January saw us launch Sea Views, a campaign celebrating a century of photography at sea. Mary McCartney curated a 100-photo exhibition from the Cunard Archive and guests’ pictures. This later picked up a Travel Marketing Award.

Plus, we helped ohne with its “Am I dying or am I on my period?” campaign to smash the gender health gap.

February saw us pick up the first of many awards in 2023, with two Sabres awards, for co-creation and use of photography and illustration. We also started work on a strategy project for the amazing in-house team at Battersea Cats and Dogs Home – and naturally it was very important we visited in the name of research!

March was front page fabulousness as we got Flow (the drug free depression treatment) onto the front page of the Times and then GMB, crashing its website.

We also helped the incredible, seamless teams at the National Trust, RSPB and WWF launch the landmark People’s Plan for Nature and the Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund.

April saw a blooming lovely National Trust influencer campaign around Blossom, to help show the power of trees in cities. And a blooming tasty PR and influencer launch of Ole & Steen’s Easter menu.

Hay hay hay in May, as we worked with the National Trust to deliver an 11 day presence at “the Woodstock of the mind” with a second-hand bookshop, speaker and inspiration space to raise awareness of the charity’s literary links and how second hand book donations and sales support their work caring for nature, beauty and history.

Meanwhile, another part of the team was in Falmer, marking Brighton’s qualification for Europe at the station nearest the stadium and showing GTR is with its local communities. Fans, the club and even the local MP loved it!

June is Refugee Week and a Barbican takeover saw the What Home Means film created with UK for UNHCR and ten incredible storytellers play before every film and in the foyer, getting across why everyone deserves a safe home.

June was also the launch of the Keep Off The Track track launch for GTR, in response to 400 people risking their lives in the last year trying to get dropped items from train tracks. The song saw over 13K plays and a 29% reduction in people’s likelihood to get on the track. 15mn passengers a month saw the striking poster.

Plus, we couldn’t have been prouder to support Ole & Steen’s support of Switchboard for Pride and, of course, be part of our third Red for Ruth day for the Ruth Strauss Foundation, which raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to support families facing bereavement.

July saw the launch of our first project for Recycle Your Electricals, unveiling the nation’s FadTech obsession. We teamed up with Joanna Page and Ortis Deley to talk about the 18.2mn items, from popcorn machines to breadmakers, cluttering up our kitchens and how to donate, sell or recycle them, seeing a spike in visits to the recycling locator.

August marked Luton’s return to the Prem, and the new ‘Thameslink Derby’ vs Brighton was their first game. Hatters legend Mick Harford took over station announcements to mark the big day, generating national and regional media coverage and social buzz. From Mick to Michel, August also saw us unveil the new culinary concepts for Cunard’s Queen Anne, with a delicious preview event for media, influencers and trade with Michel Roux.

August also saw Andrew Strauss talking grief on a guest-edited Today programme. A raw and really important chat for anyone facing bereavement. We’re wowed by the impact the Ruth Strauss Foundation has had in just four years.

September was the start of the second silverware season, with two trophies at the Creative Moment Awards and nominations from the Drum, PRCA and Marketing Week. It’s also the time of year we welcome someone on work experience from the incredible Joined Up Thinking charity. Sophia was our September, October and November star and we are delighted she’s joining full time in Jan.

October saw GTR’s signage take on a decidedly spooky feel for Halloween. From Chillingshurst to Frighton, Witchmore Hill to Creepy Crawley, people enjoyed the fright night fun and hundreds of pieces of coverage – and social media love – rolled in. We also picked up two trophies at the PRWeek Awards.

October is also International E-waste day and that saw us work hand-in-hand with Recycle Your Electricals to reveal the UK’s FastTech problem. Over half a billion small electricals were bought in the last year and 90% are ALREADY in landfill. This story has run and run, with multiple pieces of coverage on BBC News between Christmas and New Year – two months after the story first broke. We loved seeing the spike in visits to the recycling locator as a result.

In November, GTR unveiled its support for charity Missing People as part of its community fund. To show 40 people will sadly go missing every hour, we put 40 disappearing footprints on the platform at Blackfriars plus someone’s story is being shared on GTR wifi log-in pages every day until January. We hope it will help people find a safe way home.

November also saw us team up with Circle of Style and ‘Queen of Thrift’, Bay Garnett, to offer Cunard guests curated pre-loved cruise collection fashion, globally. Bay dug into the Cunard archives to create ten iconic looks inspired by guests across the last century.

We also teamed up with another icon, Pattie Boyd, who photographed refugee storytellers with media headlines they’d been part of, to show the real people behind headlines. This supported UK for UNHCR’s winter appeal, reminding the nation refugees are mums, dads, sisters, brothers, friends like you, who need support to survive winter. A front page piece on UK Vogue was a huge highlight in getting the message out.

And we’ve not been letting up on the shaking in December…

We put together a dream team of sporting stars with side hustle small businesses for Smart Energy GB. The campaign centred on how sports people apply ‘marginal gains’ thinking to running their companies. Dion Dublin, George North and Sheli McCoy showed how smart meters can help you stay in control of cash flow and forecasting.

We also settled the ‘sliver, slice or smidge’ debate for Ole & Steen, unveiling what people say vs what they really mean when asking for a bit of festive cake and encouraging the nation to get a little more Dan-ish.

We’ll be hitting the ground running in 2024 – there’s lots in the works already!

Watch This Space | Welcome To SHOOK