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Benefits of broadcast: how Pumpkin helped Pablo shine the light on rehabilitation
March 19, 2024
Did you know that not everyone qualifies for rehab in the UK and it’s a postcode lottery as to whether or not you get treatment?
Neither did we before we started working with our clients at creative agency, Pablo London, on its #RighttoRehab campaign with NHS Rehabilitation nurse, Kate Tantam. Kate and the team at Pablo London worked together to put rehabilitation on the agenda and campaign for there to be a rehabilitation strategy and lead in every hospital and health board in the UK.
But what is a great movement, campaign, or story, if no one knows about it?
That’s where we came in.
With a unified mission to raise awareness of the cause, we wasted no time in building out the story of the campaign, using its consumer relevance to secure coveted coverage opportunities for key spokespeople including those at Pablo London, Kate Tantam, and Jo Burgess – one of the patients who took part in the campaign. We spread this coverage far and wide, beyond just trade press.
By organising a press day, we offered our contacts across regional and national broadcast access to key spokespeople ahead of the campaign launch. This meant they could conduct interviews, film footage, have ample time to edit and fit the content into their planning schedules. This resulted in stellar coverage across slots in ITV West Country, BBC Spotlight and BBC Radio Devon.
From our efforts, we amplified this campaign to a reach of more than 1.2 billion – no that’s not a typo, billion not million.
Here are our top tips from this broadcast campaign:
Flexibility is key: This is especially important for the key spokespeople of the campaign. It’s vital that these spokespeople are readily available for interviews beyond just launch day, particularly in the week leading up to, and post, the campaign launch. Broadcast is volatile – priorities shift and flex all the time as the news agenda flows. So, spokespeople must be prepared for nothing being set in stone. Ideally, spokesperson flexibility also includes being able to travel to different locations to film. Whether on location or in the studio, in person will always be prioritised over a competing story that is only offering a Zoom chat.
Have a bird’s eye perspective and keep on top of the calendar: We read the news and keep on top of the news agenda everyday. And we’re always aware of what’s coming up – it’s all part of the job. But this is even more crucial with a broadcast campaign. Of course, even we can’t predict breaking news, but we can keep our eyes peeled on the key dates calendar to help mitigate any avoidable clashes that may impact pick up of your campaign. For example, for some the 15th March is just the 15th March.
But for the BBC the 15th March is Red Nose Day. And we know that most programming and coverage on that day will focus around that – doing something funny for money. Your story likely wouldn’t cut through, and if it does make it, it will be drowned out. On the flip side, using a key date if relevant can also act as a springboard to push your campaign into the news agenda. Knowing how and what would work is where our expertise lies, and we always keep an eye on upcoming key dates and calendars to ensure we are equipped to advise as appropriate.
Plan in advance: Getting ahead of the curve and pitching to broadcast press early helped us secure these great wins. Broadcast schedules are planned much further in advance than you might think, so we need to be pitching your campaign in the weeks ahead of the launch. We would always suggest the sooner the better when it comes to getting you on people’s radar and into their diaries.
At Pumpkin we’re (obviously) masters of the marketing trade press, but our expertise extends into securing broadcast and national opportunities – spreading your important stories far and wide.
What else are we experts in? Reach out to us at [email protected] to find out more.
By Ella Wallace Browne and Grace Masters