How We Got Miss Dorset in Front of 12.8 Million People!

As a PR agency based in Dorset we think it’s important to support local events where we can, so when the organiser of Miss Dorset came to us looking for PR we didn’t hesitate in lending our support.

Kelly Levell has been organising Miss Dorset for four years and has made it her mission to bring a more ethical message to the competition with the introduction of the Miss Fairtrade Award, which she introduced to the contest in 2017. The current winner Stephanie Wyatt has already started work as the newest ambassador for Kelly’s not for profit organisation; We Do Ethical Living. As an agency we admired Kelly’s vision and were happy to support the event. The Sunny Bird PR team wrote press releases throughout the competition to announce the finalists, promote the final and to announce the winner. We 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 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, headshots 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. 

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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 we had several TV crews at the final as well as international, national and local press.

Though our hard work liaising with press, capitalising on opportunities and reactive media relations we achieved 35 Pieces of Coverage 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.

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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. So, get ready to cheer on Steph Wyatt competing in the Miss England finals on 3rd September this year and watch out for Miss Dorset 2019 – it will be even bigger and better than 2018!