News

Happy Birthday Spark & Fuse

By Spark and Fuse on October 4, 2011

Sarah Burns (Spark) & Juliette Thomas (Fuse)

We are five years old this month – happy birthday Spark & Fuse! We’ve been lucky enough to work with some great clients and really exciting projects throughout the life of our company and we’re looking forward to plenty more. To celebrate our fifth birthday, we’re offering a 5% discount on any new project commissioned during October to both new and existing clients. Plus we are also donating  5% of these new project costs during October to Teen Biz, the UK’s first business start-up scheme for under 18s.

The not-for-profit organisation launches on 1st November and each month, one student will receive up to £500 funding, a mentor and a start-up kit to help them on the road to enterprise. We think all young people deserve a chance in life, and hopefully we’ll be able to help make a difference – for more info on Teen Biz click here.

For more details email us at bright.sparks@sparkandfuse.com or call 0207 502 3005.

Terms and conditions: To qualify for the 5% discount, a project must be commissioned before 31st October 2011. The discount is applicable to any new project. It is not applicable to work for which a costing has already been provided or work started.

Badly run competition equals PR disaster

By Spark and Fuse on September 12, 2011

A cautionary tale this week of how running a competition without due consideration can generate very bad publicity…

A well-known toy company recently launched a brilliant competition on Facebook promising to reward the winner with a big cash prize. The competition was judged and the winner notified. A week later, the winner was contacted again to say that the judges’ marks had been added up incorrectly and the winner was in fact not the winner after all and wouldn’t be awarded the big cash prize.
Unfortunately for the toy company, the winner was a professional comper with a well known blog which talks about all her experiences, good and bad. And so the PR disaster began… the toy company was trashed on Facebook, Twitter and comper websites.

Rightfully, the toy company then decided to award a cash prize to both the original winner and the new winner. But it was an expensive mistake to make given that advice on how to run the competition correctly in the first instance would have cost them less than the additional prize. And it’s not possible to put a cost on the damage to their reputation as the competition generated substantial criticism, which is a shame because they really do produce great toys.

If you’re thinking about running a competition and would like some advice on how to do it properly, drop us a line at bright.sparks@sparkandfuse.com.

British Council Chinese Speaking Competition

By Spark and Fuse on September 9, 2011

UK students show off Mandarin Chinese from British Council on Vimeo.

The British Council Chinese Speaking Competition launches today with a little help from Spark & Fuse. Sponsored by HSBC, the competition is open to UK secondary school students who are non-native speaking learners of Mandarin Chinese that have learnt the language from scratch. And for the lucky competition winners, there’s a trip to Beijing. It’s our second year assisting the British Council with this prestigious competition and we’ve been instrumental in ensuring all elements (from the entry procedure right through to the final) are fair and fully compliant with industry regulations. It’s a really exciting project with which to be involved and last year we were so impressed by the participants’ commitment to learning such a difficult language. For details of how to enter the competition, click here.

A Spark-ling Wedding

By Juliette Thomas on September 8, 2011

Spark and family

Our small but perfectly formed bride, Spark, looked beautiful at her equally small and perfectly formed wedding.  It was an intimate affair with a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere. As ever, Sarah’s attention to detail played a strong role with a gorgeous table setting, fabulous dress and delicious food.  And not every bride can boast four wedding cakes, which all went down a treat.

Sara Cox launches search for Tesco Mum of the Year 2012

By Spark and Fuse on August 17, 2011

 

Sara Cox and her mum at launch of Tesco Mum of the Year 2012

Sara Cox and her mum at Waldorf Hilton, London

Sara Cox, radio DJ and mum-of-three, is the official ambassador for Tesco Mum of the Year 2012 and is calling for the public to nominate any mums they know who have done something amazing to help the lives of others.

At the launch held at the Waldorf Hilton, Sara Cox commented: “I’m really excited to be part of the Tesco Mum of the Year Awards. I attended the 2011 Award, earlier this year, and was moved to tears by the stories of the winning mums.

It’s so important to celebrate our mums and make a fuss of them because they really deserve it – I certainly couldn’t have got to where I am today without my own wonderful and supportive mum. There are millions of mums out there doing all these extraordinary things, struggling against the odds and facing challenges. If you know a mum who really deserves to be shown just how special she is, get nominating!”

The Tesco Mum of the Year Awards 2012 will be the seventh year of the Awards and are set to be the biggest and best yet. Eight inspirational mums will be honoured at the glittering, star-studded event, where they will walk the red carpet, enjoy a three-course lunch and watch performances from some of the UK’s top music acts, before being presented with their Award.

Maureen Rice, Editorial Director of Tesco magazine, said: “We are very proud that 2012 will be the seventh year of the Tesco Mum of the Year Awards. During that time, we’ve heard so many incredible stories and met so many inspirational women. This is our chance to celebrate these unsung heroes, who, often despite their own difficult circumstances, have truly gone above and beyond to help others and make a difference.”

If you know an amazing mum who could be a Tesco Mum of the Year, find out how to nominate her at www.tescomagazine.com. Nominations close on 23rd September 2011.

Tesco Mum of the Year 2012

By Spark and Fuse on August 9, 2011

Tesco Mum of the Year logo

Is your mum amazing? Do you know an extraordinary mum who has made a difference to the lives of everyone around them? Now’s your chance to have her achievements recognised and honoured by entering her into Tesco Mum of the Year 2012. The winning mums will be brought to London early next year for a glittering awards ceremony. As event organisers for the awards, meeting the winning mums is truly a perk of job! Click here for more information on how to enter.  Good Luck!

Prize winner or prize draw hoax?

By Spark and Fuse on August 3, 2011

Every month we fulfil stacks of prize draws – we send winners on fabulous holidays, arrange delivery of home entertainment systems, package up kids toys and occasionally even notify winners of big cash wins. But for every great winning whoop of joy, we are considered suspiciously by others who think their prize notification is a hoax.

The CAP code is very clear ‘promoters must not claim that consumers have won a prize if they have not’ and fake prize draw scams in the UK are illegal. However, according to consumer watchdog Which? prize draw scams are the second most common scams in the UK. So how do you know if you really are a winner?

Firstly, did you enter the prize draw or competition? If not, then quite simply you cannot possibly be a winner. We can prove that all our prize winners entered a prize draw – we’ll have their entry postcard, or SMS, phone and online records mean we have exact date and time of entry. If you receive a letter saying you’ve won a prize draw by a company claiming you’ve been ‘specially selected’ to win a prize, put it in the bin. Immediately.

Are you being asked to pay a fee to claim your prize? We never, ever, EVER, ask our prize winners to part with money in order to claim their prize and there’s no such thing as a required administrative fee either. You might have to pay for an element not included in the prize itself, such as train fare to a hotel, but this will be stipluted in the terms and conditions. But you should never pay to actually claim a prize. In fact, it’s a criminal offence to say that someone’s won a prize and then ask them to pay money to receive it. It comes with a prison sentence of about two years.

Do you need to call a premium rate phone number to claim this prize? Pretty much as above. When we notify winners we generally send a letter that contains all the prize details plus we provide our office phone number and email address as a point of contact. You will never have to call an expensive phone number to speak to a prize supplier or their administrator.

Have you been asked to provide details of your bank account? We once had the joyous task of awarding a prize winner £10,000. We gave her the choice, a cheque or direct money transfer. She chose a cheque. There is never a need to give your bank account details to claim a prize. Especially if you haven’t even won money.

Oh, and finally, if you get an email from someone overseas claiming you’ve won millions of dollars in a lottery, you know where to file it…

If you receive a prize notification and you think it’s a bit iffy, then get in touch with the Advertising Standards Authority in the first instance.

Fold launch event

By Sarah Burns on July 4, 2011

Mark Fleischmann reads Tom Campbell's novel Fold

Actor Mark Fleischmann reads novel Fold

A great night was had by all at the launch of Tom Campbell’s first novel, Fold. The event was warmly hosted by Tom’s local bookstore Stoke Newington Bookshop (and organised brilliantly, of course, by Spark & Fuse). Actor Mark Fleischmann, currently starring in The Cherry Orchard at The National, read a passage from the novel to the 80 guests. The book, which focuses on five unlikely friends and their monthly poker night, has received excellent reviews from both critics and readers alike. Tom is currently writing his second novel and we look forward to organising its launch event, too! Fold is published by Bloomsbury and is available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fold-Tom-Campbell/dp/1408807602

British Council appoints Spark & Fuse – Mandarin Chinese Speaking Competition

By Spark and Fuse on June 20, 2011

Spark & Fuse has been appointed by the British Council to advise on compliance for its prestigious Mandarin Chinese Speaking Competition for the second year. The competition, which is sponsored by HSBC, will launch later this year and offers non-native speaking learners of Mandarin Chinese the chance to test their speaking skills in front of an audience of schools from all over the UK and a panel of judges. Lucky prize winners from this year’s competition were sent on an amazing trip to China! Our role is to ensure the terms and conditions, judging criteria and contest are all conducted fairly. We’re really looking forward to working on this project and can’t wait to be impressed yet again by the young people’s language skills.

Six new British Council competitions!

By Sarah Burns on June 8, 2011

Spark & Fuse has helped the British Council to launch six new creative competitions linked to its Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action programmes. Anyone that has participated in a programme is invited to tell how it has helped to broaden their horizons, through either a written, photographic or film piece. Category winners will be selected by judging panels as well as a public online vote. Spark & Fuse advised The British Council on logistics and compliance to ensure the competition has been communicated well and is conducted fairly. We helped pull together a tight judging criterion so entrants understand exactly what is expected. We’ll also be involved in short listing to ensure the best of those entries which meet the judging criteria are posted for the public to vote for their favourite. Take a look at the competition here.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »