RELEASE: The Press Was Released

We've warned you before that all good things must come to an end but now it's absolutely true - if you want to keep up with our latest you'll need to check out our new project Want & Blog instead. You can also follow our blogger (and social marketing supremo) Jerry on Twittter or contact him through Facebook.

If you're just tuning into The Press Released for the first time, or even if you were there from the start and want to re-live the journey, here's some of what you missed:

• We had a midlife (well 25th year) crisis and decided to rebrand ourselves.
• We backed down on that due to 'current market conditions'.
• We accidentally became Hip-Hop Shakespeare producers, then wanted to try something new.
• We got to interview GANDALF (Sir Ian McKellen...).
• We looked at how lock-ins probably weren't a good customer service idea.
• We were surprised at how quickly Pepsi rebranded (halfway through lunch in fact).
• We tried (not very hard... and pretty much failed) to rebrand the city of Santiago, Chile.
• We published an incredibly concise travel guide to Argentina & Chile.
• We celebrated a month and 1,000 hits by buying half of Brick Lane.
• We moaned a bit.
• We were nearly arrested by the actual fashion police.
• We came to the official end of our Press Released Project, but still kept going a little longer...
• We made it to Number 10 (but only because no one was at home at Number 11 Downing Street).
• We stirred up wild internet speculation.
• We saved money on a fancy, Lost-style finale by instead having one of those cheesey flashback episodes where we just use content we've already made - thanks for reading it and sticking with us this long!

Goodbye for now. See you at Want & Blog.

NEWS FLASH: Press Released website fails to deny 365 relaunch rumours

Despite making a name for itself earlier in the year by issuing press releases on just about anything, thepressreleased.co.uk is remaining unusually quiet in response to rumours of its impending relaunch.

The web project, spearheaded by social marketing expert Jerry Daykin, was a 2 month experiment challenging assumptions on what really qualifies as news. Marking key moments in his life, including a personal rebrand to mark his 25th birthday, by releasing press releases the blog aimed to show that anyone's life could be made fit for print.

Interest in the project from local papers, the marketing press and London-based newspaper Metro saw over 2,000 unique visitors visit the site whilst the blog was active.

Internet rumours of a relaunch or reinvention for the project were sparked when a previously unknown Twitter account posted this message earlier today:

@pressreleased Testing, testing, 1,2,3! http://www.thepressreleased.co.uk

The comments are backed up by sources close to Mr Daykin who, as previously reported, indicated that he was keen to develop the next stage of the project and saw the obvious expansion being to use as many social media tools as possible - he also cryptically described the next chapter as a '365 evolution' leading many to believe it will be a full year project rather than the more short-lived trial run.

Hackers rooting through the source code found this snippet: "We're back! And using more social media than ever!!"

RELEASE: Press release blogger goes to 11 Downing Street, pops next door for milk

The notorious East London 'press release blogger' has taken his issues straight to the heart of British power with repeat visits to Downing Street this fortnight.

Visiting 11 Downing Street to make final plans for NEET charity City Gateway's 10th Anniversary Reception, Jerry describes the welcome he received as 'welcoming and neighborly'.

"Having cleared rigorous security checks we were quite free to walk up Downing Street in our own merry time. Approaching the door of number 11 someone stuck their head out of 10 saying no one was in and we should come and wait in there for a while - it was as if they'd just popped out for milk or something, but very welcoming and neighbourly!"

The reception itself attracted over 100 guests from the political and corporate worlds and challenged them to look at how they partnered with the third sector to support the communities they're active in. Over the past few years City Gateway has halved local youth NEET (not in education, employment or training) figures against a backdrop of rising national statistics, working in close partnership with City firms and other charities.

"It was an incredible opportunity to organise such an event," commented Jerry "but I was also very relieved when it was over - luckily the floods of positive feedback made it worthwhile."

Jerry described the atmosphere inside as uniquely British, "It's a lovely building but they haven't gone to town. There's nothing to say what a mighty nation we are, a few picturs drawn by school kids in the 80s and even some of the portraits of former chancellors are caricatures!"

"I get the feeling that if I was hosting a reception in the East Wing of the White House Gordon Brown wouldn't casually walk past my cloakroom, Alastair Darling wouldn't send his wife upstairs to check out what the fuss was about and the 1st family probably wouldn't get their groceries delivered by Ocado at the end of the afternoon. Uniquely British."

Jerry describes the night as a once in a lifetime opportunity that he hopes to repeat and took the first of many photos in front of number 10, "Next time I'm there I'll have noticeably less hair but noticeably more policies!"