Kaizo has been hired by French company Comuto to launch its carpooling service BlablaCar in the UK following a competitive pitch process.

The service, known as Covoiturage.fr in France, has been a phenomenal success amongst drivers and passengers alike who are frustrated at disruptions to air and rail transport and hard hit by increasing petrol prices and rising public transport costs. The site, founded in 2006, now has over one million drivers and passengers and is growing by over 50,000 users every month.

For drivers, BlablaCar offers the opportunity to reduce the cost of travel on journeys they would make in any case, whilst for passengers this offers an extremely cost effective alternative to any other form of transport on their chosen route. Drivers post details of their trip and a suggested price (typically a proportionate contribution). Potential passengers searching for a specific trip then choose whether or not this fits with what they want to pay.

BlablaCar, like its French counterpart, will have the feel of a combination of a travel site and a community site, with drivers and passengers posting details about themselves and rating each other on a range of criteria, from performance and reliability to how chatty they are. In fact, the name BlablaCar comes from this as on the French site a driver rates how talkative he or she as bla (not very chatty), blabla (likes a natter) and blablabla (won’t shut up). The community aspect ensures transparency, safety and that the market effectively and efficiently sets the price.

Nicolas Brusson, Co-founder of BlablaCar said:

“We are looking to replicate the success we have had in France here in the UK as rising petrol costs, issues and prices associated with peak time public transport, as well as environmental concerns are very similar. BlablaCar is revolutionising carpooling from the preserve of students and those concerned with the environment to a mainstream answer to rising costs and tighter purse strings.”

Rhodri Harries Managing Director of Kaizo said:

“This is a massively exciting challenge to reproduce the phenomenal word of mouth that has taken place in France around this brand. Our programme will build as we attract drivers to posts their trips, initially focusing on a few key routes such London to Manchester.”

By way of example of the popularity of the service, posted trips from Paris to London have risen by between 100 and 200 per cent in the last year.

Additionally BlablaCar offers a service for events, festival and concert organisers called the Agenda, which provides branded carpooling pages for each event. This service is also due to be launched in early June.

Tags: BlablaCar, carpooling, Kaizo, PR, public relations

There have been some unlikely duos in the past: peanut butter and jam, Shrek and Donkey, Elton and Lady Gaga … but this week they were all surpassed the announcement of the most unlikely duo of all: WeightWatchers and McDonalds.

Yes that’s right, customers in New Zealand can expect to see the WeightWatchers stamp of approval on some of the “healthy” meals that the fast food giant sells, such as chicken wraps, salads and Fillet-o-Fish.

According to the New Zealand arm of WeightWatchers, people should be able to enjoy “all food in moderation”. But the partnership has angered anti-obesity campaigners who have cynically dismissed the deal as a marketing ploy.

Personally I’m not sure the relationship will be a lasting one (I can’t see the typical connoisseur of McDonalds opting for a Mc-Salad-Sandwich-Meal). But then again, that’s what I said about peanut butter and jam….

Tags: McDonalds, Obesity, PR, pr story, WeightWatchers

News spread on Tuesday that a bug similar to Y2K sunk its teeth into Sony’s older ‘fat’ (or if we’re being PC, ‘horizontally challenged’) Playstation 3. As owners prepared themselves for the prospect of losing their saved games and being unable to play online, I couldn’t help but snigger.

Many couldn’t even play in offline mode, leaving frustrated gamers wondering what was causing the baffling ‘8001050F’ error.

The bug, dubbed the ApocolyPS3, occurred when the PS3’s internal clock switched to February 29, evidently causing the system much confusion as that date doesn’t exist this year.

The latest fiasco will have left the powers that be at Sony with faces redder than the gamers who couldn’t get their fix and whose hours of hard work (OK, play) might have gone to waste.

In a statement, Sony said: “If you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.”

Frustrated by the whole affair, gamers turned to social media to vent their anger. One comment on CVG said: “I cannot play any games, cannot log on to PSN. Your silence is doing nothing to help the situation. Looks like there is going to be millions of dead PS3′s all over the world with no fix in sight. Sony, you have just screwed up big time.” A video on YouTube called ‘How to fix PS3 error 8001050F’ showed an owner simply unplugging his PS3 and transferring the cables to an Xbox 360, whilst members of Facebook groups such as ‘I’m a victim of the PS3 Y2K bug’ offered more sensible advice.

Gamers were later left wondering why Sony failed to explain how they resolved the issue during an apology. It was later revealed that it fixed itself without any intervention from Sony. This sounds to me like a company that hasn’t got full control over and knowledge of its own hardware.

As the PS3 community flocked to forums for guidance in the wake of the crisis, it became apparent that saved games and ‘Trophies’ (an achievement tracking system) could be restored – no doubt accompanied by many sighs of relief.

Of course, the cynic in me wonders whether the whole episode was just an attempt by Sony to get everyone to upgrade to the newer, slimmer version of the PS3.

Tags: Facebook, Kaizo, Playstation 3, PR, PS3, Sony, Y2K, YouTube

Today is a sad day in the Kaizo office. After months of rumours, our favourite digital radio station, 6Music, is to close as a result of a cost cutting exercise by the BBC. Announcing the closure to staff this morning BBC director general, Mark Thompson, revealed that there will be a 25% reduction in spending on BBC online by 2013; several stations will close, plus teenage services such as Switch and Blast will be cut loose. The Asian Network is also to close.

Many people have reacted with dismay to the closure of 6Music, including celebrities such as Phil Jupitus who has described the potential axing of 6 Music as “an act of cultural vandalism”.

Apparently one of the reasons for the closure (spokesperson on the radio) is that 6Music never attracted a big enough user base. Digital radios though still seem to be fairly few and far between. We don’t have one in the Kaizo office, relying on the good old internet to get our daily fix.

A weekly audience of 620,000 listeners may not match the heady heights of The Today Programme or Chris Moyles, but the BBC seems to be missing the point. The beauty of a digital station is that you can cater for a specific audience. We’ve already witnessed the speed in which the iPlayer has taken off and in the next couple of years the way in which we access digital content will evolve again. Before the BBC knows it, those 620,000 weekly listeners could have doubled due to the station becoming more accessible to a wider audience via mobile devices or set top boxes. And in any case, if the BBC can churn out turgid shows like ‘Cash in the Attic’, I expect my tastes to be catered for as well!

In recent years, the BBC has come under increasing fire to justify its license fee against commercial organisations. I for one have always defended it due to the leadership the BBC has demonstrated in cultural and media innovation. Today, that argument is all that much harder to defend. There are dozens of radio stations out there with chart driven play lists. 6Music provides a strong alternative that has personality. Will we see an improvement in Radio1 away from all of the chart music, with wider appeal that integrates new and alternative music? Unfortunately I fear not. I also don’t believe Radio2 will be able to diversify its range of music and ‘audience’ to fill the big, 6Music-shaped hole that will be left.

The hashtag #save6Music is currently the top trending topic on Twitter and 6Music has been the subject of an online campaign to save it, with the Facebook group attracting over 84,000 supporters. For the moment, this seems to have all been in vain. The one ray of light is that the station will remain open until the end of 2011 and the decision still needs to be upheld by the BBC Trust. Labour MP Tom Watson has also taken up the fight, tabling a motion in the House of Commons for “the Government to encourage the BBC to continue its support for the station for many years to come.”

So the fight isn’t over just yet. Save our 6Music!

(image source: http://www.bustedtees.com/keepthedreamalive)

Tags: 6Music, BBC, BBC director general, digital radio, Facebook, Kaizo, Mark Thompson, Phil Jupitus, Tom Watson MP, twitter

Last week, when The Daily Express reported that one in four women would rather be a man, I was feeling a little down. As Tammy Wynette sang “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman” but do we all really dream of being men! Whatever happened to Girl Power!

Thankfully my spirits were lifted again this week as the status quo was restored. In a global battle of the sexes, men and women went head to head in a bid to win the title of the Trivia Pursuits champion sex. Five months and a whopping 15 million questions later, Hasbro announced the results: Women: 4,088,139,Men: 4,077,596.

The result sparked a lengthy debate at Kaizo HQ: some dismissed it as a narrow victory, others called it a fix (all the boys, I might add). But for now I’m happy, we finally have proof that girls rule. And, most satisfying of all, the boys lost…to a girl!

Tags: pr story, pr. feminism

Greggs the bakery this week launched a new, more sophisticated looking store for the high-streets of London. Though hearing this news brought joy to my sausage-roll loving side, what made it even better were the stories that followed in the UK national papers. The Sun boldly claimed that the “North-South divide is well and truly back”. The Times stated that Greggs was to become the “Skoda of all pies”, developing into a brand of class and quality, increasing its already huge appeal to those that now wish to spend that £1 extra for the same food (The further irony here of course being, that Skoda’s popular advertising campaign was based around a huge baked car!).

Whether a lover of Greggs’ baked delights or not, the news certainly managed to generate debate and raised awareness of Greggs’ upmarket plans. Who knows … perhaps we’ll soon see McDonald’s Golden arches made of real gold, or the newest Pizza Hut lined with silk. On second thoughts, I very much doubt it!

Tags: Greggs, pr story, The Sun, The Times

I don’t pretend to know a whole lot about a man’s relationship with his trousers, though a few headlines this week made interesting reading.

According to a survey by laundry firm Dr Beckmann, men wear their jeans 15 times before washing them. I’m not sure I really wanted to know that to be honest and it’s not really true, right boys?

Debenhams also conducted research into the varying heights of men’s trousers versus their waistlines and concluded that how high men wear their trousers depends on their age.

Teenage hormones cause waistbands to plunge below the waist once their mothers have stopped buying their clothes for them. Working life lifts this to a more ‘respectable’ height (although a quick glance around Kaizo HQ questions this theory). The height above the waistline continues to rise in line with age until finally, by 57 the trouser is a massive five inches above the waist. My dad, lovely as he may be, is a perfect example!

So come on guys, you’ve still got a few weeks left before Valentine’s Day to impress the ladies – give those jeans a wash and start wearing those trousers on your waist, where they belong!

Tags: clothes, Kaizo, PR, retail

Sparks flew this week as a renowned surgeon declared war on butter. Dr Shyam Kolvekar called for a ban on butter in a move he feels would save thousands of lives each year. Over time a diet high in saturated fats, such as butter, can lead to raised blood cholesterol and increases the risk of heart disease and heart attacks. Yet a variety of blogs indicate the public are not convinced. Some people reasserted the golden oldie a substantive part of a balanced diet, in moderation of course.

A crucial part of my morning routine, like many others, involves a visit to the kettle, swiftly followed by the toaster. It’s therefore a concern knowing that my two slices of buttered toast and a latte contain 16.1g of saturated fat – already 80% of my Recommended Daily Allowance, and not even an hour of the day completed!

So, I researched how a healthy food swap could make a difference. Handily, Kaizo boasts margarine spread Flora as a client so it wasn’t hard to find out that by swapping butter for a low-fat margarine spread and making up your coffee with only 1% milk, makes for a whopping 92% reduction in saturated fat intake.

Tell you what, that’s enough to shake-up even my favourite morning routine. I know what jug I’ll be using to pour my milk, and which side my bread’s (not!) going to be buttered…

What do you think to it all – would you give up your toast’s best friend in pursuit of a healthier heart?

Tags: Butter, health, media, pr story

Great news today for shopaholics as the headlines declared shopping is good for the waistline.

According to research, commissioned by Debenhams, women burn a whopping 385 calories every time they hit the High Street – that’s equivalent to an hour of tough weightlifting or hiking.

What’s more, the research showed that if women did this twice a week, they would get a “workout” that could help them lose 4lbs a month.

What better way to beat the January blues? I’m cancelling my gym membership and hitting the shops!

Tags: PR, public relations, shopping