Happy Clientversary: Ramsay Health Care UK

This month the Sunny Bird PR team is celebrating our three-year clientversary, and most successful year to date, with private healthcare provider Ramsay Health Care UK.

The healthcare provider first began working with SBPR back in 2015 with the primary objective of positioning Ramsay as a trusted voice of authority in the field while securing backlinks directing readers to the website; increasing Ramsay’s SEO and ultimately boosting sales and patient numbers.

The SBPR team have used creative campaigns to ensure we smash our KPIs year-on-year and achieve national coverage on a monthly basis. This year we have seen a 90% increase in our coverage from the year previous including exclusive features in the likes of the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph as well as interviews on Sky News Radio.

To achieve maximum coverage every year, SBPR devise a detailed 12-month strategy which includes a mixture of long-form features, surveys and expert advice to ensure we have something to talk to journalists about over the coming 12 months.

We kicked off this year by tapping into the media’s ‘New Year, New Me’ ethos to promote Ramsay’s weight-loss procedures on a national level. With the media saturated in weight-loss stories, we knew we needed some hard-hitting statistics and relatable case studies to be heard above the noise.

To do this, we surveyed 2000 women who had experienced difficulties with weight loss and discovered that 75% of them were ashamed or embarrassed by their weight gain. The shocking figure was just the hook we needed to take the story to the media. We pitched the feature to national radio stations along with a leading weight loss surgeon from Ramsay, and a case study who had undergone weight loss surgery with Ramsay. Both were available for radio interviews and happy to comment on procedures, statistics in the survey, as well as their own personal experiences to produce some informative and relatable pieces for radio.

Dr Halstead and case study Plaxy on the air

The campaign was a phenomenal success with a total of 14 radio interviews including Sky News Radio, talkRadio and regional stations in key hospital areas. Overall, we reached almost 4 million listeners spreading news of Ramsay weight loss procedures across the country.

Our second targeted media outreach of the year was Bowel Cancer Awareness Month in April. For this, the team utilised assets made in previous years including an eye-catching graphic, which ran with the headline ‘What Does your Stool Say About You?’, highlighted the often-overlooked symptoms of Bowel Cancer.

Our bowel cancer awareness campaign reached over 2.8 million people with 12 pieces of coverage including The Daily Telegraph, Express Online and Yahoo!

This summer, SBPR took on a new challenge away from the national limelight in the form of Ramsay’s regional PR. We were asked to support with the launch of its nationwide Speaking Up for Safety Initiative. Ramsay are the first hospital group in the UK to launch the initiative which encourages and empowers staff to challenge anyone, including senior colleagues, who may be putting patients at risk with their behaviour.

SBPR had just one week to secure as much coverage as possible across the country in advance of the initiative going live in each of Ramsay’s 38 hospitals. Over the course of just one week, the team created targeted media lists of the publications in each of the hospital’s regions, and through intensive calls to regional journalists the team achieved 22 pieces of coverage from Yorkshire to Wiltshire.

Our final campaign of the year focused on sports injuries and the importance of warming up to avoid serious injury - a campaign designed to feature in women’s magazines and more specialist sporting titles.

To deliver this campaign we gathered several assets including shocking survey statistics. The carefully-conducted survey asked 2000 people how they injured themselves while playing sport, as well as their recovery time, age and gender. The survey produced newsworthy results such as 70% of people over 55 have been to A&E with sports related injuries and that sports injuries account for more than 13.5 working days lost per person.

These results were presented to journalists along with heartfelt case studies from women who experienced serious sports injuries impacting their lives who then went on to receive corrective surgery from Ramsay allowing them to return to their sport. Simple warm-up exercises with instructions and corresponding photography were also provided along with expert comment from a Ramsay consultant on the importance of warming up.

This gave the team an array of material and assets to pitch to journalists depending on which were most suitable for their audience and publication. Consequently, we achieved numerous feature length pieces, and backlinks, in key titles such as Top Santé, Runner’s Radar, My Weekly, Trail Running and many more.

Thanks to the team’s carefully planned PR Strategy and great media contacts within the national health press, we managed to secure a huge 64 pieces of coverage for Ramsay Health Care UK over the past twelve months. That coverage has reached over 23 MILLION people, and if the equivalent space was bought in advertising would have cost over £640,000!

We Achieved 103 Pieces Of Coverage In One Year (8.5 Pieces Per Month) Reaching Over 249 Million People

It's always a great feeling when you summarise the results from a yearly PR campaign and let's just say that there were high fives all around when we summarised the recent PR campaign for card company thortful.

Start-up company thortful is an online card company that focuses on supporting creative talent and having a card for every occasion. They came to us to help launch their brand to the media, opinion formers and target demographic. Their objective was to build brand recognition to boost card sales and boost repeat online purchases. The online card marketplace is crowded so we knew that we needed some seriously creative PR campaigns to truly make them stand out amongst the competition.

As well as promoting the general card range, Sunny Bird PR also developed a number of creative PR campaigns that would garner as much coverage for thortful as possible. This included the following:

-          Product placement and card round up pages
Throughout the year the team held multiple one to one media meetings in London and we ensured that thortful was always front-of-mind in advance of all key seasonal times of year (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day etc.). Press became so used to seeing our faces (which is only ever a good thing) and thortful became synonymous with original, fun and thoughtful cards. Many journalists requested card samples for themselves and family members as a result and it was a brilliant way to introduce the media to the brand.

-          Father’s Day ‘the best advice your Dad ever gave you’
The team travelled 1,000’s of miles across national train networks to collect the best advice people had received from their fathers. This campaign resulted in some great quality coverage within the Mail Online as well as social media and consumer engagement.

-          Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Sunny Bird PR enlisted a thortful creative to curate a range of empathy cards. The idea behind the campaign was to create a range of cards that is different to the traditional ‘get well’ cards on the market. The creative herself previously suffered from cancer and was positioned as an authentic case study. This campaign resulted in 20 pieces of coverage in titles such as Mashable, Metro, Elle Online, Independent.co.uk and Good To Know.

-          Gary James McQueen ‘Are you OK?’ card range
The team collaborated with the nephew of the late Alexander McQueen to create a collection of ‘Are you OK?’ cards to tackle mental health stigma and to give thortful the opportunity to be positioned within the fashion and health titles. A mental health charity partnership was secured to add authenticity to the collaboration and the collection was featured in 17 titles, including; Hello Fashion Monthly, Emerald Street and Country & Town House Online.

-          Launching the Father’s Day Sock Card
Father’s Day 2017 saw the launch of the Father’s Day Sock Card – a gift and card in one. The team issued personalised samples to leading TV producers and male presenters who were also fathers. Not only did the team source the names of the influential fathers, but the card designs were chosen for them based on their public persona and taste. This activity resulted in stand-out coverage on ITV’s This Morning with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield in a Father’s Day gift guide. The programme was watched by over 3 million viewers and thortful saw a direct increase in sales as a result.

-          Launching the Keepsake Cards
Sunny Bird PR pitched the Keepsake Cards as an alternative Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day ‘gift and card in one’. The press feedback for the Keepsake Cards was very strong, especially among the supplements. All key journalists received personalised Keepsake Cards and we offered them the opportunity to order a free Keepsake Card as a gift from thortful for a loved one of their choice. The activity was in line with thortful’s key messaging of always being thoughtful and it resulted in some great coverage, including pieces in S Magazine, Notebook and Fabulous.

-          Trade and Business outreach
Sunny Bird PR targeted key trade and business titles to ensure that thortful was positioned as a voice of authority and a start-up that was shaking up the card industry. The founder, Andy Pearce, was pitched as a successful entrepreneur and the face of the brand which resulted in standout coverage being achieved within the following titles; Marketing Week, Growth Business, Fresh Business Thinking, Progressive Greetings, Entrepreneur & Investor, Campaign Week and Enterprise Nation.

-          App reviews
One of thortful’s secondary objectives was to encourage sales through the thortful app to boost repeat purchase. Sunny Bird PR targeted journalists who often write app reviews specifically and also seeded the app and a free code to key mummy bloggers. This activity resulted in positive app reviews both in key national newspapers and on high circulation blogs. These reviews often included direct hyperlinks to the app store so that the app could be purchased. The blogger coverage also provided an opportunity for a ‘step-by-step guide on how to use the thortful  app’ to be published which educated the reader on the pros of using thortful over the competition. Coverage secured included; Metro, Mummy Constant and The Mirror.

The results are in!!!
One year, lots of media meetings and multiple creative PR campaigns later and we have secured 103 pieces of coverage with a reach of 249,370,993. The coverage spanned from high circulation online titles such as Mail Online, Mashable, ElleUK.com, Express.co.uk and a prime daytime TV slot on This Morning’s Father’s Day gift guide that resulted in a direct spike in thortful website traffic and Father’s Day sales.  

Want to find out more? Drop us a line on 01202 293095 to find out how a creative PR campaign could work for you too.

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

This month’s roundup of PR campaigns feature three brilliant examples from Walkers, who fed Londoners using an interactive bus stop, Nisim’s scientific approach to hair care and a simple yet successful campaign from Vision Express.

#TWEETTOEAT

Although a few years old now, we really like this campaign from Walkers in 2014: The nation’s favourite crisp brand transformed three London bus stops into tweet-activated vending machines as part of its 'Do us a Flavour' campaign.

With Walkers already renowned for its quirky and talked about campaigns, this one was no different. Passers-by of the novel vending machine bus stops in Clapham and Oxford Street were encouraged to tweet @Walkers_busstop, triggering the vending machine to deliver a free packet of crisps to the tweeter.

"Walkers loves bringing fun to the nation and we are extremely excited to launch the first ever Twitter vending machine on the streets of London" said Walkers marketing manager Lee-Teng Chung at the time.

The 2014 'Do us a Flavour' campaign championed six ‘finalist’ flavours which included: Sizzling Steak Fajita, Chip Shop Chicken Curry, Pulled Pork in a Sticky BBQ Sauce, Ranch Raccoon, Cheesy Beans on Toast and Hot Dog with Tomato Ketchup. The vending machines were stocked with one of the six finalist flavours and dispensed 260 packets of crisps daily. The public were also encouraged to vote for their favourite flavour online, taking it from an interactive campaign to a social media campaign.

Not only was this campaign a success on social media, but it also made the consumer media with articles on big hitters such as the Mail Online (2,302,409) and a number of features in trade press too. All in all, another campaign packed full of flavour from the big, crispy giant of crisps.

LAUNCH OF NEW HAIR GROWTH SHAMPOO GETS THE TEST OF TIME

Anyone who has ever regretted a haircut knows it can seem like an age before the upsetting trim grows out. So is there a way to grow out hair quicker? Hair care brand Nisim claims there is, with the launch of its ‘F.A.S.T’ (Fortified Amino Scalp Therapy) shampoo and conditioner which promises to make your hair grow up to 99% faster in one month.

Before being stocked in major retailers, the product was clinically trailed on over 1,000 men and women. On average, test subjects found that after 12 weeks of massaging this product into their hair with every shower, their hair grew around 30% faster than usual. One subject even experienced an astonishing 99% boost in hair length!

Nisim also sent free samples of F.A.S.T to a range of journalists and bloggers for them to try and testament to its effectiveness, resulting in a number of reviews online and in print. Most prominently, a Daily Mail journalist trialled it for four weeks and wrote a review, analysing her hair length at the end of each week. Within the feature, two trichologists (that’s hair and scalp specialists to you and me) also commented on the results and explained that it may not have been the ingredients in the treatment that made her hair grow, but that it was more likely due to the fact that she was massaging her scalp 14 times a week and conditioning her hair every day.

Despite the words of doubt from the trichologists, Nisim achieved three Mail Online (2,302,409) features and over 50 pieces of coverage over the course of two years. This included reviews from bloggers and journalists, product roundups and launch features.

VISION EXPRESS TELLS US WHY WE NEED REGULAR HEALTH CHECKS

Vision Express created the last campaign in this month’s line-up. On the back of National Eye Health Week which took place last week, the visionary company compiled a feature that was as simple as it was effective.

The article starts with an unsettling quote by Vision Express optician Omar Hassan, emphasising the importance of regular eye checks and encouraging us to continue reading. He says: "With many conditions, 40% of vision could be lost without the patient noticing anything is wrong… I see patients with sight problems that could have been prevented if it had been diagnosed earlier."

This statement is followed by a list of which risk factors to look out for as well as what to expect of your eyes through different ages. The article covers eye health among kids and teens, people in their 20’s and 30’s, 40’s and 50’s and those who are 60+.

The beauty of this feature is its simplicity: From our perspective, it looks like the only asset required was some research on people’s eye health habits as well as an in-house expert to advice on eye health through the ages and provide further commentary within the article.  

In short, it appears that Vision Express used assets it already had to create a topical and relevant feature. It was published on the Mirror Online (895,503) and shared further to the Mirror’s 952,000 Twitter followers, proving that a great PR campaign doesn’t have to be eye-wateringly expensive!

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

This month’s round-up of weird and wonderful PR campaigns include a hotly debated cosmetic surgery campaign, a travel company causing an actual brawl in Derby, hipster weddings, a fudge Mayan temple and the current topic of Instagram and promoting body positivity.

COSMETIC SURGERY FIRM PUTS BLOGGERS FRONT AND CENTRE

Cosmetic Surgery brand Transform channelled the power of bloggers to help tell personal stories to promote a number of procedures.

The bloggers used included; Sarah Ashcroft (That Pommie Girl) who discussed her breast enlargement, Monikh Dale (Tres Monikh) discussing her lip enhancement, Lydia Millen discussing her laser hair removal and Scarlet Dixon (Scarlett London) discussing her rhinoplasty.

The Instagram and YouTube accounts of the bloggers were used to drive the campaign, looking to position the brand as the best for cosmetic alterations among young women, but also explaining their back stories and their experience with Transform.

The campaign launched in Spring 2016 and ran for a year, with a total spend of £770,000. The material contained no call to action, with Transform hoping to attract fans of each blogger in a more organic way.

The campaign was a hit with the blogger’s followers, gaining support through likes, comments and shares. However national press such as The Guardian and the Mail Online debated whether this was a positive campaign for Transform. A particular video of Sarah Ashcroft was used as a TV advert explaining the process of her boob job and after a week of being aired the video was banned due to it being seen as 'exploiting' young women's insecurities. Online press agreed that the video painted a negative brand image, claiming that it encouraged younger women to get a breast enlargement to gain confidence.

The Blogger stories represented a marketing shift for the company, moving from prioritising TV and print and instead leaning towards digital and social media platforms. This proved to be a popular campaign with the bloggers and their followers; however the general public did find criticism.

JET2HOLIDAYS CAUSES MASSIVE BRAWL

Next, we are looking back at a travel PR stunt gone wrong. Travel company Jet2holidays inadvertently caused a mass brawl as they offered the general public the opportunity to win free flights to a selection of European destinations.

The invitation was put out across their social media channels and people turned up in their droves to the chosen areas in Derby, Nottingham and Leicestershire. Upon arriving in Derby, Jet2holidays had collected a group of young, staff members dressed in red morph suits and the general public were instructed to track them down across the city and tap them for the chance to win free flights. Unfortunately, members of the public rugby-tackled, barged and fought their way to the free flights, with a number of people getting hurt in the process.

The disastrous stunt was covered by BBC News, Mail Online, The Telegraph, The Mirror and The Huffington Post. Additionally, members of the general public took to twitter to express their unhappiness with the company.

I SHORE DO

It’s official. The hipster craze has reached its crescendo. They’ve commandeered the man buns, lumberjack shirts, funny coffee choices, vegan food, tattoos, pretend glasses, handlebar moustaches and beard accessories and now they have their own hipster weddings.

Hipster (hɪpstə): A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.

Andaz, a hotel in London’s hipster origin Shoreditch, launched the ‘Get Shore-hitched’ wedding package, carefully crafted with all the hipster needs in mind. The package features handcrafted graffiti invitations created by local street artists and complimentary tattoos. Newlyweds can feast on canapés and a wedding breakfast menu created by Shoreditch street food vendors after the ceremony, which will take place in the hotel’s Masonic Temple, a secret room hidden in the depths of the hotel. The hipster wedding fun doesn’t stop there, post-wedding, a local Shoreditch designer will recycle wedding dresses into an outfit that can be used over and again.

We might be seeing the light at the end of the hipster trend, but this is a good way for the East London hotel to highlight and strengthen its relationships with local suppliers and come out on top of this niche market. Coverage-wise, this was picked up by a good number of titles including; The Independent, Good Housekeeping, the Metro and the Evening Standard achieving some hip PR for the hotel too.

We wonder how long it’ll be until we see the hipster divorce?

SUGAR HIT!

We’re looking way back to 2013 at a very successful PR campaign by British heritage brand Tate & Lyle. To celebrate a range of golden and brown cane sugars, the leading sugar brand lured unsuspecting journalists to the world’s first ‘edible hotel’. Very Hansel and Gretel of them – albeit without the witch.

According to the Mail Online, “Lucky residents munched their way through vanilla sponge cushions, windows and walls clad with 2,000 macaroons, a rug made from 1,081 meringues and 20 kilos of marshmallows.”

The Soho-based guest house took a team of 14 cake makers more than 2,000 hours to bake and 900 hours to decorate, and was created using more than 600 kilos of sugar. In addition, there were themed rooms including a Golden Syrup room and a Mayan-inspired room which included a fudge Mayan Temple.

The main objective was to inspire consumers to ‘get creative in the kitchen’. We think they did a rather tasty job as the stunt was covered numerous times by leading media outlets – surely that has to be the icing on the cake, no?

MYPROTEIN JUMPS ON THE BODY POSITIVITY BANDWAGON

Sports nutrition supplement MyProtein wants to show the world that gaining weight through a high protein diet does not only make you feel better, but makes you look better too. To prove this, they challenged 12 women to gain weight healthily through a MyProtein diet and exercise regime. The women then posted their before and after photos along with their before and after weights on Instagram with the hashtags #gainingweightiscool and #screwthescale. Some of them gained as much as three stone and we believe most people would agree that they look better in their fuller, more toned after-photos.

With this, MyProtein has done two great things. First of all, they have created an incredibly visual fitness campaign that stands out in that it doesn’t tell you that you need to lose weight to look fit and healthy, but rather that gaining weight may be a better option. Secondly, it jumps on a very current trend which is a brilliant way to get noticed; the hashtags used in the campaign have been popular among fitness practitioners and body positivity campaigners for some time and have been used on Instagram thousands of times. By using these hashtags, MyProtein did a great job in appealing to a community that aligns with their core messages of promoting health and fitness. Although whether telling women gaining weight will make them hotter really screams ‘body positivity’ is still a topic that’s up for debate.

The campaign gained worldwide coverage, from Daily Mail and Daily Star in the UK, to People and Insider in the US, as well as outlets in Poland and Germany – showing that people love a positive health message all across the world.

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad and The Viral

Each week the Sunny Bird PR team research PR campaigns that have made their way into the media and choose one to share that demonstrates effectiveness, reach, simplicity, message and in some cases the opposite – how not to execute a PR campaign. Every month the team chooses their personal favourites and here we deliver them - The Good, The Bad and The Viral from the PR Campaign world.

This month we present a fashion designer using a dating app to showcase his latest collection, a florist attacking the big apple with guerrilla bouquets and some uncomfortable seating options on Mexico City’s pubic transport.

Fashion Show Livestreamed on… Grindr

In the ever competitive and ferocious world of fashion, designers are always on the hunt for the next big thing, not just when it comes to their designs but also how they showcase them.

British fashion label, J.W. Anderson, is known as the darling of London Collections Men and has a reputation for the unexpected but no one saw this partnership coming: J.W. Anderson announced that he would be livestreaming his latest collection for the very first time and exclusively on the infamous male only dating app, Grindr.

Although this move is a first from the fashion world and most definitely daring, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Grindr has an impressive seven million users across 192 countries who were all directed from the app to a digital destination where the video of the latest collection was shown live. Compare this to the last showing of J.W. Anderson’s that aired on YouTube and only achieved five thousand views over six months.

According to Grindr, the show was watched by hundreds of thousands of men with about a third of them viewing the live event and the rest watching the loop which was available for 24 hours afterward. As well as reaching a much larger audience for his fashion show, J.W. Anderson also achieved coverage in a multitude of titles as the news of his partnership hit the media. The New York Times was the publication primed to ‘break’ the news with others following suit including Vogue, The Guardian, Event Magazine, the Drum and many more to boot.

There is another element to this PR campaign that helped make it a success, both J.W. Anderson and Grindr are represented by the same PR agency highlighting an often overlooked reason to employ a PR agency rather than taking it in house – agencies will have connections with other brands that can work well together with you and yours.

‘Flowers For The People’ - Thistle Brighten Your Day!

If only we lived in New York and could experience this fabulous display on our commute to work! It’s certainly an Instagram-able image for any creative in New York to take a snap or cheeky selfie… and that’s exactly what the mastermind behind this idea wants you to do.

If you live in New York, chances are you’ve come across these large bold, colourful flower arrangements in random locations around the city. These eye catching installations are so striking and ‘banksey-esque’ that they’ve got curious New Yorkers thinking on who’s behind the guerrilla bouquets.

The mystery is now solved, Lewis Miller is the florist responsible for the city's recent rash of "Flower Flashes," a series of decorative floral arrangements that have popped up in places ranging from city landmarks, such as Central Park, to more surprising spots, like a public bin. Miller’s goal? To simply bring joy to citizens daily commutes: “Gifting flowers to New Yorkers is a simple idea that I have been thinking about for years,” Lewis says, “I am in the business of fantasy and flowers, and it’s my job to transform key moments in my clients’ lives into joyful, everlasting memories. I wanted to recreate a similar feeling for the everyday city-dwellers and tourists of New York City.”

The initial idea began when Miller and his team placed over 2,000 flowers at the John Lennon Memorial in Central Park. They were delighted with the response when strangers stopped to appreciate the arrangement. "That was my goal, my vision. Create an emotional response through flowers. And in this age of social media, we saw the fruits of our labour and were instantly rewarded via Instagram and other social media platforms. We got to see how our idea translated in real time with hundreds of selfies and photographs documenting the flowers throughout the course of the day. It was one of the most rewarding and gratifying 'events' I have produced," Miller said.

Not only is this campaign eye-catching but there is no sign of it stopping. Miller has said that he wants to expand his creations and hopes to share them with all corners of the Earth. The floral campaign has already been covered by Vogue and Architectural Digest this week and images of his creations have been shared on Instagram with the hashtag #LMDxNYC

To find out more about Lewis’s idea behind ‘Flowers For The People’ check out his blog post about their first ever ‘Flower Flash’ here!

PR Stunt Highlights Sexual Assault On Public Transport

A new style of train seat has suddenly appeared on Mexico City’s metro system and it was instantly labelled as inappropriate, uncomfortable and embarrassing. The seat was designed purely to raise this reaction and to highlight how often women are subjected to sexual assault and harassment whilst using the transport system.

The Metro seat was moulded into the shape of a man’s chest and penis. Underneath the seat there was a label that read: "It is uncomfortable to sit here, but that is nothing compared to the sexual violence that women suffer on their daily journeys."

The seat is not a permanent fixture, but part of a campaign launched by UN Women and the Mexico City authority and a video showing the reactions from the general public has received over 900,000 views and has been shared worldwide. Many people have praised the idea, while others called it "sexist" and unfair to men as it paints all men as potential perpetrators. Regardless, this simple PR stunt has certainly raised awareness for a widespread problem and has sparked interest across the world with an attention-grabbing video and a controversial subject.