Challenge
People United Against Crime (PUAC) is a registered charity established in 1996 by South Yorkshire Police. PUAC is the lead partner on a €4.9m European-wide, three-year project called NS FRITS. The mobile phone app aims to reduce freight crime, increase efficiency, keep drivers safe and boost the economy.
Throughout the first year PUAC had been using a specialist PR agency. Circle were invited to pitch for the business against 2 other organisations, including their existing agency. They needed an agency to achieve their media coverage objectives, working with them and their 10 Pan-European partners. They had clear objectives to meet that included securing TV and radio coverage and this had so far alluded them. In addition, NS FRITS is a proof of concept project, therefore there was nothing to actually show the media. They had key objectives that their existing agency were struggling to meet and budgets were tight.
Approach
Circle believed that success would be achieved through a creative approach. We needed to find new ways of creating a public interest story, whilst communicating the benefits of the programme. Each month we worked on new angles each that have a particular appeal to certain segments of the media, introducing NS FRITS and liaising with media contacts and partners to gain coverage. Their partners include; Volvo, Avanti Communications, the Dutch and Humberside Police amongst others.
We were able to leverage the vast industry knowledge gained through the first years PR activity and secured the second year contract which included the development of a short animation film, organising their annual conference in Brussels and developing their marketing collateral including a brochure.
Results
Within 4 months we had achieved more coverage than their previous agency did in one year. We also surpassed their objectives for TV, radio and press coverage in the UK and Europe. This included prime time TV coverage and radio interviews including the BBC. In its second year we have achieved 3.7million hits, a 95% ROI and 12 times the coverage gained by their PR agency did in the same time period.
Here’s some of the media coverage we gained:
You can view the animation film here
