Iconic 77 & Walid Saleh Champion Paralympic Dream & Promote Agency Magazine Launch

Iconic 77 and Fresh Base Productions teamed up to launch a new agency promotional campaign featuring Ballers Models athlete Walid Saleh and championing the Paralympic dream and promoting Iconic 77’s own-brand magazine launch which showcases the network’s capabilities.

The digital and print product – ICONIC MAG Issue 1 – celebrates and elevates cultural figures and personalities and the bi-annual title became available via online ordering at iconic77.com from 27 February.

The new title officially, which launched at an event on 2 March at 97 Berwick Street in London’s Soho, is priced at £10 + delivery with all profits going to Fareshare UK (a charity which fights against hunger and food waste through its network of charitable food distributors).

The filming and photography for the campaign, shot by Terry Graham, shows amputee runner Walid Saleh training environment at East London’s Lea Valley Athletics Centre. 

Amongst the culturally influential figures from across the worlds of art, fashion, music and sport, the first issue of the magazine features interviews conducted by James Kirkham and Iconic Co-Founding Ellie Farrer (who also wrote a number of content pieces that will feature alongside articles by special guest contributors) with DJ and BBC Radio 1 presenter, Sarah Story; Norwegian DJ and producer, SUCHI; as well as James Brown, writer and editor of leading 90s magazine Loaded; ‘Future Cut’, the producers of Lily Allen’s award-winning debut LP; DJ and Producer ‘Yousef’; and the Paralympian hopeful Walid Saleh.

“We had been speaking to Walid through our modelling agency arm Ballers Models, so when we were asked to pitch concepts for the launch mag, this felt like the perfect opportunity<,” explained Iconic 77 Founder Gaurav Kumar. “Walid’s story is both tragic and hugely inspiring, so we wanted to use the magazine to help tell his story to the world. I’ve witnessed his dedication to the sport and his dream of reaching the Paralympics, and can see him progressing week on week. We chose Terry for the project based on his unique eye for story telling through his photography, and it’s great to see this now out in print. We’re all looking forward to seeing the shots at the launch party and working closely with the ICONIC network.”

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Iconic 77 promotes itself as a full service agency and entertainment company. It was originally founded by James Kirkham to ‘give brands a queue jump to the front of popular culture’.

“We want to put our money where our mouth is. Rather than just telling brands how to queue jump to the front of popular culture, we want to continually do so ourselves,” explained iconic Co-Founder James Kirkham (a former Chief Business Officer of Defected Records, of football media business COPA90, who was also previously Global Head of Social for Leo Burnet and founder of digital agency Holler). “In this current climate, traditional media matters more than ever; while a magazine might not be the obvious starting point for two people with such digital backgrounds, it is just one way for us to start the conversation. It is our anchor point to all that’s cool, exciting, vibrant, rich and creative in the world right now. We’re in dark times politically, and young people have the weight of the world on their shoulders. We believe in creativity from adversity, and ICONIC MAG is full to the brim of hope, audacity and expectation”.