We had a wonderful day today filled with visits from some of the coolest creatives in London! We left the hotel early to make our visit with the agency Battenhall. As soon as we walked in, I knew that we were in a creative space with plants hanging all over the place and the relaxed vibes of the employees. I already knew that I could picture myself working there.
Our visit started with an introduction to the company from its founder, Drew Benvie. He gave us the background of how he started the company to be different than others in that field. He wanted to reinvent how PR is done in all industries in the meanwhile combining social media and technology. In the last 5 years, Battenhall has one 10 agency of the year awards and work with companies like Amazon, Google, Hertz, Nandos, and Gatwick Airport. They pride themselves with the work environment that they create for their employees and hire people from an array of backgrounds, all with knowledge of media.
Next, Stephanie Bennett, one of the directors of Battenhall, spoke with us and showed us examples of the projects she has been involved in. One of their biggest clients is Gatwick Airport so she had a lot of cool things to show us they have done for them. Alice Simpson and Shannon Leahy, the PR executives, were after that and talked about how they monitor the news with News Jacking and use them as opportunities to build their brands.
Jonny Atter, one of the account directors, gave us a summary of his job and how they have to perform social media audits and how to manage the reputations. Megan Edwards and Leah Domenet talked about how they work with social media influencers to brand their clients. I thought we could all relate to this lecture because I’m sure that we all follow at least a few influencers and we got to see the other side of the business. My favorite presentation was from Charlie Gregory because he focuses on design aspects for the company. He went through the process they follow for the different content they have to produce. I always love when people talk about their experience in film, animations, and photography because that’s everything I love.
After our visit at Battenhall, we were free for lunch in central London. A few people and I found this place called “Mother Clucker” that specialized in fried chicken. It was really good, but it was also spicy. I probably would have eaten anything at the time because I was so hungry.
We finished with lunch then headed to Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), who have 138 offices all over the world. They greeted us with beverages and coffee then we had a presentation from the creatives, Mark, Petra, and Io. A creative’s job is to “define, discover, and deliver” which I thought summed up the job pretty well. They gave a look into what they do every day and the recent projects that they have been working on. I loved all of the projects they showed especially the one about dogs in hotels and the travel video for Sri Lanka.
They gave an assignment at the end for us all to come up with our own plans for the brand of butter, Lurpak. Ours came out as a little girl serving the butter to her stuffed animals at a tea party then cutting to her serving her friends in her new home as an adult. I love media visits because I can always see myself working everywhere we go!
For dinner, a couple of us decided to go out for Nandos because I’ve heard that its the place to get the best chicken, and it was not wrong. I got the Sunset Burger with mango lime sauce. It was easily the best chicken sandwich I have ever eaten. Tomorrow we are geared up for our visit to Hearst UK!
