Thompson Brand Partners

Prozone Returns

A few weeks ago, we took care of a small direct marketing campaign on behalf of our client Prozone. In terms of DM, it was a relatively modest campaign - we mailed the new printed literature to 15,000 football performace specialists around the world. 

We've just got a (miraculously) small number of returns and they really do look like they've been around the world. They wear their journey proudly on the outer boxes with stamps, stickers and scribbles all clearly signposting the countries they've been to and not found their recipients. 

They look lovely and I couldn't resist a quick shot of a few to tell their globe-trotting stories.

 

Moleskine

One of our travelling moleskines has arrived back in the office.

This one's theme is 'Food for thought' and was started by celebrity chef James Martin. Its latest contributor is illustrator Mark Frudd (great contribution by the way).

It's heading back out on its travels shortly, so if you'd like to be on the list - and we'd love to get you involved - then drop me a line at phil@thompsonbrandpartners.com

In the meantime, here's a few sneaky shots of the diary to whet your appetite.

 

1985

Imagine a world where all of the known super villains of the Marvel universe can run riot without being checked by their super hero nemeses.

If the thought of that gets you excited (and it did me) then '1985' is the graphic novel for you.

Now I realise that this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it really is well worth a look. 

The real fun is spotting the super villains as they show up one by one and seeing if you can correctly identify who's who by the havoc they are wreaking. Some of these guys I last saw in original Spiderman, Avengers or Fantastic Four comics and to see them again under the leadership of Victor von Doom (of course) is a joy.

Geeky.

February Books

Books for February include:

Netherland by Joseph O' Neill - Book club book, so this is the top of the list in terms of priority. According to the Sunday Telegraph it's "a paean to cricket and a murder mystery". Set in New York post 9/11 it sounds like a good one - 250 pages too.

Outliers by Malcom Gladwell - loved his previous stuff and he's definitely worth dipping into. He's always got interesting things to say and challenges conventional thinking. Half way through it and keep picking it up for a little light relief.

Lush Life by Richard Price - recommended by Word Magazine, so thats good enough for me. It's on the list but I expect it's going to be Easter before I get to it. It looks great, large format paperback with a cool cover.

The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross - this history of music won the Guardian book award so I ordered it. It's enormous so I expect it'll probably be a summer book! I have the hardback with a cover by Si Scott - it looks fab too, but I'm a bit scared as it looks a bit too academic for my liking.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1962, this book is a real eye opener.

Set in the Stalinist gulags after the second world war, the book tells the story of an average day in the camps for prisoners locked up for 25 years. Many are incarcerated for the most trivial of reasons - believing in God and being liberated from the nazi concentration camps by Americans are amongst the unbelievable reasons for ludicrous prison sentences dished out.

I found it an incredibly difficult book to read - in the West we enjoy a life far removed from the brutal hardships of the life described in the book. I did however find this meditation on hardship, human survival and the indomitability of the human spirit hard to resist. Ultimately it's a story of realism and hope in the face of odds stacked against you.

A quick read and well worth the effort - let me know if you fancy it, I'll send you my copy.