Founded in March 2011, Wimdu is one of a growing group of companies offering a marketplace for homeowners to rent out their spare rooms and homes to tourists and visitors. The company set up UK offices in May 2011 and already lists almost 2,000 properties in the UK. Helped by an £80million investment injection by the Samwer Brothers, Wimdu has expanded globally and now has over 35,000 properties in 2,000 cities across 100 countries.

The campaign will focus on building brand awareness of Wimdu’s social accommodation search which unites travellers and hosts from around the world. The campaign will also aim to attract new hosts to the site especially in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics. Diffusion will reinforce that anybody can offer their flat or house to guests, the host benefits from additional income and social travel provides guests with a completely new perspective on the holiday destination.

A key campaign objective will be introducing consumers to social accommodation whilst encouraging home owners to open their home to guests visiting the UK. The campaign will be driven by key creative peaks, reinforced by a solid and integrated press office campaign.

Michael Riegel, CEO of Wimdu UK commented, “Social accommodation is one of the fastest growing sectors within the travel industry, but has yet to gain substantial media coverage across media channels. We want to raise awareness of this trend, and Diffusion’s experience in the travel industry combined with their integrated approach, made the agency a natural choice.”

Tom Malcolm, Head of Consumer at Diffusion commented:  “Wimdu UK is the type of challenger brand we love to work with at Diffusion. The British public has an enduring love affair with all aspects of travel and we want to tap into all those emotional connections through our campaign. Wimdu UK is operating in a competitive space and a consumer campaign which can tap into a new trend can really help increase brand presence.”

Diffusion will use social media including Facebook and Twitter to emphasise Dunelm Mill’s expertise for interior design as well as reinforcing the brand’s commitment to quality products at everyday low prices. The campaign will do this through the central theme of inspiring consumers to make small changes that make a big difference to the look and feel of their home.

Diffusion will create online communities focused on inspiring consumers to share their home design tips. Through Dunelm Mill’s ‘Love it, Like it’ inspiration look book on Facebook, fans will be also be able to browse the best user generated design tips.

The agency will also develop and implement Dunelm Mill’s blogger relations strategy, developing relationships for Dunelm Mill with key homeware and interior design influencers. The campaign will also help to support Dunelm Mill’s expansion across the UK with a series of blogger inspiration events to be held at store openings in addition to the business’ 113 stores across the UK.

Carole Brown, Marketing Director Dunelm Mill, “We are seeing our customers using social media not just as a way of sharing their store experience but also in discussing the changes they’ve made to their homes using our products, helping others make small changes that make a big difference to the way they feel in their home. Through our work with Diffusion we want to make sure that Dunelm Mill is at the heart of these conversations, helping to inspire our customers on the right design choices they can make for their home.”

Ivan Ristic, co-founder and director, Diffusion added, “Social media has already transformed many retail markets in the UK, in particular fashion, with consumers increasingly sharing their purchases and tips through haul video and also parenting where mums and dads are keen to share their tips. We see huge potential for Dunelm Mill to lead a similar trend in the home interiors market, particularly given the strength of positive sentiment that already exists about the brand in the UK.”

The campaign will focus on promoting Caxton FX’s three foreign currency cards: Europe Traveller, Dollar Traveller, and Global Traveller. It will highlight Caxton FX’s pioneering position in the market, offering no ATM fees for card use abroad, significantly better exchange rates and high level of customer service for which Caxton FX was voted number one choice in Which? magazine’s Travel Report this July, ahead of Travelex, M&S Money and the Post Office.

Diffusion will implement an integrated campaign focusing on traditional and social media. The traditional media campaign will focus on building awareness and advocacy amongst travel and personal finance sections of national and broadcast media.  The social media campaign will engage personal finance and travel bloggers while also developing and building Caxton FX’s social media communities on Facebook and Twitter in the run up to the Christmas travel period and next year’s summer holiday season.

Rupert Lee-Browne, CEO, Caxton FX commented, “For the past decade we have built our reputation on pioneering market leading products and services to help consumers achieve the best value for money and convenience when taking money abroad. We needed a new agency with a fresh approach that really understood how to reach consumers using both traditional and social media.”

Ivan Ristic, co-founder and director, Diffusion added, “The current economic climate has rightly made consumers even more conscious of getting value for money, especially when going abroad. Our campaign across traditional and social media will position Caxton FX Cards as the smart way to take your money abroad. It will encourage holidaymakers to think more carefully about exchanging their currency and avoid the last-minute dash to M&S or the airport bureau de change where so many of us have been stung by shocking exchange rates in the past.”

Taking place on September 8th during Mobile Marketing Week, organised by Mobile Marketer, Women In Wireless will be holding a multi-city speed networking event, with similar parties organised in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Calgary and, for the first time, London.

Women In Wireless was established to help empower and develop female leaders in the mobile and digital media industries. The organisation first formalised its efforts in 2009 by forming the Women In Wireless committee within the Mobile Marketing Association. Since then, the group has grown rapidly and today has over 1,000 members from companies including Google, mBlox, Apple, Cisco, American Express, Coca Cola and Disney.

Commenting on the launch of the UK’s first Women In Wireless event, Charlotte Fors, founder and co-chair of Women In Wireless said, “On September 8th,  women in New York, San Francisco, London, Toronto and Calgary will be getting together to ‘speed network’ with other people in the industry. We are very thankful to Diffusion Mobile & the GSMA for sponsoring the London event and helping us take the first step in becoming an international organization.”

Ivana Farthing, Head of Mobile practice at Diffusion added, “At Diffusion we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of innovation and are committed to supporting new initiatives and diversity across the sector. We have seen how successful Women In Wireless has been in the US and are looking forward to bringing it to the UK as the industry continues to grow.”

The Women In Wireless speed networking event will be held on Thursday 8th September from 6.30pm at the GSMA Member’s Lounge in London. For further information and registration, please visit  http://mobilemarketingweekuk.eventbrite.com

Energy Opportunities consists of a series of special think tanks, highlights of which will air across the CNBC network, involving high-level international speakers filmed at events taking place in London, China and Singapore. Energy Opportunities will create a global brainstorm to explore the energy options of the future and will culminate in a 60 minute programme on CNBC.  Diffusion will work with CNBC to encourage debate online at the site EnergyOpportunities.tv and on key social media platforms including Twitter and LinkedIn.

The agency will be creating opportunities for the online debate to go on air by engaging prominent environment, energy and sustainable development and CSR commentators on-line.  Diffusion’s brief also includes reaching out to consumers concerned about energy and sustainability issues, encouraging them to visit the Energy Opportunities site where they will have a rare opportunity to share their opinions and suggestions with business and government decision makers.

Marina Kissam, marketing director, EMEA for CNBC commented, “Energy Opportunities brings together industry leaders, key political figures and academic pioneers to debate how we can design a more sustainable future.  This year, we will bring our on-the-ground, on-air, and online initiatives together through social media to get an even greater level of engagement.”

Ivan Ristic, co-founder and director, Diffusion added, “Social media has become a critical vehicle for the relationships between media organisations and their audiences. We are looking forward to working with CNBC to target key stakeholders as well allowing energy-concerned consumers to participate through social media and CNBC’s Energy Opportunities web site.”

Diffusion will run a sustained media relations and online influencer campaign to promote Air New Zealand’s two key routes from London Heathrow to Los Angeles and Hong Kong as well as routes to destination New Zealand.

Work will begin with promoting the airline’s acclaimed new Skycouch and Spaceseat products that were introduced to London routes in April.  Skycouch is a new design that is revolutionising ‘economy’ air travel by turning three individual seats on a Boeing 777 into a single “skycouch’’, to give couples and those travelling with children a more flexible space when flying.  The seats are already becoming affectionately known as ‘Cuddle Class’.

Air New Zealand has developed a strong reputation for its use of video virals, and Diffusion will drive online seeding and media amplification of video campaigns as well developing concepts for future digital campaigns.  A new in-flight safety video “Fit to Fly” featuring US fitness legend Richard Simmons, released by the airline in March secured over one million views on YouTube in just three days. ‘Fit to Fly’ follows on from the airline’s hugely successful Nothing to Hide and Bare Essentials of Safety inflight video campaigns which have totalled more than 12 million views on YouTube to date.

Sarah Hopkins, communications manager for Air New Zealand Europe commented, “Diffusion impressed us with their ability to quickly get under the skin of the Air New Zealand brand and bring freshness, tenacity and creativity of thinking that matched our own.  We needed an agency which really understood today’s interconnected media landscape and was expert in designing and implementing integrated communication campaigns and at the same time understands traditional media relations well.”

Ivan Ristic, co-founder and director, Diffusion added, “The airline market is a very competitive space and Air New Zealand’s creative marketing campaigns have carved out an unmistakable identity as the airline with personality. We’re looking forward to working with Air New Zealand to tap back into the fun and excitement of air travel, implementing an integrated campaign across traditional and social media to drive forward the next stage of encouraging us all to forget everything we know about flying.”

Diffusion will be embarking on a sustained issues-based national and local media campaign for Motors.co.uk, aimed at articulating its motoring expertise and appeal to mainstream consumers, rather than just car enthusiasts.  The traditional PR campaign and Motors.co.uk’s wider marketing strategy will be closely integrated with the agency’s digital work.

Diffusion will be using its extensive expertise in community building and management to make Facebook central to Motors.co.uk’s online engagement strategy.  Social media platforms including Twitter, blogs and forums will also be used to build on the site’s goals of empowering mainstream car buyers and sellers and making car buyers feel safer and reassured about purchasing a used vehicle.

Phill Jones, commercial director, Motors.co.uk commented, “We recognised that we needed to take an integrated approach to our communication strategy to make the biggest impact. Diffusion impressed with their ideas and energy for building consumer engagement around our brand, allowing consumers to share their emotions around the car buying process.  They demonstrated that rare quality among agencies of being as strong in traditional media as they are in digital and crucially, expert at bringing those multiple channels together.”

Daljit Bhurji, managing director, Diffusion added,  “Motors.co.uk is the type of challenger brand we love to work with at Diffusion. The British public has an enduring love affair with all aspects of motoring and we want to tap into all those emotional connections through our campaign. Motors.co.uk is operating in a competitive space and an integrated campaign which can start conversations and harness the power of social networks has the potential to give it a real edge.”

Diffusion has recruited Laura Pettitt, a highly respected senior film publicist from Freud Communications as its new Head of Film and Entertainment.  Laura has worked as the lead publicist on a series of high-profile projects including Bronson, Bruno, Kick-Ass, Adulthood, Made in Dagenham and has also managed ongoing PR campaigns for cinema chain Vue Entertainment and Sky Movies.

Pettitt commented, “Clients are becoming increasingly frustrated by mainstream media and digital campaigns being conducted by the same old agencies in isolation. All too often opportunities to create powerful campaigns integrated across media channels are being missed due to a lack of expertise, coordination or misplaced rivalry between agencies.  Our vision for Diffusion Film & Entertainment is to inject some much needed fresh thinking and competition into the agency space. We have built a team which brings together exceptional relationships with film journalists with Diffusion’s proven expertise in digital and social media campaigns.”

Diffusion Film & Entertainment has been retained by Terry Stone’s Gateway Films, the producers of Shank and Doghouse, to run the offline and digital campaigns for its slate of films in 2011. The first of these will be Weighed In, which starts shooting later this month and stars Bob Hoskins.

The agency has also been selected to work on Screwed, a feature being directed by critically acclaimed director and Reg Traviss (Joy Division, Psychosis).  The film is a semi-biographical story based on the experiences of former prison guard Ronnie Thompson, who spent seven years working in some of the UK’s most dangerous prisons. Based on Thompson’s book of the same name, the project stars James D’Arcy (Master & Commander) and Noel Clarke (Kidulthood).

A central objective for Diffusion Mobile will be to raise and manage Upstream’s profile ahead of Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona in February 2010. The campaign will focus on themes relating to consumer response rates and ROI from mobile marketing.

Diffusion Mobile has been awarded the brief based on their industry and media knowledge, and a proven track record of driving issues-based campaigns in the mobile and marketing sectors.

Alexandra Chong, Head of Marketing and PR for Upstream, described the rationale behind the appointment: “Mobile marketing is a young but crowded market, and to achieve penetration it’s vital to engage multiple audiences with very clearly defined messages. Diffusion Mobile was selected on the basis of their experience of executing successful campaigns in the mobile and marketing industries, borne out by the agency’s payment-by-results approach.”

Ivan Ristic, director and co-founder of Diffusion, commented: “The mobile industry is an extremely dynamic and exciting field, and the solutions that Upstream provides are effective and unique. We are looking forward to helping Upstream highlight its offerings across the UK and European markets.”

La Senza (www.lasenza.co.uk) , the global lingerie brand and retailer, has appointed Diffusion to develop and implement its social media strategy in the UK and Ireland. Diffusion has been briefed to increase awareness and understanding of the La Senza brand and drive quality traffic to boost online sales and drive footfall in La Senza’s 190 stores in the UK and Ireland.  Online reputation management will be core to Diffusion’s work, with the agency providing actionable insights on product development, store experience, customer service and wider brand issues being discussed on social media platforms.

A central objective will be to use social media to emphasise La Senza’s affordable luxury values, the range and quality of product available in store and online and in-store expertise and service. This will be achieved through Diffusion building and managing a brand presence for La Senza on key online platforms including Facebook and Twitter to create conversation platforms, as well as running an ongoing influencer relations campaign with key fashion and lifestyle blogs and forums.

Situl Thakrar, Head of Online for La Senza commented, “Social Media has proved itself to be invaluable for fashion retailers in driving awareness and engagement with customers and, when done well, converting that engagement in to sales.  We are seeing our customers using social media not just as a way to communicate, but also as a way to engage with ‘subject matter experts’ when make a considered purchase.  We are also looking to utilise social media as a way of providing insight to the rest of the business which many multi-channel retailers fail on. Our continued investment in digital reflects our desire to position La Senza as a leader in online innovation in the lingerie segment and the ability for social media marketing to amplify both our brand and our commercial opportunity.”

Thakrar continued, “There are an increasing number of agencies who claim they ‘get’ social media who are jumping on the bandwagon, but most lack the direct experience and results that Diffusion was able to demonstrate, particularly in advising retail brands.  What really set them apart was their understanding that social media does not sit in a silo and is vital in shaping and managing brand reputation across an organisation.  Diffusion’s focus on actionable insights and the bottom line will make them an integral partner in continuing to drive La Senza’s popularity and growth in the UK and Ireland.”

Ivan Ristic, director and co-founder, Diffusion commented: “For retail brands looking for longevity and growth, a social media strategy is no longer nice to have but business critical. La Senza is an iconic brand which has recognised it has huge potential to build direct and powerful relationships with its many fans through the imaginative use of social media.  We are looking forward to applying our expertise in the retail sector to help La Senza create a social media strategy which integrates not only with the rest of the marketing department but right across the organisation.”