As we all met around the kettle yesterday morning, on our first day back in the office after the holidays, discussion inevitably turned to New Year’s resolutions. This is a conversation that never fails to depress me. I can only look back in abject horror at the mockery 2011 made of my perfectly reasonable resolutions. While I’m tempted by the idea that my resolution this year should be to not make any more, that would be taking the coward’s way out. No. This year I’m going to face the issue head on, (wo)man-up, and properly repent of last year’s dismal effort.

Here are a few of the promises I, and other Peppermints, have resolved upon for 2012:

Andrew: Engage in the real world, instead of emailing the guy next to me asking if he wants a brew.
Rachel: Stop eating the sweeties in reception – not that I do!
Owen: Find a way to double my Twitter followers without having to resort to buying them on eBay.
Emma: Spring clean the Peppermint archive computer drive.
Aimee: Start cooking more. Ready-meals are not a substitute for a fresh home-cooked dinner.
Haydn: Learn something new every day; even if it’s just a little thing or something silly.
Jess: Maintain my 5 a day – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Four Square and Path.
Jane: Integrate my phone with my dock, dongle, tablet, and desktop. Oh, and don’t forget the deck…
Lucy: File everything in plastic wallets. They’re my BFF for 2012!
Eliza: Stop eating at Gastronomy everyday – lunchtime economising will boost next year’s Christmas fund.
Alice: Use a pen and paper – just to remember the old days.
Alex: Speak normally; it’s amazing how many times I catch myself using jargon in meetings.
Liz: Take advantage of working in an office with a gym. Late nights at the office can take on a whole new meaning in 2012…
Ben: Skate board to work; it’s green, it’s good for you and gets you some fresh air. Might be tricky with my commute of 13 miles in the winter but if I set off early enough…Michael J Fox had it nailed.
Me: ‘Managed information flow’ will be my new mantra. Being able to tune out all that online white noise will mean I can use my social network more effectively.

There are lots of sore heads at Peppermint Towers this morning – but they’re more than worth it.  For the second year running, we scooped the silver award for Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy at the CIPR PRide awards last night…so to say we’re over the moon is an understatement! We were up against some really brilliant agencies so we’re especially delighted to have our team recognised by the CIPR.

A big congratulations to every one of the finalists and winners – we have a lot to be proud of in the NW.

It’s not every evening you get to see Kerry Katona tearing up the dancefloor with the wonderful Professor Tony Howell, world-leading oncologist and, at 69, no mean dancer either.  But the Crystal Ball to mark the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal’s 15^th anniversary – held on Saturday at Manchester’s Hilton – was that type of night.

It had been organised by Michelle Clayton, a rather amazing mother of five and carrier of the BRCA2 breast cancer gene, who somehow managed to arrange the whole thing in a mere three months.  With astonishing chutzpah, she pulled in a host of celebs (taking a particularly direct approach to secure Paddy Doherty, star of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and winner of Celebrity Big Brother, by simply turning up at his house).

The evening was hands down the most high energy charity do I’ve ever been to.  More importantly, it pulled in £40,000 for research into breast cancer prevention.

It’s been nine years since the formidable Pam Glass, campaign director at Genesis, approached me to volunteer to help promote a local golf day for the charity.  One hour in the presence of this human dynamo and I was hooked.  Genesis has been a big part of my life ever since. As my third close friend in three years begins chemo for breast cancer, its cause resonates even more now than it did in the early days.

Here’s to an even more successful next 15 years. Here’s to the truly remarkable collection of people who make this charity what it is. And may the next 15 years see Genesis achieve its aim of making “one in ten, none in ten”.

We PR consultants tend to be an obsessive breed who are beyond dedicated to our job.

The flipside of this extreme dedication is that it can be a bit rubbish being the boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, parent or friend who has to put up with us. Our hours can be less than sociable; stress comes with the territory, often to be offloaded onto unsuspecting significant others; and arrangements can get blown off at the last minute when a big story is breaking. Then there’s our bewildering addiction to the media, and our insistence on burying ourselves in mountains of newspapers.

It doesn’t help that few people on the outside really understand what it is we do exactly. Sure, they smile indulgently as we feverishly brandish pages from the newspapers… but not everyone can get their head around the fact that someone else’s name is on the article that we’re claiming as our own work.

Despite regular attempts over the years to explain what PR is, my own parents are still hazy on the subject. When I was engaged in highly technical media relations for international food processing companies, they believed I was doing cookery demonstrations. When I worked with prestigious property clients, they were convinced I spent my days showing prospective buyers around posh apartments.

In an effort to cast some light on our dark arts, and thank relatives for their patience, we decided to throw open our doors to the Peppermints‘ friends and family this week. Parents, brothers, boyfriends, flatmates and even a lone granny were welcomed to our offices, plied with wine and sushi, given a tour of the premises and a look at our successes.  

I’m happy to report that the evening was an unqualified success, with guests staying long after the official close of the event.  They left knowing a lot more about PR and, hopefully, with some appreciation of what their loved ones are investing so much of their time and energy in. It was wonderful to finally meet people I felt I already knew from hearing them spoken about by colleagues, and a proud moment for all involved.

Friends and family of PR folk − we salute you!

The Peppermints are usually a glamorous posse. These days, however, you’re likely to spot them in mud-caked wellies as they head back from a stint at Peppermint Patch – our very own allotment.

You might think it a little unusual for a PR agency to have an allotment. Here’s how it came about.

Having languished a full four and a half years on an allotment waiting list, and having pretty much given up hope, I got a phone call out of the blue just before Christmas to let me know that – hurrah!!!! – a plot had become available.  The first hurdle was a nerve-wracking interview with Sue, the head honcho, who grilled me on how much time I’d be able to spend weeding every day.  Having assured her that the plot would indeed be tended lovingly, the keys were handed over and the half-plot was mine, complete with – oh double joy! – a greenhouse and shed.

Once the initial euphoria had worn off, the full realisation of the challenge ahead hit me.  I was used to my little raised bed in the privacy of my garden, where no one but my family bore witness to a succession of disastrous crops. Here, on the other hand, was 126.5 sq m of land to be cultivated. And in the full glare of seasoned gardeners of advanced years, notoriously unforgiving of allotment holders who let the side down.

And so Peppermint Patch was made into a communal plot – a place where the team would dig, sow, harvest and drink lots of tea out of a flask together.

For the past few weeks, the allotment fraternity has been greeted with the unexpected sight of an excitable gaggle of PRs descending on the plot on a Thursday afternoon. Swapping computer screens for rakes and spades, we’ve stepped out of the office to while away hours in the fresh air, with the sun on our faces and birdsong in the background.   

It’s not all been a walk in the park. We’ve already incurred a fair bit of flack from our fellow allotment-holders, particularly when Alice forgot her wellies and rocked up in pink ballet pumps, to much scoffing from Alan on the next plot. He then proceeded to berate us for holding the spade incorrectly, not standing properly on the soil, digging in the wrong direction etc etc.

Alan and his fellow flat-capper Dennis threw down the gauntlet with a snigger of “let’s see how long you lot last then”.  Determined to prove our naysayers wrong, we’ve been preparing the ground as if our lives depended on it. The Peppermints are a hardy lot, and not given to doing things by half. There’ll certainly be mistakes and disappointments along the way, and we’re counting on picking up lots of tips from our older and wiser neighbours, but we’re set on making Peppermint Patch a flourishing oasis. Watch this space to see how we get on.

I had to chuckle this morning when I read about the BBC’s plans to run an ‘acclimatisation’ course for staff making the move from London to Manchester.

Employees will apparently be taught how to catch the tram to MediaCityUK and those with cars and bikes will be shown how to access the site. Is this all really necessary? I’m sure those who battle the Tube in London on a daily basis will be able to make their way to Salford!

With new developments about the BBC’s big move hitting the headlines almost every day, all this fuss seems a bit dramatic. People are moving to Manchester…not the moon!

That said, as we’re never ones to miss a trick here at Peppermint, we’d like to welcome those joining us from London by offering them an exclusive Peppermint tour.

We can show you the sights of Manchester – the best places to eat, drink and be merry – and also introduce you to the things that make Manchester great. We might be a little biased, but who better to show you around than the people who truly love this city?

Interested? Just email us at refresh@peppermintpr.com or follow us on Twitter @peppertweets.

With lots of gift-wrapping and the writing of Christmas cards taking place this week, the Peppermint PR office has looked a lot like Father Christmas’s workshop – albeit without the elves! 

When there’s so much extra-curricular activity going on in the work place, it could be hard to keep in sight what this season is all about: goodwill to all men – and women! It’s a time to say and do the things that we’re all probably guilty of putting off during the course of the year.

It’s been a mammoth task, but being able to show our gratitude to those who have supported us in 2010 has been thoroughly rewarding. It’s also been great to see the looks on the faces of those who’ve received our gifts!

Amidst all of the madness at this time of year, let’s remember the message of the season: to spread kindness and peace on earth – and maybe have the odd glass of mulled wine!

It must be Autumn. Temperatures are dropping but the TV schedule is certainly hotting up. It happens every year as planners realise we’re all set for six months of evening hibernation.

We’ve bid farewell to our old friend Big Bro and there’s now a new reality TV kid in town. Channel 4’s ‘Seven Days’ launches tonight, along with an accompanying ‘Chat Nav’ website. This is where it gets exciting –- the Chat Nav site will collate social media conversations about the show and these will determine the future direction of the show. Sheer brilliance!

As viewers, we get to follow the interwoven lives of Notting Hill’s most colourful characters. Comments from Twitter and Facebook will be fed into the show and users will be encouraged to help the characters make personal, social and work decisions, with the audience’s involvement ranging from yes or no answers to direct advice.

In true reality TV style, the selection of participants is a flamboyant cross-section including a budding rapper, two glamorous models, a single mother, a student and two pet therapists. Everyone has a tale to tell, decisions to make, and the rest…is down to us!!

We get to see more of the people we like and less of those we don’t. Chat Nav will illustrate which of the characters the viewers are engaging with. The site will give the people who generate the most buzz the most coverage. Seven Days looks like it could be a huge TV hit by following a proven programme format, but for the Web 2.0 generation. I love it.

I do, however, have one big problem with Seven Days. What were they thinking when they scheduled it at the same time as Mad Men?!

The CIPR awards, from what we can gather through office hearsay, promise to be a sparkling night of glitz, glamour and gossip. And for us Jellies, it’s the chance to see exactly what we’ve let ourselves in for!

In the few weeks we’ve been at Peppermint, it’s hard to believe how much we’ve learnt and experienced; from writing press releases and selling-in stories, to brainstorming campaigns and practising our meditation! As fast-paced and exciting as this has all been, however, there can surely be no better way of immersing ourselves in the world of PR than by seeing first hand how our colleagues and competitors do it.

The awards are our chance to put faces to the names behind those headline-grabbing campaigns. It’s also the first time the Peppermint team will all be together outside of working hours – factor in the free alcohol and the buzz of being amongst the cream of the PR crop, and it’s clearly going to be a night to remember!

So it is with great excitement that we have ironed our best dresses and shined our favourite shoes. After all, what can be more educational than watching our new colleagues raving and misbehaving? Exactly…cameras at the ready girls!

With the Fleet Street pack dedicating their tired pages to track each and every job loss it’s somewhat ironic that attention this week has been brought back to the media itself.

Munching through my Bran Flakes yesterday morning, my ears pricked up as John Humphrys announced that our biggest commercial broadcaster – ITV – is to cull over 600 staff.  The broadcaster’s move is a significant signpost that the recession is about to see the media landscape undergo a dramatic change. But will this be a make-over or a ‘make-under’ for our commercial media entities?

The media has always claimed to fulfil the objective of being ‘a mirror reflecting on society’ – highlighting every imperfection and flaw. But as advertising revenues are slashed it too is being thrust into the limelight. The so-called ‘mirror on society’ has been spun around to reflect back on the media itself and, it ain’t a pretty face staring back.

ITV chairman Michael Grade’s announcement of the £2.8 million debt troubling ITV, came as glossy men’s mag Arena became the latest victim of the recession.

Add to that the distinct possibility that Channel 4′s independent, innovative PSB output – currently in place to rival the BBC – may be under threat too. Instead, we could be watching CSI on the same channel as Corrie and news reports by John Snow – as ITV, Channel 4 and Five find themselves in discussions about joining forces.

It’s the regional newspapers, however, which appear to have been hardest hit as they embark on a mass operation to merge with other papers in an attempt to run more efficient news churning machines.

The media is clearly feeling the pinch and it’s going to be interesting to watch just how well the big news organisations fare over the next 12 months.

There could be a glimmer of light at the end of this gloomy tunnel though. As newspapers shrink and resources are sliced for broadcasters, could we actually see a stronger, media monster rise from the ashes? Looking back at the UK’s media pre recession, did it perhaps enjoy the freedom of too much advertising revenue, extravagant resources, endless pages to fill and too much air time to play around with? A self-indulgent media that lost sight of its purpose and which eventually led to even our broadsheets being polluted with trivial celeb gossip.

Perhaps, now that purse strings are tightening, space and air time will become more valued by our news editors. A new, more acute media monster may emerge, filled with only the highest quality news and entertainment and a sharper bite.

OK, maybe we can only dream – but watch this space as the recession attacks the media, sieving out the weakest links and, as Darwin depicted, leaving only the strongest standing.