The Wedgwood Museum

The purpose built Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston opened its doors in October 2008 following a 10-year crusade by the Wedgwood Museum Trust to raise the funds to build it.  It boasts one of the most interesting ceramics collections in the world and in 2009 it was revealed as the winner of the prestigious Art Fund Prize – further proof of its show-stopping credentials.

Prior to Primo PR’s appointment, The Wedgwood Museum used agencies on an adhoc basis to support specific individual projects but found this to be a less than satisfactory approach to PR.  However, in order to build awareness of the Museum as one of the key visitor attractions in the UK and to help drive footfall, the management team at the Museum decided to seek the help of an external agency on an ongoing basis.

The Wedgwood Museum wanted a consistent campaign, that would not only achieve good quality consistent coverage but also wanted to focus on increasing visitor numbers and needed help to eliminate the persisting impression that Wedgwood was closed for business.  Primo PR was chosen to handle the brief.

Primo PR drafts, manages approval of and sells in all news releases and events updates for The Wedgwood Museum.  This includes the implementation of the social media campaign through Twitter, Facebook and as well as targeting and updating all online What’s On guides.  Regular meetings with the client ensures that all potential news is identified on an ongoing basis and can be included in the sell in schedule.

In addition, Primo PR recommends and creates bespoke initiatives for the Museum including the recent Frog Service project that resulted in a significant amount of coverage on local radio stations (core to helping drive footfall within the local area).

Management of all media contacts and setting up and attending visits from key journalists also forms a significant part of the day to day activity for Primo PR.

One year into the campaign, Primo PR is very much seen as an extension of the Wedgwood Museum management team, handling and consulting on many areas of marketing and PR.

CWF

CWF is an importer, agent, producer, bottler and distributor of wines and alcoholic beverages. The company’s brands include Le Poesie, Vina Sutil, Simply Yours, Kissing Tree, Sliver Bay Point, Bali, Orchards, Summer Sensation and Winter Warmer. It supplies to both the on and off trade sectors.

While CWF had undertaken PR previously, the company had no media relations agency for a period of time prior to Primo PR’s appointment. This was partly because it wanted to re-focus on new product development and consolidating its distribution channels, but also partly due to the fact that it felt that PR had not provided a solid return on investment. Primo was initially brought on board to launch a new product range – Simply Yours – with a view to becoming a retained agency depending on the results achieved.

The launch campaign for Simply Yours encompassed the national, consumer and trade press, with coverage achieved across all. The range consists of 11 varietals, so Primo PR used this as the basis for a ‘What your favourite wine says about you’ story for the national can consumer press, with a more straightforward, product focused approach taken for the trade press. The results achieved led CWF to take the decision to continue working with Primo. Now the campaign consists of a proactive press office, covering news, features, media visits and set piece opportunities.

During year one of the campaign Primo PR achieved almost 50 trade and consumer press cuttings. The return on investment was 17:1.

Digital Consortium

Digital Consortium is an online marketing agency. Its founders previously worked for some of the leading marketing agencies in the North. They set up the company to provide a more flexible, cost effective solution for businesses whilst at the same time offering quality service and creative, effective campaigns.

Prior to Primo PR’s appointment Digital Consortium had managed its PR in house. As a busy, growing company it often did not have the resources to commit to PR activity, therefore outputs were quite sporadic and significant new stories were sometimes not communicated. The agency wanted a more consistent campaign, which would achieve good quality consistent coverage. Its main aim was to build its reputation among both potential clients and its peers.

Primo PR drafts, manages approval of and sells in all news releases and case studies for Digital Consortium. Regular meetings with the client ensure that all potential news is identified on an ongoing basis and can be included in the sell in schedule. In addition Primo PR tracks forward feature opportunities and manages submission of comment on behalf of Digital Consortium within its key regional, specialist and trade titles. Additional opportunities are also identified on behalf of the client, including awards and set piece opportunities.

Six months into the campaign the activity undertaken by Primo PR has resulted not only in quality coverage within Digital Consortium’s key publications, but also in new business leads.

www.terrysfabrics.co.uk

www.terrysfabrics.co.uk is the country’s largest online retailer of fabrics, curtains and curtain poles.  The company also sells a huge range of home accessories from its website and in its stores in Stockport and Stoke.

Before bringing Primo PR on board to manage its media relations www.terrysfabrics.co.ukhad gone through a period of inactivity in terms of public relations. Its main focus had been on building up the business and especially its e-commerce site. Following the successful implementation of this strategy the company decided to bring a PR consultancy on board to raise awareness of its range nationally and regionally, and help it to differentiate itself from its competition.

Due to the size of its range and the way in which the home interest journalists work, Primo PR made it a priority to put in place a system for dealing with sample and photography requests and also for keeping a steady flow of proactive press releases being sold in. A new release is sold in to the key contacts every week, highlighting different aspects of the range and introducing new products. Media visits have been undertaken at regular intervals to launch new seasonal ranges and maintain personal relationships with the press. In addition Primo PR has implemented separate regional press campaigns to support both stores in their surrounding areas.

The campaign is still in year one but already coverage has been achieved in the company’s key titles, and the number of sample and photography requests has increased significantly due to the success of the campaign in keeping www.terrysfabrics.co.uk front of mind with journalists.

Colloco

Colloco is a homeware and gifts retailer based in Leek, Staffordshire. As well as having a beautiful shop in a Grade II listed building in Leek town centre, founders Marc Briand and Julie Lyons run a successful e-commerce site selling Colloco’s design-led range.

Colloco had a press office in place, which had been running for over a year. It felt though that the results being achieved were not consistent or very targeted.  Julie and Marc wanted a PR agency that had a better understanding of the home interest and consumer press, and that would take a more tenacious approach to driving coverage on its behalf.

Marc and Julie had never met the media face-to-face, and no media visits had been carried OUT specifically on behalf of Colloco, therefore Primo organised and attended meetings with key journalists as a priority at the start of the campaign. These were subsequently carried out on a more regular basis to maintain personal relationships and communicate major launches. As well as selling in product news, the agency also manages a proactive programme of seasonal and themed press releases to maintain momentum and keep Colloco front of mind in this competitive marketplace. Regular calls are made to all press to identify forward feature opportunities on an ongoing basis.

During the first year of the campaign Primo PR achieved over 100 pieces of coverage for Colloco and the campaign provided a return on investment of 13:1. This coverage appeared in key titles for the company, ensuring that every cutting made a difference.

HL Display

HL Display is Europe‘s leading supplier of products and solutions for merchandising and in-store communications. It works with some of the UK’s leading retailers and brand owners to create point of purchase solutions that will maximize sales.

HL Display already had a PR campaign in place but was looking for greater focus and pro-activity, more consistent results and an agency that would adapt to the company’s changing needs whilst continuing to add value. It wanted to increase its presence within its core titles and also achieve greater prominence within linear publications.

Primo PR created a hard-working press office, covering news releases, proactive product releases, case studies, set piece opportunities, bespoke features and forward feature tracking. It provided support to HL Display in the form of additional copywriting for marketing led initiatives, including opportunities linked to trade shows, trade bodies and awards. The agency also created, wrote and managed HL Display’s Annual Report – a yearly report into the display and merchandising industry. This opened up the press opportunities for the company and also supported its desired positioning as an authoritative, service-led market leader.

© Primo PR 2010.