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We’ve just developed a brand identity for  ‘Bridge the world’ a  digital holiday brand from STA travel which specifically targets the +50 market. The identity will run across all business comms.

You can read more about the concepts and ideas behind this new brand here on Figaro Digital

Today (Monday 4th October) sees the launch of a campaign that we’re particularly excited about for our client Epson.

The campaign ‘Engineered for Speed’ launches the new Epson Stylus Office inkjet printer (BX625FWD) specifically targeting small businesses with its high quality printing and incredible speed – it can print up to 38 pages per minute.

We wanted to create a campaign that would engage a business audience on a rational and emotional level (not your normal B2B campaign). As  a result we created the ultimate product test and our team really got to have some fun with it as they set out to test the speed of the inkjet printer alongside one of the world’s fastest accelerating cars – an Ariel Atom which travels 0-60 mph in 2.7 seconds (super FAST).

The two products were combined for the challenge as engineers from Epson and Ariel worked together to form a unique partnership and then raced the printer against the car around Rockingham race track (in the UK) to see whether the Epson printer could print a map of the track faster than the car could drive it.

It’s a really exhilarating Pan European campaign that spans across several platforms. These include a film of the race (housed on the campaign microsite), online banners and EDMs  and it will also run across point of sale and PR.  It’s our first big campaign for Epson and we’re really proud of it.

Thanks to all the team involved – you know who you are.

Watch to see who wins here…..

Yesterday Thursday 23rd September the Albion Society breakfast brought together a panel to discuss Gen Y – shorthand for 16-25 year olds.

Untitled from Albion London on Vimeo.

First up was our Planning Director Sam Ashken, who presented a brief summary of a thinkpiece which can be downloaded here. The argument is that teenage and early adult years are for Gen Y not a time of rebellion but of personal aspiration.

Eliza Robeiro, the seventeen year old founder of the Lives not Knives project and campaigner with Battlefront comprehensively floored the room with her drive, activism, intelligence and precocious self-assurance.

Emi Gal, founder of online video advertising company Brainient, and a comparative oldie at 23, charmed the audience with three stories explaining his entrepreneurial drive.

Robin Klein VC of The Accelerator Group sagely analysed the differences between Gen Y and earlier generations of entrepreneurs.

Mike Butcher Editor of Techcrunch Europe showed that the Gen Y can-do spirit is a European as much as a British thing. A number of key themes emerged from the panellists. Gen Yers tend to be driven by personal mission, don’t sit around waiting for permission to do things and are unconcerned by the cynicism of older generations or the fear or failure.

Gen Y-ers’ innate drive, the panellists agreed, is accelerated by an environment in which it is easier than ever to get hold of tools and capital, and equally easy to make direct connections with contacts and partners all over the world.

All of which makes a Gen X-er wonder whether it’s possible to be a born again Gen Y-er…

The quote of the day was from Eliza who, when asked how much common ground there is between her community and young entrepreneurs like Emi responded in jest that, “A lot of the kids in Croydon are good at business, just the wrong kind of business!”.

Last week I spent another amazing few days helping out at Seedcamp, running one of the marketing panels and meeting/mentoring the finalists.

By a long shot, it was the highest standard of entrepreneurs to date and demonstrated the massive potential of creating the competition and fund. My guess is Seedcamp is going global. Its started its focus in Europe but has no reason to narrow its search in EMEA. Most of the finalists have fully functioning businesses with near proven business models and I was particularly excited by the next gen ecommerce businesses and fresh thinking on how to use customer data.

I also got together with my good friend Saul Klein, Seedcamp founder and we had a chance to look back at why we all got involved.

My main conclusion is about the opportunity to learn new stuff from some of the brightest business upstarts in Europe. For me, its all about looking for insights into how to create and build businesses and I get more out of a couple of days at Seedcamp than the more conventional business education I’ve done in the past.

We are pleased to announce that Mike Butcher, Editor of Techcrunch Europe will now be joining our Albion Society breakfast on the 23rd September.

The Albion Society brings together a panel of gen Y gamechangers – a group of very special 16-25 year olds; Eliza Robeiro a young campaigner and Emi Gal an entrepreneur. Both demonstrate that this generation understand how to take on big challenges, that they are opportunists, positive and hopeful for the future.

Robin Klein Venture Partner at Index Ventures and founding partner of The Accelerator Group and Mike Butcher, Editor of Techcrunch Europe both join to give their expert advice on Entrepreneurism and how Gen Y are shaping the future.

Sam Ashken, Albion’s Planning Director will host the event and introduce you to our panel with some fundamental research that we’ve been carrying out here at Albion. He’ll then hand you over to the panel and let you determine if this is the generation who are already making a big difference and whether these are the people that will shape ‘The Big Society’

There are still some tickets available for Gen Y – Activists & Entrepreneurs and the death of teen rebellion, a breakfast discussion by the Albion Society. Places are strictly limited and will run out fast.

Reserve yours by entering your details here