THE KING'S BLOG

View here: #Hyperformance

King of Shaves are proud to announce our backing of James Ellington, the British Olympic hopeful who was forced to seek a sponsorship deal via eBay. James' plight for a sponsor began in December, having missed out previously on funding opportunities due to injury which had also jeopardised his Olympic dreams. Having offered himself for sponsorship via an online eBay auction, King of Shaves founder and CEO Will King tweeted James directly, telling him to get in touch should the deal fall-through. James later discovered that his top eBay bidder wasn't genuine and as a result King of Shaves secured the primary sponsorship of this top athlete.

Commenting on the deal, Ellington said: "Going on eBay gave me amazing exposure but unfortunately the winning bidder wasn't genuine. Thankfully Will King and King of Shaves stepped in and 'shaved' my life...!"

He added: "I couldn't be happier that the deal has been sorted - and with a brand I really like, I already use their products! Now I can focus on winning a medal for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics."

Will King, Founder and CEO of King of Shaves said: "We backed Kristan Bromley and Shelley Rudman in the 2006 Winter Olympics at Torino in Bob Skeleton when they were in dire need of funding; Shelley famously slid to a superb Silver. So when I heard James was struggling to raise funds and go for Gold, I was delighted to get King of Shaves involved as part of our forthcoming 'Wingman' Project - supporting people and businesses with winning potential. We have more announcements coming."

Ellington added: "I personally want to thank all of the people who emailed, tweeted and wrote to me. I've been so touched by all of your messages of support and even donations to my cause. Whatever I manage to achieve at London 2012, I'm doing it for you."

This sponsorship deal and others to be announced over the coming months, builds on King of Shaves' Young Blades athletes initiative that ran between 2004 and 2010. In 2007, King of Shaves sponsored James Sheppard in Powerboat P1, he went on to become World Champion in that year. In 2010 the company also supported Jon Beeby who walked across the USA in 80 days to raise funds for charity.

To discuss interview opportunities with James, please contact Rania Johnson or Rachel Branigan at MacLaurin Media on 020 8237 4600. For further information about James or for images contact Henry Warrington at Third City. More details about James Ellington can be found at www.jamesellington.net. The website and James' PR support is supplied on a pro bono basis.

On November 1st, I'm going to be hosting a table at the Terence Higgins Trust 2011 Supper Club along with some members of my King of Shaves team (and others...), and am making a number of places available for the "King's Doms" - fans of King of Shaves - who might enjoy a lively evening of fun, frivolity, debate & discussion, topped off with an after party at the Cafe de Paris.

If YOU'D like to be considered, all I need from you is for you to email me via the 'Contact Us' part of our King of Shaves website (there is a 'contact Will King' field here), with the all important "Why?" I'm aiming to host a table of 12, and alongside me, will be 3-4 of my team.

I will be tweeting out about the event shortly on twitter, with the #KOSforTHT - please use this reference if you contact me.

Details on the Terence Higgins Trust - the HIV & sexual health charity for life are here. Stephen Fry (a huge King of Shaves shaving oil fan) is the Patron.

King of Shaves, Shaving Bonds in the FT today - AWESOME

As you may know, banks ain't lending much dough these days. And this is hurting SME's (Small Medium Enterprises). Back in June 2009 we debuted our innovative Shaving Bond paying 6% interest over 3 years plus free product. Many companies, including John Lewis, Caxton FX, Hotel Chocolat, Ecotricity have now followed - and this type of mini-bond finance raising, which connects customers with companies, as well as raising money (to NOT be spent on private jets, exotic holidays or dubious pursuits) is gaining credibility & momentum. This was OUR idea. You should all be very proud we've pioneered this. Scan of article attached, Jax has FT.King of Shaves Shaving Bond was the First.

Following a number of expressions of interest in The King of Shaves Company Ltd., the Board of Directors & I have appointed Alpha Advisory PTE, a Singapore based corporate finance adviser to advise us on strategic options.

Remington, our US distribution partner launched our latest King of Shaves Azor 5 System Razor & two uniquely designed AlphaGels on Amazon.com just last week, and already, they're getting fabulous reviews (and more reviews than Gillette Mach3 & Gillette Fusion ProGlide).

The 127 Azor reviews, averaging 4.2/5 are here. The 34 AlphaGel reviews, averaging 4.8/5 are here.

And the best bit for hard hit US consumers is that a pack of 6 Azor 5 EnduriumNano replacement cartridges is just $11.99 (or less) versus expensive Gillette Fusion ProGlide replacement cartridges, at $22+

Shave AND Save with King of Shaves | Remington.

Honestly. Seriously. King of Shaves IS the King of Shaves in the USA, and with our roll-out into stores across the USA coming in the Fall, we're looking forward to shaving America better, forever with King of Shaves in partnership with Remington.

The King of Shaves USA Facebook fanpage is here if you wish to 'Like' us in America!

I've been in the USA these past 12 days, in NYC and LA - arrived back in a (predictably, rainy) UK yesterday. Since I've been away, we've had some cracking coverage, firstly in 'The Grocer' magazine, which outlined our 2009 'Shaving Bond' issue giving rise to innovative ways for brand led, credible SME's to raise development finance (notably Hotel Chocolat, and more recently, Brewdog) and secondly, in the UK's 'Marketing' magazine, which talked about how FYT (Facebook | YouTube | Twitter) is playing an increasingly central role for men's grooming brands (it's all about Digital Dialogue with consumers these days, not so much Brand Broadcast).

Look out for more King of Shaves #ShaveTheWorld news soon - as we gear up to launch King of Shaves Azor 5 & AlphaGel in partnership with Remington across the USA.

I write this from NYC, where I'm delighted to be a guest at Diane Woods' (our very own Queen of Shaves) wedding today in New Jersey. Sadly, the weather's a little British (read raining cats and dogs) but it promises to be a fantastic day for Di - for whom the sun will certainly shine on her and her partner, Steve in the future (and definitely where they're going on their Honeymoon!)

Awaking, I was delighted to read coverage in The Sunday Telegraph on not just our recent deal with Kai Industries Co. Ltd. of Japan, our technology partner (Kai is a £700m revenues company headquartered in Tokyo) but also a nice write up on our stylish, brand new Precision Grooming range developed in partnership with the Remington division of US $3Bn consumer products company, Spectrum brands.

This is the first time we've taken 'The King' into the arena of men's hairstyling & grooming, and we launched the range with Argos earlier this month. It's available in over 700 stores, and will bring King of Shaves to a wider audience. Of course, we have more planned - both in this area, and in our core wet shave arena in terms of NPD - indeed, one person tweeted today that he saw King of Shaves "as the dyson of shaving" which pleased me greatly!

Before I flew to the USA, my Dad chastised me gently for not updating my blog more frequently - I tend to twitter and post on facebook, both of which he doesn't particularly engage with. So I hope readers (and Dad!) enjoy reading this latest blog post.

It's an exciting time for us, having entered the hyper competitive wet shave market with our King of Shaves Azor 4 in June 2008, and more recently launching our Azor 5 Sensitive in the UK, and shortly in the USA (yes, King of Shaves AlphaGels and Azor will be available much more widely in the USA in the Fall, as announced by Dave Lumley the CEO of Spectrum Brands Inc. (SBI) in their recent Q3 Earnings Call.

The King of Shaves Company continues to attract much interest from a wide variety of parties, looking to work with us on expanding our global reach - after all - in high performance system wet shave (an intensely challenging category, with high barriers to entry (patents) and potentially enormous commercial profitability (Gillette was bought for US$57Bn by P&G in 2005) I'm excited that King of Shaves is the only other high performance brand in this space, other than Gillette & Schick Wilkinson Sword - that's right - just THREE companies, and 'The British Are Coming'!

Over the coming weeks and months I'll try to update my blog here, and my Brand Royalty blog more frequently - Dad (and Penny) if I don't, keep on at me.

King of Shaves. The Future of Shaving! Come, join our Kingdom!

Ever wonder what Andy Murray and Roger Federer got up to on last Sunday's Wimbledon lay-day...? Previously unseen footage exposes their grudge match as to who is the King of Serves... and King of Shaves! Hopefully Kate Bassett will agree its a Championship winning response to her challenge posted here following Gillette's Big Shave stunt.

Honours even, methinks.

Well, never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd ever see this headline!