Creating local waves around national events
27th October 2011The theme of this newsletter is “events” – happenings in the real (and now virtual) world which gather a group of like minded people together.
We are pretty good at events in the SW – from the America’s Cup regatta, which has just happened in Plymouth, amazing food and literary festivals, to the numerous networking events staged by business communities across the region. Businesses in the SW know and like the power of getting together.
We have our own view points here in the SW and our own take on how we fit onto the national stage. This gives us a real opportunity when it comes to creating our own news around national events. Piggingbacking on national events and adding a regional perspective can be very powerful.
The key to making the most of national events from a regional point of view is obviously relevant content. The more targeted your content, the more likely your desired audience will pick up on it.
Two projects we have worked on very recently exemplify this approach.
At the beginning of October, we worked with Devon based Sidona Group to capitalise on National Customer Service Week. This is not just a national, but an international, event and Sidona, who are experts in helping organisations deliver better customer experiences, wanted to capitalise on the event to make a “noise” in the SW. To this end, we conducted a simple and quick consumer survey (with thanks to Survey Monkey and social media channels) to find out just how visitors think we are doing when it comes to the visitor experience in the SW. Combining a national news hook with highly localised spin ensured some great local coverage on BBC radio and in the Western Morning News.
We have also done similar work with national charity, The English Project and its Location Lingo campaign in 2010, which set out to find the UK’s alternative place names across the UK (my SW favourites being Torbados for Torquay and Padstein for Padstow). By analysing 2800 entries, we managed to hyper-localise our stories. This resulted in over 28 local BBC radio pieces and just under a 100 pieces of coverage nationally. This piece of work has just been nominated for a major award, The PRCA 2011 Media Relations award, which further helps the charity in its aim of reaching as wide an audience as possible. We will find out if we win on 15th November, so watch this space.
When thinking about events from a PR point of view, it doesn’t always have to be about creating something from scratch. Sometimes it’s more effective to make the most of what is already out there and generate waves around established national events.
If you would like us to help you reach a targeted local audience, then give me a call to chat things through on 01392 426 287 or email me at sophy.norris@flagshipconsulting.co.uk
