A veritable feast of creativity: The Spice Girls for starters, boy bands for mains and Bake Off for pudding

Creative Spice

Spotify has played a blinder this week, recreating the iconic Spice Bus to take fans on a tour of London to celebrate 25 years of all things zig-a-zig ah!

Starting at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, where the girls filmed ‘Wannabe’, the tour was led by Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK season one favourite Baga Chipz, and took fans around London’s famous landmarks. Queens from the current season of Drag Race UK, which started this week, also joined the tour each dressed as their ‘Spirit Spice’. I love the idea combining these two fandoms —very two-become-one!

According to Spotify’s head of music in the UK and Ireland Sulinna Ong, 18-24-year-olds are streaming the band the most on the platform, so using the Spice Bus is a great way to introduce new fans to all things Girl Power.

It’s big, bold, and definitely spiced up my life this week!

Will the real boyband member please stand up?

In what seems to be a week for 90s music throwback stunts, I tweeted on Monday that Sky TV’s stunt hailing the return of Never Mind the Buzzcocks had caught my eye for this column, and I still love it.

Last on our screens in 2014 (a simpler time), the show’s cult status meant there was a lot of buzz...ahem...about its return. To celebrate, and remind people when to tune in or set to record, Sky TV took over London’s Kings Cross station with an IRL, 90s boyband-themed identity parade.

Seeing Abz Love from 5ive, Shane Lynch from Boyzone, Another Level’s Dane Bowers, and Ben Ofoedu from Phats and Small (now known as Boyz on Block) was a great way to showcase an iconic round from the show and give us all nostalgia-feels.

Kudos also to the non-famous man who had to stand in the line-up!

Dude, wear my car?

Want to get married? Love cars? Then the team at ScrapCarComparison.co.uk have just the engagement ring for you!

Petrol heads can choose to propose with rings inspired by the Mini Cooper, Lamborghini Huracan, Ford Fiesta or any car of their choice created by the site in partnership with engagement jeweller Edward Fleming.

While the rings won’t be to everyone’s taste, the creative approach to drive brand awareness, traffic, and links to a company that, let’s be honest, works in a pretty unsexy area, makes it a winner for me.

Thanks to @louisevparker on Twitter for sending this my way!

Thursday, I’m in chains

New dating app Thursday—so-named because it can only be used on Thursdays—has taken a cheeky approach to its marketing, and as such is getting creative on smaller budgets than we might be used to in this column!

Some of the most creative solutions are born out of necessity, so giving their paid intern £25 and a challenge to get 1000 app downloads by the end of the day certainly necessitates some creative thinking.

Is it polished? No. But the simplicity of the idea and the execution is, for me, why it works and why it’s earned a spot here. 

It’s doing big numbers on social channels and while it won’t necessarily pick up any awards, it’s certainly punching above its weight in terms of using creativity for brand awareness and visibility.