I grew up in a little village called Pill, just outside Bristol. The story goes that it was the last place John Cabot set foot before his epic voyage to discover America in 1497.  It was home to the pilots who used to guide the big ships up the Avon to the thriving Port of Bristol before everything transferred to the dreary industrial zones of Avonmouth and Portbury.  And John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, wrote in his 1755 journal that “I rode over to Pill, a place famous from generation to generation for stupid, brutal, abandoned wickedness”…… possibly something to do with the fact that the village once boasted 21 pubs.

Anyway, nowadays there’s nothing overtly remarkable about Pill.  So on a recent visit I was intrigued to encounter a brightly coloured, life-sized statue of a gorilla on a surfboard overlooking the muddy banks of Pill Creek.  Incongruous to say the least.

The plaque on the base explained that he was part of a project to celebrate 175 years of Bristol Zoo, a particular favourite treat from my childhood.  So it wasn’t hard to find this http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/wow-gorillas

Now I know similar projects have been done before (I remember elephants in London) ...

In the last 10 days three people from very different perspectives have asked me what we’re doing about mobile. One even enquired whether we’ll be looking to acquire a specialist mobile agency.

The answer is that we’ve been keeping well abreast of the latest developments in the mobile world for the last seven years via our good friend Brad Rees of insight company Mediacells www.mediacells.com. He ensures that the creative, digital and social teams at Cubo are kept bang up to date with trends, content possibilities and the ever changing world of the “third screen”. This means that whenever we’re working on a project or campaign it’s in our DNA to consider how it’s going to work for mobile as well as every other customer touchpoint and experience.

In a recent presentation Brad commented that “Integration of media properties and the compatibility of screen technologies is the future trend. The development of unified messaging channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype et al, combined with content-rendering on a multiplicity of platforms as a default production setting, means that future media consumption is unrecognisable from what it is today. For example, a gaming enthusiast could be multi-playing, say, Grand Theft Auto Beirut, 2015, on ...

Why do I do it? It’s a bit complicated to explain really … but I know pleasure is in there somewhere.

Take the afternoon off, pick up my 16 year old son from school and hit the motorway as early as possible to get some distance under our belts before the commuters start to complicate matters. Quite often A1, M25, M4 down to Bristol. Other times M6 to the Midlands; across country to East Anglia; occasionally even M1 all the way to Yorkshire.

Regulation stop at the services to select the sweets for half time. Always Opel Fruits (or Starbursts as my son calls them) and a sharing bag of some kind (based on the result from last time….never change a winning sweet). Aero Mint Bubbles currently.

Generally get near the ground in good time (although those commuter complications can sometimes throw a bit of a spanner… only ever missed one goal though; quite locally at Milton Keynes ironically. Partly due to my son’s band practice after lessons, but mainly due to the Dons’ interpretation of pay-on-the-day involving the completely unnecessary purchase of tickets from one tiny window at the opposite end of the ground to where we wanted to enter and a ...

Glazier, Abramovich, Sheik Mansour… the big hitters in the upper echelons of football sometimes dominate the news as much as the players.  Well now there’s a new force to be reckoned with in football finance following the news that Cubo Group has invested in the sponsorship of the mighty AFC Shillington Under 16’s.

We’ll be bringing you updates on the season’s shenanigans over the coming weeks and months, but since the multi million pound shirt deal was agreed, Shillington have played a blinder and now sit second in The Chiltern Youth League Divison 3.  The last game saw a comprehensive 8-1 demolition of Clapham Colts, meaning eleven different players have now scored in the last seven matches.  Man of the Match went to Ed, who showed some nice passing, set up one of the goals, and has not missed a match this season.  Keep going lads…

The office is buzzing today with the news that goalkeeping legend David James is now officially sponsored by Cubo Group.  The ex-England No.1 currently plies his trade at Ashton Gate for Bristol City, having had a glittering career at West Ham, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester City Portsmouth and of course as the nation’s shot stopper.

We’re told the choice of sponsorship is 100% a strategic one, and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact our CEO Kerry Simpson is a lifelong Bristol City fan, and that he can now tell his wife he’s keeping an eye on business interests every Saturday afternoon.

This year, we’re giving the gift of giving.

Our resident elf has filled his sack with twelve pleasurable prezzies to bring some Yuletide cheer to the streets of W1, putting smiles on the faces of humbugs and revelers alike.

With a helping hand from his glamorous opera-singing sidekick, the people of London could hardly believe their luck…

Enjoy!