The sweet ingredient to viral success…

Viral content – the holy grail of web curios – is a digital communicator’s dream. So, you can imagine the resounding Rule 5 glee when a puppy cake picture we shared on our client’s Facebook page hit the sharing sweet-spot this week.

With a collective 48,525 shares and a staggering 147,194 likes (and counting) – this innocent sleeping Dalmatian pup added an overwhelming 3,000+ fans to the Renshaw Baking Facebook page over the course of the May bank holiday.

As a part of the wider communications strategy for the brand, one of the key objectives of R5’s social media programme is to encourage the Renshaw social community to share with us their cake decorating projects and photos.

As you’d expect, the user generated content we typically share generates higher levels of engagement than straight, brand-owned content – ‘Dimples’ the Dalmatian however, set a new record for what gets our fans talking.

A quick peep at the brand’s Facebook insights shows that sharing the picture made a significant impact on the page with the total reach rocketing up over 11,000% on the previous week’s communications. Added to that was an increase of almost 60,000% in the number of people talking about the page and a 50% rise in the number of friends of fans the page now has links to.

Timed well to hit the mood of the nation ready to pack their desks up for the long weekend, the domino effect of this shareable pup (lemon flavoured and covered with Renshaw Ready to Roll Icing) also inundated cake-decorator Trish Clarke with orders for bespoke doggie cakes.

Proof is in the pudding (sorry!) that when it comes to the internet – animals and food really are the key ingredients to viral success.

Five Minutes of Your Time?

It’s five months since we set up Rule 5 in MediaCityUK. To mark the occasion we are about to launch a new bulletin called ‘Five Minutes’. It will land in email in-boxes every five weeks. You can probably see a theme emerging here.

We know that you won’t want to be bombarded with our agency news. That’s why Five Minutes will be short and contain three important, current media or communications stories in brief. If you decide to scroll down there will be two stories from us. That makes five short stories in total. The intention is that it will alert you to news items that might catch your interest which you can digest in just five minutes.

We hope that you’ll find it interesting and that it will be regular but relatively infrequent so it won’t clog up your in-box. If you want to receive it you can subscribe here.

Any feedback at any time would be warmly welcomed.

Gearing Up for The BMX World Cup

The Rule 5 team are heading down to the National Cycling Centre in Manchester this weekend for the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup Round 1. The event sees the culmination of three months’ social media and PR work and the team will be issuing live updates to the media via Facebook and Twitter on both Friday and Saturday night.

Blue Peter are covering the legacy work being done to promote children’s interest in the sport, The Gadget Show have used practise sessions to test action video cameras, and BBC News who reported on the build up last week will be down again with a crew on Friday evening. XFM and Radio Manchester have also covered the event so it’s already been a hectic week with the real action still not due for another 24 hours. There are still a few tickets available but the finals on Saturday are sure to sell out so you’ll need to be quick.

Thatcher – the Marmite Prime Minister

Every now and then someone has a creative idea that captures a moment in time with utter brilliance. The ad below has been created for the Guardian by BBH but I imagine Marmite makers Unilever are quite pleased with it too. The core thought of linking the divisive nature of both the product and the former PM is perfect but the real payoff is in the line ‘Contains Iron’. Exceptional.

Triple Hit for Rule 5 in Prolific North Shortlist.

A week on from hearing that we have made the final stage of the prestigious Chartered Institute of Public Relations Excellence Awards, Rule 5 has made the shortlist in three categories of the 2013 Prolific North Awards. These awards feature leading creative and media companies from across the North of England including powerhouses such as CheethamBell JWT, News International and the BBC. They have been judged by prominent figures from the media and creative business community.

The final award winners will be announced at a dinner on 16 May at Lancashire County Cricket Club, co-presented by broadcaster Jim Hancock and by the BBC’s new regional week-end presenter Beccy Meehan. “We are thrilled to get the recognition of our peers, just six months on from our launch. There is an amazing array of creative and media talent shortlisted. We are really excited to find ourselves in such excellent company” says Director Julie Wilson.

Rule 5 has been selected in the Best Newcomer, Best Small PR Agency and Best Social Media Agency categories.

RULE 5