projects from all corners of the UK.

In Manchester, we’ve delivered programme publicity for The Tez O’Clock Show, a late-night satirical comedy, made at The Studios in Salford’s MediaCity, a ‘TRULY anti-establishment show’ hosted by Tez Ilyas, a Northern working-class British-Asian-Muslim; we’ve worked with the Royal Exchange and Talawa Theatre Company on the film of King Lear, broadcast on BBC Four, which cast Lear’s family as black and raised questions about the whitewashing of British history and the lack of roles for black actors in the UK; and we’ve delivered an incredibly important campaign for I told my Mum I was going on an R.E. trip, a BBC Performance Live project from Contact and 20 Stories High, that told verbatim stories of abortion, from all sides of the debate and very different perspectives.

Across the country, we’ve produced international level red carpets for BBC Sports Personality of the Year in Leeds, Glasgow, Belfast and Birmingham; we’ve publicised London Short Film Festival, the UK’s premier showcase for emerging and established, homegrown and international short form, for four consecutive years; and we’ve launched the £57 million Young Audiences Content Fund with the BFI, dedicated to making exceptional programming that reflects the lives of all young people in the UK on screen.

Recently we’ve been working with Creative England on ShortFLIX, a flourishing short film making scheme, in conjunction with Sky Arts and ScreenSkills, which creates valuable opportunity for new voices to create diverse and representative films for broadcast. This year’s finalists hail from Newcastle, Cheshire, Wakefield and London, bringing a rich slate of short films with culturally relevant and powerful stories exploring family, friendship, rivalry, loss, survival and recovery in contemporary Britain.

We’re also about to launch The Snow Spider for the brilliant Leopard Pictures. A co-commission from CBBC and BBC Wales, the spell-binding fantasy drama is based on Jenny Nimmo’s best-selling book trilogy,  and adapted for television by award-winning writer Owen Sheers. The 5×30’ series, featuring an all Welsh, and all Welsh-speaking cast, blends ancient Welsh folklore, magic and myth with contemporary adventures.

In short, in an industry where being regional is still often seen as being synonymous with a lack of ambition or talent, and where the door is so often closed,  we think it is vital to celebrate difference. At Sundae, we publicise stories about people and place, from all regions of the UK, and are delighted to help give them the national and international platform they deserve. 

Fiona x

 

A Blooming Marvellous MAFterstroke

It’s no secret that we are hugely proud of our relationship and work with our friends at Manchester Animation Festival – year on year the festival grows in stature and we are so happy to be part of that journey.

With MAF being the UK’s largest animation festival, this is obviously something that Manchester can hang its hat on so we wanted a local interest news story that represented the Mancunian input into something so amazing.

Upon scouring the content, we found ‘Bloomers’ made by animated documentary maker Samantha Moore along with composer Malin Bång and producer Abigail Addison as part of The Happiness Machine, a project that paired up 10 European female animation directors with 10 female contemporary music composers to contribute to an original orchestral piece that would be performed live all over the world, and is a portrait of Headen & Quarmby a knicker factory in Middleton, Manchester.

When researching the film Samantha spent a lot of time in the factory drawing the workers, and chatting to them about their backgrounds. Hazel, who works in the factory office doing the accounts, has been involved with the factory since she was a child because it was her parents, Mary and Eric, who set up the factory when they were teenagers and her son David now co-runs the factory.

We got straight on the blower to Samantha followed by a call to David at the factory to garner all of the information that we required to make a pitch on this happen.

As a result, not only did BBC Radio Manchester interview Samantha live on air, they sent a team up over to Headen & Quarmby to interview the factory workers and the family that own it for a package that eventually ran across a number of days featuring on the Sunday Breakfast Show, the Mike Sweeney Show, the Phil Trow Show and numerous times on the Breakfast Show with Chelsea Norris.

As I write, I am leaving screening of The Happiness Machine. It was a big success and the Headen & Quarmby team were in attendance to see themselves in animated form on the big screen – they were so pleased that they were able to tell their story on the radio and we were so pleased that we could help make this happen.

We’re all off to the Premiere screening of Netflix’s Klaus so we better run!

Tom x

Images courtesy of Manchester Animation Festival

Everyman is welcome in Manchester!

Everyone knows that we love Everyman here at Sundae and we were super hyped when they asked us to manage the announcement and launch period of Everyman Manchester St. John’s in the city centre – not just because we love working with the Everyman team but also because we knew our favourite cinema would soon be just a few minutes walk from the office.

Continuing our role with Everyman of engaging with the community and regional press as we have done for them in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle, we knew that ahead of launch that the Manchester and North West business, property, lifestyle, culture and news titles needed a heads up… and so did their readers.

First things always come first and the press release was top of our list. We worked closely with the amazing Maria from the Everyman dream team to get this just right for the regional titles that we would be hitting with the announcement.

Out it went and it was enthusiastically received by our contacts across all relevant media sectors with features appearing in The Business Desk, I Love Manchester, The Manc, Insider, Place North West, Manchester Confidential and Manchester Wire along with MEN Online and MEN Newspaper to name a few.

The coverage has created the coveted Manchester buzz and  people across the city and beyond can’t wait to see the place come to life. We have one just down the road in Altrincham but there is just something about its Quay Street spot that is creating a chorus of hometown hysteria.

The next phase of the launch period is everyone’s favourite part – the launch party! It’s the night before Halloween so we better get cracking on the guestlist and decide witch people we have broom for!

See you on the d-floor!

Tom x

Images courtesy of Everyman

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