TechCrunch writes on a success story from our start-up incubator PIE, based in W+K's Portland HQ:

"Cloudability is one of the first great success stories from the Portland  Incubator Experiment (PIE). It marks a new point, too, for Wieden + Kennedy, a first PIE supporter. Wieden + Kennedy has since attracted clients such as the Coca-Cola Company and Google as participants in the effort. PIE is located in the advertising agency’s headquarters in Portland’s Pearl District neighborhood.
Why? Wieden & Kennedy is a forward-looking agency that sees how the world is becoming a more dynamic place. To adapt, it engages with people at the forefront of technology, arts and commerce. That’s where PIE comes in to play and subsequently Weiden & Kennedy’s investment in Cloudability."

Full article here.

Also: Cloudability is now the second (small) PIE-company-to-W+K-client story (after Urban Airship) – now working with W+K to develop communications work.

If you're from a start-up looking for funding, apply for PIE.

As part of our ongoing work with Brown Forman, a large part of the team went up to Finland last week for an "immersion' – which largely consisted of drinking quite a bit of vodka, getting naked at every opportunity and eating a variety of Finnish cuisine.

Guy Featherstone, Chris Groom, Paulo Salamao, Mark D'abreo & Kevin Chesters packed what turned out to be an unneccesary amount of clothes and headed for the midnight sun.

It all started with a tour of the historic vodka bottling plant outside of Helsinki.

This was Paulo sampling the product. This wasn't the first glass and it wouldn't be the last.

Then we jumped on a boat to the 'Lodge' on an island somewhere further outside of Helsinki – in fact, somewhere out to sea.

It turned out to have rather a nice terrace, hot-tub (scene of many a Kev tumble & comedy bruising) and a large open bbq area. Nice. It was also close to the sea for freezing midnight Baltic swims.

Post-midnight after sauna sausages (there had been quite a bit of nakedness at this point)

er….Immersion.

Kev and Paulo go large on Rigid Inflatable Boats (thankfully we kept our clothes on).

Midnight Sun

The 'evening' finished at 6am. This deserves its own caption contest.

48 hours of Finnishness ends. We're still smiling. Brown Forman were amazing hosts. Huge thanks to Alex & Henna for organising an amazing trip for us all. Kev never tired of boring our hosts with stories of all his previous trips to Helsinki. But this one was definitely the most enjoyable.

We will NEVER speak of what happened here.

The entire trip brought us closer.

In fact since we returned it seems like we experienced something together. Was it amazing? Was it life-changing? Was it an ordeal?

We will NEVER speak of it. or 'that' sandwich.

Kippis!