Our client
Contact Group is a leading provider of best-in-class communication and data services to thousands of state and independent nurseries, primary and secondary schools, academies, sixth form colleges, local authorities, charities and clubs in the UK and Ireland. In addition, they provide services to international schools in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australia.
The company asked us to develop a thought leadership and executive profiling campaign for them. We did, and it worked extremely well achieving its objectives. It also won Livewire PR the CIPR Gold Award in the category ‘Best Trade and Technical Campaign’.
What they wanted us to do
Contact Group commissioned us to boost the profile of Stephen Clarke, the Managing Director of Contact Group (formerly Truancy Call) and to raise awareness of the issues surrounding absenteeism in UK schools.
How we did it
First of all, we identified the themes relating to truancy and business practice about which Stephen is passionate. Then we devised a strategy to position him as an expert in the education, national and business media. This involved:
- Offering Stephen for comment when government statistics were released
- Preparing and issuing breaking news comments by-lined to Stephen on each announcement
- Entering Stephen for key business and entrepreneurial awards
- Putting Stephen forward for features, advisory columns and business profile pieces across the education and business press.
What we achieved for them
The results we achieved were impressive. Contact Group’s message reached the entire UK and beyond via an interview on BBC News 24. This is the UK’s most-watched news channel reaching 6.6 million viewers every week. During the interview, Contact Group was referred to five times in just three minutes.
What’s more, over a 12-month period, Stephen Clarke was profiled in key media including The Independent, and regularly quoted on the issues surrounding absenteeism in 80 news articles and bulletins. All of this exposure helped Stephen Clarke to win the BT ‘Essence of the Entrepreneur’ Award – a piece of news which we then used to secure a further 15 pieces of coverage across different media.
Livewire’s PR campaign to raise awareness of truancy, and promote Truancy Call in the media have helped to further enhance our profile within UK schools. We have had some excellent media coverage thanks to Livewire’s innovative approach and knowledge of the media. There is no doubt that this has presented us with additional business, which without the coverage we would have been unlikely to attain.
Stephen Clarke, Managing Director, Contact Group
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