In 2006 a family holiday to Corfu ended in tragedy when two young children from Yorkshire died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Two years on, research from our sister company Opinion Matters showed that the UK public are still more likely to take tea bags on holiday than a potentially lifesaving carbon monoxide alarm. We worked with CORGI and a very brave, determined set of parents to help avoid further tragedy.
The story had a huge impact across broadcast media, generating blanket national and local TV, radio and online coverage. On TV, BBC Breakfast and This Morning ran live interviews with the parents, while Channel 5 pre-recorded content for their evening news. By making sure the research was regionally split we were able to gain coverage on a raft of local radio stations as well as nationally on 5 Live Breakfast andRadio 1 Newsbeat.
Online a live webTV show was produced where members of the public were able to ask questions live to travel journalist Russell Amerasekera and CORGI representative Sarah Hill. The webchat was successfully syndicated to 16 relevant sites including specialists such as travel site Thetravelmagaine, parenting sites such as UK Parents Lounge and on portals such as Female first and Big City Network.
The extensive coverage resulted in a marked increase in traffic to CORGI’s advice website and of carbon monoxide alarm sales on the high street.
A short video of coverage can be viewed below.