This week's staff spotlight is on the lovely and very talented developer Lezlea Talbot.

Find out more...

Beside work (of course) tell us about your other passions...
Baking, cocktails, lizards, tapas, swimming, and scuba diving.

If you could take 3 things with you on an island, what would you take and why?
Ray-ban sunglasses, a Swiss Army knife, and a book titled 'How to make alcohol from produce found on a deserted island'.

If I gave you £200 and you had to spend it immediately, what would you buy and why?
A flight off the deserted island, I'll train dolphins to signal to the coastguard when I'm ready to leave.

Tell us a short story:
This one time, at band camp...

What made you want to get into brands/advertising/media/marketing?
I didn't plan to be part of this industry but I enjoy the challenge of no two days being the same.

What was good and bad about your first job?
Good: free jars of sweets
Bad: my boss would scratch his private parts then rummage around in those free jars of sweets.

Change one thing about your industry:
Half day Wednesday's for team sports and half day Friday's for pub lunches.

Change one thing about the world:
Create highways above the buildings for cyclists and rollerbladers.

What is your favourite brand? And why?
Hendricks Gin: it has such a unique taste, they have interesting popup events and a nice website.

What is the next big brand in your view? And why?
Vita Coco, coconut water: Not only is it amazingly refreshing and good for you but it is a great hangover preventative and cure.

Best day at work. Please explain.
Building paper planes to fly around the office for an online paper plane game we were making.
 
Ambition? Please explain.
To be Rich Savage's boss.

                               Marc and Alex gazed into one another's eyes.... 

So last night saw the 3^rd iteration of the Ricoh tennis photoshoot. Held at Campden Hill LTC in Kensington we took over an indoor court at 9pm and shot through till around 3am! Momentum team of myself, Oli Bett, Giles Ritchie and Alex Charkham all graced the set filling roles such as players, trainer, coach and agent - "Show me the money!" Everyone did a sterling job under the creative and art direction of Jules Fearns making sure we had our game faces on at all the right times.

For the second time in 3 years we hired the amazing Clive Brunskill as our photographer (http://www.clivebrunskill.com) - he is an absolute class act. He shoots regularly for the likes of Nike, the ATP, adidas, Bacardi, Rolex, Prince and has undertaken personal assignments for Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova and Fernando Torres to name a few. He put us through our paces with such professionalism and humour that it made the night go quickly and with huge amounts of fun.

Very much looking forward to seeing the images used in the new creative that will be released around the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, held again at the o2 in November. Images will be used for a wide variety of brand collaterals and marketing materials such as fact cards, menus, wall graphics, taxi advertising, programme ads, player guides and speed of serve certificates.

As the one year countdown to the London 2012 has been celebrated at the stunning Aquatics Centre, it doesn't seem like three years since the majority of the world watched the thousands of Chinese performers at the opening ceremony in Beijing.

I was watching  in amazement , with a little fear, that four years later the eyes of the world would be on London and as the saying goes we would  be weighed, measured and found wanting. Probably because unlike the Chinese, us Brits would refuse to wear nappies and practice for hours nonstop.

But as the months have gone by, the facilities have risen in the East end. The Games are on time and on budget. Excitement and positivity around the games seem to be growing on a daily basis. Thankfully the ticketing system has given us all something to complain about.

Just one year to go....ping pong is coming home!

http://youtu.be/JsFRgIb8mAQ

Kulula is a low-cost South-African airline that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Check out their new livery.

A great way to build awareness and bond enmotionally with audiences through innovation, creativity and humour

Simples! 

Written by: Alex Charkham

This week's staff spotlight is on Pete Harris who is a Senior Account Manager in our Sponsorship team.  Find out more about his love for music and festivals, why he's a bit of a geek and which celeb he'd take to a deserted island.  Enjoy!

Q1) Beside work (of course) tell us about your other passions:

I am hugely passionate about all things music related. I love discovering new bands and artists, blagging my way into as many festivals and gigs that I can and annoying my neighbours with my latest discoveries. I'm also a keen sports fan.

Q2) If you could take 3 things with you on an island, what would you take and why?

Bear Grylls - surely no better man to take to an island than the chief scout

Rosie Huntington-Whitely - have you seen Transformers 3? Wow.

Laptop with satellite internet - not sure I could cope without being connected to a world of entertainment

Q3) If I gave you £200 and you had to spend it immediately, what would you buy and why?

A Big Chill festival ticket - I hear there's supposed to be a heat wave this weekend...

Q4) What made you want to get into brands/advertising/media/marketing?

I knew I wanted to get involved in running entertainment events after my experiences at University. The rush of being responsible for organising a fantastic event that can be enjoyed by hundreds or even thousands of people is quite a buzz, but also quite demanding and requires imagination, innovation and creativity.

It was clear to me from early on that a lot of brands were keen to exploit the entertainment space, they have the biggest budgets and with the right clients, brave attitudes and achievable goals I could work with them to put on great experiential activity that could more than achieve their objectives.

Q5) What was good and bad about your first job?

At 16 I worked for a high street sports retailer. Best bit was the 30% discount, the bad bits were more in number - the £3.90 an hour, the lack of any training leading to you having to Bull S*** your way to selling sports equipment to people with serious intentions and the Pure Garage III CD on loop.  

Q6) Change one thing about your industry?

I'd ban the overuse of buzzwords and jargon

Q7) Change one thing about the world:

If there was any way of banning fact-free conjecture and mindless drivel that comes out of commentators, interviewers and reporters on 24hr live news channels I'd do that. And I'd ban Alan Shearer from Match of the Day for similar reasons.

Q8) What is your favourite brand? And why?

I'm a big fan of the Red bull brand, not necessarily for their products, but more for their brand positioning. The sponsorships and the activities they promote and are associated with and the content that they produce is amazing.

They've found a niche in extreme and 'quirky' sports association and have thrown everything at it, so much so that you now expect to see the red bull brand at all extreme sports events. Supplying backing to sports innovators and experimenters (like the Wing Suit / G-Suit) also means they are prevalent within the thrill-seeker community and associated with some great viral video content.

They almost add credibility now to anything they sponsor from sport to music and culture. Their innovation and bravery is to be applauded.

Q9) What is the next big brand in your view? and why?

I'm not sure they're the next 'big brand', but I love a company called Funktion-One who produce precision engineered and unique looking sound systems and speakers. I know it's geeky, but the clarity of the sound that they produce is unrivalled and really noticeable.

They also ensure they keep the brand exclusive by only having a small number of certified suppliers to ensure all sound systems are installed correctly to ensure the sound is perfect every time.

They are becoming increasingly used at festivals and major clubs and bars worldwide.

Q10) Best day at work. Please explain.

Working at Glastonbury festival in 2010 in blazing sunshine driving a golf buggy around the site. In particular when I was taking Ellie Goulding from our tent back to her tour bus and bumping into Emma Watson on the drive, picking her and her boyfriend up, taking the pee out of her and then asking the global film star to take a photo of me and Ellie outside her bus.

Also being close enough to Lady Gaga to see her Adams apple. 

Q11) Ambition? Please explain.

Working abroad in sunnier climes, putting on fantastic, once in a lifetime, awe-inspiring events before I get too old and married and boring.

                                                       Tom before...

In an amazing act of bravery (or some might say, lunacy) our very own Tom Woodger decided he wanted to take the Momo summer party fancy dress theme a step further by having his dark brown locks bleached blonde - raising money for Body & Soul in the process.

Tom was dragged off to the hairdressers by Lindsay yesterday morning looking, frankly, terrified. 

Once in the salon, he settled into the process.

 A few hours later, Tom returned to Momo, golden and glorious, ready to dress up as Mark Ronson (although Draco Malfoy, Val Kilmer as "Ice Man", Alistair Darling, and that bloke from Erasure were also bandied about to describe his new look)

 We're now hoping Tom's going to keep it, nipping back to Exmouth Market for regular touch ups.

Nice one for Raising the cash Tom - we salute you!

We spent a good 3 hours exploring the 14 rooms of the exhibition, from Miro's early life growing up in Catalunya, through his exile, the Spanish Civil war, the war, his trips to America, and his return to his homeland.  The exhibition is so well curated we left feeling a really understanding and empathy with his life and work.  You are made to feel that you are going on a journey through Miro's life with him, and by the time you get to the final "Fireworks" tryptich, you end up with a huge sense of celebration at the end of his life and the difficult political oppression  his country had endured.  It short - it's a well good exhibition, go and see it.

                                                    Did we tell you Kate likes frogs?!

We're bringing back the 'Staff Spotlight' segment, kicking off with Kate who's an Account Director here at Momo.  Find out more about her, her past,  what's cool and what's not on the Katemomometer....

Q1) Beside work (of course) tell us about your other passions...

Sushi, Cocktails, Dancing, Swimming late at night, new music, cycling round London, Cheese, yoga, Latin American fiction, Fruit, dogs, growing vegetables, tapas, mountains, picnics, cider, Sunday afternoons in galleries, seafood by the sea, inflatable animals, Hendricks & Tonic,  movies, clothes, fancy dress, hugs, Monty Python, wine, Ibiza, Barcelona, Malaga,  Brazil,  Flamenco, somersaults, Pimms, pillow fights & tomatoes.

Q2) If you could take 3 things with you on an island, what would you take and why?

My boyfriend, a fishing rod, my music collection.

Q3) If I gave you £200 and you had to spend it immediately, what would you buy and why? 

The gorgeous Raleigh bike I test rode the other day

Q4)  Tell us a short story:

It was a dark, and stormy night, and the captain said to his mate "tell us a tale", and this was the tale he told......

It was a dark, and stormy night, and the captain said to his mate "tell us a tale", and this was the tale he told......

It was a dark, and stormy night, and the captain said to his mate "tell us a tale", and this was the tale he told......

Given this one goes on forever it's not that short, but it is a story.

Q5) What made you want to get into brands/advertising/media/marketing?

When I was a kid I used to dream about putting on amazing events for people in strange places, so once I'd accepted I wasn't going to be an actor, I ended up at MTV and went from there.  The pull of being able to put on amazing events in interesting places for brands that made people love them and want to buy them was all too much of a heady combo that I soon forgot about the acting. 

Q6) What was good and bad about your first job?

My first job was washing up in my parent's pub when I was ten. It was low paid but I could turn up late and nobody cared. 

Q7) Change one thing about your industry:

I would cut a lot of the cr*p.  A lot of people in experiential talk an excessive amount of rubbish to clients.  I try to always be up front and honest.  There's been a big stigma attached to a long history of agencies blinkering their clients with jargon, particularly with "newer" disciplines such as experiential and social media, and it's given us all a bad name that we're now working hard to shift.

Q8) Change one thing about the world:

I would definitely ditch wasps, and judgemental people.

Q9) What is your favourite brand? And why?

Too many to have one.  I think Diesel have always stuck to what they're about and their recent work around Be Stupid has been great.  It's always hard to balance being a global brand and staying irreverent.   Becks have done an amazing job at establishing themselves in art and producing some incredible technological advancements in our field, so I have a lot of respect for them.   Burberry came back like a phoenix from the flames of chav and revived themselves into a super cool London luxe brand again.  Their acoustic sessions and a lot of their advancements in social media have helped to put them back on the map of cool and credible.  Orange have always carried themselves well by adapting to what their audience want while still bringing it back to the product and brand.  Their recent Glastonbury app was right on the money.

Q10) What is the next big brand in your view? and why?

Bowers & Wilkins have the potential to bring themselves into the spotlight of desirable high-end audio and have started to do some interesting work with their Society of Sound so it would be interesting to see where they take it.   Sometimes a stroke of genius can build a brand, and I think Foot Locker's Sneakerpedia could be the thing that makes them go from average to great.

Q11) Best day at work. Please explain.

Mostly ones spent putting on beautiful events in Ibiza, but there have been plenty of brilliant ones here in London too.

Q12) Ambition? Please explain.

Can't tell you that as someone might nick my idea ;)

Sorry for the delay peeps. We promised to give you the final tally on the funds raised at the Momo Big Picnic once we had broken into the Fort Knox that is our charity box. After much cursing, hammering and purchase of a special screw driver, we have finally got our hands on the cash. Mwuhahaha

After counting pennies like the nursery rhyme king for half an hour, I am pleased to confirm that the final, nicely rounded, amount raised for the Friends of Clerkenwell charity is (queue drum roll)...£200. As mentioned previously this will go towards maintenance and upkeep of the charity's much needed ambulances.

Judy Gould (from the F+C charity) sent us this message:

"Wow, thanks so much for thinking of us and raising £200 - we're very grateful.  Please pass on our thanks to all your staff who participated and were so generous."

A job well done guys. Great effort.

Cheers Al, from the Give Back team.

The London office enjoyed a special, extended lunch break yesterday courtesy of le grand fromage (Simon White) and in association with the Give Back team. The agency descended en masse to the much coveted, local patch of grass (namely the park round the corner) to enjoy a gastronomic extravaganza and to terrorize fellow luncheoners with Frisbees.

Staff were challenged to create a signature, picnic dish to enter into an agency judged competition. Needless to say the challenge was well met and we were treated to host of waist expanding, food finery from Salads to Pies!

In uncharacteristic fashion the British weather held out splendidly and the picnic was blessed with bright sunshine and a light summer breeze. The perfect setting to indulge in a little Frisbee and Boules - continental style.

The event was put on to support the Friends of Clerkenwell (a local charity that provide much needed social, emotional and practical help to housebound or isolated senior citizens) and staff were asked to make a donation to fund their ambulance service. The great news is that the charity box is full to bursting and laiden with gold coins. The bad news is, that we can't get the thing open so will have to report back once we've pick-axed and blow-torched our way inside.

A special shout out goes to; Rich Savage (for the man-baked, ham and cheese stuffed Focaccia), Mrs Bonnick (for the guilt ridden amazingness that was the Rocky Road - we know you didn't make them Lee), Sarah Jones (for the sparkly carrot cake), Issy (for the face distorting lemonade), Fran (for the right royal coronation chicken) and last but by no means least Mark Roffey (for the uber shooter pie). It appears professional catering will no longer be required for agency events.

Coming soon: A fitness workout to help you burn calories after an agency picnic...

                                        Ice cream from an old truck anyone?

Sorry I couldn't help myself with that cheesy title...it's a hot day in London town - around 29 degrees and we are loving it!  Apparently it may even get up to 33 degrees - we'll see.

Yes we may be in the lovely air conditioned office but lunchtime is nearing and I can guarantee people will be using their 1 hour - actually we think you should!!

The sun doesn't come around often and later this week, rain is expected.

So to all those people thinking of staying in the office at lunch - please don't.  Top up those weekend/Cannes tan and enjoy it whilst it lasts.

Sunshine rocks.