Joined up marketing for
Count Me In!
In 2008 the Tewkesbury Living for the Future project was awarded £1.2million in match funding after an ambitious partnership bid to the Department of Health was successful. Led by Tewkesbury Borough Council, Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust, Gloucestershire County Council, Active Gloucestershire and Food Vision it was one of only nine projects given the green light nationally as part of the Healthy Community Challenge Fund following a rigorous selection process.
Appreciating that the marketing and communication was going to be key to the success of the project, the partnership approached Petersen to bring strong and necessary integrated marketing expertise to the three-year project.
We built a highly targeted marketing campaign that would be aimed directly at the Tewkesbury community with a strong social marketing theme, marketing everything from events to launches. Managing the local papers was essential for this project and utilising well established local media links we were able to secure regular coverage in the local paper and ensure that all events were covered by the broadcast media. Every marketing delivery was measured and reported back to the Count Me In! board and the Department Of Health.
The project was a huge success outstripping all expectation and though it is now complete, the legacy of Count Me In! lives on in ongoing activities and programmes across the town.
Web
Count Me In! had a broad user demographic requiring the website be both visually engaging and accessible. We were keen to present the local community with a website they would find useful and fun to use, which we achieved through incorporating clear navigation with a simple page template as well as utilising a Content Management System to allow content to be updated by a number of different users. As well as supporting the local community, the website also had an upload area allowing CMI board members to share important information quickly and securely without having to install or learn any new software.
Count Me In! website
PR
The PR campaign began on announcement of the project funding, so was integrated with national publicity for the Department of Health project. Following the initial announcement campaign, the PR programme began specifically targeting the local Gloucestershire media, including publications, online news portals and radio.
Programme video created by Petersen for the Department of Health
PR coverage
PR coverage
PR coverage
Social Media
Count Me In! was a community project and so social media played a large part in engaging with members of the community, publicising events and activities and publishing images of the work Count Me In! was doing in the borough. Through Facebook and Twitter channels managed by Petersen, we communicated on a daily basis with Tewkesbury residents and were able to meet project criteria through our social media campaign.
Count Me In! on Facebook
Maintaining the attention of our audience was key to ensuring the CMI legacy continued long after the programme finished. Throughout this project we created a number broad variety of printed elements. These ranged from leaflet and flyers advertising local events, to interactive calendars, event programmes, downloadable tool kits and even highway agency approved road-side signage.
Throughout the three-year programme, publicising Count Me In! required a variety of PR elements, ranging from general pro-active and re-active PR, event promotion, issue management and more in-depth person-centred story placement.
The success of the Count Me In! PR campaign depended heavily on relationships with the local press and an excellent, regular source of good content. The considerable bank of activities ensured the programme was in the press on an almost daily basis, and provided essential content for the social media channels.
'Grow your own' wall planner
Walking maps for Tewkesbury
'On your bike' flyer
Event poster
Focus group event poster