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The
Launch Of Bolton’s ‘Spirit Of Sport’
Public Artwork for Bolton Metropolitan Borough
Council
NW CIPR Awards 2006 Winner - Best Low Budget
PR campaign |
Objectives
Bolton MBC commissioned a new piece of public art, ‘The
Spirit Of Sport’, to be installed near Bolton’s
Reebok Stadium in December 2005. The concept featured
mirrored tiles featuring the faces of Bolton sporting
legends and unsung local heroes involved in sporting
activities.
Planning
The issue of public art has also been contentious
in general in the media and SKV had to plan for any
negative coverage.
SKV advised that the council secured buy-in from media
by recruiting local people as ‘ambassadors’
- and to use people who were set to feature on the finished
sculpture.
On our advice, Bolton boxer Amir Khan - whose popularity
and profile offered cut-through across many media and
audiences - was also recruited as an ambassador.
SKV recommended that professional photography was commissioned
to capture high quality controlled images.
Implementation
SKV organised an official media launch and issued all
target media with an embargoed release and photo-call.
Local people featured on the sculpture and Amir Khan
were highlighted as being available for interview and
photos.
Creative Input
- SKV art-directed an early morning shoot with school
children before the official photo-call
- We arranged a separate photo-shoot with Amir upon
his arrival – before giving other media access
to him.
- By 1pm these images had been distributed to national
picture desks, in time to hit editorial/picture planning
meetings for the next day’s editions.
- SKV also highlighted to all media that SOS was actually
higher than The Angel Of The North, which grabbed
attention.
Results
SKV excited BBC Radio Five Live about the ‘unsung
heroes’ angle. This translated into two 12 minute
live packages and formed the basis for a phone-in about
other people’s ‘unsung heroes’.
The Independent & The Guardian both ran picture-led
stories. New Start and The Municipal Journal also ran
image-led stories with images supplied by SKV.
BBC North West, Granada ITV and Channel M TV all covered
the launch, the Bolton Evening News ran a highly supportive
two-page colour feature, a front cover story and two-page
feature. Manchester Evening News, BBC Radio Manchester,
Key 103 and Bolton’s Tower FM also ran pieces.
Mondo Arc, the international architecture magazine,
published an image led-story focussing on the artists
that had designed the SOS and it was nominated as a
best practice case study on axisweb – a dedicated
public art online portal.
With the potential for negative coverage, SKV delivered
a highly controlled and well-managed PR campaign in
a very short timeframe.
By focussing on local ambassadors and emphasising the
visual aspect of the story, we minimised the risks and
secured extensive, positive and invaluable coverage
for the client on a very low budget.
Campaign Value
AVE: £812,000, Opportunities To See: 7,116,387
Testimonials
“We appointed SKV at very short notice to
plan and execute a very important communications campaign
to support the installation and initial launch phase
of the Spirit of Sport project… SKV proved they
were a safe pair hands and could deliver the outputs
required by the council on a modest budget.”
Andy Ratcliff, SOS project launch leader, Bolton
Metropolitan Borough Council
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