Blog.

The 2014 Formula 1 season is already fast approaching and Pirelli has, this week, signed a new, three-year deal to supply the championship. In amongst the pre-season chat about drivers, teams and new 2014-spec cars, tyres will likely be the next-biggest topic of conversation, despite being, on the face of it, a pretty dull topic […]

Samsung Group has filed for a patent for electric vehicle technology. The patent covers technology and parts that can be used in electric vehicles. Although they insist this doesn’t mean they intend to enter the EV (Electric Vehicle) market, what does it mean? You could argue that a company like Samsung files hundreds of patents […]

As it does every January, the Detroit Motor Show has been grabbing the automotive headlines, but this year it’s not the big shiny American machines in the limelight, it’s a lady called Mary Barra. GM announced in December that they have appointed a new boss and that this new boss was…wait for it… a woman. […]

With a polar vortex freezing the USA and winter storms battering and flooding the UK, it seems ‘the weather’ has been a bit of a hot topic so far in 2014, or should that be a cold current affair… In amongst the dramatic headlines – thank you Daily Express – this story from cold Canada […]

[accordion] [acc_item title=”Agile Video”] Just 5 days ago, GoPro has shown us in Europe what they’ve been doing in the US for a while, which is getting close up, intimate action from the world’s biggest sport – football. Until now, GoPro were seen as a voyeur of action sports. That was until they broke into […]

Twelve years ago, Charlie and I decided to start an agency called Performance PR. We had a business plan. We wanted to do the two things that we were passionate about – cars and sport. And we wanted to have fun along the way. Nearly 4,400 days later, a lot has changed. Regional newspapers are […]

Following the recent World Cup draw, which saw Belgium secure a favourable set of venues and adversaries for the qualifying group stage at next summer’s global football show-down, could we now be looking at a dream ending for this fantastic football story? At Performance we hope so. As an agency of fans, focused upon developing […]

With 2014 just around the corner, Brazil is soon to be at the centre of the world’s attention with the most successful national team in World Cup history hosting one of the most eagerly anticipated tournaments in years. The world’s greatest players will be on show and Brazil has promised a party. The country has […]

The computer and video games industry is currently one of the fastest growing sectors in popular history. No longer the preserve of unkempt teenagers from across the world, keen on wasting away a few hours in the company of present or indeed virtual friends, it is now a multi-billion pound Industry. Giving the traditional entertainment […]

A recent lunchtime wander through Waterstones for a last minute office Secret Santa gift revealed an overwhelming trend. It wasn’t the latest unpronounceable Nordic crime writer, or the next shades of grey instalment (everyone knows they need to be read on Kindles to prevent public transport embarrassment). The trend that caught my eye was the […]

With stump mics detecting an increasingly feisty on-the-field battle between the Aussies and ‘the Poms’ during the last test, we took the temperature of the two nations’  fans off-the-field, to see how the sporting sledging has translated into online chat. The hat-trick of England v Australia sporting head-to-heads over the past month, in Rugby League […]

Nominees for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year 2013 have been announced and yet again, the list causes a lot of chatter. Who should and who shouldn’t be included, what sports are not represented* and where are all the women? ‘Sexist’, ‘sportist’ and ‘elitist’ are all words that have been associated with this year’s […]

You could almost hear the chorus of groans when English cricket lovers woke up this morning, checking the score with excited anticipation. It had all started so well after all, then an unexpected collapse of epic proportions. Let’s hope we’re not heading to the bad old days, surely we will bounce back, won’t we?* One […]

Every day 2 or 3 CVs drop into my inbox – from the recently graduated to the seasoned professional. My filtration process is increasingly honed. I can now scan read, looking for key phrases, words, that standout moment. Pretty much in the same way a journalist scans a ‘press release’ – you have nine seconds […]

Attending the latest Sport Industry Breakfast brought home exactly how lucky I am both to work in the British sports industry and to be a sports fan in this country. The panel* consisted of leading figures from British Sport, each of which is in the process of organising a high profile global sporting event on […]

As it’s Friday afternoon and the office has an ‘end of the week’ vibe going on, I’m keeping today’s blog post light reading. As all PROs know, video can be a powerful tool for getting a message across to consumers and YouTube is a dream platform for getting your bit of brand content out to […]

Do you know what is being said about your brand in the forums and blogs? No? Why not? Your customers know. They visited just before they made a decision to buy (or not buy) your product. So again, why don’t you know? Customers don’t have to be regulars on forums, it’s easy and increasingly likely that […]

As we go into another international break, Sam Brandon looks at the Grass Roots system that has left the national team one step behind. The performance of the England national team is one of the biggest talking points before and after every international break but for me, it’s no coincidence that they continue to disappoint […]

A sci-fi analogy works well when discussing automotive industry expansion. Cars are quite scientific and sci-fi is known for becoming sci-fact. Think Tricorder, think iPhone. The big difference between Starfleet and the likes of Hyundai, Mercedes or Bugatti, is that the car makers have thrown the Prime Directive straight out the nearest docking bay. They […]

Cicero said ‘the face is a picture of the mind.’ So what if technology gave the Communications industry the means to measure facial emotive response to online content on a mass scale and so create a platform for true ‘sentiment’ analysis? I pose this scenario because I read this week that Tesco is installing ‘hundreds […]

The convergence of sport and business accelerated last week when a San Francisco-based company, Fantex announced an Initial Public Offering allowing members of the public to buy a stake in the future earnings of a current NFL star. The company will issue a million shares in Arian Foster, a running back with the Houston Texans, […]