markettiers4dc worked with the charity Together for Short Lives to raise national awareness of Children’s Hospice Week and the great work that children’s hospices provide.
Due to the increased assets available for this year's campaign, activity was split into three phases; creating audio content with Simon Cowell, developing a live broadcast session and securing ad-hoc interview opportunities with national broadcasters around the announcement of support from HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.
Phase One
markettiers4dc created audio content with celebrity patrons Simon Cowell and Barbara Gelb, Chief Executive of Together for Short Lives. Given the limited time that we had with Simon, markettiers4dc produced short interviews that could be distributed to commercial stations who would not normally have an opportunity to feature an interview with Simon.*
Phase Two
Surrounding some recent research into the subject matter, markettiers4dc designed a radio campaign to highlight that children's hospices not only support the children but their families too. Although this story was extremely newsworthy, markettiers4dc anticipated that for many broadcasters it would be a difficult discussion topic to feature during their mid-morning and afternoon shows and so it was decided to wait for the following week and discuss the wider story around Children's Hospice Week. Interviews were secured with wide a number of BBC and commercial stations, as well as a TV hit with ITV central.
Phase Three
markettiers4dc developed a strict distribution time-plan for HRH Duchess of Cambridge's announcement of support for Together for Short Lives and Children's Hospice Week via a video message. This part of the campaign was extremely sensitive and by no means could any information be leaked to the media for fear of them breaking embargo. Therefore, all broadcast plans were shared with and approved by St James' Palace ahead of any information given to broadcasters. The level of interest in this phase of the campaign was vast and due to spokesperson flexibility and depth of sell in spanning the entire weekend therefore high calibre broadcast opportunities were secured.
Results
- Effectively raised national awareness for Together for Short Lives across TV, radio and online.
- TV coverage highlights included BBC Breakfast, Sky Sunrise, Sky News, ITV, ITN, NBC, Reuters and PA amongst many more
- Radio coverage highlights included BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Sussex & Surrey and Downtown Radio
*Due to restrictions on the day the audio content with Simon Cowell was not distributed.