PR story and content development for L&Q
The brief
L&Q had received a substantial amount of negative press about the purchase and property development of the site of Walthamstow Stadium, an old greyhound racing dog track. Controversy over the development had been fuelled by the iconic status of the building and local sentiment about the closure of the track before L&Q’s acquisition.
To counter some of this negative publicity, L&Q wanted to show that it was making a positive contribution to the community.
The solution
Great PR and cross-media take up begins with finding a great story, and we knew we’d discovered a gem. Our researchers found the authentic story hidden at the heart of the development – the restoration of an iconic landmark by a locally based craftsman.
As well as crafting a story that would be picked up by the press, we tailored the format of this content to match the needs of media outlets. This included video news releases (VNR) for broadcast news, cut packages for online news outlets such as the Evening Standard, and longer craft-focused films for targeting design publications. With content already tailored to the requirements of these outlets, media outreach became significantly easier.
We also created several versions to suit L&Q’s own marketing activity across email, social media, and paid advertising. This customisation helped to extend the life of the content and ensured that it remained fresh when promoted to their audience across multiple channels.
Results
360,000 views of the story on the ITV’s Facebook page – 18x their average viewership
£124,000 equivalent media spend across broadcast, print, and online media channels – including Guardian.com and the ITV 6PM and 10PM news
Content picked up by a huge variety of publications, including national press, local press and trade press (both architectural and property)