Making Contact
One of Sundae’s first missions for Contact, Manchester’s critically acclaimed, trail-blazing theatre and arts venue, led and programmed by young people, was to help launch the final phase of its Capital Redevelopment fundraising campaign, with a target of 500k, after raising over £6m of its £6.65m target.
The rousing campaign was launched with Making Contact, an event at Manchester Art Gallery introduced by Contact advocate Julie Hesmondhalgh, Contact’s Chief Executive & Artistic Director Matt Fenton, and an inspiring performance from Contact Young Company’s radical 5* show She Bangs The Drums.
Front and centre of the campaign was Con:Struct, the dedicated team of young people aged 13-30 leading the project to transform the building for the next generation of audiences, artists and young people. They revealed the plans for the building, which is looking to reopen in Summer 2019, along with a new film to introduce Contact to a wider audience.
A new arts and health space has been funded by a Wellcome Trust grant of £500,000. This will provide a dedicated space to develop new partnerships and relationships with NHS, patient groups, young people, local communities and artists. Additional funding will support a three-year post of Health Producer to lead on projects and produce new theatre shows that explore health inequalities and other current issues.
Support from trusts and foundations follows initial grants from Arts Council England and Manchester City Council. In addition, Contact has received in kind support and with Contact’s own funds and individual donations this brought the total secured to date to £6,161,133.
They had already achieved an incredible and inspiring amount, so our job was to shine a light on their work, whilst helping put Contact in front of new people, to grow their audience and fanbase, as well as introducing the company new possible sources of funds.
We shared Contact’s news with broad spread of press from the regional Manchester media, national arts press, theatre, architectural and business press. We achieved key coverage including news and features, plus interviews with Contact ambassador Julie Hesmondhalgh, in Architects Journal, Northern Soul, Manchester Confidential, Manchester Theatre Awards, Manchester’s Finest, Manchester Evening News, VIVA Magazine and British Theatre Guide.
We also delved into our own little black book and invited our favourite creatives, influencers and business owners along to the event. The turnout was amazing and despite a very sunny day, the event was packed to the rafters with new and existing fans of Contact.
The Contact team are well and truly on their way to achieving their fundraising target and this event was the first step on a very exciting road and a journey that we are honoured to travel with them.
Be//Longing at the PR Moment Awards
Tonight team Sundae are off to the PR Moment Awards at the Hilton Hotel with our clients, collaborators and friends from Be//Longing; a project that we are so very proud of and a campaign that has been nominated for the Best Use of Creativity Award.
As well as Caroline Boyd and Dr Tanja Müller from the University’s of Manchester’s Migration Lab we will be joined at the table by the inspirational Take Back Theatre collective; actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, writer Becx Harrison and visual artist Grant Archer.
Manchester Migration Lab was formed in January 2017 and brings together more than 70 researchers across the University’s Schools and Research Institutes that focus on migration issues as part of the University’s research expertise in addressing global inequalities.
The Lab came up with the amazing idea of using writing, theatre, and live events to ignite and inform debate in local, national and global communities to support and communicate its work. After a lot of work and planning from ourselves, Take Back and UoM, Be//Longing came to life.
Be//Longing was an immersive production at Hope Mill Theatre with proceeds going to migration charities, it used installations, an exhibition, music and video alongside scripted theatre, to create an experience that boldly addressed perceptions of migration and expose myths.
So as we get dolled up for the evening’s events in the office, we are nervous, excited yet hopeful that we will bring the award home for a project and a subject matter that is so close to all of our hearts.
Fingers crossed x
(Images: Sebastian Matthes)
London Short Film Festival 2018
Following a successful campaign in 2017, Sundae returned to lead the press and publicity for the 15th annual London Short Film Festival in 2018. Celebrating its 15th anniversary, LSFF is a vital moment in the UK film calendar, a beacon of inclusive and ground-breaking film-making from a diverse range of backgrounds. The festival shows a huge selection of UK and international short films across music, culture, and politics.
As part of our strategy we created a bespoke publicity campaign based around the festival’s individual strands – Politics, Music, Culture, Brexit, BAME, LGBTQ, international, Industry and the With Teeth bi-annual commissioning award from LSFF supported by Arts Council England
With the programme boasting particularly strong and diverse content, something we’re extremely passionate about, and wanted to shine a bright light upon.
A key highlight was a legacy screening of pioneer of Black British cinema Ngozi Onwurah’s rare works, followed a panel discussion with Ngozi , producer Simon Onwurah, Hilja Lindsay-Muwonge (actress, Flight of the Swan) and Sian Ejiwumi-Le Berre (actress, The Body Beautiful).
Ngozi Onwurah was the first Black British woman to have a feature film released in UK cinemas (Welcome II The Terrordome,1995), and was of huge interest to the press with pick up from British Blacklist and Run Riot among many. Plus despite a tight schedule and LA time difference, we also secured an interview feature with Don’t Panic London, it’s an amazing, insightful piece and something we are incredibly proud to have been part of.
Sundae x
Launching Factory’s Creative Engine
We have some wonderful clients, but our longest standing is Factory, the BAFTA-award winning animation house, home grown from the ground up right here in Manchester – they’ve been with us since day one!
Factory told us over the summer that they were going to be launching a dedicated state of the art studio, Factory Creative Engine, which would mean they could bring every aspect of animating in-house, sets, puppets, costumes, the lot!
We were so excited to support them on this launch – its a huge leap for the company, allowing them to make great headway with their business strategy to create more and more of their own self-initiated creative content and intellectual property.
The incredible new workshop consolidates the production of sets, puppets, and models, synthesising cutting edge technology, including 3D printers and CO2 laser cutters with traditional methods, all under one roof. The new technology means that all the lengthy processes involved in creating worlds and characters in animation can be slashed, streamlined, and executed much more quickly!
The studio was opened by Keith Chapman, creator of Bob The Builder and Paw Patrol, whose production company Chapman Entertainment was formed alongside MD Phil Chalk, and based at the Altrincham site which went on to become Factory!
Not only will the new workshop allow Factory a whole world of creative freedom, the opening means that the animation studio is creating upwards of 40 jobs in Manchester, in the North West’s thriving animation sector rich with talent.
We had coverage in online and print editions of the Manchester Evening News, with further online coverage in television trades Televisual, and Broadcast Magazine, and animation trade outlets including Animation Magazine, and Animation World Network. Major licensing trade publication Kidscreen also ran an announcement piece.
The ‘A Week In My Life’ feature with Prolific North gave some insight into the daily routine of Jon Kershaw, Factory Creative Engine Manager, and they also ran an announcement piece on the day.
ITV Granada Reports came along on the day and filmed an amazing package for the 6 o’clock bulletin that Friday evening, which showcased the entire studio and its capabilities, with a refresher of the Factory’s impressive back catalogue!
Manchester Animation Festival
The Manchester Animation Festival launched in 2015, and in 2017, we were delighted to deliver the festival’s press and publicity for the first time. We’d met the team through our work with our animation clients and with a team of huge animation fans at Sundae, we were delighted to be part of such an up and coming event.
The festival is a three-day celebration of all things animated. From short film competitions, feature films, retrospective screenings, workshops, networking events, panel discussions, masterclasses and talks from the industry’s best and brightest.
With animation really taking flight in the North West with the likes of Factory, Mackinnon & Saunders, and CHF producing and creating a huge chunk of the UK’s animated output. The BBC and ITV have now moved to the thriving Media City, making Manchester a significant UK hub for creativity and media.
We wanted to really capitalise on both the strength of the festival’s incredible programme, and the emergence of the North West as an animation powerhouse with our messaging. We spread the word about the Manchester Animation Festival UK wide, and were able to amplify the 2017 festival, with an impressive national broadcast campaign.
Key national broadcast activity included an interview on BBC Breakfast with Will Becher, Animation Director of Early Man, who hosted a talk at the festival, and brought two of the puppets direct from the set for an exclusive view.
We also achieved a piece on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row around the Ivor Wood retrospective event. Ivor Wood expert Joseph Wallace, and Ivor’s widow and sometime animation partner Josiane Wood both appeared for a talk through the magic of the late animator.
This was bolstered by a fantastic regional broadcast coverage, with a TV piece going out on ITV North West Tonight, exploring the relationship with sponsors (and another of our clients!) Factory and the festival. Additionally, we had TWO interviews on BBC Radio Manchester, with Will Becher, and festival director Steve Henderson, plus A Week in My Life for Steve on Prolific North.
We also secured a profile of The Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein in print, with Broadcast Magazine, one of the major television trade outlets. Josh is responsible for Strange Hill High, a CBBC programme that we also had the pleasure of working on and is currently working on Disenchantment.
The festival’s lineup announcements was covered in the bulk of the animation trade outlets, including Animation World Network, Creative Boom and Animation Magazine, amongst others, and we had listings coverage in the Manchester Evening News, Sight & Sound, and many more.
The festival teamed up with the BBC to host a family day the weekend ahead of the animation festival’s launch, which we announced and was covered by Manchester Evening News Online, as well as parenting bloggers What To Do With The Kids and Daddy Daydream.
We generated almost 65,000,000 opportunities to see, and we helped cement the Manchester Animation Festival’s reputation as the go-to for everything animated, and the biggest and best animation festival in the UK.
Creating a buzz about Bee in the City
In November we had the privilege of managing media for a special launch for Wild In Art, announcing that a giant colony of super-sized bee sculptures would be winging its way to Manchester in the summer of 2018 for one of the biggest public art exhibitions the city has ever seen.
Wild in Art is one of the leading creative producers of spectacular, mass-appeal public art events, which connect businesses, artists and communities through the power of creativity and innovation.
Each super-sized bee sculpture will be decorated with its own unique design, created by regional professional, emerging and amateur artists – making an unforgettably stunning spectacle when the trail goes live. After the trail the bees will be auctioned to raise significant funds for The Lord Mayor’s We Love MCR Charity to improve the lives and life chances of Manchester people.
The Bee In The City launch took place at the monumental Manchester Town Hall, which on the night was buzzing with dozens of opinion formers, press and VIPs from across the city who gathered in anticipation to witness the unveiling of the first giant bee sculpture. Beautifully handed painted by Manchester artist, Jodi Silverman.
We had the pleasure of inviting television crews from BBC North West Tonight, Granada Reports and That’s Manchester along to capture Jodi’s final finishing touches to the bee and to also interview Manchester City councillors and the founders of Wild In Art about the project. All of the television coverage was broadcast on the six o’clock news that evening and was also repeated at ten o’clock, reaching an audience of millions across the North West of England!
Other press that attended included BBC Radio Manchester, Creative Boom, Manchester Confidential, I Love Manchester and the Manchester Evening News. It was amazing to see such a wide spread of coverage the following morning, with an added bonus of a lovely front page mention and full page in Friday’s print issue of the Manchester Evening News.
The Bee in the City trail will be on display throughout the city for nine weeks between July and September 2018 for Mancunians and visitors to enjoy whilst taking in the city’s landmarks, cultural gems and areas they may not have explored before.
If you would like to find out more about Bee in the City, please visit: beeinthecitymcr.co.uk
MC x
(Images: David Oates)
Factory goes Off The Leash
It has been a very busy summer season here at Sundae and this year we had the pleasure of working with our good friends at the award-winning animation studio, Factory, to announce a whole host of new and exciting plans!
One of the first projects to be developed this year is a lovely fun-filled collaboration with critically acclaimed cartoonist and writer, Rupert Fawcett to launch his first ever animated YouTube channel for his wonderful canine cartoon brand, Off the Leash (OTL).
The development of OTL’s new animations came as Factory announced its new licensing and brand management division, Factory Rights, following the acquisition of Rollo Rights, reported here in Kidscreen. The deal transferred rights to a catalog of brands including Rupert Fawcett’s Off the Leash, David McKee’s Mr Benn, King Rollo, and many others.
Most famous for his creative and humorous comic strips, Rupert Fawcett, is the original creator of OTL cartoons, a selection of drawings, featuring the secret thoughts and conversations of dogs of every size, shape and breed. The series aims to celebrate the nation’s favourite belly scratching, tail-chasing, bed-stealing canine friends for dog lovers everywhere.
As an office full of animal lovers, the campaign for the OTL YouTube channel has been a lot of fun to work on and one of our biggest successes so far was landing a partnership and social campaign with the RSPCA for National Dogs Day on 26th August.
To celebrate National Dog Day, Rupert Fawcett released a special RSPCA cartoon to encourage people to consider taking on a rescue dog and to also help the charity to spread the ‘Adopt Don’t Shop’ message with a special charity edition.
Factory supported the ‘PAWFECT’ partnership by dedicating the first premiering OTL episode ‘Bedtime Barker’ to the RSPCA’s #FindEachOther campaign which has now gained nearly 10k views on YouTube and 17k on the RSPCA Facebook page and Instagram since launching.
The campaign has been extremely well received by doggy lovers across the nation and OTL fans old and new. So far, the OTL YouTube channel has gained 1200 subscribers in just a few weeks and the RSPCA partnership has gained coverage in ATV Today and one of the most popular dog publications in the country, Dogs Monthly.
Looking ahead, Factory has proudly sponsored this year’s Manchester Animation Festival which takes place in November. Factory’s Managing Director, Phil Chalk will be hosting a special ‘in conversation’ event with Rupert Fawcett himself, to chat all about the journey of strip to screen! You can fetch your tickets here.
You can also watch all of the latest Off the Leash episodes here.
Sundae’s Summer Holiday – Britain on Film Coast and Sea
Every now and again a project comes along that really lights up the office and the BFI’s latest ‘Britain on Film’ online collection, Coast and Sea has done just that. With 21 projects and 190 screenings between May and October in some of the most beautiful coastal areas across the UK, working on this has been like a summer holiday.
Unlocking film and TV history for new audiences, ‘Britain on Film’ is a major digitisation project drawn from the BFI National Archive, Regional and National Archives and rights holders from across the UK, revealing new and unseen stories of our lives through the history of film. The BFI Film Audience Networks summer programme of screenings and events has allowed audiences to discover, explore and engage with the UK’s diverse coastline and local stories in their area.
Innovative events like Celluloid Sail; a stunning tall ship, transformed into an outdoor cinema where audiences can climb aboard and explore secret spaces in the bowels of the boat and discover footage about life at sea as light and projection will animate the ship’s sails have made this into a project like no other and allowed us to gain varied features on BBC News and the Irish News amongst others.
Another flagship event comes from STUDIOCANAL; the premiere of a new restoration of Leslie Norman’s classic wartime epic Dunkirk (1958) at Screening on the Beaches on the very beaches of Camber Sands on the South Coast of England where the film was shot later this month. Again, the historical nature of this event allowed us to target different sectors of the press and we have secured coverage in publications such Classic Boat and SAGA.
Scotland played host to another project highlight with the 80th anniversary screening of Michael Powell’s The Edge Of The World at the University of Edinburgh’s remarkable FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility – a unique circular wave tank.
We have absolutely loved telling people about these amazing events and helping to grow the target audience on a national level but the part of the project that we have particularly enjoyed is working closely with all of the project leads, establishing the communications support that they need and providing them with bespoke resource packages that have enabled them to move forward independently and gain their own regional coverage; it’s been an extremely satisfying experience.
This is project that resonates with us as a team here at Sundae and represents everything we stand for as a company. We all love summer holidays and it’s even better when you get to go on one at work.
Emancipation of Expressionism: an 11-minute hip-hop dance from Boy Blue Entertainment
We are mega excited to be working on Emancipation of Expressionism, an 11-minute hip-hop dance, from Boy Blue Entertainment, that is being captured on film by, the one and only, Danny Boyle in a staged performance at London’s Barbican Theatre.
The dance, choreographed by Kenrick Sandy with music composed by BBE co-founder and fellow artistic director, Michael Asante, is performed by a diverse 17-strong company led by Kenrick.
Team Sundae was lucky enough to be on set, at the Barbican, as the performance was captured and directed by Danny Boyle and what an amazing experience it was; popping, locking, waacking, breaking, hip-hop and krumping, all specialist hip-hop and street dance styles we witnessed first hand through Kenrick’s genius choreography.
We couldn’t help but feed off the infectious energy of the work and it was a completely uplifting experience. The emotion generated by the dancers was quite incredible and the performance levels were like nothing we’ve ever seen up close and personal.
The taste of the production that we got from our time on set will stay with us for some time and we can’t wait to see the final capture. This journey is one that we are hugely honoured to be invited on and it’s already causing a stir with coverage in The Times, the Evening Standard and British Blacklist for the project announcement.
Watch this space for the next stage.
Tom x
(Emancipation of Expressionism by Boy Blue Entertainment image credit: Nicole Guarino)
Creative England – CELive: Synthesise
Sundae was tasked with managing national media relations for Creative England’s annual event CELive. At this event, the not-for-profit announce their CE50 for 2017, companies that they’ve identified as ‘ones to watch’ in their work in the digital creative space. From this list, they selected a shortlist of ten, funded by Creative England, called the Future Leaders – companies that are generating measures for impactful change using tech and digital in seamless synthesis with creativity.
There were an amazing range of companies on the CE50 and in the Future Leaders. Film credits went to Francis Lee for God’s Own Country, and Notes on Blindness from the first blind director – the production company, 104 Films, are also due to release the first film in British Sign Language, and the first feature from an autistic director. There was robotics – mind-control beer pouring robots, and 3D printed prosthetic limbs for amputees. VR played a big part, with Future Leader Evidential, who were of particular interest to media, using the technology to recreate crime scenes, rolling this out in courts across the UK.
We secured a TV slot with the technology section of Sky News, Swipe, which ran as part of their news package several times a day over a week. They ran a profile of Evidential, trying out the tech on screen, and talking about Creative England’s input into the company. We also facilitated interviews for the Guardian Small Business Network with 104 Films and Strange Thoughts, the agency responsible for the mind-controlled beer pouring; they then ran an extended announcement piece for us. The Telegraph spoke to companies including retro-game streaming service Antstream, and ran a print piece on top tips from SMEs to crack the creative sector.
We secured a piece with Creative Review, orchestrating an interview with Evidential which appeared on their home page, and CNET ran a piece around the event itself, after interviewing three of the CE50 companies. We also booked Marketing Week to chair a panel at the event, and they also interviewed Creative England CEO Caroline Norbury MBE.
In total, we created 629,785,097 opportunities to see, across 15 pieces of coverage, a campaign that met its brief of a spread of quality national coverage for an inspirational range of companies.