The twelve months of 2024
It’s the end of the year, Christmas party season is upon us and, for many, it’s a time to reflect and look back. And that’s why for our last blog of 2024, we figured what better than a Christmas/New Year mash up! Think The Twelve Days of Christmas reimagined, but without a French hen or leaping lord in sight. Oh no, you didn’t, you’re thinking. Oh yes, we did! And yes, we did just shoehorn in a panto reference as well (sorry).
So deep breath everyone. Here we go:
On the first month of 2024 the world gave us, not a partridge, but:
Mr Bates v The Post Office: ITV’s dramatisation so ignited public interest in the scandal the government was forced to bring in new legislation to ensure Postmasters and Postmistresses got the compensation they were owed.
On the second month of 2024 the world gave us:
Our most viewed blog of the year: All about the culture clash between Head Office and the frontline, it also happened to mention our take on the Post Office scandal.
Gallagher’s 16th annual State of the Sector report: The biggest focus for an Internal Comms professional in 2024? Sixty-three percent said it was their organisation’s purpose, strategy and values.
Onto March, and on the third month of 2024 the world gave us:
The Oscars: Ryan Gosling sang ‘I’m Just Ken’ from the 2023 megahit, Barbie. And Oppenheimer took best film, a rare case of the top prize going to a blockbuster movie.
Kylie Minogue won the Global Icon Award at The Brits.
And back in the real world of Farnham, we celebrated International Women’s Day with some of our favourite local female entrepreneurs.
On the fourth month of 2024 the world gave us:
Our second most viewed blog of the year: A week in the life of an agency head.
A screenshot of Google’s AI tool recommending readers put ‘glue on pizza’ got everyone talking about how, funnily enough, you can’t trust everything AI tells you.
If you lived in the westernmost parts of the UK you’d have been treated to a partial solar eclipse.
Co-Op Live, the UK’s largest indoor venue, due to open with Peter Kay as its first headline act, had to repeatedly postpone shows because of ‘technical issues.’ PR disaster much?
Moving onto May, and on the fifth month of 2024 the world gave us:
Kate turned 50! Her plan for the year was to celebrate by doing 50 new things. Among other things she has:
Joined a choir.
Been more of a culture vulture.
Sailed her family’s boat (without her husband – the expert).
Tried flexiwing microlighting during her lunchbreak.
On the sixth month of 2024 the world gave us:
Cosy Meerkat’s sixth anniversary.
Inside Out 2, the highest grossing film of the year (and the highest-grossing animated movie ever), opened in cinemas. Interesting fact: every single film currently in the top ten for 2024 is a sequel. It seems we’re all craving the comfort of the familiar.
Sophie kicked off our quick fire LinkedIn lives with our lovely client smart/tasking.
Some football tournament called the Euros started.
The world's largest-ever election ended in India after six weeks, with 642 million people voting.
And boy band Seventeen became the first K-pop group to play the main Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.
On the seventh month of 2024 the world gave us: Our third and fourth most viewed blogs as well as a few other things of significance too.
Lots of people read about Kate’s summer adventure.
And about the five quick things you can do to improve your internal comms.
Labour won a landslide victory in the UK general election.
The country felt the pain when the men’s England football team got to the finals, only to lose to Spain.
An IT update caused major worldwide disruption to pretty much everyone: Not only did someone at CrowdStrike have a very bad day, but it was a reminder of just how dependent we all are on technology now.
The Summer Olympics started in France.
And a newborn pygmy hippopotamus became an internet sensation: Moo Den (literally translated as ‘Bouncy Pork’) was briefly the most famous creature on the planet.
On the eighth month of 2024 the world gave us: A bit of time to relax, with the summer holidays…
Kate travelled round Brittany in her boat.
Sophie went to Spain and both lived the remote working dream for the month.
Back here, we had the hottest day of the year when temperatures reached 34.8 °C in Cambridge.
And even hotter were Oasis tickets after they announced their 2025 reunion tour.
While we were working in sunny climes we also published our first Cosy Meerkat newsletter. Subscribe and we’ll plant a tree to say thank you.
The first £1 coins to feature the image of Charles III went into circulation.
The Olympics finished with Team GB coming home with 65 medals between them, equalling the number they won in 2012.
And Tom Daley, one of our favourite Olympians, announced he was retiring at the ripe old age of 30.
On the ninth month of 2024 the world gave us:
Grace returning from maternity leave!
Just down the road, there was a tornado in Aldershot.
At the Summer Paralympics, Team GB finished with 124 medals, achieving second place in the medal table.
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Yes, we’ll admit we failed with September. But, frankly, like much of the news in 2024, all we could find was lots of very depressing stuff – and this is supposed to be a bit of festive fun. So, rather than add in some dancing ladies and maids a milking, we’re going to skip over the rest of this month and move onto…
October! On the tenth month of 2024 the world gave us:
Grace and Sophie had a great evening networking with the lovely lot from LinkedIn Local Farnham.
Our fifth most read blog of the year was published, all about how you deal with those (ahem…) difficult internal stakeholders. In case you missed it here were the five top tips:
Take the time to understand your stakeholders.
Build strong relationships.
Set boundaries and clear expectations.
Nail a really good brief.
And when things go well, recognise it and celebrate with your stakeholders.
Onto other non-Cosy Meerkat news, a technical fault with the BBC Weather app led to incorrect forecasts of hurricane force winds in Farnham and everywhere else in the world, with one forecast predicting winds of 13,508mph in London. Thank goodness that wasn’t real.
But then they got it right with Storm Ashley and its 80mph winds.
And finally, the Budget happened. Enough said.
On the eleventh month of 2024 the world really only gave us one big event:
Kate went to New York as part of her 50 things at 50 celebrations!
There was a little election in the US that no-one was bothered about.
The boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul became Netflix’s most-streamed sporting event ever.
The Collins Dictionary declared ‘brat’ to be its word of the year. For those of us over 30, no, it’s not just a spoilt child, you can read its new definition here.
Grace attended the Simply IC conference – always a favourite for Cosy Meerkat.
And last and possibly our favourite, we co-sponsored the launch of the Optimise Foundation. A new charity, its goal is to empower women and girls to achieve their full sporting potential by working in better harmoney with their hormones. Which is why the last five points in November are given over to some of their most pertinent stats.
A whopping 94% of sports performance research focuses on male athletes. We need to change that.
A girl being active in her teenage years can reduce her risk of breast cancer by 20%.
Children who stopped exercising before 15 had the lowest mental wellbeing later in life. When compared to those who continued to be active between the ages of 15 and 17, they were:
11% less focussed.
10% less confident.
And finally, we reach December, and on the twelfth month of 2024 the world gave us:
Well, the year’s not finished yet, so it’s hard to list our twelve events. We reckon Wicked becoming a smash hit might feature. And Gavin and Stacey’s Christmas special might just pip the King’s Christmas message to be the most watched programme of the festive season. But other than that, we don’t know. So we thought we’d give December over to thanking all our lovely friends and clients – many of whom were at our Christmas drinks last week. You’ve done so much to help make this a great year for Cosy Meerkat – THANK YOU.
Merry Christmas to you all and we look forward to seeing you in 2025.
The Cosy Meerkat team at our Christmas drinks event.