Big Red Box PR and The Local Business Charity Awards - supported by Jelf Insurance
Recently my client asked me to raise their profile in Gloucestershire so I came up with The Local Business Charity Awards. Read below about how we went from an idea I had on the M4 whilst driving in pouring rain to a hugely successful event being talked about the length and breadth of the county. The Client Jelf Insurance, the 6th largest insurance brokers in the UK, asked me to raise the profile of their Cheltenham branch so I came up with these awards which give local charities the chance to nominate local businesses and individuals who support them. The corporate winner received a prize of £1,000 which they donated to the charity who nominated them and the individual winner won a luxury weekend for two at The Celtic Manor Resort Hotel. Advertising the awards After having the rustic heart-shaped logo designed we had invitations printed and, alongside flyers and a press release in the local paper, we let people know about the awards via Facebook and Twitter. I visited many of the charities myself, shooting videos of them endorsing the awards; I then edited the footage and uploaded it to the Jelf website,Facebook and Twitter. Social media was key to the success of the event with bespoke designs and regular posts. The companies and charities engaged with Jelf have given us a solid foundation with which to launch future awards. Eventually we had over 25 entries to the awards with seven local companies making it through to the finals of the corporate category and two to the individual category. A great result for year one. The Finals The finals were held on 04 Sept '14. Charities were thrilled to have the opportunity to publicly thank the businesses that supported them and businesses were of course delighted to be publicly recognised. The comments we received on the night, in emails and letters since, have left us in no doubt that The Local Business Charity Awards were a BIG success. It's Show Time! We planned the awards evening like a mini-festival, with the field laid out with hay bales and bunting. The signs were hand painted and the area decorated with pots of herbs and soft blankets.The addition of live sheep still in the field (not planned but Gloucestershire farmers are a law unto themselves..) merely added to the event. We used a local street-food van to do the catering; The Little Green Wiggly Machine served up mouthwatering Egyptian chicken and couscous followed by warm 'straight-from-the-oven', caramel brownies. Music was provided by a local band and we served beer from the local Stroud Brewery; even the bar was rustic, being made of 20 pallets donated by a local hauliers. Success! Following the event, Jelf and I have been inundated with emails and letters from entrants and nominating companies, thanking us for organising the awards and clamouring for them to be run again next year. I'm delighted to say that I have a meeting with Jelf next week, to set the date for next years awards and finalise new categories, to double the size of the event. And the client said.... Phil Barton, CEO of Jelf Insurance was kind enough to say, 'Big Red Box has been instrumental in developing, organising and executing these significant awards sponsored by Jelf. The concept has certainly delivered on our core objective to raise our profile in Gloucestershire (whilst also supporting the focus on ‘community’ which we pride ourselves on). The awards could not have taken place and would not have been such a great success without Louise’s imagination, creativity and energy….a job really well done!' Whilst this kind of event is not suitable for everyone I wanted to demonstrate what Big Red Box PR is capable of coming up with when you say those three little words 'raise my profile'! If you would like to know the budget for this event, I'd be happy to provide it. I made my own signage, shifted 70 hay bales and 20 pallets and provided my own lighting for the bar. Spending your hard earned money is NOT my aim, gaining you huge positive PR IS. The rest of this page is full of coverage, photos and messages of thanks. I hope you enjoy reading them and, if you would like me to raise your profile, get in contact! - Coverage -All web-based articles are hyper-linked. Please click to read the full article.
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A video (click here for full screen)- Photos! -View a selection of photos below or Click HERE
to view all 108 photos in the album on Facebook! News about the awards from charities and nominees! |