Tag Archives | Event organisation

Concept through to launch of a memorial garden

Brief and Objectives

Cheltenham Pet Crematorium (CPC) had converted a facility on an industrial estate into a crematorium. Although sympathetic inside, outside it was a warehouse with patch of grass alongside. CPC asked Holdsworth Associates to create a launch event to raise awareness of its services and communicate effectively to potential customers.

Research, planning and strategy

Pets are important family members and a cremation service provides a time for the owners to grieve and for other pets to understand the loss. CPC provides counselling and support to owners who are able to design their own service.  However if the family want to take the ashes home or to scatter in a favourite place then they need to wait for short time.

HA proposed that a memorial garden was created for owners to use for reflection and also to exercise other pets.  The garden would also provide something for a celebrity to ‘open’ and create the opportunity for a positive experience for invited guests.

Adam Henson, best-known for presenting Countryfile, and interested in dogs and gardening was invited to open the garden. It was decided to have a wildlife element as the site backed on to a nature reserve.

Being located on an industrial estate, the garden strategy would add value to the environment and create a more comforting environment for mourners.

Research revealed that the local Tewkesbury School had horticultural society. HA worked with the school to develop a project that would enable students to talk about bereavement and to use their skills to design and build the remembrance garden.

At the official opening, the pupils would be invited to bring their families and friends to see their work and meet Adam – creating a lovely photo-opportunity for regional media.

Cambridge Pet Crematorium new garden design poster
CPC Adam Henson opens memorial garden

Outcomes

To warm up the media, HA created an initial story about commissioning the pupils to build the garden – this created an opportunity to talk to media and invite them to the opening.

For the launch there was a strong story, photo opportunity, people to interview about how they overcame their loss.   The event attracted broadcast, online and print media.

 

Measurement & Evaluation

The launch of the Memorial and Wildlife Garden was a success, with coverage secured in local media and veterinary publications, including:

  • Cotswold TV
  • Cheltenham Standard
  • Vet Times
  • Vet Surgeon
  • Your Cat

Coverage was also achieved for CPC in the Daily Telegraph.

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Promoting the Cambridge Phenomenon

Objective

In their latest book about the ‘The Cambridge Phenomenon’. Charles Cotton and Kate Kirk wanted to stress the international impact of Cambridge ideas. Holdsworth Associates was asked to create a story to attract media coverage and add value to the event.

Strategy

The concept of the Cambridge Phenomenon’ has been discussed at length and frequently the city is criticised for creating ideas not businesses.  This view is outdated, so HA proposed to use a photograph of the new Cambridge skyline of cranes, to create an alternative image for the city.  We also invited spokespeople who have set up successful international businesses, or been the reason for multinational companies setting up R&D facilities in the cluster, to speak to the media at the launch.

Tech companies with different types of  international impact were sourced and  interviewed to gain case-studies. They were also  invited to bring demonstrations to the launch event to create filming opportunities for broadcast media and interest for attendees and journalists.

Business, finance and technology publications were targeted, alongside local and national outlets.

Implementation 

We developed stories with William Tunstall-Pedoe; the man behind Amazon Echo’s ‘Alexa’ software, Sebastian Manhart of Simprints, Professor Andrea Ferrari of the Cambridge Graphene Centre and Professor Chris Lowe of the University of Cambridge.

We commissioned a photograph of the new Cambridge Skyline to demonstrate visually the ‘new Cambridge’.

Content was produced on each of these contributors, with diverse press releases. Holdsworth Associates kept in contact with these organisations as the process unfolded, providing details of the event and organisation for the demonstration desks, wireless access etc.

The Cambridge Phenomenon - Global Impact book launch
Cambridge Phenomenon Global Impact book launch and media relations

 

Results 

The launch of the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’ gained strong coverage in the national, broadcast and online media.

Coverage included:

  • The Times
  • BBC News
  • Cambridge TV
  • Science|Business
  • Engineering & Technology magazine
  • Business Weekly

Participating companies also benefited from wider coverage and gained stories for their websites and content for Twitter and social media outreach.

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Profiling early-stage technology companies

St John’s Innovation Centre (SJIC) is an incubator for early stage companies and provides a wealth of advice and support services aimed at entrepreneurs.

Holdsworth Associates has worked with SJIC over many years to provide public relations support in order to help companies gain a profile with the media, analysts and potential investors.

We worked with SJIC on a technology showcase, where 13 start-ups demonstrated to the media alongside a pitching session to investors.

Objectives

To promote SJIC’s services, and raise the profile of its tenants and other early-stage companies with the media and potential investors.

Strategy

The event was called ‘Meerkats and Avatars’ – companies from across the East of England were invited to participate.

Each company was given a PR consultation meeting and a press release drafted with a strong news hook to support their business objectives. For many of the companies it was the first time they had their offering articulated in this way.

The technology showcase was aimed at invited journalists from local, national, trade and broadcast media.

Journalists had the opportunity to see demonstrations of early-stage products and meet the people involved in developing the technology.

The press releases were made available to the media who attended the event and also distributed online to journalists in our extensive database.

Cambridge technology PR event

Results

It proved to be a lively day with an impressive array of technologies demonstrated in creative ways.

It was attended by journalists from a range of media including the BBC, The Sunday Telegraph, New Scientist and The Guardian. Coverage appeared in print, online, on the radio and on television.

There was good attendance from investors and many of the companies subsequently gained investment.

For these early-stage companies it was a unique opportunity to raise their profile with the media and investors – in most cases it was the first time their ideas had received public attention.

Audio Analytic at Meerkats and Avatars - Profiling early-stage technology companies
Audio Analytic at Meerkats and Avatars
Gmax at Meerkats and Avatars - Profiling early-stage technology companies
Gmax at Meerkats and Avatars

The companies supported by SJIC technology press days have included:

  • Audio Analytic: Sound-recognition software to aid crime detection by automatically recognising warning sounds such as car alarms, and highlighting the CCTV screen they are coming from.
  • Endomagnetics: A safe and cost-effective technique for detecting the spread of breast cancer.
  • Gmax: Real-time biometrics to improve racehorse training.
  • Intelligent Fingerprinting: Detection of illicit substances from fingerprints.
  • Ombar: Organic chocolate, made from raw cocoa beans, which is low in fat and high in antioxidants.
  • Omnisense: A flexible location system to allow tracking of people and assets in real time without the need for a fixed infrastructure.
  • Psonar: A music storage cloud which allows users to safely back up their collection, share playlists and discover new tracks legally.
  • Trillion Genomics: Their technology has applications in diagnostics, medical research, integrated disease management and drug discovery, and they specialise in screening for prostate cancer.
  • Visual Perception: A user interface to improve human-computer interactions by using patterns found in nature to create an intuitive browsing mechanism.
  • Zonerider: Free software which allows individuals to sell their Wi-Fi broadband, opening up possibilities for communities around the world to get online.

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Generating national media interest for World Atlas launch

How do you create high-profile media interest with the launch of text book? This is the challenge we achieved for the UNEP - World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Objective

To achieve impact with a new report, it is vital to create a compelling package of engaging content.

The World Atlas of Great Apes was to be launched by UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre ahead of an important convention.

Although an interesting subject, the book was a collation of pre-existing information and contained nothing new. Holdsworth Associates was tasked with making the Atlas headline grabbing.

How we did it?

We analysed the book and interviewed its contributors. Although the Atlas contained no new data or statistics, it was the first time this information had been brought together in one place. We created an infographic to highlight this and used anecdotes, gathered from contributers, to provide journalists with the real-life stories behind the data.

London Zoo was approached to provide a launch venue and offer real-time broadcast images, while we invited conservationists and other specialists to speak to the media about the challenges they face.

Results

The Atlas launch received international and national media coverage, including:

  • BBC Breakfast
  • BBC One O’Clock News
  • BBC Radio 4
  • BBC Newsround
  • The Times
  • The Guardian
  • The Financial Times
  • The Independent
  • New Scientist
  • Nature
  • BBC Wildlife and other consumer press

Sales of the Atlas exceeded expectations. The Atlas was referenced throughout the following week as the Kinshasa Conference progressed and it is now considered a key text by the media for great ape population and conservation data.

World Atlas of Great Apes

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