Archive for: Media Database

Michael Hawkes is the author of Top 10 Baking Blog The Bearded Bakery. A digital marketer in the day and blogger by night, Mike bakes once a week – sharing his creations through his blog. We caught up with Mike to talk about blogging, his advice for PRs to do more with bakers and his favourite Crack Pie.

How would you describe your blog?
My blog started out as a place to document everything I baked so that my friends could bake the things I was posting on my other social media platforms. Over time it’s evolved into something that encapsulates two of the most important things in my life; food and travel (and traveling to eat food). Still primarily baking, it has little off-shoots into other things I love and enjoy, with food always at the centre. It shows how I bake, eat and explore.

What’s the best thing about being a baking blogger?
Getting to share everything I make with the people I care about. I only ever really eat a small portion of what I make myself. The main joy comes with sharing the love. Whether that’s my housemate or girlfriend getting to tuck into a slice of lemon meringue pie, my workmates enjoying my peanut butter cookies or someone receiving one of my Cake Care Packages filled with brownies.

How much does Great British Bake Off affect your blog?
Every year I intend to try and bake along each week, but it never really happens as I get side-tracked with other things from my ever-growing ‘to bake’ list. I started baking, and blogging, before I even really got in to bake off so I’ve always seen it as quite separate.

What’s your favourite bake to make?
That’s a question I get asked a lot, and I always struggle to answer it. The nature of blogging means you’re always striving to make new content, and for a food blog, that often means baking or cooking new things regularly. The best things get revisited from time to time though. I’m a big fan of my brownie recipe, as well as the giant bread ‘wreath’ I made last Christmas, but I think my favourite thing isn’t even something that’s currently on the blog: Crack Pie. I first made it after getting back from NYC last summer and while I’ve made it a couple of times, I’ve never managed to get good enough photos to warrant putting it up on the blog.

What’s the best bake you’ve ever eaten?
I’m a big fan of the cinnamon buns from London’s Nordic Bakery. They’re heavy, practically a meal, but the dough is so soft and full of cinnamon and cardamom. Similarly, the cinnamon buns from WB Samson in Oslo were so good that we had to re-visit them in the short visit we made to the city last year. I also love the humble doughnut, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the number of places popping up across the UK selling some excellent ones, from sourdough through to brioche.

What makes your blog successful?
I’ve never really viewed it as overly successful, but from the off I’ve always tried to keep it as genuine as possible. This means turning down a lot of the PR ‘opportunities’ I get in my inbox and focusing on content which I truly believe in. I think the main thing has been the support from my friends and family straight from the off, even if they didn’t necessarily understand it. Other than that, I’m just lucky that so many people love food as much as I do.

How do you like to work with PRs?
I’m fairly open to working with PRs in different ways, but the best ones are the ones where I get to actually do something creative and work a brand to create something completely new or different. A lot of PRs don’t really approach food & baking bloggers with much other than samples, and there’s a lot more that can be done. Email me, pick my brain and work together with me to create something special.

What’s a memorable campaign you’ve worked on?
This one isn’t even something that directly ties into the baking, as a lot of the baking campaigns are quite basic. It ties into my love of food and travel. OpenTable organised a chef’s table meal at Grain Store in Kings Cross. At the same time, they did something similar in New York, and after talking through an evening of seasonal produce we were tasked with writing an open letter about why the food scene in London is so good. This ended up being one of my favourite posts, as I could combine my passion for food and travel into one cohesive narrative. It also culminated with OpenTable sending me to NYC.

What one thing should PRs know about you?
I don’t accept guest content on my site, but aside from that, I put a lot of time, effort & money into every post I create. From developing a recipe through to actually making it and photographing it, it takes a lot of hard work. Going back to a previous point, it’s when I get to work with people that things get really interesting.

What other blogs do you read?
Primarily I actually get a lot of food and cooking inspiration from actual books like Meera Sodha’s Fresh India or Anna Jones A Modern Way to Cook for instance. But in terms of other bloggers/online people I love Noisette Bakehouse’s Instagram and blog, Hannah at The Dinner Bell, Charlie at Charlie Distracted (for travel) and a bunch of others.

Michael Hawkes and The Bearded Bakery feature on the leading Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, influencers and journalists.

The Dogvine was recently ranked in the Top 10 UK Pet Blogs. Written by Teresa Keohane, the blog is about Belinha, Moleque and Nina – three street dogs rescued by Teresa from Brazil. Here we spoke to Teresa about writing the dog-friendly guide to London, her favourite dog products and working with PRs on successful campaigns.

How would you describe your blog?
I would describe The Dogvine as a community for London dog lovers and owners where they can find out about dog events and dog-friendly businesses e.g. coffee shops & restaurants and pet products. I also work with local charities to help promote pet adoption.

Why did you start your blog?
I’m from the UK but had been living overseas in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for several years where I adopted my dogs (who were abandoned street dogs). When I moved back to the UK a few years ago with my dogs, I noticed that a lot of the ‘insider’ information was hard to come by and often only talked about between dog owners at the park. So, I decided to create my blog and feature the kind of things I would want to hear about and that other people seemed interested in and would find useful.

What’s it like having a famous pet?
One of my dogs, Belinha is the face of the blog and I have to say it’s her ears that are the most famous – they get commented on wherever she goes! I always say she’s come a long way from the bedraggled dog I found on the streets of Rio and I’m grateful that a little unwanted street dog has had that opportunity.

How does your pet cope with the pressure?
She gets lots of extra fuss and treats so seems to like it. It’s really important to make sure that anything we do, feature or review for the blog is something that Belinha (or Moleque or Nina) would enjoy.

What’s your favourite pet product?
That’s hard to pick just one! How about one from my perspective and one from Belinha’s? Mine would be the Furbo, which is a treat tossing interactive pet cam. When I do have to leave my dogs at home it means I not only can see what’s going on, but interact also with them.

Belinha’s would be Beautiful Joe’s Ethical Dog Treats which are low fat air-dried liver treats, she goes crazy for them. I also photograph a lot of dogs at events for the blog and have never had a dog turn these down, quite the opposite. Plus, for every bag purchased, Beautiful Joes’s donate a bag to an animal shelter. More on Beautiful Joe’s in my post here.

What’s your favourite post?
Again, hard to pick just one! I recently collaborated with City Paws Club, (the UK’s first activity centre for dogs) and Belinha and I joined one of their Dog & Human Paddle Boarding experiences on the Thames. It was an incredible experience and honestly probably not something I would have known about or done had I not started the blog. Other people that came along had done so after hearing about it on The Dogvine so that was really rewarding too.

How do you like to work with PRs?
I like to understand what the brand is trying to achieve, then I try and find a unique way of presenting this so I can simultaneously deliver value to my audience as well as the brand. As the request has often gone out to several bloggers at the same time, it’s important to find ways to differentiate. I find it works best when PRs take the time to make sure the ethos of the brand is understood as well as what the brand is looking for. That helps me then focus on how I can creatively deliver that in way that is useful and makes sense to for my readers.

What’s one thing should PRs know about you?
I’ve spent a lot of my professional life living and working in different countries of which seven years was spent living in Rio de Janeiro. I rescued and brought back three street dogs from Brazil to the UK – two are my dogs Belinha (the face of the blog) and Moleque and the third, Nina, has been adopted by a friend but still helps out with pet product reviews on the blog.

What’s a memorable campaign you’ve worked on?
That would have to be when I was asked to work with Airbnb on creating an Insider’s Guidebook to Dog Friendly London. Not only was creating the guidebook a lot of fun but I got to help raise the profile of some great local businesses and give readers exactly the kind of content I wanted to create when I started the blog.

What other blogs do you read?
Too many to list so here’s a few I read regularly: Dog Milk, Wag Wear Repeat, My Dog Likes, A Beautiful Mess and Woof and Walls (not strictly a blog but they have an amazing instagram feed)!

The Dogvine and Teresa Keohane feature on the leading Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, influencers and journalists.

Monty is a large white-and-black Newfoundland dog which has inspired his owner Mark Sanders to start a blog and Facebook fan page written from the perspective of Monty Dogge. This year Monty and Mark even released their own children’s book based on his adventures, entitled I’m Not a Pandacow. Recently featured in our first Top 10 Pet Blog ranking, we spoke to Mark about the blog, how Monty Dogge literally stops traffic and some of the campaigns that they have worked on so far. 

How would you describe your blog? 
Life According to Monty Dogge is a light-hearted look at life through the eyes of a huge Newfoundland dog. He shares his insight and wisdom on things such as ‘hoomans’ and how odd they can be, and other dog breeds, particularly ‘Cockeyed Spangles’ who he has to share a home with. He also enjoys interviewing famous people and asking them the questions others may fear to raise. He is a keen poet (he is in fact the self-styled poet, Newfiette) and regularly shares his prose with his admiring public. 

Why did you start your blog? 
The blog was started originally because Monty was such a difficult puppy that it was felt he needed another way to express himself rather than trying to eat the postman or chew through walls. That is all behind him now and he is a pillar of the community, as a mascot for the charity Shoulder to Soldier – having helped raise over £30,000 for the Poppy appeal over recent years, as well as his other charity work and his visits to schools and nursing homes. 

What’s it like having a famous pet? 
I am known as Monty’s dad and I regularly have to stop so that people can say hello. Most of our post is addressed to Monty Dogge and photographers constantly want to move me out of the picture… Despite this I’m not bitter… honestly! 

How does your Monty cope with the pressure? 
Monty takes everything in his massive stride. He blogs live from Crufts every year and meets literally hundreds of people, but nothing fazes him. He can sleep through a school assembly and recently, at Edinburgh fringe, all of the performers sat down as everyone was crowding around Monty. He just turns to face the cameras and when he’s had enough, he has a nap. 

What’s your favourite pet product? 
His favourite pet product has to be Angell Petco fish treats. Monty won’t do so much as shake a paw but if you have one of these in your hand, well… he’s like puppy in your hands. 

What’s your favourite post? 
We have so many favourite posts, but one I particularly remember is when Monty stopped the traffic in York City Centre, as one by one twenty Japanese tourists posed with Monty, while the other 19 took photos – from the middle of the main road in the city centre! 

How do you like to work with PRs? 
Monty loves working with anyone that makes him more famous. He likes everyone, especially if they have treats. 

What one thing should PRs know about you? 
PRs should know that Monty can be a bit of a diva sometimes and if things are taking too long he will sleep, anywhere and anytime. 

What’s a memorable campaign you’ve worked on?  
Our first children’s book, I’m not a Pandacow, has been very memorable as we had the opportunity to travel the country. However, according to Monty Dogge, Crufts is always special. 

What other blogs do you read?  
I like idreambooks and often dig into that when I have time. 

Mark and Monty Dogge feature on the market-leading Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, influencers and journalists.