The Apprentice

You’ve been fired

PR Stunt | Brand Experience

Ann Squared was tasked with creating an adventurous activation to celebrate the 2022 series finale of the hugely popular TV show; BBC's ‘The Apprentice’. This activation saw the show’s iconic Loser’s Café take on a new setting, London Liverpool Street Station. The café served up hot drink staples with a twist; all the drinks paid homage to the series' highs, lows and crazy moments. Fancy an Artic Americano or a Bouji-ccino?

To help station travellers really feel like they were in the firing line, the BBC Concert Orchestra performed the iconic theme tune alongside a special appearance from the show’s two finalists Kathryn Burn and Harpreet Kaur and judge Tim Campbell. This activation was one of our most memorable to date. Encompassing the whole station. Huge thanks to Grand Visual, who asked us to work on this activation with them.

Absolut #Born to Mix

what’s your flavour?

Outdoor Build | Brand Experience | Product Launch | Sampling

After Absolut’s hugely successful ‘Nothing Beats Together #IRL’ campaign, which we toured the UK last year with, they entrusted us with their 2022 ‘Born to Mix’ campaign. The pop-up experience toured five UK cities, Aiming to maintain the product’s visibility of the four different vodka flavours to consumers.

Ann Squared was tasked by Grand Visual again to bring the idea to life. The pop-up experience involved touring a horse box bar around Liverpool, Brighton, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Manchester. The horse box bar served Raspberri, Vanilia, Watermelon and Passionfruit cocktails; once the consumer had their sample, they were invited to take a photo in front of a sparkly backdrop where if they posted or tweeted their photo, they were entered to win a year’s supply of vodka.

Over the five weeks and many photos and samples later, the campaign was a huge success for a second year running. With over 12,000 brand in hand moments!

Here East Anniversary

Celebrating 10 years since London 2012

Corporate Hospitality | Staff Engagement

Operating as the London 2012 Olympic Press Centre in a previous life, Here East took over and opened to tenants in 2016 as an innovation and technology campus. Ann Squared has delivered many events for Here East, but 2022 had a special date on the calendar.

2022 marks ten years since their opening and Here East wanted to throw a special celebration in recognition of this. The celebration involved many aspects, such as transforming the reception into a spectacular bar, performances from a live saxophonist and violinist, fantastic flower arrangements, scrumptious food, a walk-through storyboard showcasing key moments in Here East's journey, guest speakers, including Gavin Poole, the CEO and a DJ set to ease everyone into the night.

Ann Squared were delighted to be back on the Olympic Park, especially as founders Amy and Caroline worked on the Olympic Torch Activation, so this was a rare opportunity for them to showcase their treasured Olympic torches with guests. Organising and delivering this event was a great pleasure, watching staff, old friends, and investors rekindle over a drink. An opportunity which rarely occurs in everyone's increasingly busy lives.

Aegean

Do you know your Happy Place?

Outdoor Experiential Build

An activation from across the seas, Aegean Airlines teamed up with Ann Squared and Foss Productions to deliver the ‘Aegean Happy Place’ Pod in June 2022, showcasing 52 of the best locations in Greece to fly to with Aegean. Located at South Bank's Observation Point, the public were invited inside to answer personalised questions to unearth their happy place. A voice artist was situated back of house to bring the Greek location alive and to deliver the questions. Once finished, consumers not only found their happy place but were gifted a 40% off flight voucher. Co-founder Caroline found her happy place in Thessaloniki, a Greek Port. Who knew?!

The sought-after location always receives high footfall, but this activation saw a significant increase in interaction, with hundreds of vouchers gifted to consumers over the live period.

St James’s Place - an evening with Ant Middleton

Who dares wins

Corporate Hospitality | VIP Events

A further iteration of St James’s Place’s Corporate Events and Hospitality Programme, we felt Ant Middleton was a household name that offered popularity, intrigue, and interest for the 120 clients invited to this special evening.

Hosted in one of London’s most iconic establishments, The Ned, guests first joined us for drinks and dinner in two of their most iconic rooms before being joined by real-life superman himself, Ant Middleton.

Ant shared some amazingly personal stories with guests, before throwing the mic out to guests to answer some of their burning questions. Ahead of guests leaving, books and goody bags were signed and jaws collected off the floor after an inspiring and emotive evening.

Saga Family Day

CRACKING COLLEAGUE ENGAGEMENT

Corporate Hospitality | Family Event | Staff Engagement

Ann Squared collaborated with employer brand agency, Brand Point Zero, to help deliver Saga’s annual summer family day. Saga invited their employees and families down to the flourishing fields on their Folkstone campus to catch up and have fun, which has been long overdue.

The day was packed with activities such as face painting, bouncy castles, climbing wall, a petting zoo, a skate park, football darts and the most popular attraction, the ice cream van. While the kids were running around, the adults had time to mingle over a sumptuous bar and BBQ. The sun beaming down on everyone made the day even more memorable.

Killing Eve Series Finale

Showcasing The BBC’s Top Series

Experiential

Ann Squared were trusted along with Grand Visual to give BBC’s Killing Eve series a final send off. This PR activation saw Ann Squared take over the old Debenham’s shop window front at Liverpool One, paying a subtle tribute to Jodie Comer being a Liverpudlian. The activation took over five windows, each displaying Killing Eve’s Villanelle's character’s infamous costumes and sets, alongside Eve’s iconic outfit in the centre.

Ann Squared went to work and helped produce a striking activation consisting of an enormous vinyl placed above the shop windows and the BBC’s costume department brought in the amazing dressed interior. The PR activation triumphed, even going viral, which led to devoted fans from the show leaving flowers out the front of the windows to commemorate the TV character and starting a crowdfunding page.

Beats By Dr DreStaffing

Bring Back Fans,
not Racists

Staffing

Football grounds up and down the country were lit up with anti-racism messages upon the return of fans in December 2020. The projections were part of Beats’ wider work in recent efforts to highlight changes that still need to happen to eradicate racism in football.

The team at Ann Squared were honoured to be one of the agencies working on these activations; rapidly deploying teams of Brand Ambassadors to the stadiums to hand out masks to both players and fans, and to support the messaging that was projected on to the stadiums before matches began.

AbsolutOOH Special Build

Together #IRL Experience

Outdoor Build | Brand Experience | Product Launch | Sampling

As restrictions slowly began to lift in summer 2021 Absolut were able to bring its national campaign, ‘Nothing Beats Together #IRL’ to life, by finally hosting an in real-life interactive pop-up experience across the UK, enabling consumers to interact with the brand and enjoy a drink together.

Ann Squared were asked by Talon Outdoor to bring alive their idea of a 12m wide special build billboard, and also to tour and run the experience in London and Liverpool. Consumers had to approach the billboard with a friend (old or new), whilst the 3m high Absolut bottles flashed through a series of colours. When both bottles flashed Absolut blue, the pair had to hit the buzzer at the same time, at which point the billboard would come alive with more lights and SFX, the bottle’s hatches would open, and their full-size Watermelon Absolut cocktail sample was served.

Over the course of the tour, thousands of refreshing Absolut Watermelon cocktails were distributed. A complementary on-trade element to the activation took place too, as local trade partners were promoted in each city visited via a ‘golden ticket’ bar tab competition.

St James’s Place at Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival

Growing your future

Sponsorship Activation | Stand Build

St James’s Place welcomed Ann Squared back for the second year running to deliver their sponsorship activation at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. This year's stand needed to fit their sustainable investment campaign and was the first external event to showcase the new brand identity. Working closely with this brief, Ann Squared created a living wall, with the ‘grow your future’ line dispersed in the middle, and on the back of the stand hung branded seed paper, encouraging passers to take a sample, which when they watered grew into wildflowers, linking to how investments are like flowers and need little and often actions to flourish. The stand also created an opportunity for SJP’s financial advisors to connect with current and potential clients.

The overall concept worked exceptionally well, with many passers complimenting the stand's presence and interactive sustainable aspect with multiple people asking if they could buy the living wall! The show was held for over a week, giving the activation significant footfall, amplified by the splendid weather.

PLEXAL STAFFING

OUR PEOPLE
YOUR EVENTS .

Staffing

Working with the brilliant in-house events team at Plexal, we have been supplying their day-to-day operational event staff for the past two years. We provide them with everything from riggers, runners, receptionists to event producers. Plexal hosts events for some of the most well known brands in the UK and we are proud to play a part in helping their success.

INTEL COMPUTING ROADSHOW

INTEL TEAM, START THE FANS, PLEASE!

Roadshow | Experiential | B2B

As a major partner of Dixons Carphone, Intel® participate in the annual Dixons Carphone Computing Roadshow; a series of 14 dates across the country, training retail sales staff on all things Intel®.

In collaborating with Retail Marketing Group, we brought key training modules to life through gamification, with a series of four zones, inspired by legendary game show ‘The Crystal Maze.’ Donning their very own crystal maze style gillet, delegates worked their way through each of the training experiences with the aim of releasing the crystals on successful completion of activities based on the knowledge learnt in the experience. The more crystals released the bigger chance of winning a daily prize.

THE WHITE COMPANY TEAM AWAY DAY

TEAM BUILDING WITH THE TEAM AT ANN SQUARED

Internal Events

Working with the learning and development department, we designed and ran The White Company’s team building activities for the distribution centre management away day.

From blindfold cheese and pickle sandwich making to energetic water challenges in the beautiful grounds of the hotel, our activities were designed to bring out the best in the groups’ communication, trust, leadership and team working skills in readiness for the upcoming peak trading season. Everyone finished the day with a smile on their face, and crucially, key insights into improved ways of working together when they returned to the distribution centre.

St James’s PlaceSponsorship Activation

Sponsorship Activation | Stand Build

Bringing our clients’ long-term relationship with the RHS alive at the 2021 Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, we were tasked to create an exhibition stand to wow the show’s visitors, whilst offering a setting for SJP’s financial advisors to connect with their current clients and create leads and pipeline in future clients.

Starting initially with a ‘Reap What You Sow’ theme, we concepted a truly stunning British garden, made entirely from hand-folded origami flowers.

Fast forward over 3,350 hours of hand-folding later, and you can see the unique and incredible exhibition stand that stood proud in the show’s Floral Marquee. See if you can spot some of the little origami creatures that joined us for the show.

LAND ROVER EXPLORE EE ROADSHOW

AN EXPLORATION AROUND THE UK WITH LAND ROVER EXPLORE

Product Launch | Roadshow | Experiential | B2B

We designed, produced and executed a touring roadshow, visiting 13 EE call centres across the UK and Ireland, introducing and training EE colleagues to the newly launched Land Rover Explore Phone, through a number of custom experiences.

Agents took a ride took a ride on the 360* video experience, shot at Hadleigh Road, the home of the London 2012 Mountain Biking, immersing themselves in an off-road bike ride demonstrating the capabilities and durability of the phone. They then learnt more about the device by unearthing relevant content on the phone through discovering hotspots on our Augmented Reality wall. This was wrapped up by Great British Adventurer Jamie Ramsay shared his stories of using ‘The Explore’ in real life adventure situations.

Tom KerridgeVirtual Event with Hometrack

A unique restaurant experience at home

Virtual Event

In the absence of being able to host an annual client evening, our clients at Hometrack wanted a virtual experience that would be memorable, engaging, and as close as possible to their normal Michelin-starred experience they are used to. Step in two Michelin-starred chef, Tom Kerridge. We worked with Tom and his team to create a bespoke restaurant experience box, which included many of Tom’s signature dishes from The Hand & flowers; paired perfectly with beers, wines, and cocktails selected by his Head Sommelier.

The boxes were delivered to each of the guests on the morning of the event, along with signed books, personalised menus and other goodies from Tom’s Hand & Flowers range.

Tom then delighted guests by joining the virtual event, talking guests through each of the dishes they were enjoying and stayed on for a drink and a lively Q&A session.

The virtual event went long past its scheduled finish time, with guests thoroughly enthused and conversation flowing…yes even over Zoom! The feedback from Hometrack was that it had been one of the most engaging and well attended events they had ever hosted (including those in-person).

ELEMENT AI PUBLIC LECTURE

AI WORKING FOR HUMANITY

Conference | Internal Events | Staffing

Over a cold Christmas period, Ann Squared produced a quick turnaround agenda of events for Element AI, including a press event, dinner and a sold out public lecture with Professor Yoshua Bengio, one of the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence and a pioneer in deep learning.

Ann Squared provided an end-to-end service, sourcing, contracting and managing all venues; arranging all the suppliers from catering to film crew. We provided the live event management for all events as well as providing a team of event staff to support a seamless delivery of each element. The day was a great success and helped to cement the opening of the London Element AI office.

FLIPZ PRETZELS SAMPLING LONDON

#FLIPZYOURWORLD

Sampling | Event Logistics

Already loved in the US, ‘Flipz’, the chocolate covered pretzel, has launched in the UK, with ambitions to break in to the snacking market with a sweet and salty bang.

Working with strategy and creative agency Studio of Art and Commerce, Ann Squared turned around a sampling campaign across a number of railway stations in just seven days, distributing tens of thousands of bags of milk and dark chocolate Flipz Pretzels to commuters across London. Ann Squared managed the logistics of all samples, through to the production of all branded elements and the recruitment and management of the sampling teams across the campaign.

St James’s PlaceVIP Hospitality at
Cirque Du Soleil

Spectacular Spectacular

Corporate Hospitality

As part of their annual Corporate Events and Hospitality Programme, St James’s Place challenged us to come up with new and unexpected ideas to help complement and re-invigorate their existing events calendar.

First up on the list; a VIP evening at the stunning Royal Albert Hall; watching world-renowned acrobatic show ‘Cirque Du Soleil’.

Working closely with the team at the Albert Hall, we developed a special evening for St James’s Place’s 120 VIP guests. Entering through a private entrance, guests enjoyed a sumptuous drinks and canape reception overlooking the incredible stage.

With goodie bags and programmes in clutch, guests sat in their premium seats to enjoy the spectacular show; Luiza, ‘A Waking Dream of Mexico’.

A true hit of the events calendar; guests travelled from all over the UK to immerse themselves in this special show – and it did not disappoint!

NissanSTAFFING

#NewQashqai

Staffing | Product Launch

The All-New Nissan Qashqai was launched with the incredibly impactful installation of Europe’s most exciting digital out of home experience on London’s Southbank. Our team of event managers and brand ambassadors supported the launch, interacting with public during the weeklong live installation, ensuring the experience was enjoyed by all, brand messages and specs of the vehicle shared and helping to drive social media amplification.

Canalside Music Festival

An eight-week music festival

Community | Placemaking | Retailer Engagement

Ann Squared worked with Here East to deliver their summer series Canal Side Festival. The eight-week free live music event showcased Here East’s Canalside location, loaded with shops, restaurants, bars, and outdoor seating. Over the eight consecutive weeks, multiple artists performed who belonged to many genres such as brass, indie, folk, electronic and covers, to name a few.

The eight weeks flew by, seeing many new people eat, drink, and soak up the sun, positioning Canalside as the new Thursday destination.

Virtual Book Clubwith St James’s Place

Virtual Event | Content

Tasked with the huge challenge of keeping members and clients engaged and occupied during lockdown, we pivoted to a series of virtual book club events to offer St James’s Place’s client’s unique access to some of the Britain’s most celebrated authors.

Step in Sir Alistair Cooke, Tim Peake and Nigella Lawson, for an incredible series of ‘virtual book clubs’; where these recently published authors would share some of their favourite snippets, memories and inspiration behind their respective books.

Guests would watch the book club videos on receipt of their various signed book club books, before enjoying some screen-free time to soak up the amazing stories from Alistair, Tim and Nigella.

CAT PHONES EXHIBITIONS

DIFFERENT BY DESIGN

Exhibitions | Experiential

Since 2017 we have been busy working with the team behind Cat Phones. Ann Squared have designed and produced exhibition stands for trade shows that cater for the emergency services, domestic trades, construction and farming industries.

Ensuring contextual hands-on demos were at the heart of all exhibition builds Ann Squared have dreamt up. They designed and built a raft of experiences for visitors to the stands, including a mocked-up leaky barn roof so that delegates could use the thermal imaging camera to find the cracks; matching the delegates against the phone’s ruggedness with a strong man hammer game; and even creating some cows’ udders with built in heat patches to show the phone’s thermal camera capabilities for detecting signs of mastitis – which was a real winner with farmers!