Senior Account Executive / Account Manager (London)

This job is about breaking new ground. Our clients range from consumer gadgets to fine art photography products, via the world’s strongest beer. We need someone who not only knows their way around a PR campaign, but can also be creative online. We are an agency that is doing things differently, so we’re looking for someone who wants to change things. Feeling claustrophobic in your current job? Get in touch. We promise you won’t have to get half naked in central London – we’ve already done that!

We need someone who can help build on the great coverage we're getting for BrewDog

Internship – 1 to 2 months (London)

This position is perfect for anyone looking to cut their teeth in PR and marketing. It won’t just be making the coffee (although good brew-making skills are an essential asset for any Manifest employee!) – you’ll be hands on in real client work and learn the ropes from an experienced and passionate team. Fancy it? Know someone who does? Then give me a shout.

We don’t want any fancy-dan luvvie-darling sorts – just genuinely nice, creative and hardworking people. Oh – and we don’t use agencies, sorry – we prefer a  a more hands-on recruitment process.

For more info on our clients and examples of our work check out our portfolio.

“It’s not every day you run through London in your pants…” is what one participant said. Something I thought was a bit of an understatement. But then again, the other week we were launching a 55%ABV beer served from dead squirrels, so right now filming a flashmob (with the emphasis on the ‘flash’) running around Piccadilly Circus in their underwear seemed like a normal day for the Manifest PR team.

I guess there needs to be some sort of explanation for our foray into semi-nude photography, so I’ll give you some background on the client we were working for, Arkº.

Arkº stands for ‘acts of random kindness’ – which is a non-profit organisation looking to put kindness back in fashion (quite literally). Arkº produces clothing that is not only cool, but also comes with a commitment – every time you wear the brand, you perform at least one act of random kindness. This could be something as small as giving your mum a call, through to spontaneously donating the clothes on your back (except for your Arkº underwear – for the sake of decency) to Oxfam. The half-naked ‘runners’ then embarked on an epic journey of kindness that took them through Piccadilly Circus, Carnaby Street and Oxford Street – helping out builders, removal men and even having a quick waltz with commuters. It seems that even London commuters smile when faced with random kindness.

Cameron, founder of Arkº conducted a live radio interview with Alexandra Burke while running through Piccadilly in his pants.

Unsurprisingly, the brand has become an immense online movement with thousands of fans on various social networks – but Tuesday marked its official launch in the UK, which is where Manifest came in. We provided Arkº with PR support to organise and promote ‘The Great Arkº Underwear Run’ and help them make a splash in London.

Boris' bikes went down well when the runners got tired!

This involved everything from drafting press materials to running around chasing semi-naked flashmobbers with a video camera (you can see the highlights below). The media was all over it – Arkº founder Cameron Stewart even had a live interview with X Factor winner Alexandra Burke as she hosted Heart FM’s breakfast show.

High five! We made a few builders' day!

Safe to say a lot of fun was had. Now go get yourselves some Arkº clothing and start spreading the kindness.

Forgive me for reminiscing but I remember being asked, for my first job interview way back when, to bring a print out of some of the best code I’d written. Why? Well at the time I was slightly confused why they would want this on paper – I mean I could send/bring a digital version probably with greater ease and of course save a couple of pieces of paper and printer ink (etc.) in the process. So in I took my finest sheets of a JavaScript web app I’d written (I was only young!) and went through my logic and reasoning with the interviewer, showing how I deal with data typing, scalability, accessibility, error handling etc.

Now the tables have turned, it has come to my attention that no-one in my experience (or that of my peers) brings a print out to an interview anymore. The reason I’ve taken it upon myself to blog this is after uncovering a Stack Overflow thread detailing the subject. My argument is that the last thing I ask of any interviewee is to send me a file containing their best code so I can get a handle on them. It may allow me to gauge how they may solve a particular problem, discover which methods they tend to use or identify weaknesses in their approach. Sure you can do this digitally, but what’s wrong with bringing a sheet or two to an interview to have to hand, which does not require hardware to view and is also tangible to the extent it can be passed around a table, referenced easily, highlighted, circled, ripped up, scoffed at and all the rest?

I’m not advocating print outs of your entire MVC application, just what makes you smile – what makes you tick. After all, I love having a coding critque and just generally talking about code so next time you find yourself as an interviewee for a development position, or even presenting within an academic environment – let’s geek it up and have a peek at your code!

James, a Manchester Met illustration and animation graduate, and a super-cool snowboard instructor, free-styled his way to the Manifest team through his stylistic approach to design and illustration.

James, who graduated in 2007 and has since been a freelance illustrator, is going to be working across projects for clients including Asda, Severn Trent Water and Dunlop. The creative team are glad to have swooped him up from the slopes and planted him in Studio.

Joint Managing Director, Shaun Beaumont, believes James is a great asset to the department. “He is already proving a great asset with his talent and flexibility in the busy studio environment we have here at Manifest, James’ style has proven confident and we believe he can really develop in our team.”

An agency shaking the dust from the PR industry, we like people who like challenges. PR gurus and luvvie-darlings aren’t really our thing, and no agencies s’il vous plait.

Show us what you’re made of by sending us your CV and one reason why you’d be the perfect fit. There are just a few criteria we need you to meet:

• Creative thinker (ideas are our bread and butter)

• Strong writer (it’s the foundation of good PR)

• Social animal (both online and offline)

• Team player (Manifest is about collaboration, not competition)

Yeah, we know. But we couldn't resist.

Do you have what it takes to be a genius, rocking and rolling PR consultant, but you’re not being given the chance to get your foot in the door? With the Manifest internship, you make your own luck.

We want you to post a video on our Facebook page saying why you should be our newest team member. Maybe you can write like Shakespeare, inspire like Churchill or dance like Shakira? This is your opportunity to tell us what makes you different and why we should hire you.

The video that resonates most with the Manifest team, our clients and just people we know will be selected, given a celebratory beer and thrown in at the deep end on a broad mix of client work – from ‘Beer for Punks’ to trendy Gadgets via roof tiles. To top it off, you get to learn from the industry’s bright young things.

So what are you waiting for Spielberg? Get cracking.

At Manifest we think that to fully understand a client, you need to walk their walk, talk their talk, and in BrewDog’s case, brew their beer, so this week we’ve been in Aberdeen to visit the office and brewery of our punk new clients BrewDog. Here’s what went down when Manifest did Aberdeen…

Alex : So, what time’s our flight to Aberdeen?

Me: Departs at 7.00am

Alex: Oh my God, what time do we have to leave to catch that?!

Me: I’ll be in the taxi outside your house at 4.30am.

<long pause. Staring.>

Me: Alex? Alex?! Talk to me! It’ll be fine!

So off we went, courtesy of the giant Fanta can in the sky that is Easy Jet, and then this happened:

No, we haven’t turned Alex into a hand puppet, he’s in the mash tun! A steamy pyre of grain and water used in the initial stages of brewing a bottle of Fraserburgh’s finest craft beer. Yeah, we know, he looks a bit red faced, this could be because that’s his shirt to the right of the picture, but it’s probably because the mash tun heats up to an astonishing 80 degrees. Toasty.

Machinery geeks, set faces to small child on Christmas morning. Santa’s been. This little beauty is the BrewDog bottler. Now if you’ve ever met me, you’ll know that I love a good fact, you could call me our resident Manifacto (yeah, I went there), so here’s one that’ll blow your factual socks off. The BrewDog bottling machine can fill and top 20,000 bottles in a day. Thats 6,600,000 ml of pure golden Punk IPA. Just don’t drink them all at once.

Now at Manifest, we like to take the rough with the smooth. We know that not everyday in PR is all about schmoozing with the rich and famous. So when BrewDog co-founder James told us that our next job was to sample the entire BrewDog range, we knew we’d have to struggle through and chalk it up to experience. We also like sarcasm. So, here’s our recommendations:

Alex ‘Oz Clarke‘ Myers favourite tipple is Punk IPA. A pale ale crafted with Chinook, Ahtanum, Simcoe and Nelson Sauvin whole hops, and a Maris Otter grain from Warminister. Light golden in colour with a tropical tang, complimented by creamy notes of light caramel. Fruity!

Me? I like to think I have some fairly exclusive taste (just don’t mention Celine Dion), so my recommendation for the ultimate in Fraserburgh finery is Limited Edition AB:01. A vanilla bean infused belgian style quad, crafted using dry hops. BrewDog only made 3000 bottles of this beauty, so when you hear my bag clinking, you know why.

Keith Floyd, eat your heart out.

Anyway, must fly. Those hops don’t mash ‘em selves you know!

BrewDog is not a shy and retiring brand by any stretch of the imagination – and we knew it was going to be a pretty competitive pitch process – so we decided to go out all guns blazing in terms of both design and content…

Our exploration saw Bachy’s latest project in progress, which involves helping clean up the River Ribble though specialist water treatment – it’s Bachy’s biggest job in the North this year. Dressing up in the required hard hats, big boots and XL hi vis vests, the trip to 3 sites around the city involved neither rain nor sunburn. Leaving with an extensive knowledge about piling and foundations, us girls sure can talk the talk!

It’s here! It’s here! The World Flippin’ Cup is here! And to add a bit of spice, we’ve done a Manifest sweepstake.

Who will win? Well, my money’s on Ghana. Literally.

Curses.