The past month has seen our client Musion in the news a lot. From its work trending globally on Twitter to interviews with BBC Breakfast and Bloomberg, the past few weeks have been explosive.

One of the most talked about events of the year was the Coachella Music Festival, and for good reason. Over 100,000 fans witnessed the “return of Tupac” as an incredibly life-like Musion holographic projection of the deceased artist appeared on stage alongside music legends Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. You only have to read the reaction from The Independent to see how much of an impact Musion has made with this exciting project.

Carrying on the theme of reproducing famous celebrities – last Monday (30^th April) saw Musion launch its work with leading shoe designer Christian Louboutin and The Design Museum. Enhancing a ten week spectacular exhibition of the designer’s life’s work, the retrospective has been  brought to life with a truly mesmerising holographic projection of the famous burlesque dancer, Dita Von Teese. Musion has once again surpassed itself. The breath-taking performance features advanced special effects and leaves you feeling as though Ms Von Teese is in the room.

Taking centre stage among the iconic red soled shoes, the queen of burlesque’s unmistakeable silhouette morphs from an oversized Louboutin shoe before proceeding to dance around the stage. We attended the launch press day and were delighted to see the looks of awe as the press watched the routine. Dita herself tweeted that she found the experience “weird” due to its realistic quality.

This isn’t the first time Musion has worked with a fashion designer to create a bespoke and unique event. Back in March 12, Musion worked with British luxury brand Alfred Dunhill to generate the architectural and sensual spirit of London for its distinguished live fashion show Trafalgar in Shanghai, China. Astounding the 1,000 strong crowd, Musion’s holographic technology was used to create a virtual weather system live onstage.

If you’d like to every discuss anything with Musion, please get in touch.

Image Courtesy of Luke Hayes

Those who attended the full day event received speaker insight from a collection of leading brands and Sitecore partners. Speakers included Simon Calver, CEO of LOVEFiLM, easyJet’s Head of CRM Richard Levin and Dyson’s David Tomlinson.

EasyJet’s success with Sitecore was covered exclusively in New Media Age and more information on the event can be found here. We were there for the whole day providing event and PR support, so expect plenty of resources from the event soon.

Show wise, Mobile World Congress, the world’s most important mobile-related technology fair took place in Barcelona on the 27^th February – 1^st March. Considering the astonishing popularity of smartphones and tablet devices, it’s no wonder 67,000 people descended on MWC’s exhibition hall. Running alongside in London was TFM&A (Technology for Marketing & Advertising) displaying the latest marketing and advertising technology innovations to a crowd 11,000 strong.

On the consumer front Facebook, hot from its announcement of an impending IPO, revealed a complete redesign of its brand pages to bring it in line with Timeline. Marketers are going to have to change their tactics to ensure their overhaul matches the strict new T&Cs for brands.

Apple didn’t rest on its laurels either announcing the New iPad (dropping the number sequencing), which has already sold out, and revelling in the fact it runs the most popular app store in the world. In a short space of time, it has already reached 25 billion downloads (accounting for 4 apps per person on the planet). Android’s response will be interesting as it attempts to cope with application fragmentation across devices.

As always, we keep up to date with the latest technology trends to ensure we know how to leverage the news to our clients’ benefit. To find out how we do it, why not read our free PR white paper.

Flashback.G, a Trojan horse that attempts to install itself using one of two Java vulnerabilities (or if those fail, a social engineering security certificate), has been of great interest to the press the past week. Yesterday Intego provided further information on the Trojan horse to help Mac users concerned with their security online.

Aside from organising phone interviews and fielding journalist queries, we’re providing the extensive coverage to Intego – a practice invaluable for understanding the press’ reaction to the company.

And with the news covered widely in The Telegraph, The Guardian, 9to5 Mac, Computerworld, Ars Technica and hundreds of other publications, there’s a lot to share.

If you’d like to hear more about how we can help support your business with targeted media campaigns, please get in touch.

There’s no doubt that the modern organisation has a wealth of tools at its disposal – digital strategies, search, SEO, PR, traditional marketing, video, social and many more.

So where does this leave the dedicated PR agency? Well if you’re entrusting a competent agency with your public relations strategy, you’ll be in exactly the same place. Having been fully briefed in your business’ intentions, your PR agency will have already recognised your communications potential and adapted its strategy to accurately match your demands before you realise them.

It’ll already have widened its service offering and integrated itself further into your business. This could be event management, customer communications or email marketing management.

In fact unlike a large marketing organisation that has to brief multiple departments and stretch its resources, your PR agency has the expertise in place to run a lean integrated department.

The key isn’t a broad approach. A specialist agency with a solid understanding of the business processes leading your marketplace is all you need. The benefit? You also have an extremely effective PR agency to lead your media campaigns when necessary.

This year the awards were held for the first time at the prestigious London art fair, Kinetica.

The Musion Academy is a not-for-profit organisation that helps support talented artists and students with an interest in holographic art.

Entries included an amazing mix of interactivity, visual elements, acoustic experimentation and holographic performance.

Winner Laura Jean Healey made history with the world’s first underwater shoot with Musion technology. Analema Group’s performance ‘Khaos’ showed a live dancer creating a holographic fractal landscape in real-time, while Ki-Ra’s ‘Anima Mundi’ was an equally impressive visual performance which explored the archetypal nature of time.

Finally New Opera Hero, who redefine the term ‘band,’ amalgamated visual and sonic art with live music and holographic visuals to win two awards on the night.

Truly special stuff.

One of the most common questions we hear is ‘what is PR and how can it help my business?’ In the age of modern social media, digital campaigns and reinvigorated traditional methods there are many facets to PR, so providing a definitive answer can prove challenging.

We’re attempting to answer the question with a series of informational white papers.

The first paper starts with a core part of PR; media and press relations. There are various approaches to take with a press campaign so we hope it’ll give you some starting advice for getting your message out.

If you still have questions, we’re always available to chat over coffee. You can reach us on 0845 257 7118 or on email.

Download the white paper for free here

Our client AVSolution realised this and elicited our help to create an informational video about its Polycom ATX Telepresence Suite.

Photos and words have a purpose but when you want to show off a visual technology like immersive Telepresence, video is the best option.

Choosing the right videographer can be difficult, but we work with proven ex-BBC and ITN video journalists who understand how to produce professional, interesting videos within strict budgets.

Whether it’s writing the script for you or handling the logistics on the day, we’re able to help you create a video just like this.

Contact us if you’d like to find out more.

On Wednesday 11^th January, Musion combined its expertise with Masergy and AVSolution, to utilise Polycom’s Immersive Telepresence technology in a genuine world first. Musion is renowned for its 3D holographic projection technology Musion 3D, a breathtaking system that’s been used by the biggest names in the entertainment and technology world.

This time Polycom’s HDX video codec was configured by AVSolution to demonstrate the future of business communication as representatives from Masergy were transmitted live across London for a stunning face-to-face virtual meeting.

As Ian O’Connell, Director of Musion, rightfully stated, “Polycom’s affordable HDX video codec creates a terrific easily accessible solution and introduces Musion TelePresence to a much wider audience. The future of business communication isn’t just sat at a desk behind a screen – it is now possible to experience face-to-face, fully immersive 3D meetings where individuals appear in breathtaking clarity to each other without the need to physically be there.”

For full details on the event, please see the full press release on Masergy’s website.

First up is another fantastic media placement for AVSolution. First it was The Sunday Times, now it’s a business technology supplement in the Daily Telegraph. AVSolution helped provide an article explaining why telepresence is the future of business meetings. Also, did you spot their full page advertisement on the back of the supplement?

If that wasn’t enough, you might have noticed Musion’s appearance in two features in the same supplement; one about its appearance at the Orange Business event, hellodemain, the other in a general Future of Business Communication feature.

Last is Masergy who this week announced its partnership with the largest carrier in the Caribbean region, Digicel – it was news that’s already been covered in Total Telecom.

Of course it’s only right we end with a heartfelt wish to all our clients, readers and partners for a very Happy Christmas and New Year. Here’s to an equally successful 2012.