Whizpr goes Londen (Part 2)

Friday, August 15, 2008

Last Monday, a group of five Whizprs went to London to visit two of our partnering agencies. On Monday, we visited Waggener Edstrom with whom we had an interesting discussion about PR and trends in our countries. In Holland we have had quite a large shake out in the media landscape. Over the last couple of years, at least 40 magazines disappeared. We learned that in the UK the situation was even worse. Many magazines nowadays only appear online and not in print at all. Which brings up the next interesting question: if the focus on our activities is shifted towards online, and, knowing our customers are keen on measuring ROI on PR: is the impact of online publications measureable? It was an interesting afternoon...


Account Director Gillian Cockerill took us for a drink to Asia de Cuba, where we also had dinner.
@ David, Ana and Gillian: We hope to meet you in Amsterdam one day for a similar session with your team!


Asia de Cuba is one of the hottest spots in the city. Stunning interior and dinner was fabulous!! Mojitos’ and fusion cooking at its best!
@Ward: see our expense account how good the food was :-)


The next morning we went to Lighthouse PR with whom we worked on the SafeBoot account for years. Lighthouse deals with b-to-b customers whereas for consumer brands, Custard PR was founded. For anything with a plug, battery and website, as they explained. We learned that there are a lot of similarities between the two agencies. We discussed trends in PR, the online world of bloggers and twitters, and how it changes our business. A fruitful session, which we hope to have one day in Amsterdam with the Lighthouse team!
@Stu : Thanks for you shopping tips ;-).

As Lighthouse PR is located close to Oxford street, a shopping spree was on our whish list for the afternoon, but after Ward spoiled us with a trip to New York last April, we saw that shopping in dollars was much more fun ;-). Credit cards were wisely kept into our pockets. Anyway, the trip was priceless. Especially after we found an alternative mascot as Kermit was on holiday, and found one as handsome (in our favorite store)! See for yourself ;-) Hires available upon request.

posted by Annerieke Kamphuis @ 16:50