We Increased Reach of a Regional Event by 11 Million!
THE BRIEF
To raise awareness of the Miss Dorset 2018 competition with the objective of increasing sponsors, and the amount of sponsorship, the number contestants and, of course, increasing the amount of coverage.
THE CHALLENGE
As a Dorset event, the challenge was to make a regional event hit national headlines! The Miss Dorset event had a relatively low profile on social media and didn’t have an Instagram channel at the time.
THE SOLUTION
The team at Sunny Bird PR worked closely with the Miss Dorset team and the contestants to turn their stories into national press pieces.
The Sunny Bird PR team wrote press releases throughout the competition to announce the finalists, promote the final and to announce the winner. Sunny Bird PR also introduced and sponsored the Miss Social Media Award as the winner would need to be a social media queen to go on and represent Dorset in the Miss England competition.
As well as creating and judging the Miss Social Media Award, the Sunny Bird PR team also created, managed and grew the Miss Dorset social media accounts throughout the competition including starting the Miss Dorset Instagram channel. The Sunny Bird PR team used the Miss Dorset social media channels to manage the sign-ups of contestants, promote award rounds, promote sponsors, share articles, promote the final and of course live streaming of the final itself.
Sunny Bird PR HQ was also the venue for all the finalists’ interviews, head-shots and videos as well as the sorting and packing office for the 200 goody bags. The goody bags, worth over £70 each were given to every guest at the final and the team used their connections to help fill the bags with ethical and locally sourced gifts.
THE OUTCOME
The whole Sunny Bird PR team attended the glamorous event at The Hilton in Bournemouth with two dedicated members of staff on social media duty live streaming and posting all night. Thanks to extensive coverage and the powerful back story of one contestant; several TV crews came to the final as well as international, national and local press.
Though the team’s hard work liaising with press, capitalising on opportunities and reactive media relations 35 pieces of coverage were achieved with a total reach of over 12.8 million people – this was up from 1 million the year before. This space would have cost over £350,000 if it had been bought in advertising. Key titles covering Miss Dorset 2018 & We Do Ethical Living include The Mail Online, The Metro, The Sun, Closer Magazine, Yahoo!, London Evening Standard, OK! Magazine, The Bournemouth Echo and the Dorset Echo.
Increasing the reach and value of coverage so dramatically for Miss Dorset will have a positive impact on the competition next year. More and more local businesses will now be queuing up to be involved and sponsor Miss Dorset 2019 as they see how much coverage can be achieved for sponsors, delivering a great return on investment for them compared to traditional advertising routes.