PR CAMPAIGN
Overview
My PR campaign aims to attract more people to the Northern village Lymm – located between Manchester and Liverpool in Warrington Town. Lying in the middle of two major cities, Lymm can often get overlooked as a tourist attraction therefore it is important to entice locals back and drive as many new visitors from surrounding areas in to the picturesque village as possible.
The main event will be a Fair Ground suitable for all ages but in particular families. It will feature classic fairground rides as well as games for people to play, food vans serving standard fairground food such as popcorn, candyfloss and burgers will be at the event for families to make the most of. The fair will last a whole weekend during the summer month of July (just after the summer holidays have begun) which will allow people to make the most of the good weather. Entry will be £3 per person or £10 for a family of four which is cheap enough to attract people on a low budget as well as people looking for a fun and exciting day out.
Target Audience
The target audience for my campaign will be families. According to the Office of National Statistics 54.0% of residents were aged between 25-65 and 21.0% of residents being under the age of 16. Due to the ages of the residents this data suggests that there is a large number of families located in Lymm village and Warrington.
Economically Lymm is known to be a wealthy area of Warrington with 29.10% of residents in a professional occupation with very little deprivation according to the Lymm Ward 2014 Profile. This hopefully means that people will be willing to spend more money at the Fair.
Warrington town has brilliant transport links to and from cities and towns all over the region. There is two regular buses that travel directly from Warrington Town centre to Lymm Village, which means it provides direct access to the event for visitors who may not wish to drive. Alternatively, for families who want to travel by car, there is the option to park in the village or at the local high school which is a ten minute walk from the fairground location. For those travelling by car Lymm has easily accessible motorways such as the M6 or M62 for people who are travelling from the north or the south.
Strategy
The campaign strategy will mainly focus on creating as much awareness for the fairground as possible. There are various Facebook accounts informing residents of both Warrington and Lymm about local events and news so it will be important to ensure that the campaign is heavily promoted on social media.
Figure 2: Lymm News and Media Facebook Page
This is the most popular Facebook page for Lymm village which has a large following of 4,350 people. By posting the event on this page the followers of this page will be see that there is an event taking place. According to Facebook’s 2014 demographic report people between the ages of 25-34 using Facebook has grown by 32.6% and people between the ages 35-54 using Facebook has grown by 41.4% meaning that more people than before in my target audience are using social network sites.
Instagram is a way to get people involved, by ‘instgramming’ beautiful pictures of the historic village and exciting preparations for the event it will hopefully encourage people ‘not to miss out’. On Instagram and Twitter hashtags are a way of categorising Tweets and Instagram photos by a key word. Therefore starting the hashtag #DiscoverLymm is a way of related items to show up more easily on a twitter or Instagram. This also creates an online community where everyone interested in Lymm and the Fairground can easily keep up to date with event developments.
Figure 3: Lymm Fair Twitter Page #DiscoverLymm
The most popular local radio station is Wire FM which supplies Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn with sound and Key 103 which is popular in Warrington and Manchester. Creating an advert with a catchy jingle to play at peak times like rush hour and between the times of 2.30pm and 4pm when parents are picking their children up from school is a way of engaging my target audience.
Print based adverts are the best way to engage people who may not be on social media. Posting colourful A5 flyers through letterboxes is the easiest way to grab people’s attention. The leaflets would be delivered to residents of Lymm and Warrington and larger versions would be put up in shops around the village and Warrington town centre.
Figure 4: This is an example of a flyer I've created to use in the campaign.
Contacting businesses that rent fairground rides in advance is a priority. I would do this by simply searching for businesses on the internet and comparing reviews and prices. Safety is of the upmost importance for the event so this is a key step that will help make the day run smoothly.
In terms of music, there is a local bar called the Venue in the village which hosts popular live music nights. It would be ideal to collaborate with them to get the best music acts that they know and work with on a regular basis. Small time artists are generally willing to play for free to get exposure to hopefully drive their career forward. By having a range of musicians performing at the fair it will suit a variety of different musical tastes and provide a pleasant experience for people attending the event.
Tactics
Two press releases will be send to newspapers and posted on the twitter and Facebook page of the event. The first will be sent out in April which will include an overview of the weekend and various information about the fairground – including the date and location. The second press release will be released at the start of July and include information about prices and more details about the types of rides and food on offer to refresh people’s minds on the event.
Two weeks before the fair there will be a free candyfloss and ice cream stall playing upbeat music located in the centre of the village which will remind people of the event and get everybody excited. Depending on how the ice cream and candyfloss stall is perceived, the next week it will be set up again but in the Golden Square shopping centre in Warrington town which will also promote the fairground further to the residents and visitors of Warrington town.
Getting residents involved is an important way of driving people to the fair. One way of getting people involved could be through competitions on social networking sites, for example: What is the biggest fairground in the world? And the first person to answer correctly wins free entry and a gift hamper. We could use photography as a well of creating a small online community, for example: Share with us your favourite photo of Lymm village – these tactics will apply to all social networking sites.
Media Plan
An Ofcom report has revealed that Facebook still remains the main social networking site for 96% of UK adults who are active online so social media will be at the forefront of the campaign. However, on top of that we will also be advertising in print and the local media.
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram will be the main source of social media used to promote the event, with the key message of “Visit Lymm” being put across to potential customers for the fair.
At the start of April after the first press released has been issued, I will start to place advertisements in the local newspaper – the Warrington Guardian and Lymm Life. These advertisements will promoting Lymm village by endorsing local shops and landmarks the village has to offer such as: The Dam or Sextons bakery.
During May, A4 advertisements about the fair will be taken out in local newspapers every two weeks to highlight the fair. According to the Warrington Guardian media pack they receive 72,410 readers per week, which means if even half the audience is active that’s still 36,205 potential consumers that could visit the fair. The Warrington Guardian online gets an average of 41,531 visits to their website per week which is a large number of people getting their information online. Here, I would take out a “Leaderboard” advert which is the most prominent position for am advert to be because it’s centred just above the masthead.
At the start of June, when summer is really starting to begin, large posters advertising the fair will be placed strategically around Warrington and Lymm. Places will include: the bus station, which is a large building with over 20 terminals in the town center. There is also an opportunity to place advertisements in both Central and Bank Quay train stations which will inform people who travel to and from the town.
A month before the event I will take out an advertisement out on the side of the number 5 bus which takes the route from Warrington train station through Lymm village to Altrincham train station. These advertisements are going to stay up on the side of the bus until the event is over.
Two weeks before the event we will advertise with the local radio stations to refresh people’s minds whilst listening to the radio. This will also be when flyers are delivered to houses in the area, which is enough time for people to save the date.
On the day there will be a local photographer blogging the event and sharing the photos live onto social media. Key 103 will be covering the fair by setting up a station and interviewing people about their day and playing some songs from the local bands live on air, this could attract more visitors to the fair if people are looking for a way to spend the day. Local papers will also be invited down to the event, for free, to write articles and take photos of the day.
We will use our twitter account to narrate what is happening with the media aspect, for example: “Keep an eye out for the number 5 bus today to see the fair being advertised #DiscoverLymm #Excited”.
Word of mouth advertising will be a huge part of the campaign, therefore there needs to be a ‘buzz’ created amongst locals to get them talking about the fair. The event needs to be heavily advertised to get people talking about it as much as possible.
Timeframe
My campaign will last 6 months from the end of February 2015 until end of the event in July 2015, which will be sufficient time to create the amount of awareness amongst locals and potential consumers needed so they attend the fairground event.
February:
The social media aspect will begin straight away, as this is the main way to get people involved and really promote the event. Regular updates will begin and the hashtag #DiscoverLymm will be started.
Fairground rides, musicians and food venders will be gathered this month with a full health and safety check being carried out on the rides and food vans.
March
Social networking sites should now be gaining followers and people should be engaging in content that is posted.
April
The first press release will be issued to local papers and radio stations
Advertisements promoting the village will be taken out in the local papers and social media sites
May
A4 advertisements about the upcoming fair will be taken out in the local papers, both online and print.
June
Large advertisements promoting the fair will be distributed and displayed across various locations in Warrington and Lymm.
Bus advertisements will start.
At the end of June I will double check with fairground ride owners, food venders, musicians and radio stations that everything is still all okay with attending the event. Last minute replacements will be made if necessary.
July
Radio adverts will also begin reminding people of the upcoming event.
Flyers will also be delivered to houses in Lymm to create a buzz amongst locals.
Social media outlets will still be heavily promoting the event to keep people informed and continue to remind them about the fair.
After the event a statement will be issued to thank everyone for attending. Social media will still be active encouraging people to attend the village for a visit.
Posts will be made on Twitter and Facebook such as: “We hope you enjoyed the fairground weekend, feel free to pop back to the village any time for a visit #DiscoverLymm.”
Evaluation
As there is little agreement on how best to evaluate the outcome of a public relations campaign, I’m going to use a variety of methods to access the success of my campaign. An effective evaluation requires measurement of the effectiveness of communications and what effect this had on the target audience, through behaviour and attitude.
Macnamara’s Macro-Model of evaluation is a practical way of planning and managing evaluation of public relations. This method takes into account overall organisational effectiveness and is divided into three sections: Inputs, Outputs and Outcomes.
Firstly, the Inputs or formative research quality will be measured through Feedback from the target audience and how the media. In terms of measuring method was the most successful in attracting the audience people handing out the tickets will ask everyone/family how they found out about the event and create a simple tally chart where they can jot down answers and then at the end of weekend assess which was the most successful way of attracting people to the event.
How did you find out about the event? Tally (I = 1 person)
Social Media
Word of mouth
Newspapers
Radio
Flyers
Posters
Figure 5: An example of my quantitative questionnaire
Secondly the output, this will be measured through social media using quantitative research in the form of twitter analytics, which will allow me to see how popular the hashtag #DiscoverLymm was at creating awareness for the village. The number of likes, replies, re-tweets and favourites on twitter and Instagram will be measured to see if it had an impact on the event and engaged the target audience throughout the campaign. Traffic from Lymms Facebook pages will also be analysed to see if it increased when the event was being promoted. This will allow me to understand if I was reaching my target audience and whether the information we put out influenced the target audience. However, relying just on media coverage is not enough. Therefore, it’s important to combine all three sections of Macnamara’s model.
Finally the outcomes of the event will be measured by assessed whether Lymm village has gained more tourists to the area. This will be measured by comparing tourism figures for the area. To get some qualitative research it will be an idea to ask local shop owners to see if they have gained more or less business since the fairground came to the village. Combining all three sections and analysing whether each section was effective will give me an idea of how successful the campaign actually was in attracting more people to Lymm village.
Opportunities to See (OTS): How many people were tweeting about the event during and after? How many people used the hashtag #DiscoverLymm? Has there been a noticeable increase of visitors to Lymm?
Press Release #1
Lymm village is proud to present the best attraction to come to the area this summer! You’d be bonkers to miss out.
On the Saturday 25th and Sunday the 26th of July there will be a top fairground coming to the May Queen Field in the centre of Lymm Village.
Lymm fair is a weekend extravaganza which is suitable for all ages, old or young. For those thrill seekers, or those looking for a nice place to catch some rays the fair will have something for everyone.
There will be a variety of activities for the young ones to get involved in, such as a face painting studio with an expert artist (she even does Disney Frozen Characters) and a Thomas the tank engine ride which will transport the you and youngsters around the Fairground.
The fair will not only include classic fairground rides such as, the waltzers and a carousel but also feature a range of local musicians performing live to provide a subtle soundtrack for the weekend. Traditional fairground food will be on offer to visitors with plenty to chow down on, from Gourmet burgers to candyfloss!
Lymm fair is a once in a lifetime event for all the family that's not to be missed so remember to save the date and head down to the village for a magnificent time.
For more information or to keep up to date with event preparations head over to Facebook and search Lymm Village. Alternatively, follow us on Twitter @DiscoverLymm for even more information about the beautiful village.
[ENDS]
NOTES TO THE EDITOR:
If you have any questions or need any quotes please contact AuroraPR@gmail.com.
If any journalists want to come down for the date to interview people at the event or take photos, we are happy to provide free entry to your journalists – just show the people at the entrance your newspaper ID card.
Press release #2 // FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 month, 4 weeks, 28 days. We're counting down to the biggest event Lymm village has ever seen.
Preparations are heavily underway to make Lymm Fair a perfect day out for all of the amazing visitors heading into the village in just a months’ time.
The Weather is forecast to be bright and sunny so come and join us in the village to celebrate the summer.
Music wise, we've got BBC1's up and coming band - If You Like To Dance headlining the Saturday. And local artist Alley Clarke performing some classic acoustic covers of well-known songs, which is the perfect accompaniment to the summer.
The rides are bigger and better than we anticipated! Why not try out the ‘big wheel’ to see some fantastic views of the village. Or for those adrenalin seekers try the fantastic Kamikaze ride which is guaranteed to make you scream. There are still plenty of activities for our younger guests, including a huge moon bounce and a flying swing set, not forgetting the face painting tent and Thomas the Tank Engine ride.
Hungry? Just wait until you see our delicious range of food trucks. We’ve sorted a gourmet burger van serving 100% Angus Beef burgers with a huge variety of toppings. We’ve even gone and hired an epic ice cream van which sells over 50 unique flavours, perfect for cooling down in the heat.
For more information or to keep up to date with event preparations head over to Facebook and search Lymm Village. Alternatively, follow us on Twitter @DiscoverLymm for even more info about the beautiful village.
[ENDS]
NOTES TO THE EDITOR:
If you have any questions or need any quotes please contact AuroraPR@gmail.com.
If any journalists want to come down for the date to interview people at the event or take photos, we are happy to provide free entry to your journalists – just show the people at the entrance your newspaper ID card.