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2 Years and Counting - posted 22nd July 2010
With a national spread of readers and a strength in London, we think Metro is brilliantly placed to get behind coverage of the 2012 Olympics. Next week we're running a special "2 years to go" supplement to kick off the count down to the Games. Sponsored by Lloyds TSB it will include a spread on the various venues, a letter from Seb Coe to Metro readers, a column from the world champion gymnast Dan Keatings and great interviews with the likes of Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell who are challenging Usain Bolt. Don't miss it next Tuesday....
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Metro at your fingertips - posted 7th July 2010
We're really pleased to be ahead of the game in launching our new iPad app which is currently number 1 on the free news app downloads. The app was designed specifically to make the best use of the iPad, with its expanded screen space and multi-touch functionality. It offers digital news in a paper-like experience, giving readers the chance to swipe between individual headlines with a single finger, whilst moving between the different sections using a dual finger swipe. The app covers News, Showbiz, Sport, Weird, Music, Film, TV and Technology
Everybody loves a freebie - posted 1st July 2010
Metro has been running sampling activities for years now, giving out advertisers' free samples at stations across the country. We call it "Brand to Hand". Well now we've launched a new initiative taking this service in to offices, getting our clients' products right to the heart of urbanites' workplaces. Last week we ran our first activity for Wrigleys gum which was a great success.
If you work in an office of more than 200 people, then feel free to put it forward as a potential venue and we will run an assessment of it. Just email your office contact details to alison.sugden@ukmetro.co.uk
Everest in a Day - posted 24th June 2010
On 12 June 2010, 10 members of the Metro team dragged themelves out of bed to abseil down the Trellick tower in London - all 322 feet of it!
The event, named 'Everest in a day' was in support of the charity 'My Generation' - one of Metro's chosen charity partners for the year. My Generation aims to break the cycle of poverty, crime and ill-health in struggling communities.
We're happy to report the Metro team all made it to the bottom in one piece, raising over £1000 for My Generation in the process. http://www.everestinaday.com/
Metro wins 'Green Apple' gold award - posted 16th June 2010
This week Metro won a 'Green Apple' gold award at an event at the Tower of London. The Green Apples have been running for 16 years and could be classed as the Oscars for the British environmental industry. There were over 500 entries, only 30 awards, and only a handful of them were gold. The award recognised our efforts at changing reader behaviour to increase recycling of the paper, through projects including the provision of recycling bins, the recent consumer recycling advertising campaign and the annual Recreate competition.
Recreate competition - posted 9th June 2010
Metro recently launched the Recreate competition, which asked budding young British artists to make something magical out of old Metro newspapers. The standard of entries was very impressive and the winners have now been announced. Log onto metrorecreate.co.uk to take a look at some of the finallists' work. Each winner received £750 and their pieces will feature in shops run by competition partner Oxfam.
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Tune in - posted 3rd June 2010
Metro is the official newspaper partner of the 2010 iTunes festival taking place at the Roundhouse in Camden for 31 nights in July. Maybe we'll see some of you there!
Football Fever - posted 26th May 2010
We're launching a World Cup Fantasy Football game with fantastic new game-play features, a new design, increased usability and exclusive competitions. www.metro.co.uk/fantasyfootball
The new game will have enhanced competition within mini-leagues, where gamers set-up their own leagues to play against their friends. As always with Metro’s games, users can play for free. However, this time they can also up the ante by putting money into the mini-league pot at the start of the competition, with the winner taking the lot.
Urban Action - posted 19th May 2010
This year we wanted to focus our charitable support a bit more than we've done in the past, so we launched a formal charity project team called Urban Action. Having a particular interest in urban based development, the first two charities we are supporting are Kids Company and My Generation with loads of Metro staff getting involved!
Grab some MEtime - posted 13th May 2010
Next week, Metro launches a new consumer campaign to drive traffic to metro.co.uk. Spoof anchormen Donnie Fox and Bill Craze have been created to head up the campaign to fit in with the fun and irreverent tone of the website.
Consumers will be able to learn about the type of content available on metro.co.uk via in-paper and online ads and through specially scripted videos on Metro.co.uk and on a ‘METime’ YouTube channel. The campaign will run under the strapline 'Grab Some MEtime' and will be supported by a microsite www.metro.co.uk/metime
Venture Candy competition - posted 5th May 2010
We're all glued to the daily entries of our Venture Candy competition this week which is running opposite the business & finance page.
Metro's version of Dragon's Den, Venture Candy has the power to really boost the success of some of these small businesses and we've loved working with the brilliant entrepreneurs who have helped us judge the entries. The choice of winner now lies with our readers and online votes are flooding in. Good luck to our finalists!
Advertising First for Metro - posted 29th April 2010
Advertisers are always looking for new and creative things to do in Metro to maximise the stand-out for their messages. We developed a new ad format of 8 folding pages, printed on glossy paper and inserted into 200,000 London copies of Metro to promote ITV1's new HD channel.
Grant Woodthorpe, Metro's Executive Director of Sales said, “We are delighted to be working with ITV as part of this high profile campaign, particularly as it is a media first for Metro. It is a great piece of creative and will really grab the attention of our urbanite readers as they spot the many recognisable faces of ITV talent.”
Metro Street Party - posted 21st April 2010.jpg)
Knowing our readers so well from the surveys you answer, we try to align ourselves with events we feel you'd be interested in. In early April, we were Media Partner to Snowbombing 2010 in Mayrhofen, Austria. Pitted as the greatest show on snow, Snowbombing is a week-long festival of fun on the slopes featuring hundreds of DJs and bands such as Fatboy Slim, DJ Yoda, Editors and Friendly Fires playing in fantastic venues such as the Arctic Igloo, Eristoff Forest and The Racket Club.
Metro sponsored the Street Party, which over the years has become one of Snowbombing's major highlights. The main street gets overrun with 4,000 revellers in fancy dress dancing to the likes of Barry Peters and The Cuban Brothers. Never being afraid to get involved, Metro supplied the audience with 4,000 moustaches to add to their outfits. At other venues we gave away thousands of lip balms and fans. Believe us, it gets hot when 3000 'bombers' are jumping up and down to 2manydjs!
It's Party Time! - posted 14th April 2010
Being a free newspaper, we are dependent on our advertisers. As a way of saying thank you to all our clients for their business, Metro hosts an annual party. It's become an infamous event in the media calendar, and this year's invitation-only "Metroland" party will see a thousand people celebrating at Fabric.
Faces behind the advertising - posted 8th April 2010.JPG)
Ever thought about the people behind the advertising? Well there's a whole bunch of very creative people who spend their lives designing what goes into adverts from print to tv to outdoor posters etc.
Metro wants to push the boundaries of our advertising creativity by getting closer to these people. It should be good news for you readers if we can keep things fresh and engaging. To that end, we ran a competition for "creatives" to design a coverwrap for Metro that would engage communters and brighten up their day. The winning entry was printed on Metro's London edition on 6th April to be read by over 2 million readers. If you'd like to see the other short-listed entries go to www.metro.co.uk/advertising
Metro wins 7-year deal with Transport for London (TfL) - posted 8th March 2010
We have won a 7 and a half year contract to continue our distribution of Metro at all London Underground stations and various London bus stations.
This is great news as it means that Londoners can continue to pick up their copy of Metro at Underground and bus stations until at least 2017! The money that TfL make from this contract will go straight back into funding improvements in public transport, as well as helping to fund carbon-cutting projects, including newspaper recycling schemes at its stations.
Metro takes recycling message to readers in the north - posted 23th February 2010
2010 sees further recycling initiatives as our campaign to get readers to recycle their copies of Metro gathers momentum.
We have partnered with the UK’s largest train operator, Northern Rail, to encourage readers not to leave their Metro on public transport. There will be posters on trains across the network from the end of February.
Security and logistics often complicate recycling plans but we are in constant conversations on the subject, and we now have recycling schemes in place with nine train companies as well as five councils, Westminster, Camden, Waltham Forest, Sutton and Newcastle Upon Tyne.
John Leitch, Executive Director of Distribution and Partners, Metro said: ‘We hope this latest step in our campaign will remind readers that they play an important role in getting their free newspapers recycled.’
Show them how it’s done!!
Metro launches iPhone App - posted 23th February 2010
Check out our new iPhone app which allows you to instantly read the latest edition of Metro, get live news, scroll and search content and also access archived editions. Archives and articles can be searched by keywords and readers can download single pages or editions to read offline.
The application is available to download free from the iTunes store for use worldwide.
Metro appoints Head of Brand Extensions - posted 23th February 2010
We have created a new role ‘Head of Brand Extensions’ and Sarah Divan has been appointed to the role. Sarah will be responsible for expanding the Metro brand beyond the newspaper and website. Sarah said: ‘This year is going to be an extremely fun and exciting time for Metro and I am proud to be involved in the creation of fresh, new and spirited projects which reflect the nature of our readers. Watch this space!’