Featured Articles

Miss Universe Wales, positive PR for Wales

Another in the day in the life of Viv series

Miss Universe Wales Spreads Positive PR for Wales on the Algarve

A break in filming on the beach, Summer Ghanavati, Charlotte Perkins, Anthony Jones and Viv

 It was not strictly necessary to offer the winners a prize holiday, as my fellow director Habeeb Adeokun was fond of reminding me, especially during the more stressful moments during the organisation that I encountered along the way! However, my own business, Visions PR Events, Marketing, Modelling (and now Training), was not called “Visions” for nothing. When employed as a Graphic Designer/Visualiser, one of my previous incarnations, at Selfridges Design Studio in London in the early 80ʼs, my job was literally to make creative ideas a reality by putting my own and othersʼ ideas into a visual form for the display team to then make a reality in 3D!! Quote, “Vision is the art of seeing the invisible”!! Jonathan Swift. So, when I took on Miss Universe Wales, I again had a vision of offering our Welsh winners, not just the opportunity of entering Miss Universe Great Britain, but to experience an often life-changing holiday, a real James Bond Glam experience on a yacht and at a golf and country club!! The idea of the holiday was spawned during my contact around September 2010 with a new business on the Algarve, the Algarve Charter Sailing, instigated and run by John Edward Leigh, whose dream was to run his own sailing company on the Algarve. John, already into his 60ʼs, had realised his dream, on parting from his partner and selling their joint property in Essex, bravely sinking his share into a boat Samo, that he had seen for sale on-line and moored in Coatasia. Flying there, buying, refurbishing and sailing it back across the Mediterranean with just the help of his Portuguese assistant, Raphael, was no mean feat. To then do battle with the Portuguese authorities and overcome all the legal tape to set up the business an even greater challenge! John had initially contacted me on-line to seek my marketing assistance in promoting the business to the UK market-place, and one of my suggestions was for him to get some banners and promotional flyers done, that I could display for him at my various events. He did so, and I put up a display at a Boxing Event, and he also put up a prize of a four day chartered sailing holiday as an auction prize for the Welsh Warriors. Cheered by the result, he agreed to help sponsor the Miss Universe Wales prize holiday with a further four day chartered holiday for the three winners and their partners. After all, he had realised his own dream, and now he was in a position to make my Miss Universe Wales winners dream come true too!!

Frolics on the shore- Summer, Charlotte and Marie

 So our first real face to face meeting was, on my second attempt to get off the ground, at Bristol airport, to meet him in Portugal. My first attempt, just before Christmas 2010, had met with failure when we found ourselves snowed in. The second flight, after Christmas, got me there and I experienced his yacht first hand, moored at Vila Real de Santo Antonio, East of Faro airport. It was an enjoyable visit, with dinner with the ”Untouchables”, the British ex-pats who live there. I was happy to include his yacht in the holiday and then asked for his help in finding suitable accommodation for the remaining week.

Pre-holiday prep: Viv visits the Algarve to check out Algarve Charter Sailing early January 2011

 John was kind enough to drive me around, and we visited several Hotels local to him in East Algarve, and a Golf and Country Club. It was when visiting the second club, that even John was unfamiliar with, when we literally walked in off the street, or rather drove in off the sun-baked hillside, that I struck gold. The Sales and Marketing Manager, Marc van Gelder of Castro Marim Golf and Country Club, a very marketing-conscious Dutch company, welcomed us with open arms, and invited us into his sumptuous offices at the stunning Golf and Country Club House, to be served with coffee and biscuits, he was happy to give me his time, and embraced the concept of sponsoring me for the prize holiday. I even managed to interest them in Johnʼs yachting holidays/trips, and forged links for him.

On my return to Wales, it still took some time, following the finale on March 11th, to finalise the right date for the Holiday week to suit all comers, the winners with university exams to consider, the photographer and film crew, with other projects pending. We eventually honed it down to June 21st-28th. Then, stressed out trying to get confirmation and a firm response and agreement from Marc at Castro Marim that they could still accommodate the chosen week, despite being in peak season, and not off-peak as they would have preferred, his welcome email allayed all my fears and spoke volumes.

To help maximise the publicity from all our efforts, I had sold the idea to Emily Woodrow and her editor of publishing a fashion spread on the “perfect capsule holiday wardrobe” theme using Peacocks fashions. Images were to be shot on the yacht, marina, beach and club house. So, prior to our trip, I arranged a styling session at the Peacocks outlet in Cardiff with Emily and our Official Stylist, Wenda James-Rowe, to select clothes suitable for the four girls to wear for all occasions. In the end, it was not quite the light capsule holiday wardrobe idea I envisaged, which would include interchangeable key pieces to keep baggage weight to a minimum, but a weightier range that included wooden clogs and platform sky scraper gold evening shoes. So little olʼ me struggled with an extra suitcase and the nightmare of the baggage police monitoring my every move. I ended up pleading with our crew and girls to slip some of my items into their luggage to reduce the weight!

Putting on the Ritz, the gilrs model evening wear by Peacocks at the Castro Marim club-house bar. L-R, Charlotte Perkins, Summer Ghanavati, Marie Lao and Michaela Morgan

Emily had also requested the following images:

• One of the girls posing posing on the yacht in beach wear

• One of them walking on the beach

• Individual ones in different looks, e.g. out sightseeing, at a beech bar, pool, airport, restaurant, to illustrate the different looks

• Close ups of the girls from waist-up, sipping cocktails, enjoying the view

Sipping cocktails. L-R: Summer Ghanavati; Charlotte Perkins; Michaela Morgan; and Marie Lao

Anyway, WOW!! with the holiday confirmed, flights booked, we were all set to travel from Bristol airport on Tuesday June 21st!! Photographer, Lee Collie bussed it down from London, and we all liaised at the airport. Miss Universe Cardiff, Summer Ghanavati arrived with boyfriend Sebastian Maslen, Miss Universe Wales Swansea, Michaela Morgan, with Phillip Anthony Falconer James and Miss Universe Wales Newport, Marie Lao with David (Dai) Milligan. Charlotte Perkins, first runner up for Cardiff, and winner of Miss Perfect Bride proved that her third title as Miss Most Popular, was well deserved, and due to her helpful and amenable nature, photographer, Lee Collie, had asked if she could be included to assist him. The film crew, Anthony Billboard Jones and Stuart Apsee made up Team Miss Universe Wales.

Apart from a few sticky moments when the baggage allowance turned out to cost twice as much at the airport than if booked on-line, and the heroic efforts of the film crew in stuffing my hand luggage into the luggage rack, to test for size, we got there. On arriving at Faro airport, however, we failed to locate our Portuguese coach driver, who not only could not speak a word of English, but “sensibly” displayed a weak handwritten note on a piece of nondescript card that we were meant to spot!!

A call to John, and an apology that he was running late, and eventually, on his arrival, half of us bundled into his 4X4, the other half into the Portugese mini-bus, all set for Castro Marim Golf and Country Club! Some time later, we arrived in the 4X4 to be welcomed by the security guard with keys to the villas, but no mini-bus!! After waiting in vain, several phone calls discovered that the girls and boyfriends were lost, in darkness, and looking at a castle!! I put the helpful security guard on to the taxi driver, to discover that he had driven his party to Castrio Marim village, complete with castle, overlooking the river that separates Portugal from Spain, and not Castro Marim Golf and Country Club. Problem solved!

Once they had arrived, we were escorted to our two villas, and despite the late hour, the girls and their partners went nuts!! They were so excited and thrilled at seeing the luxurious spacious villas, the pools, the jacuzzi baths, the many en suite bathrooms, the walk in wardrobes, that they rang and emailed parents and friends until 3.00am!! Some insisted their parents come out immediately and buy there!! It was like Christmas morning!

Pool Madness: two go wild on the Algarve - Marie Lao and Charlotte Perkins

 As we were sailing first thing, to save numerous journeys, John had sensibly suggested that he take the three boyfriends and younger of the male film crew, Stuart to spent the night with him on the yacht, and we would take the 4X4 back to the villas to ferry the girls down in the morning. So the guys had a real male bonding, buccaneer night and morning with John on the yacht, moored at Tavira Estuary, in the heart of a nature reserve, while Anthony, who had volunteered to drive, sped us back to the villa.

The following morning, Day One, seemed to go like clockwork. The girls were up and ready to go and had packed soft luggage, as instructed by John, to fit in with the storage on the yacht. The idea was for the three winners and partners to spend the next three nights sailing on the yacht, while film crew, photographer and Charlotte Perkins, would tear around in Johnʼs loaned 4X4 to discover suitable locations for filming, and be in position to shoot and film the yacht sailing into Vilamoura marina from the headland. They would then shoot the girls on the yacht, modelling the Algarve Charter sailing and Miss Universe Wales T-shirts, and finally the Peacocks “capsule” holiday wardrobe. We arrived, with the girls at the estuary and were eventually whisked to the yacht from the estuary, via Johnʼs rib (a small speed boat), and after a quick/late shopping trip by John (it appears the guys had told John that there was no way the girls would get there in time, so they had enjoyed a leisurely breakfast), set sail for Vilamoura. It involved a seven hour sail for that first day to the most “Jet set” marina on the Algarve.

I sailed with the girls and boyfriends, while keeping in touch by phone with the film crew and photographer on land, to make them aware of our progress. The girls enjoyed sunbathing with their boyfriends and clambering all over the yacht. Unfortunately, John, panicking about time, decided to miss out the sheltered harbour, and instead dropped anchor in a swell for lunch, so, despite the fact that he had worked for three hours to prepare a mouth watering selection of salads and wines, some of us could not cope with the sea motion and felt too sick to enjoy his efforts. We arrived at Villamoura, and soon the sea sickness abated, and we were keen to enjoy the atmosphere of the marina. So, after my meeting with Marc Gelder, who had driven to Villamoura especially to liaise with me, we hit the restaurants!

I tried to keep the filming and photo-shoots to just two full days of the holiday, so the girls had five days to enjoy their villa, pool, golf club and beach. So Day Two saw us back at Vilamoura for the first shoot of the girls sailing in and out of the estuary, modelling the T-shirts and then the Peacocks beach wear on the yacht, and at Vilamoura marina.

The Peacocks photo-shoot. L-R the Miss Universe Wales winners 2011: Michaela Morgan, Swansea; Summer Ghanavaiti, Cardiff; Marie Lao, Newport; and Charlotte Perkins, first runner-up Cardiff

Many onlookers, bemused at our antics, wondered what celebrities they were. Two Danish soldiers, sailing around the world, and moored next to our yacht commented drolly in the bar later, “I said to my friend, one girl turned up pulling a little suitcase, then I saw you arrive (he pointed at me) pulling a little suitcase, then another lady showed up, pulling a little suitcase, and I said to my friend, there is something very strange going on on that yacht, they are all pulling little suitcases, how many of them are staying on that yacht??”

In the end, they enjoyed the shoot so much, they pulled out their deck chairs and watched the spectacle!! Another elderly yachtsman asked if he could have his picture taken with the girls as it was his birthday. After spending the morning shooting the girls on the yacht as Raphael sailed it back out of the marina and back an forth along the headland, to be filmed and shot by the crew, we were requested by the Harbourmaster to move the yacht from the Visitors Pontoon, where we were moored to a mooring in the marina itself.

However after sailing there, I was not happy with the location, hemmed in as the yacht was on both sides and losing the idea I had of the long perspective of the side of the yacht that I had visualised for the Peacocks shoot. So I insisted on John sailing it back to where it had been moored. He told me I would have to deal with, and charm the Harbour Master, as the Visitors Pontoon was only a temporary mooring that would be needed by other vessels. I was prepared to speak to him, if necessary, but in the end, we were undisturbed for the entire shoot. The girls freshened up at the marina bathrooms and Charlotte had her sun burn disguised by Lee, as she had use the wrong factor while on the yacht. The shoot took in the yacht, the jetty and later the marina. Back at the villas, the girls enjoyed sunning themselves and swimming pool-side, while their boyfriends and film crew took in as much free golf and equipment as they desired, while both made full use of the free buggies, which they flew around the grounds on. One night, they threw a BBQ party by the pool. I also had my moment, when the girls preferred to chill at the villas with their boyfriends, and I went out for dinner with the crew, yachtsman John Leigh, photographer Lee Collie, and film crew, Anthony “Billboard” Jones and Stuart Apsee. We set off for Tavira, where there was a local BBQ at the sailing club, but on an instinct we all decided to head back to Villamoura, to our favourite restaurant. After dinner, workaholic Lee decided to take some photos of me in my red beach dress. Suddenly, we heard applauding and looked around; we had heard that there might be a football player (with one of the many WAGS) in the area. Lee was keen to “pap” them. But no, they were applauding us!! Then a woman came rushing towards us demanding to know who I was! Lee answered that I was Director with Miss Universe Wales, and I said, “Oh yes, you should see how lovely my girls are”, but she did not seem to hear me, and excitedly shouted to her friends, “She is Miss Universe!!”. Then the whole party dashed over, asking to have their photo taken with me. They asked me to wear a red leather cowboy hat they had, which matched my red dress, and to pose in front of the video that was playing of their boating business there! So funny! When we returned to the villas, I said to the girls “You will never believe what has happened to me!!”

 Viv's MUW moment at Vilamoura marina

 The second day of filming took place later in the week on Sunday, and Castro Marim had organised the day to perfection. We were all ferried down by taxi to the nearby beach and their Pescador, (restaurant) in the morning, where the girls were photographed and filmed, not only by our crew, but also by theirs. Instructions had been issued by Marc for the beach to be swept and Castro Marim branded towels and flag supplied. The girls posed in their own clothes, then in the Peacocks range at the beach restaurant, sipping cocktails, sunbathing in bikinis on sunbeds on the beach, walking on the beach and wading in the sea.

Striking a pose at the sea front - Summer Ghanavati, Marie Lao, Charlotte Perkins and Michaela Morgan

Lee borrowed the towel of one of the crew as it happened to depict the Welsh flag, and the Castro Marim film crew starred silently, as he asked them to hoist the image of the Welsh dragon above their heads. I spotted their puzzled gaze and explained, “The reason Lee is photographing the girls with that image is because it is our Welsh flag”. There was a long silent pause while they continued to look puzzled. Then suddenly blurted out “But it is a towel!!”

Hoisting the flag - MUW spreads positive PR for Wales in the Algarve. L-R: Michaela Morgan; Charlotte Perkins; Marie Lao; Summer Ghanavati

Cultural differences maybe, but Viva la difference!! A fabulous lunch was provided for us all, sponsored by the restaurant proprietor Sem Espinhas, with as much wine and drinks as we wanted, before we were ferried back to the golf club. The girls and their partners were then dressed in the Castro Marim branded golfwear and filmed and photographed playing golf, receiving instructions by their Pro and finally being served champagne and canapés on the fabulous terrace of their club house.

The golfing girls in Castro Marim corporate branding. L-R: Charlotte Perkins; Michaela Morgan; Summer Ghanavati; and Marie Lao

Après Golf with champagne and canapies. Marie Lao and Charlotte Perkins get star treatment

 The girls changed into the Miss Universe Wales t-shirts and leggings for a few shots at their gym and finally, resplendent in evening wear, were photographed at the club house bar and terrace. The girls, their partners, even our crew, had lots of opportunities to let down their hair and party, sunbath, swim, play golf, tear around on golf buggys, BBQ. The last day we taxied down to the beach for Lee to do some more shoots with Michaela and produced some stunning images! Sadly, Marc van Gelder, who had tried in vain to organise a promised lunch or dinner for us with his fellow Directors was unable to organise a day when all could attend. However, I do not think anyone could not say it was an amazing holiday experience, worthy of the Miss Universe Wales title and our Welsh winners.

All went more or less seamlessly with taxis arriving on time to whisk us back to the airport on the 28th and one last group photo at Bristol airport recorded happy faces on arrival.

Safe Landing, back at Bristol airport 

Within hours of returning from the holiday on Tuesday, June 28th, Emily texted me to say she had heard we were back, and could she have the images, like NOW!! So, although I had been whisked off for a 90 year old auntʼs family birthday and weeks holiday in Scotland on the Friday, I then spent the next three days editing over 700 photos taken by Lee, and, with inconsistent Internet, emailed them to the press, my fellow director (who was away travelling himself), and our press consultant. It was an exhausting, but worthwhile experience, despite the months of organisation and project managing to pull it all together with no budget, and relying totally on sponsorship. Even the added stress of managing such a diverse group of individuals, with the odd tantrum, maintaining frayed tempers in the heat of the sun, proved worthwhile for the greater cause of creating fantastic images for the press on our return! The crew worked well together with the expertise and professionalism of Lee Collie and the stunning film work by Anthony and Stuart, as well as the beauty, glamour and patience of the Welsh winners, who were rewarded with a stunning press portfolio, as well as a great holiday. We too were rewarded with a full colour cover picture of Michaela Morgan and a further double page spread, featuring all the girls on the yacht, beach and golf club. in the South Wales Echo that was worthy of a Vogue spread! A huge thank you to all involved!

A big thank you to our holiday sponsors:

www.algarvechartersailing.com

www.castromarimgolge.com

See you at the Miss Universe Wales James Bond/Casino Royal Charity Party at Grovenor Casino on Thursday, 2 February 2012, and the Grand Finale on18 February 2012.

Details on entering, sponsoring or attending our events are on

www.missuniversewales.com

Or call Vivienne on 07881756748

Vivienne Sharman-Lewis, 1 December 2011

© 2011 Caregos Cyf. | Hawlfraint - All rights reserved

Click here to return to the Featured Articles page