A Tale of 2024 Cities
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through PR, Not a creature was stirring, not even a news reporter…
As the year draws to a close, we’re taking the time to reflect on another 12 months of creative campaigns, ‘hold the press’ hijacks, and celebrations of our agency culture.
It’s been one of our busiest years to date, and certainly one to remember, so we invite you to pull up your desk chair, grab a mulled wine (or a seasonal Nespresso blend) and lend your ear to our annual Christmas wrap-up.
Winter
We kicked off 2024 with bang – or should we say a ‘Zing’ – launching a disruptive new global money app backed by HSBC. Hailed the ‘fintech launch of the year’ by the Financial Times, we helped Zing receive a warm welcome in the media.
Then it was happy Seollal as we celebrated Korean New Year with Kia. Challenged to bring an exciting twist to the brand’s Korean roots, we worked with celebrity chef Judy Joo to cook iconic recipes entirely powered by the Kia EV3.
Our work with the Donkey Sanctuary continued to draw attention to the controversial donkey skin trade and work to put a stop to it.
To finish off the season, Senior Account Director Liam Reeves analysed this year’s top Valentine’s Day PR campaigns for PR Week giving his verdict on whether they were cute or cringe.
What makes a Valentine’s campaign stand out, really? | PR Week UK
Spring
As the streets of Farringdon finally began to defrost, we commissioned iconic photographer Rankin to photograph a diverse range of 12 foster carers – presenting the true faces of fostering on behalf of the National Fostering Group.
Ahead of the summer, we welcomed three new TCers into the fold – Account Manager Natasha, and two trainees onto our trainee programme – Tasha and Darcy.
Summer
With a summer of sport ahead of us, we turned our attention to the Paris Olympic Games. Working with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, we helped Britain’s up-and-coming sporting stars truly go for gold in a striking stunt fronted by track star Christine Ohuruogu, to show the importance of a healthy balanced diet for sports success.
As some of the team jetted off on summer holidays, the ClearPay team were hard at work, revealing how many Brits splash out on a pre-holiday glow-up, landing more than 200 pieces of coverage.
It was revealed that Third City is one of PRWeek’s top 10 ESG agencies in the UK ranking at number 6 for our brilliant sustainability and social purpose work.
We celebrated the year so far at our fantastic summer away day when we took a break from the city and visited the beautiful Albourne Estate in Sussex for some welcome team bonding time.
Autumn
When the temperature dropped off, our foot on the gas certainly didn’t! Our work with RED Driving School saw CEO Seb Golding feature on BBC Breakfast talking about the issues facing learner drivers.
We also helped Nespresso celebrate a year since it partnered with Royal Mail, creating cross-channel content that drove a huge spike in capsule recycling rates.
As the nights drew in and the clocks turned back, it was a bumper crop of creative campaigns to finish off the year…
Our Face Forward campaign for the Association of British Insurers and PSLA parodied classic face cream ads to encourage people to take similar steps when planning their retirement, starring the irrepressible Gemma Collins. Fully integrated, OOH, social and display ads were supported by blanket PR coverage including BBC, Sky News, iNews, Express, and Evening Standard.
We brought the iconic sounds of ‘She’s Electric’ back to the Knebworth Estate, just as one particular set of Manchester brothers announced their reunion tour. To open GRIDSERVE’s new Stevenage Electric Fourcourt, we hosted a gig powered completely by electric cars, featuring the world’s best Oasis tribute act, Supernova.
Our Black Friday campaign for Cashback platform Rakuten found that a quarter of Brits will ‘slack off’ this Friday to get the best deals, including one in 10 calling in sick, so we teamed with comedian Ellie Taylor to create The Ultimate Guide to Slack Friday!
As part of our Tiny Fixes campaign for HomeServe UK, we took Sarah Beeny to the SMALLEST house in the UK to teach homeowners about the tiny checks to potentially save themselves thousands as we head into the colder months.
And finally, we worked with Asda Online Doctor to reveal festive dating trend ‘snowmanning’, which is leaving some Brits with an unwanted Christmas illness.
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Before we hang up our hats for Christmas and settle in to enjoy reading the headlines rather than making them for a few days, we want to thank all the clients, suppliers, and friends of TC that have made all this great work possible.
With a jam-packed January just around the corner, we can’t wait to get cracking in the new year!
