Journalist of the Month

Our Journalist of the month is Lizzy Dening, the Digital and Fitness Editor at Top Santé. When she’s not busy writing about workouts and women’s issues, she can be found volunteering for her local rape crisis centre. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The Guardian, Grazia, Elle, Marie Claire, Mail Online, Women’s Health and Huff Post. Find out more about Lizzy in her answers to the SBPR questions below:

1.       What are the 5 words that best describe you?

Ambitious, energetic, creative, quirky and neurotic!

2.       What magazine do you love reading and why?

Apart from Top Santé of course, I’m a big fan of Cosmopolitan. I thought I’d outgrown it in my 20s, but under the direction of its editor Farrah Storr it’s still grabbing my interest well into my 30s and isn’t afraid to tackle challenging topics.

3.       What is your favourite book?

I first read Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf) when I was at university and adored it, and there’s still something about it that allows my brain to reach an almost meditative state. I will also admit that in challenging times I’ve been known to indulge a childhood Harry Potter habit too.

4.       Which song makes you dance?

Anything Michael Jackson or Move On Up by Curtis Mayfield.

5.       What has been your best career moment?

Blagging a press trip to Hawaii for Grazia and taking my husband with me! It led to some real ‘pinch me’ moments, including snorkelling with manta rays, taking a helicopter over the cliffs featured in Jurassic Park, and watching a pod of spinner dolphins following our boat.

6.       What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

Do more writing for yourself, not just for publications. I’ve been lucky enough to be featured in many of my favourite magazines and papers, but actually the work that’s brought me the most satisfaction are the things I’ve written for myself. I’ve recently started a blog about sexual violence and the media which is a topic I’ve become passionate about since working for the board of Peterborough Rape Crisis Centre. Writing for it without worrying about word counts or editorship has been liberating. https://rape-and-media.blogspot.com/

7.       Where are you happiest?

Anywhere with animals, or on my sofa with my husband and our cat Moomin.

8.       Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?

My best friend – she lives in Canada and we rarely get to see one another. She’s much funnier and more interesting than any celebrities.

9.       If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Infinite knowledge – or if that’s too big an ask, I’d like to be fluent in every language. My GCSEs in French and German just don’t really cut it.

10.   If you had to ask us one question what would it be?

If you were at Hogwarts, what form would your patronus take?

Interesting question Lizzy! See below for the SBPR answers:

Jess - A dog, because as long as I have enough sleep, good food and sufficient exercise I will be everyone’s friend.

Lizzie – Flamingo!!!

Alex - A monkey, because they always look as though they are thoroughly enjoying life.

Georgie - A dolphin, because my happy place is the sea (even though I only learnt to swim recently).

Raluca - A cat because they’re cute and fluffy!

Laura – A penguin apparently because I’m aggressive yet gentle, outgoing but shy, stable yet flighty! Plus I love the sea.

Sunny – A unicorn!!

Lu – A koala because I love hugs!

How to put The YOU in YouTube

In the last decade, YouTube has become one of the most influential social media channels and that’s thanks to the rise of bloggers, vloggers and influencers. With over a billion users, YouTube has become a platform for teenagers and young-adults to keep up-to-date with regular vlogs, a place for adults to re-watch clips from their favourite TV programmes and even a place for travellers to watch holiday reviews or restaurant reviews. But what about YouTube for business? How can you create a channel which reflects the key parts of your brand and puts you ahead of your competitors? We find out…

Brand Consistency

Your social media channels should be consistent with one another and this is key to your brand. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be sharing exactly the same content, but things like cover photos, logos and colour schemes should be seamless across your social pages. YouTube is a slightly different kettle of fish as you need to use other social media channels in order to share your videos. BUT the goal is not to rely on the other channels and make your YouTube channel the place to be!

Take a look at our own Youtube Page as an example.

Variety

No one will want to subscribe to your page if the content is dry and boring. Upload a variety of different videos that truly reflect the message of your brand. Post team videos, fun videos or videos that celebrate a certain national day such as National Coffee Day or National Dogs Day! Just like on Twitter and Facebook, you should be posting a combination of posts to keep your page fresh and exciting.

Here’s an example of a fun video we made for one of our clients

Schedule your Posts

Don’t just think that scheduled posts are for Twitter and Facebook. YouTube has a publishing feature which means you can schedule your videos to upload at a certain time. This explains how vloggers can be at a press launch but still upload their videos on time - is there anything these influencers can’t do?!

Utilise YouTube Live

People want to see what you are up to right now! Even if it’s an office video, it can still be exciting. Film your team and ask them what they are up to. It will keep your channel active.

Be the Expert

A professional channel is very different to a personal channel. Make your YouTube channel the platform for people to come to for expert knowledge. You can do this by posting review videos or team interview videos.

We’ve been working on an exciting new PR project and shared this on our YouTube channel.

Use the Tags!

Before publishing your post, you can add tags along the bottom of the publishing page in order for subscribers and non-subscribers to be able to see relatable content. Your videos will then become categorised and will be easier to search; if they’re easier to search then you’ll attract a more relevant audience who are more likely to subscribe.

Video Length

Too short and it will hardly be worth posting. Too long and your viewers will get bored. We recommend uploading a video between 1-2 minutes depending on whether your video is an interview or a news piece.

Our client’s new Garden Terrace launch is a perfect example.

Admin

Fill in the bio, the description and include a good cover photo. Blank spaces will only make your channel appear unprofessional.

Quality Videos

Always upload your videos in HD quality or whatever the best quality for your phone or camera is. We recommend using your smartphone to take videos for YouTube as it’s easier to use, a lot quicker and surprisingly good quality.

Check out Sunny Bird PR’s Re-brand as an example of a good quality video.

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

It’s been a scorcher of a month here at Sunny Bird PR and the PR campaigns have been coming in thick and fast.  We take a look at some of our favourites this month and the campaigns that really should have stayed in the boardroom …

This month’s round-up includes a campaign involving pool-side inflatables, unfashionable emojis, cucumbers and a questionable beer caviar campaign...

“Catch Me if You Can”

Gym company David Lloyd created a quirky new concept to gain national media coverage in print and online. In response to a nation of binge watchers, the premier fitness club decided to equip its Personal Trainers with TV screens attached to their backs which clients can watch whilst running. The gym brand aimed to eliminate the excuse of not being able to tear ourselves from our screen by incorporating the nation’s favourite shows into their workouts. Clients are encouraged to select a show at the start of their workout, from a range of platforms including BBC iPlayer and Netflix, to coincide with the distance they aim to run. Once the workout starts, the aim is for the client to keep up with their trainer to continuously watch the show. Speaking of the new PTV classes, General Manager of David Lloyd Chigwell said: “We appreciate that the hectic nature of modern life means people often struggle to find time to exercise each week. Our new PTV classes aim to counter this trend, giving time-poor parents and young professionals the perfect means to stay up to date with their favourite shows while ensuring they stay active and healthy at the same time.” The inventive exercise class and clever PR campaign achieved widespread national coverage including The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, iNews and the Metro, not to mention numerous regional titles where the company has gyms.

“Pass on Plastic”

Simple yet effective, Sky’s ongoing Ocean Rescue campaign has repeatedly shown the industry how to do corporate social responsibility right! Their most recent tactic to tackle the issue of single-use plastics in our oceans was a social media led, digital campaign called #PassOnPlasticEmoji. Their aim was simple: to reverse the normalisation of plastic and support Sky’s ongoing Ocean Rescue campaign around a key calendar hook for them, World Oceans Day. Their tactics were simple too, as they petitioned Unicode (the company that makes emojis) to remove plastic emojis from the keyboard, to highlight the fact that these products shouldn’t be as commonplace in everyday life as they are. The campaign was not only a huge success on social media, but gained print and online media traction too, with coverage in The Sun, The Times and The Evening Standard. It’s a campaign that demonstrates that you don’t need a huge budget to make a huge impact.

“This Campaign Really Blew Up”

Our next PR campaign comes from Hotels.com who conducted a survey amongst 2000 British holidaymakers and found that pool inflatables were one of the most left behind belongings during their trips. While half of all visitors buy a pool inflatable, only 28 per cent take those plastic flamingos, unicorns, donuts, and inflatable fruit slices home after their trip! They took this opportunity to have some fun, and set up the world’s first ‘Inflatable Sanctuary’ for abandoned pool inflatables at a hotel in Majorca – a fantastic photo opportunity and a great way to recycle and reuse them. Each year thousands of blow-ups around the world are binned due to the hassle of carrying them home in suitcases, but visitors were able to “adopt" these abandoned flotation devices and reuse them for free during their holiday.

Guests at the hotel embraced the concept and provided them with a new home, snapping and posting away across social media. The tongue-in-cheek rescue centre achieved coverage in numerous publications including The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller, The Sun, Daily Star, Lad Bible, Teen Vogue and Lonely Planet to name a few. This campaign seemed so simple to create, and at a low cost; obtaining a few staged photos of the inflatables with tags around their necks reading ‘Love me!’, Hotels.com succeeded in achieving endless national coverage themselves and the hotel involved.

Tip: If ever you’re stuck for PR campaign ideas, go down the simple, sweet and light-hearted route!

“Finger-licking Good PR!”

KFC teamed up with McCormick (food technologists) to create an edible nail polish to combine food and fashion in line with their brand ethos of a ‘fun dining experience.’ There were 2 flavours of the polish; original chicken, which was made into a nude shade and hot & spicy chicken, which came in a hot orange. The campaign was to address the main branding message of “finger licking good” and was promoted via social media and launched with one cryptic Facebook post inviting local celebrities and press as well as food and fashion bloggers to an exclusive tasting event. The nail varnish bottle was designed with KFC’s young and trendy target consumer in mind and is similar in style to the likes of cosmetic giant MAC.

The campaign achieved global media coverage including; The BBC, The Metro, The Independent, The Mirror, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, YouTube, ITV, Allure, Huffington Post, Cosmo, Glamour, Bustle, Adweek, Buzzfeed, The Drum and Popsugar. This bucket load of coverage generated a reach of over 300 million along with 91% positive sentiment associated with the campaign and an increase in sales of 12% for KFC.

“World Cucumber Day Delights Hendrick’s Fans”

In the world of PR we often need to create angles, hooks and pegs (ways to get your clients in the media without any ‘new’ news) and an old favourite is the ‘national day.’ On World Gin day for example, every self-respecting gin-maker will be in at least one round-up or feature. The only down-side is that the gin market is very busy, so it can be a bit of a fight to get your brand heard.

And that’s what we liked about this campaign; Hendrick’s chose the quieter and more modest World Cucumber Day to take a slice of the media limelight. The brains behind this lie in the well-known marriage of cucumber and Hendrick’s, any gin-lover will tell you that it is the ONLY garnish to go with a Hendrick’s and tonic.

Not only that, there is a lot more media space on World Cucumber Day allowing Hendrick’s message to be heard loud and clear. The tactics of this campaign did not disappoint, the heritage brand didn’t just issue a press release to consumer media, they thought outside the box and introduced an experiential element which really worked.

On Thursday 14 June (World Cucumber Day) Hendrick’s placed pop ups in London and Manchester; physical booths with a Victorian theme where people went to collect a token that they could exchange for a free G&T in one of 200 bars across the UK until 20 June…The tokens? Actual cucumbers.

Not wanting to alienate the rest of the nation, the brand also created digital tokens available through its Facebook Messenger account and created an online hub (ideal for SEO) for World Cucumber Day which had cocktail recipes and videos on it.  Unsurprisingly Hendrick’s achieved great coverage for this campaign and was featured in The Metro, Mirror, Prima, The Ginkin, The Drinks Business and regional titles.

We loved the fun and quirky element to this campaign and also the effectiveness in really cementing the cucumber as an integral part of a Hendrick’s and tonic. It worked, and the brand achieved coverage in a strong set of titles.

“Beer Fear!"

And last, but definitely least, Carlsberg created a Caviar Beer for The World Cup to win over European fans. The idea was to give people a taste of Russian and Danish culture and give the brand a more premium quality to attract a different kind of consumer. Achieving coverage in The Drum, AdWeek and Fortune, it seems this campaign certainly hit the headlines, but was it for the right reasons? 

We all know that brands sometimes want to make a new name for themselves and get away from a reputation they once had. But the reality is, we will always see McDonalds as a fast food restaurant, Waitrose will always be expensive and Carlsberg will always be for mainstream football fans…

Journalist of the Month

Emmie Harrison, 25, is a features writer for Chat, Pick Me Up, Woman, Woman’s Own, Woman’s Weekly and Now as well as a freelance travel, lifestyle and music journalist! We’ve followed Emmie’s work for a long time and love her passion for women’s issues. Emmie took five minutes out of her busy day to answer the infamous Sunny Bird PR questions…
 

1.       What are the 5 words that best describe you? Smiley, bubbly, kind, curly and (I hope!) funny.

2.       What magazine do you love reading and why? It has to be Time Out! It’s been my bible since I moved to London. It’s a great mixture of thought-provoking features about people that live and work in London, and a guide to the best restaurants, plays and bars. I’ve found some of my favourite places thanks to Time Out.

3.       What is your favourite book? This is tough! Anything by Chuck Palahniuk (author of ‘Fight Club’ – that’s his worst!) or Stephen King. Creepy books are the best!

4.       Which song makes you dance? Dancing in the Moonlight – Toploader. I’m the first one up!

5.       What has been your best career moment? I’ve been utterly grateful for every moment that’s allowed me to write, but it must be when I got my dream job on women’s magazines in London. I was 23, and I finally felt like the years of hard work had paid off.

6.       What advice would you give your 20 year old self? At 20, I was at university and going through a really rough time. I’d say b-r-e-a-t-h-e. Stop trying to do everything at once and slow down. Everything falls into place eventually.

7.       Where are you happiest? I’m happiest when I’m at home, in Newcastle. Time works differently at home, everyone smiles and my family are my biggest fans. Plus, I really miss my mum’s Sunday dinners.

8.       Who would be your number one dinner guest and why? Liam Gallagher! I want to see how hard he really parties… I’m sure he’s got some incredible stories to tell, too.

9.       If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? Definitely to teleport. There’s so much of the world I want to see!

10.   If you had to ask us one question what would it be? What would you choose as your last meal on earth?

Oh, tough question, Emmie! Of course we all vary massively, so here’s the team’s choices:

Sunny – “There’s no way I’d be having just one course if it was my last meal! I’d start with Koh Thai Tapas’ 24 hour ribs, followed by their Pad Thai Green curry with a desert of a nice big pot of Haagen Daaz Bailey’s flavour. Obviously I’d have to accompany it with a cocktail so I’d have a lipstick rose!”

Lu – “Salmon with every grilled vegetable that has ever existed.”

Lizzie – “My Gran’s paella. I lived in Spain for a year and still have never have had a paella that good!”

Georgie – “Even for my last meal on earth I couldn’t stray from my favourite lobster mac and cheese.”

Alex – “Mine would be fish pie because it reminds me of home.”

Laura – “I’d tuck into a Chicken Katsu curry because, well, it’s amazing!”

Jess – “Rib-eye steak, medium rare of course.”

How to Get the Most out of Facebook Advertising

As an agency we’re responsible for a number of our clients’ social media accounts and as such we need to stay up-to-date with the latest algorithms, preferences and tools that come with each social media platform. We like to share our findings on our blog too for those that are taking on the task of their brand’s social media by themselves. To date, most of our blog posts have been on exactly that; algorithms, preferences and tools – not this one.

We’ve known for a while that Facebook was moving to favour organic, social engagement and that the days of businesses being able to reach a large audience without payment were numbered. Various gurus we spoke to had slightly different ideas on this and how it would pan out, but the inevitable has happened; businesses have to spend on advertising to reach their audience.

We’re trying not to be down about this, instead we’re thinking of it the other way around – weren’t we lucky to have got so much free reach for so long! So now we’re not just sharing top tips on how to make your organic posts work best for you, we’re also including how to make your Facebook advertising work best for you. Below are our best tips and nuggets of wisdom from a mix of experts, gurus, webinars and our own journey of discovery…

Promotional Posts Don’t Work

Any organic posts that use promotional style language such as ‘competition’, ‘buy now’, ‘click here’ will get flagged by the powers that be at Facebook and not shared

No-One’s There

Less than 1% of people that have liked your business page will see your posts come up in their newsfeeds organically

Engagement Expectations

The highest level of organic engagement you can expect with your business page is 5%

Videos

All videos should be longer than 90 seconds as Facebook now favours longer videos, the same applies to Facebook live videos

Organic Posts

Organic Posts need to be authentic and feature timely, topical or local events, those that engage with the Facebook community in the most ‘real’ way will be rewarded with reach

Don’t Use a Scheduler

Schedule posts through Facebook directly rather than a third-party management tool, Facebook is a control freak, and anything done outside of it’s high blue facey walls will be frowned upon and not given as much reach

No External Links

Don’t include external links on your posts as Facebook wants to keep you on Facebook and never let you go (see above)

Caring’s Sharing

Create shareable content that makes the sharer look good – this sounds odd but makes sense when you think about it, people share stuff that makes them look cool/funny/clever/sexy/kind etc – so if your content ticks any of those boxes then people are more likely to share your posts

Don’t boost posts!

Create a Facebook advert instead as boosted posts are less targeted and therefore less effective

Check you out

A huge 62% of people use Facebook to check out a business before purchasing, so next time someone says ‘Facebook’s not important for my business’ you are totally entitled to quote this smugly, oh so smugly

The Newbies

We have been very fortunate to find two excellent new additions to the team and as their second week with us draws to a close, we wondered what their impressions had been so far entering our crazy, busy colourful world… so we asked them…

Georgie

My first week at Sunny Bird can be summed up in three words: exciting, fast and boozy! I was expecting an easy few weeks of settling in but that was definitely not the case as the hard-work began first thing on Monday. With targets for achieving coverage for each of our clients, we hit the phones and emails hard to make sure we had a brilliant update for them at the end of the week.

Tuesday saw a seriously exciting team brainstorm for our client, Sarah Ali Choudhury, which involved a LOT of hand waving and squealing. Now the hard work begins as we turn our ideas into a reality, but I’m seriously excited for that sell-in. Watch this space…

I’ve been well and truly wined and dined this week, with team welcome cocktails taking place at the Green House Hotel (which may have resulted in a bus ride home) and a lovely lunch with Alex to catch up on all the Sunny Bird PR goss.

It’s also been great meeting my clients, Tara from the Venus Awards and Sarah Ali Choudhury, both of whom are fantastic, inspirational women that I’m really looking forward to working with. I’m also super excited to be working on Mr Lee’s Noodles and the Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring. I have plenty of experience in food PR but not any with anti-snoring gadgets, so this will definitely be something new for me! So far I’ve found that sell-in particularly fun (Father’s Day gift guides, anyone?) and I’ve loved exercising my food journo knowledge to confirm three great pieces of coverage for Mr Lee’s.

Plus, I took over the SBPR Twitter account! Obviously, I put my stamp on it with a Love Island poll and by getting our office buddy, Robin to do backflips in our PR Opportunity of the Day posts. We even got a retweet from one of my favourite publications, Notebook! Make sure you follow us on @sunnybirdpr as I’ll be posting all of the behind-the-scenes gossip from the office.

So far it seems that the SBPR team work hard AND play hard, so I’m looking forward to relaxing with some post-work Friday drinks with the team tonight after a brilliant week!

Laura

Before I even started, I was already ecstatic about how short my new 5-minute commute was and how close the offices were to the beach! I bumped in to fellow newbie Georgie on my way in, we introduced ourselves and headed on in.

The team welcomed us with open arms and we settled in to our new desk spaces. The SBPR team were all so friendly and welcoming, I instantly felt at home. We wasted no time and went straight in to the weekly Monday morning meeting. The SBPR Monday meetings are a great way to reflect on what we achieved last week, set goals for the upcoming week, go through our selected newspapers and highlight any key articles that caught our eye or that are relevant to our clients, and talk about our chosen PR campaign of the week.

I also found out that I’d be working with the lovely Alex and which clients we would be working on together, and to my delight that included some of my favourite local brands Jimmy’s Iced Coffee and Conker Gin! Woohoo!

Over the week I got stuck in calling national journalists and pitching our client’s latest news, such as the newly launched Jimmy’s products and Conker Gin for World Gin Day and Father’s Day features. I took part in creative meetings to come up with new ideas for clients, and new angles for existing campaigns to target media with. I spoke to and sent product samples to TV producers, came up with PR opportunities of the day for our own social media, and went on a site visit to an upcoming client launch event.

One thing that I was particularly looking forward to was the famous JACKET POTATO WEDNESDAYS – which did not disappoint. Beans, cheese, salad, you name it we had it. This was a perfect way for me and Georgie to get to know the others over a relaxed lunch, whilst eating a delicious home-cooked spud from Sunny. We also took a trip to the Green House Hotel later in the week to see their new Eco-garden terrace and sample a cocktail (or five!) in the sun.

In social news, I have been handed the very important reins to the SBPR Instagram channel (no pressure!). I’ve been working hard on creating the colourful looking grid, with exciting and relevant content to grab attention from followers and so far, so good – have a look and see how you think I’m doing (@sunnybirdpr).

I’m so excited about growing my career at SBPR, elevating my PR knowledge and working with exciting brands. The team are amazing at exceeding their targets and achieving results for their clients, but definitely know how to kick back and have a good time!

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. 

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.

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!

How the Team Creates Creative Campaigns

One of our strengths as a PR agency is our creative energy, we work closely with clients to create fun and innovative campaigns designed to maximise their media exposure and raise their profiles.

We worked on the launch of a Bournemouth-based contemporary art gallery and as part of their launch campaign we created Bournemouth’s Biggest Ever Street Art in the form of a giant superhero painted on Pier Approach. This was the first phase in the series of creative projects designed to position the gallery as forward-thinking and engaged with the community. By undertaking projects in Bournemouth’s public spaces, the gallery aligned itself with the community and the council ensuring that it was not only well-known but trusted and respected.

The second phase of creative projects included The Selfie Wall project which came from a creative brainstorm with the whole Sunny Bird PR team. Each team member had gone away and done their own research before coming to the team meeting where we each presented our research and let the creative battle commence! It’s not uncommon for us to be in the boardroom for a few hours until we’re happy with the ideas that are forming and this occasion was no exception and the Selfie Walls were born!

Examples from Liverpool and Los Angeles had been found where the city had allowed huge walls to be painted by artists which were specifically designed for people to have their photo taken in front of.

With Bournemouth’s famous Arts University, Arts Festival and fun seaside location we thought this project could work brilliantly here too.

The first steps with this project saw us meeting with the council on numerous occasions to firstly pitch the idea and concept to them which they loved. The next round of meetings were all about site evaluations; what sites did they have available for the project and how suitable were they.

The final (and most exciting stage) was concept realisation! Stretching from Southbourne to Sandbanks, the Selfie Wall trail consists of 11 brilliant art pieces and achieved regional and national coverage in print and online. Perhaps more importantly than the coverage, these beautiful works of art were enjoyed and shared on social media by everyone that passed them. A truly community spirited and creative campaign bringing a bit or art to the seaside.