17 national and trade media attended the event, including the FT, The Mail on Sunday, BBC Radio 4, Drapers, The Manufacturer, The Daily Telegraph, and many more
To date, 30 pieces of high quality coverage secured, across national, trade and regional media not including extensive online and blog coverage
“Nellie PR did an amazing job at promoting our first ever Meet the Manufacturer event. They only secured features for the show within the trade and business press and gained significant exposure for our exhibitors too.“
Kate Hills
Founder | make it british
The challenge:
On 11 & 12 June 2014, Make it British, the campaign for UK manufacturing, launched its debut ‘Meet the Manufacturer’ conference and sourcing event. Headlined by Mary Portas, the event aimed to rebuild connections between British garment and textile manufacturers and the brands and retailers looking reshore production to the UK. As the first-ever event of its kind, ‘Meet the Manufacturer’ was a brand new concept for the UK fashion and textiles industry. With only six weeks before the event our challenge was to:
Secure high-level pre-event coverage to highlight the key industry issues and reasons why brands, retailers and designers should attend
Position ‘Meet the Manufacturer’ as the top UK manufacturing conference and sourcing show
Raise the profile of event organiser Kate Hills, and highlight her ‘one woman mission’ to bring full-scale manufacturing back to the UK
Build relationships and secure high profile media attendance at the event, as well as targeted post-event coverage.
“What a buzzy conference and trade show. Loved it! #passion #creativity.“
Vicki Owen
The Mail on Sunday
What we did:
Wrote and distributed a pre-event press release, announcing the high profile line-up and highlighting the real benefits of attending
Created a list of target media, bloggers and influencers to attend the event
Pitched ‘Make it British’ founder Kate Hills forward for opinion pieces securing in-depth interviews
Created a template press release – for conference speakers and exhibitors to adapt and distribute to their own local media to achieve regional coverage
Extensive media and blogger relations to secure attendance at the event
Coordinated all media interviews during and after the event
Created a post-event round up press release package, including full event review, photography, quotes and additional information
Extensive post-event media relations, to maximise coverage.
Results:
17 key journalists and influencers attended the event, including: Tanya Powley – The FT, Vicki Owen – The Mail on Sunday, Elizia Volkmann – Freelance fashion writer, Eric Musgrave and Olivia Gagan – Drapers, Henrietta Harrison – BBC Radio 4, Katie Smith – Just-Style, Mark Swift – EEF, Hannah Wesson – Victory Television, Alexandra Cooke and Charlotte Rogers – WTIN, Billy Hunter and Jane Smith – Knitting Industry, Gemma Champ – freelance fashion and features writer, Tony Boylan from Still Made in Britain and many more
Three follow-up pieces in the FT, focusing on reshoring and the UK skills shortage with exhibitors interviewed
Five-page spread in Lingerie Insight, trade magazine for the UK lingerie, nightwear and swimwear industry
Four in-depth reports secured with Just-Style and two reports in Drapers
Opinion piece in The Telegraph: ‘The Government must clamp down on firms that claim to manufacture in the UK, but do not’
In-depth regional coverage also included interviews with event exhibitors in the Leicester Mercury, Northampton Herald and Post, Leek and Post Times, The Journal Northumberland, and Bdaily.
The first ever ‘Meet the Manufacturer’ event was a sell-out, with queues out the door on the first day
100% positive coverage with strong Made in Britain manufacturing messages.
Want to know more?
If you’re interested in this PR case study and want to know more about what Nellie PR could do for you, contact Ellen Carroll at ellen@nelliepr.co.uk or give us a call on 01392 927746, we would love to hear from you. You can also see more Nellie PR case studies.
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