Clientversary: Bournemouth Collegiate School

The Sunny Bird PR team is celebrating its one year ‘clientversary’ with Bournemouth Collegiate School. The independent school first approached the team with two objectives; to increase the school’s enrolment figures through regional press and raise the profile of the school on a national level by highlighting its USPs and sought-after sports facilities.

To do this, Sunny Bird PR developed a strong media relations campaign to ensure BCS was featured in its target publications year round. To assess how and where to focus our media presence we conducted an initial survey of parents to discover where they heard about the school and what they thought about it to provide us with knowledge and focus for our approach. We discovered that 64% of parents discovered BCS through word of mouth and local news, which became a core focus of our PR strategy. We knew that regionally, local pupil success stories are always well read with friends and families sharing the news to their wider network on and offline. Each month, we produced several stories championing the pupils’ success from Wimbledon tournaments, to literary awards and everything in between. With the pupils at BCS being such a talented and high achieving bunch, we were never short of material and managed to secure 28 pupil-led stories in key regional publications throughout the year.

Our second approach was to establish the school and its teachers as education experts and leaders in their disciplines. To do this we worked closely with the school’s headmaster Mr Russell Slatford to identify newsworthy topics and trends in education which he could comment on. We targeted key journalists in the national and education press and offered them exclusive opinion pieces or interviews with the headmaster himself. Over the year we secured 14 comment opportunities for Mr Slatford on a wide range of topics including Brexit, charity work, school uniforms, the importance of sport and iGCSEs. The long form interviews were featured in a plethora of trade titles and pitched to national press ensuring BCS was firmly in the contact books of national education journalists and broadcasters including the likes of The Daily Telegraph and Channel 5 news.

Alongside championing the school’s pupils and staff we created features to highlight BCS’ unique offerings such as the prep’s Forest School and the senior sports academies, interviewing Heads of Departments as well as pupils about their experiences. Through this tactic we were able to highlight the school’s core philosophy of providing ‘education with character’ and place it in magazines and newspapers read by prospective and existing parents.

In total, over the past 12 months SBPR achieved 64 pieces of coverage for the school in target titles including in The Daily Telegraph, Schools Week, Country & Town House, Education Investor Global, Independent Education Today, Dorset Life, Wiltshire Life, The Lymington Times and the Daily Echo. That is an average of five pieces per month which reached more than 1.5 million people!

The Sunny Bird PR Team's Best PR Campaigns

As a fully integrated PR and communications agency, we certainly work on a wide variety of clients and PR campaigns. Whether we’re flying influencers to Bali, creating a killer social strategy or securing features in the national press, we’ve got it covered. With the team working on such a diverse range of clients and accounts, we’ve asked them to whittle it down and choose their favourite PR Campaigns. Get ready to feel inspired, there are some awesome ones coming your way!

Laura

“By far my favourite campaign has been working on Bliss Sanctuary for Women in Bali – a luxury women’s only retreat! Bliss came to us to promote the opening of its third sanctuary, organise celebrity stays, book press trips and increase its social media followers. By using Bliss’ USPs, such as unlimited food, spa treatments and yoga and the brand’s ethos of following ‘bliss on your terms’ we have attracted both media and celebrity attention. As a result, we secured TOWIE stars Lydia Bright, Debbie Bright and Georgia Bright to take a mother-daughter trip to Bliss, as well as Love Island 2018 stars Zara McDermott, Ellie Brown and Samira Mighty for a ‘Love Island girls’ reunion trip’. We also have also booked in Vicky Pattison and several high-profile US celebs to visit the retreat later in the year. Having celebrities and influencers share their stay on social media increased Bliss’ Instagram following by 20,000 followers in just three months. The buzz around the celebrity visits and the organised press trips has so far this year generated 47 pieces of coverage in top titles such as The Metro, Mail Online, The Independent, The Telegraph, Woman & Home, Feel Good You, Marie Claire, Stella - The Sunday Telegraph, Soul & Spirit and OK! magazine. This has reached over 33 million people which, if the same space was bought in advertising, would have cost Bliss £1.4 million! Best. Campaign. EVER.”

 Rachael

“A campaign that I really loved working on was helping organise the Eco Garden launch of The Green House Hotel. The Bournemouth boutique hotel had recently partnered with premium ethical vodka brand Black Cow Vodka to renovate its outdoor space using sustainable materials to make it a useable and enjoyable space for hotel guests and wildlife. To encourage people to use the space and increase passing trade, we wanted to position the Eco Garden as the perfect spot for a mid-morning coffee or sundown drinks.  In just one week, we had organised an exclusive evening launch event attended by over 100 local businesses, residents, press and influencers. At the event there was a gorgeous selection of Black Cow Vodka cocktails from the premium Dorset-based brand served alongside platters of Black Cow Vodka infused canapés and local cheese which all of the guests, and of course the team, thoroughly enjoyed! The launch created a buzz in regional and trade press in key titles such as Boutique Hotelier, Dorset Living magazine and the Bournemouth Daily Echo as well as social media coverage from local influencers and foodies which increased footfall to the hotel and made for a very happy client!”

Annabel  

“One of my favourite projects I’ve worked on has been the model search for the Perfect Dress Company’s launch. Delving into the core of the Perfect Dress Company’s ethos and researching models and influencers who share the same values and beliefs as the company has been so interesting, I have spoken to so many different women from a huge variety of backgrounds. Not only has sourcing, casting and meeting the models been exciting, it has also been hugely informative for the Perfect Dress Company brand – hearing the models’ stories and experiences from within the fashion industry has deepened our perspective and made clear to us the importance of Perfect Dress Company’s mission to empower women.”

Alex

 “One of the PR campaigns I enjoyed working on the most was promoting author and explorer Alice Morrison’s walk along the length of Morocco’s longest river. Alice asked the SBPR team to raise awareness of her adventure and her latest book My 1001 Nights by securing print and broadcast media. We approached national newspapers, women’s titles, supplements and travel magazines, carefully tailoring each pitch to highlight what would resonate most with the publication and its readers, whether that be the female explorer angle or the effects of global water shortage. In three short months the SBPR team secured 19 pieces of national coverage, including an interview on Radio 4’s The Today Programme which is broadcast to over 12 million people. The team also secured interview pieces in The Sunday Times, iNews, Lonely Planet and Conde Nast Traveller to name a few. In total, the coverage reached more than 14 million people which would have cost over £90,000 if the same space was bought in advertising, which Alice was very pleased with!”

New Client: The Rob Hill Foundation

The Sunny Bird PR team is delighted to announce that they are now working with the Rob Hill Foundation .

The Rob Hill Foundation, was set up by Chris Hill in memory of his twin brother Rob who died in 2014 after taking an Ecstasy pill on a night out. Chris has developed the 7-Day Beat Addiction Plan which has been tried and tested; and has already saved thousands of lives. It has helped people beat addiction to the hardest drugs, to alcohol and to nicotine as well as helping people deal with anxiety and stress, and to eat better, lose weight, conquer phobias such as flying or using lifts and generally empower people to have a better quality of life

The Rob Hill Foundation workshops and support groups are open to everyone and offered completely free of charge. The charity also works with people facing homelessness because of their addictions and those already homeless. The 7-Day Beat Addiction Plan is also distributed free through the workshops , direct to homeless people and as a free download from his website.

Sunny, founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: ‘We couldn’t be happier to be supporting Chris with his valuable work that he’s doing through the Rob Hill Foundation. The team will be focusing on using Chris’ powerful case studies in national press as well as securing interviews for Chris on national broadcast, online and print.’

New Client Win: OzKleen

The team at Sunny Bird PR are delighted to announce that they have started working with Australian cleaning brand, OzKleen. The eco-cleaning brand stands out in a class of its own, not just for its environmentally conscious values, but also because OzKleen cleaning products “actually work”. Free from chlorine, ammonia and phosphates, OzKleen’s range covers the entire house.

OzKleen’s philosophy is to produce a range of eco-friendly, scientifically advanced products that can genuinely help people save time and effort. During the past 20 years, OzKleen has been investing time and expenses to source ingredients that are safe for the long-term user, and so better for the environment. OzKleen aims to ensure that both your house and the environment remain clean.

The SBPR team will be raising the profile of OzKleen in the British consumer media with a structured and targeted creative PR campaign. Sunny, founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: ‘It’s a real pleasure to be working with OzKleen; a product and a company that strives to be kind to the environment whilst also priding itself on being the best cleaning product on the shelf. The whole team are very excited to be working on this campaign and cannot wait to start getting some excellent results in the UK media.’

Journalist of the Month

Esme Clemo is the home and craft editor across a plethora of women’s magazines including Woman, Woman's Own, Woman's Weekly and Chat. Esme covers crafts, home and hobbies, as well as features and news stories.

Esme took some time out of her busy crafting schedule this month to take on the SBPR Journo of the month questions…
 
What are the 5 words that best describe you?
Creative, caring, wild, contrary, happy

What magazine do you love reading and why?
Country Homes & Interiors, despite being a city dweller and having just bought our first place in Lewisham, I’ve still got a hankering to up sticks and move to the countryside. A cottage in the Cotswolds with a white picket fence would suit me perfectly.

What is your favourite book?
I’ve just jumped on the Sally Rooney bandwagon and devoured Normal People, which I would recommend to anybody. But my ultimate fave has to be Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman.

Which song makes you dance?
Studio 54 vibes get me grooving, anything by Chic, Cher, Donna Summer

What has been your best career moment? 
Being asked to be the bride-to-be columnist for Wedding Ideas, a role I’ve cherished for the past year and half leading up to my wedding.

 What advice would you give your 20 year old self? 
“Shy bairns get nowt” which is a phrase I learnt from my Geordie husband. Basically, go out and ask for the things you want in life because nothing will be handed to you on a plate.

Where are you happiest? 
Rambling about in a pair of walking boots, preferably with a dog at my side.

Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?
I’d just like to eat dinner with all my best friends. It’s rare that we’re all in a room together anymore, people move away and time is more precious.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
Time travel. At the end of a night out, what I wouldn’t give to click my fingers and be home in bed rather than facing an hour-long slog on tubes and trains.

If you had to ask us one question what would it be? 
What advice would you give to someone starting a career in PR?

SBPR:

Alex and Laura both recommend that you read, read and read some more! Getting to grips with the different media types, what is topical and what journalists are covering is essential if you want to be pitching to them.

Lizzie adds that you shouldn’t forget that getting to know influencers and bloggers and their style is important too - follow, read, and engage with them so that you get a feel for their content styles.

Annabel advises that you familiarise yourself with new social media trends, algorithms and tools for analysis as often as you can. Social media can be integral in introducing a product, service or idea to your audience, but if you don’t know how to work with the algorithms the content you work hard on producing won’t reach the right audience.

Finally, Sunny’s advice is to remember that PR is as much about selling the stories as it is about creating them. This is because you can have the best story in the world, but it won’t achieve any coverage if you can’t sell it to the journalist!

Clientversary: The Green House Hotel

Sunny Bird PR is celebrating its two-year clientversary with The Green House Hotel and what a year it’s been! Over the past 12 months, we’ve secured 66 pieces of coverage in a plethora of prestigious titles such as The Daily Telegraph, Time Out, The Independent, Country Living, National Geographic Traveller as well as key wedding magazines, reaching more than 7 million people!

Having introduced the hotel to the wider consumer press and travel publications during our first year of PR activity, this year The Green House Hotel wanted to focus on securing long-form press reviews in targeted consumer publications as well as increasing its wedding bookings by securing more articles in the sought after wedding press.

With the Bridal press being notoriously hard to place articles in without advertising spend, the team came up with creative concepts which would be guaranteed to get press. To do this, we worked alongside the hotel to launch the UK’s first ever Vegan Wedding Package, allowing brides and grooms to design their wedding around sustainable principles.

The package was inspired by the nation’s growing vegan population which now includes more than 3.5 million people and the increasing space dedicated to a vegan lifestyle in newspapers, magazines and online. To create the package, we reached out to vegan suppliers, from Fairtrade dress designers to cruelty-free make-up artists and created an extensive list of suppliers the hotel’s wedding planners could use to ensure the day was beautiful as well as kind to the environment.  The Vegan Wedding Package includes a fully vegan à la carte menu as well as Fairtrade UK flowers which don’t need importing therefore reducing the carbon footprint of the wedding. By creating a first-of-its-kind package, we created something new which journalists were interested in which resulted in coverage in publications including Bride, Your Wedding Magazine, Wedding Ideas, The Kind Bride, Vegan Living, Veg News and The Independent to name a few. In total, the team achieved 19 pieces of coverage for the Vegan Wedding Package which reached almost 2 million people!

To ensure the hotel was front of mind for loved up couples year-round, we conducted a second campaign capitalising up on the success of our previous Carbon Wedding campaign. SBPR worked with Bournemouth-based carbon counting company Count On Me to work out the carbon cost of a honeymoon in Thailand, America, and at The Green House Hotel. Honeymoons in Thailand and America worked out in excess of 15 tonnes of carbon compared to just 0.5 tonnes for a stay at The Green House Hotel. We pitched these facts and figures to key journalists along with a case study of a couple who had honeymooned at the hotel to secure future coverage. The Carbon Honeymoon campaign was featured six times across the wedding publications including double page spreads in Your Wedding Magazine, Green Union and To Have and To Hold.

Throughout the year, the team also organised press trips to truly highlight the hotel’s USPs as a sustainable holiday destination. We invited journalists from respected titles including The Daily Telegraph, Metro.co.uk, Red magazine, Women’s Health, My Weekly, The Ecologist and The Wharf magazine to stay and dine at the hotel. Each of the journalists explored the sights of the local area and dined at the award-winning fully sustainable hotel restaurant, the Arbor restaurant, during their stay to get the full hotel experience, resulting in long-form reviews and features read by millions.

It’s certainly been an exciting year working with The Green House Hotel over the last 12 months, and with lots of new developments happening at the venue the team cannot wait to get started on this year’s PR activity to ensure the hotel stays at the forefront of sustainable hospitality!

6 Top Tips for Creating a Killer PR Strategy

The importance of developing a strong public relations strategy is probably something you’ve heard a lot, but what exactly is a PR strategy, how does it work and why is it important?

A PR strategy is essentially a plan of action to ensure your campaigns are well coordinated and delivered on time to ensure maximum impact for your brand. As an agency, we believe that a strategic plan can be the difference between make or break and is something you want to get right.

There are a lot of elements and steps involved in executing an effective PR campaign, from writing press releases, securing imagery and pitching it to the right journalists in time for the correct issue. It is the strategy which helps coordinate this to make sure everything runs smoothly.

At Sunny Bird PR, we create strategies for all our clients to ensure your brand or business is appearing in the press and is seen by your target audience year-round.

Here are our six steps to a fool-proof strategy:

Outline your objectives

First and foremost, outline your objectives. What do you want to be achieving through PR? Do you want to drive website traffic, increase sales or boost awareness? It’s important to make your objectives specific and measurable so you can tailor your campaign towards achieving them and monitor when they’ve been achieved. It is these objectives which will define the tools and tactics needed to implement your PR plan.

Define your target audience

Identifying your target audience is crucial if you want to be positioning your brand in front of them. Who do you want to be discovering your brand, product or service? What media do they consume, where do they spend their time and who do they talk to? Understanding who you are communicating with is crucial as it means your tactics can be targeted to resonate with a specific audience.

Research the media

This part is absolutely key. Once you’ve identified your target audience and what publications they read or websites they visit, devour that media! Find out who the journalists are, what they are writing about and identify any space where your brand might fit. This activity will help you start thinking creatively about how to position your brand to certain publications and what key messages will be most important.

Decide on tactics

Next up, you need to determine which tactics will best achieve your PR goals. For example, if you’re a fashion brand, you might want to sell more clothes by having your latest collection featured in a plethora of women’s magazines or you might want to make your tech start-up more appealing to investors by commenting on a topical debate.

There are endless tactics at our disposal depending on the objective ranging from distributing a press release to social media campaigns and organising events. Having established your goal and target audience it will be easier to assess which tactics will be the most effective in conveying your brand messages to them.

Leave yourself enough time

Now it’s time to start implementing a timeframe. This timeline can take any format you choose so long as it works for you, be it an excel flow chart or your everyday diary. This involves thinking strategically about time. Break down projects into smaller achievable tasks, decide who will do them and when by. By allocating time to tasks, you can organise your time and realistically evaluate how much time you want to dedicate to PR each month and what can be achieved in that time.

It’s also very important to consider deadlines for publications. Magazines and newspapers will have very different deadlines depending whether they are published monthly, weekly or daily. It’s imperative to identify what titles you are approaching and when they will need the information by. Generally, we advise six months in advance for the monthly titles, meaning if you would like your product appearing in December Christmas gift guides, you need to be reaching out to journalists in July.

Remember, your timing strategy can be as detailed or as vague as you like, but the important thing is it’s achievable, no deadlines are missed and it keeps you accountable week-on-week.

Set KPIs to measure results

Finally, we recommend setting yourself some targets or ‘Key Performance Indicators’ to give you something to aim for and measure the output of all your hard work. At Sunny Bird PR we set ourselves KPIs to achieve for every activity, whether that’s increasing Instagram followers or placing a certain number of articles in the national press.

Monitoring success can help you work out what tactics have been successful and what to try next time. A solid strategy will help you better understand your target audience, communicate your key messaging and most importantly grow your business!

Clientversary: BBX UK

This month we are celebrating our one year ‘clientversary’ with the team at BBXUK!

We began working with BBXUK back in September 2018, when they came to us to promote the online business tool to the media and raise their profile as a community whereby users can exchange their goods and services with others on the platform.

Over the past 12 months SBPR has worked on a strategy designed to keep BBUK in the media all year long. As part of that strategy, the team at SBPR have sourced BBXUK case studies to pitch to press, have come up with a number of creative feature ideas designed to highlight BBXUK as an option for SMEs, and have profiled key members of the team to position BBX as an expert in the industry.

SBPR has achieved 16 pieces of coverage in total for BBXUK over the past year in targeted business and franchise titles as well as consumer publications. Coverage has been featured in key business, trade and franchising titles such as Global Franchise Magazine, Real Business, Elite Business, Elite Franchise Magazine, SmallBusiness.co.uk and UK Fundraising as well as some prominent consumer coverage in titles such as the Mail Online by pitching a case study of a couple who used BBXUK to save £20,000 on their dream wedding. This feature proves that B2B clients can secure space in consumer media, this feature alone reached over 2 million people and had an advertising equivalent of over £53,000!

The SBPR team have thoroughly enjoyed working with such a prestigious franchise and cannot wait to continue working with BBXUK for the next 12 months.