FRUKT shared in an epic audiovisual experience last night, as Gorillaz Sound System took to the stage at the 100 Club in London.

Supported by Converse, London’s most historic gig venue was full of energy and anticipation as a guest DJ set from James Murphy ensured fans partied until the early hours.

The live music spectacle precedes the impending release of the new Converse ‘Three Artists One Song’ track ‘DoYaThing,’ featuring Gorillaz, James Murphy and Andre 3000.

FRUKT are big fans of brands supporting culture and entertainment, and Converse’s patronage of this iconic club – saving it from its untimely demise – ensures the music community continues to enjoy music at the legendary independent venue

Last week FRUKT held its inaugural Film Night event at our Clerkenwell HQ, the first in a series of monthly film screenings.

Designed as a celebration of cinema on a very intimate level, this isn’t an arty showcase of celluloid masterpieces this is a very personal look at films that we hold dear.

From cult classics to guilty pleasures, we’ll be screening the films that we are passionate about, and whether its ‘The Seventh Seal’ or ‘Teen Wolf’ we are making sure cinematic snobbery is left at the door.

First out of the box, courtesy of our Art Director, was 1991 Ridley Scott chick flick ‘Thelma and Louise’, the story of two women hurling themselves lemming like into the Grand Canyon over Brad Pitt (or something along those lines, anyway).

At the end of the month we are screening German time-shifting crime caper ‘Run Lola Run’, the choice of account director Lynne. Come join us if you can. We promise to share the popcorn.

29.02.2012 – 6pm to late

Drop us a line if you’re thinking of coming along.

Over at FRUKT we like to stay close to our alumni. Tim and Leigh who used to work with us have launched a fantastic and very clever new video messaging service, Six3.

Fed up with the functionality, usability and availability of mobile video messaging they’ve developed an elegant solution.

“We have all these great comms channels these days – Twitter, Skype, MMS, SMS – but none has really mastered video. We want to build a service that is extremely simple and lets people just record and send”.

Find out more about the concept behind the app here and download and try it out for yourself.

Why Six3 from Six3 on Vimeo.

FRUKT headed north last week to help bring the Louisiana House Party vibe to Scotland, as Southern Comfort’s Juke Joint touched down in the heart of Glasgow.

The Deep South spirit came out in force for an unforgettable night of music, mixologists and original Southern Comfort drinks (the Cajun Thunder is a particular FRUKT favourite).

As ever the venue was brought to life with the live brass band and colourful New Orleans characters – Reggie Two Step and Baron Jazz – that made the Juke Joint such as massive hit during last year’s music festival circuit.

Guests at the  event danced the night away to DJs Blonde Ambition and the Dixon Brothers, with the highlight of the evening being a special guest set from dance music pioneer Kissy Sell Out. Hailed by Mixmag as “one of the most exciting, charismatic and entertaining DJs of the decade”, he certainly lived up to his reputation.

Check out the Southern Comfort Facebook page for details of upcoming Juke Joint events…

Here’s a little creation we just made at FRUKT Towers to celebrate the start of a new global project with our clients at Coca-Cola.

We like how Coke plan for the future so well, it’s a long term vision and it means we have thinking and creative time, too often a rarity.

With one of our clients, Emmanuel, being recognised as 16th place in Billboard’s Power 100, it’s clear how important Coke are to the world of music.

“Let them eat cake”, was the rallying cry at FRUKT HQ, as the whole team – and a number of guests – tucked into the heavily caloried delights on offer at our coffee morning in support of Macmillan Cancer Support.

The office bake off served up everything from whiskey infused scones to popping candy & chocolate mousse, proving that we are as adept at mixing together chocolate and marshmallows as we are brands and entertainment (the secret is in the mix)

Although we’ve broken all our New Year’s diet resolutions in one fell swoop, we do get to feel a bit better knowing we raised £151.80 – enough to fund a Macmillan nurse for a day.

Time for a very light lunch…

It felt more like Blackpool than Cannes this year, as the rain and wind turned our brollies inside out. But none the less lots of fun was had and great people met.

FRUKT’s own Anthony Ackenhoff joined a Nokia Entertainment panel discussing the Future of the Music Ecosystem, with particular emphasis on how brands can become actively involved in new ways:  “It’s not about pushing advertising down people’s throats…it’s about trying to look at consumer passion points and then getting specific brands involved to improve the consumer experience.”

Overall there was a big focus on tech and brands this year and Visionary Monday saw a range of artists, industry leaders, consumers, marketing & technology experts sharing their insights and discoveries on new innovative ways to reach, engage and monetise audiences. It was appropriate therefore that Top Spin CEO Ian Rogers compered the day.

We got an insight into Coke’s collaboration with Mark Ronson for the official Olympic track – Move to the Beat; Facebook’s Dan Rose talked about the future of content delivery over social media; DJ and producer Paul van Dyck on how artists can best take advantage of digital channels and opportunities; and a key note speech from Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts.

The first Midem festival provided some evening entertainment with the likes of the Ting Ting’s, 2 Many DJ’s and Jazzy Jeff lighting up the night time. Then it was off to the hotel bars for a reasonably priced beer!

Thanks Midem and see you again next year.

UK TV viewers watched 47 ads a day on average in 2011. That’s 17,155 ads each. The vast majority of which feature music in some form, making TV – despite the loss of mainstream music television – one of the biggest playlists imaginable.

With this fact in mind the FRUKT Fixers team brought their expertise in connecting brands and music – and more specifically dealing with tricky talent and rights negotiations – to AIM’s (Association of Independent Music) annual Sync and Licensing workshop earlier this week.

FRUKT’s Nick Morgan and Chris Graves opened the event with a presentation on music and brands in front of 200 guests, which was followed up with a Synchronisation Licensing panel discussion, a listening session (looking at the sync suitability of a selection of tracks) and the all-important networking drinks.

The FRUKT talent & rights team were joined by a raft of music supervisors and sync experts from the likes of Endemol, Vertigo Films, A&G Sync, Sync Inc and Nimrod Production, as they discussed the mutual benefits of greater collaboration between brands and artists.

It’s that time of year again and FRUKT will be jetting off to join the great and good of the music industry out in Cannes this weekend at the international music business shindig that is Midem.

With its new focus on Music, Tech and most notably Brands, this key event in the music industry calendar is now further evidence of the more integrated role brands have at the core of the new music business. No longer on the fringes, brands are now invited and sought after guests, essential components of the ever evolving music sector.

This year the established music veterans and those pushing forward with bold new start-ups will be comfortably rubbing shoulders with executives from Coca-Cola, Nokia, Converse, RIM, Air France, Puma and Unilever, to name but a few.

With a solid 10 years of bringing brands, bands and fans together FRUKT will naturally be popping up on various panels showcasing our own unique take on building smart brand and music partnerships.

Drop us a line if you’re heading out to Cannes and want to meet up…

Last week a couple of the FRUKT gang visited our friends at Wieden + Kennedy in their home town of Portland. We’d been working together for the last few months on an incredibly exciting global music platform and were hosting a client workshop at their stunning office.

I’ve always been fascinated by Portland – it’s home to so many amazing musicians and has a reputation as a vibrant and artistic town.

It’s a great city to explore by foot and is filled (fortunately) by wonderful places to eat and an abundance of microbreweries. The natives are laid back, welcoming and a definite air of creativity is ever-present. Although we were locked in a meeting room for near on 3 days I did manage to find some time on my final night to get my fingers dusty at the magnificent Everyday Records.

Second-hand vinyl is clearly well and truly alive in PDX and while digging in the crates I unearthed something that got me thinking. It was an LP from 1984 created by Miller Beer under the now defunct Miller Music moniker. The album represented the output of a number of up and coming bands who had toured the US in the early 80s on a Miller funded tour.

We often think the idea of a brand becoming a ‘label’ is a modern phenomenon, but it’s clear that a relationship with grassroots music and the means of sharing content widely have long been something brands have looked for.

With the digital tools now available to us and the disruption within the traditional industry, this is becoming an even more exciting and fertile space. Nearly 30 years since Miller made a foray into A&R, it’s clearer than ever that artists should look to benefit from the support, distribution and funding that brands can offer.

Here’s the cover (click to enlarge) – watch this space for some clips of the audio soon.