As we move rapidly through January, the team have been busy with new goals, new clients, and one very busy diary! As the team settle in behind their desks and work gets underway on some exciting projects, we thought we’d take time to reflect on some of our personal and professional highlights from 2017 and share our top ten with you…
1. The team celebrated a bunch of promotions and new starters last year including Lizzie who was promoted to Senior Account Manager and Lucy who was promoted to Brand Coordinator and Assistant. Karin joined the team on a permanent basis following an internship in 2016, and our newest recruit Alex (former Multimedia Journalist) joined us in November. We also welcomed the youngest member of the team; Sophia Darcy Bird who was born in May and has been an incredible asset during her office appearances. #smiler #futureprgirl
2. We used creative concepts, body transformations and record breaking ideas to consistently get our clients into the national press and on TV. This meant Conker Spirit reached nearly 70 MILLION consumers including A-listers who sipped Cold Brew Espresso Martinis at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. We tackled the challenging PR terrain of private healthcare and more than doubled coverage, boosted traffic and increased sales for Ramsay Health Care UK. This including putting two dads through their paces and helping them go from ‘dad bod to fitness god’ to scoop a Daily Mail exclusive.
3. We hit the ground running with new clients, positioning The Green House Hotel as THE award-winning Bournemouth destination to visit and worked closely with Mr Lee’s Noodles on the company’s rebrand ready to introduce to trade and consumer press.
4. Summer was a busy time for the team as June saw us manage the PR for the Las Iguanas opening in Bournemouth’s BH2. A huge KPI-smashing success, we exceeded our target and secured 70 VIP guests for occasion. Hot on its heels, we organised another big Bournemouth event in the form of the town’s biggest ever street art project for our client Ambassadeur Art. The project saw a supersized spidery superhero painted on Bournemouth’s famous Pier Approach, reaching over 4 million people including a feature on the BBC.
5. While handling the PR for Dorset Cruises we arranged for national journalists to soak up the sights of Poole Harbour on an artisan Gin Cruise. Manager Jon Morgan said: "On the back of the PR we sold out for the whole year in just one month and sales went up by 567%.” To celebrate, the team boarded the beautiful Dorset Queen vessel for our very own evening of canapés, fireworks and, of course, gin tasting.
6. We also celebrated Sunny Bird PR’s fourth birthday along with an incredible 20 regional new business wins! We had planned on expansion which is why we’d chosen such large offices in Bournemouth but we had no idea it would happen so quickly – so a big thank you to those regional businesses that have started working with the Sunny Bird PR team this year.
7. Last year was a record-breaking year in terms of securing coverage for our clients. We achieved 103 pieces of coverage and two TV appearances in one year (8.5 pieces per month) for our client Thortful reaching over 249 million people. Using a mixture of case studies and product features, we also managed to get our client The Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring to reach more than 4,241,688 people, including coverage in 7 national newspapers such as The Daily Mail, The Express and The Daily Mirror.
8. We showed our internet prowess by increasing web traffic and improving our client’s social media presence across the board. Stand-out results saw traffic to our client Regrowz’s new website increase by 3,535% . In our first four months of managing the WAY Investments account, Twitter followers increased by an incredible 1,030% , a figure which continues to grow week on week.
9. Along with its professional highs, 2017 was very romantic year for the team as March saw our Lucy saying ‘yes’ to the love of her life after her boyfriend proposed. Save the date – it’s August 2018! If that wasn’t exciting enough, in September our account manager Rian married her fiancée in a beautiful, Insta-perfect wedding on the Dorset coast. With just two weeks to go before Christmas, Lizzie snatched the last big news as she and her partner moved into their beautiful cottage in Southbourne – and yes the OCD monster in her meant that everything was not only unpacked and in its place after week one but the tree up, decorations on and presents wrapped and ready to go.
10. Since moving into our offices just over a year ago we’ve been making lots of cool additions (no beanbags or slides yet though) and undoubtedly the coolest addition has been our artwork courtesy of Lucan Art. Mirek came in and listened to our brief; we wanted the walls of office to reflect our favourite things about living and working in Dorset. So now we sit surrounded by the bright colours of the sea, the sand, the Purbecks and even a mini Louis!
Needless to say we’ve all had a truly fabulous year both as a business and as a team. A massive thank you to all our clients as we wouldn’t be here without you! And we massively look forward to enjoying next year with you all too.