From news-jacking stories about robots, to working with Silicon Valley companies and promoting new tests for human and animal health, here’s an insight into our PR work week.
Our latest blog offering a PR peek into our working week – including press-event organising, film producing, lab test assisting, and birthday cake candle lighting!
The Eureka! moment can hit at the most unexpected of times. Some of the most significant scientific breakthroughs and useful inventions have first flashed in to someone’s brain at the oddest of times.
SureFlap is a microchip operated cat flap that only permits the resident cat to enter the home, keeping intruder cats outside.
The client wanted to raise the profile of its product with the national media, so we used research to create a story.
An analysis of customers revealed that many had purchased SureFlap as they wanted a secure cat flap that would excluded unwanted visitors. Desk research showed that although little was known about the behaviour of cats it was known that home invasions caused stressed.
HA developed a research project with an animal behaviourist from the Royal Veterinary College to provide credibility for the results and then interested Your Cat Magazine in collaborating with a series of features aimed at raising awareness that home invasion caused stress for cats and this could be prevented by using a secure cat flap such as SureFlap.
The 300% increase in turnover we achieved last year has enabled us to grow the team significantly in the past six months. Sales continue to grow both in the UK and abroad and we now have country managers in place to target the US and Germany. With sales also picking up in Australasia, we plan to have a local presence there too within the next six months.
Objectives
Throughout our three years working with Augmentra, we created a sustained communications campaign by identifying and developing a regular flow of company/product stories aimed at different sections of the media. Press releases were researched, drafted and distributed on a monthly basis to a wide range of media including: outdoor pursuits, smartphone apps, travel, general interest and many more. During this time we built good relationships with key journalists who were interested in the technology.
In order to sustain a flow of newsworthy press releases we looked beyond straight ‘announcement’ stories. For example, we recognised that ViewRanger is great for locating friends on mountainsides, and even at music festivals, and created a light-hearted media story about using ViewRanger to find your tent which appealed to Chris Evans and secured 20 minutes on BBC Radio 2’s drivetime radio.
We proposed, planned and coordinated activities that would raise ViewRanger’s profile directly with potential customers. This included helping ViewRanger support charity activities such as The Incredible Solar Electric Flight and Hannah 100.
Additionally, we arranged support for walking festivals and gained a prime position for our client in the ‘Best British Walk’ category of the Great British Life website.
To ensure ViewRanger reached a wider audience, we also supported international launches securing coverage in the USA and Germany.
Coverage was sustained throughout the whole period in newspapers, magazines, broadcast, local and online media – appearing in over 250 different publications.
Highlights include: an interview with Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2; articles in The Independent and Daily Mail Weekend; and in magazines covering a range of hobbies such as Trek and Mountain magazine, Outdoor Photography, What Mountain Bike and Birding World.
The Viewranger app was reviewed by 35 journalists in a variety of media including BBC Wildlife, The Sunday Times and Country Walking magazine. During the time we worked with ViewRanger, we were delighted to support its growth from an early stage start-up to an established business.
In September 2016, Holdsworth Associates were again asked to support ViewRanger thanks to the success of our earlier work.
ViewRanger was to be one of the launch apps for the Apple Watch Series 2, to be announced at the annual Apple event held in San Fransisco. In a live stage demo (pictured above), Head of Design Hannah Catmur took the audience on a virtual hiking tour of Four Mile Trail in the USA’s Yosemite National Park with the ViewRanger app providing turn-by-turn directions and highlighting key route features such as viewpoints, camping locations, and waterfalls.
Holdsworth Associates produced results – good results – which helped us to establish our brand, raise our profile with initial investors, and grow our business.
Craig Wareham, Co-founder and CEO
