6 Friends Theory

Friday just gone, I headed over to London Bridge to play a game. 

I was kindly invited by Mercure Hotels to join them at their London Bridge hotel to find out all about their current international competition; Six Friend Theory. It's all very exciting, trust me, but I promise I'll get to that. 

First though, it was time to check in and dump my ridiculously heavy bags. I really do need to invest in a new, light weight laptop. Although least I'm getting a mini workout lugging it around. 

The hotel has a great modern, but homely vibe. A mixture of clean lines, and chrome, along with brightly coloured soft fabrics and books that are meant to be picked up and read whilst you drink a morning coffee

On my way to my room, I had a little wander- I'm curious, what can I say? Everywhere is made for you to just feel completely at home. They even have cookies and granola bakes dotted about the place, which magically get topped up when you take one... or three. It's a bit like Grandma's house, you never are without a cookie or a piece of cake.

I had a bit of a photographer's moment with these lights. They just made the most beautiful of pictures, so bare with me here. 

Parting from my lights, I stepped into my room for the night. a quirky, funky little room.

I absolutely loved the shower art.

But not as much as the Nespresso machine. How did they know coffee is the second love of my life? Oh wait, don't make me choose between heels and coffee for 1st place!

After a quick freshen up, and a coffee, I headed down stairs to join the others for the real reason we were here.

Remember how I mentioned the 6 Friend Theory competition. Well Mercure Hotel's are running a competition based on the 6 degrees of separation theory. The competition winner will travel around the world for 6 weeks, based on their connections and who they meet along the way till they finally end up in Australia to meet an Aborigine. No persons journey would be the same, as the places you visit is based on your connections, or your 6 degrees. It is the most unbelievable trip, and I really do encourage you to enter. 

However why was I here? You see there is a judging panel for this competition made up of the company directors and leading editors of publications. Yet there is one place left, which they would like a blogger to fill to represent social media. So I was after for this spot. 

Us chosen bloggers were to play a game, to prove your social media capabilities and engagement with followers and audiences. It's all well and good having 20,000 followers but if no one is engaged then it doesn't work for a brand. 

After various different tasks, the data would be analysed and a winner chosen. The winner would then fly to Paris to sit on the judging panel. 

I felt like saying:

"Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour"

It was all rather intense and a little like  a school examination to be completely honest.



The first task at hand was to get your personal hash tag mentioned as many times as possible within 30 minutes. Now if you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen some strange behaviour from me with the hash tag #LauraH6FT floating around. I do apologise but it was all for this.

A couple of screen grabs to show how much you guys got on board! I can't thank you enough as to how much you helped me and played along. Big Twitter love!



After the 30 minutes were up, who came up on top?

The final re-tweet scores are in! Did you help someone out today? Stay tuned to find out the big winner! #6FriendsTheory

A photo posted by Mercure Hotels UK (@mercurehotelsuk) on Jan 23, 2015 at 9:09am PST

Me! You guys rock!

Now the final task was a little more complicated. We had 45 minutes to perform a set of different tasks to see how good our connections were in the social media space.

They ranged from getting someone to send you a picture with your hashtag written on their face, to finding someone is China and getting them to send you a photo of a bike!

It was all very mad, bizarre and slightly confusing to my friends who were roped in, but people helped which was unbelievable.

At the end I felt shattered, and headed up stairs to lie down before dinner and the big reveal of who had been chosen to go to Paris.



We popped down to Fish! in Borough Market. Well it was Friday after all. Fish Supper Friday duh!



I don't remember wine ever being part of my fish suppers growing up though.



Nor Thai fish cakes, but they were a welcomed addition to my tradition.



Ah that looks familiar!



Now I have to say I think it was the sticky toffee pudding that stole the show. It was swimming in toffee sauces. Oh baby!

So as things drew to a close, the winner was announced...

I've been chosen to go to Paris to be a judge for the @mercurehoteluk #6friendstheory competition! I'm so happy right now!

A photo posted by Laura (@laurajhyatt) on Jan 23, 2015 at 12:07pm PST

Me!

I can't believe it! I've been chosen to go to Paris and be a judge for the 6 Friends Theory competition.

I am honestly so excited. I've never been to Paris, so it is going to be amazing!

I couldn't have done it without you guys on social media though, so I have one huge great big thank you to say! You guys rock!



I think a few celebratory cocktails were rightfully deserved, don't you?

I'll be going to Paris in February, so don't forget to follow my adventure here, and on Twitter and Instagram

Au revoir!

      Follow @LauraJHyatt   

6 friends theory, Borough Market, fish, London, london bridge, mercure hotel, paris, travel