Casa Bella to host glitzy HOIME Awards (Here we go again!)
Yes, well it was always going to be a short matter of time before Francesca and I forget our heated exchanges and remember instead only the warm
and fuzzy feeling that hosting dinner parties instills in us.
It’s still early days. The guest list is still open as we’re still waiting for some of our friends to return from their Easter holidays.
The evening promises a lot of excitement as the black and white tie event will be Casa Bella’s first of the summer and will take place to a glitzy backdrop, Oscars Style. The questions have already been rolling in: “What are the HOIME Awards and how do I get nominated?” Well, that remains a closely guarded secret until the guest list is closed. I’m hoping this will happen next week.
I have to confess that this is my least favourite part of the process; when the guest list is open. Everything is in limbo until all of the guests have confirmed and the planning can commence. There’s also a natural limit of seats available which means we have to be selective in our invites and these have to be timed; if a guest doesn’t reply within a certain period of time, their seat is automatically assigned to the next person in the queue. Yep, I know it sounds draconian but it’s, sadly, a necessary evil (hence why it’s my least favourite part).
On the other hand I’m really looking forward to closing the list next week and starting the planning. It’s going to be an ‘awesome’ evening! I just wish we could invite everybody. Sadly, we can’t.
Oh well, there’s still the blog or, maybe, next time (as they say) “it could be you!” 
Range Rover Evoque brochure cold off the press!
You can imagine my excitement when I was asked to review the Range Rover Evoque’s brochure before it was released to the general public and my
disappointment when I learned, a week later, after pretty much camping out next to my letter box that it was going to be late, by a whole month!
Anyway, it has finally arrived and my initial impression is that it isn’t perhaps as ‘glossy’ as I’d expected it to be and a bit thin on the ground for potential buyers (such as me). It contains a lot of ’marketing’ detail but fails to hit the actual nitty gritty that most car buyers would be interested in.
Nonetheless, it feels good to finally hold some ‘marketing’ material about the car. This is way overdue and, of course, I’ve let my friends at Range Rover know that although, technically speaking, they are actually my employers since I’m getting paid to talk about this stuff.
Wow, and I didn’t feel a thing!
Anyway, for anybody who may be bored enough to want to cast their own eye of this publication. I’ve included a link below.
Enjoy!
www.landrover.com/content/gb/en/PDF/evoque/evoque-e-brochure
My mission; Range Rover Evoque dealership inspection
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Range Rover UK telling me that I’d been specifically selected to visit a Range Rover dealership who had
been ‘hand picked’ for me (I was expecting Cambridge but got Peterborough) I’m not sure what the criteria was for that but nonetheless I (and a friend) were up for it.
My mission, which I chose to accept, was to infiltrate the dealership and ask them some specific questions about the Range Rover Evoque as well as inspect the sites facilities and pretty much grill staff there with the view to establishing if the Range Rover Evoque would fit into this dealership.
The brief was to introduce ourselves upon arrival but instead we thought we’d be adventurous and mix things up a little. We wanted to find out how long it’d be before somebody walked over to us and ask if they could help. Sure enough, it took the lovely sales representative only seconds to accost us, which we thought was pretty good. It took a few minutes more for us to make the introductions and be seated with a cup of coffee.
The general feeling was that not much has been cascaded to the dealers yet. They are all pretty much in the dark when it comes to this beautiful new car. No marketing material. No posters. No nothing! Although, it has to be said that the sales representative did everything she could to answer my questions which, to be fair, were coming thick and fast (I wanted to see just how well she coped with questions for which she didn’t have the answers) and she did quite well.
I then took a wander around the place. The facilities were fairly good, nice and clean. If I had one big criticism it would be that what little marketing material (for other cars not the Evoque) was available was hidden right at the back of the building, behind the showroom cars. I had to ask the receptionist where they were! Not good. Oh, and the mini fridge was empty! (Don’t have one if you’re not going to stock it, it makes you look cheap, when you’re a major dealer in an expensive brand you really don’t want to give that impression).
Overall, it was a fairly positive day at the office and I even have a report to prove it. Who knows, thanks to my contribution we might be seeing the Range Rover Evoque in Peterborough sometime soon! Presently, my would-be new car is expected to make an appearance in showrooms in September 2011.
