FM Winter 2025 - Flipbook - Page 8
PR and Awareness –
PrettyGreen and Broadcast
Revolution
An opening conversation with Jess Hargreaves Paczek, CEO,
PrettyGreen was as useful as I hoped it would be. Here was an
agency that was already very invested in its own youth
development story. I knew enough about PrettyGreen to know that
here was an agency who, if they could do me a favour they would.
PrettyGreen I knew to be a very well-run agency, driven by
storytelling through events and experiences, who had a track record
of consistently delivering above expectation campaigns for a super
A list of brands, a regular FMBE Award winner. On top of that they
had a desire to support good causes and an enthusiasm for the
passionate storytelling run that I presented. They also had
‘previous’ having supported endurance athlete Sean Conway
through his 2023 multiple iron distance triathlons challenge.
The response from PrettyGreen surpassed all my expectations
when I was assigned a crack team of six to support me across press
and social media. They also introduced me to Broadcast
Revolution, who, sharing the same philanthropic outlook and a
passion for my story. Broadcast Revolution saw the merit in all of
my carefully curated localized content plan. Broadcast Revolution
was a joy to work with cue up multiple TV and radio interviews.
When presented with an urgent charity job to do Lester
Wolstenholme and team could not have done more for me. I had no
budget and was prepared to run in any gear at all that would get the
fundraising message across when I ran in it. What I got was a whole
lot more – colour consultation, easy artwork handling, high quality
garments, t-shirts that hung well for running and hoodies that were
warm and weighty. The logos looked bright and bouncy and
Lester’s initiative saw us with sleeve prints as well as back and front.
Those sleeves caught the eye of many passersby on the trail,
stimulating conversation and bringing about donations.
Blue Square and Samsung
Birmingham Bullring – Tuesday 20th August
Blue Square was always going to be a likely sponsor of the Big TOE.
I was confident before speaking with co-founder and CEO Andrew
Leaver because the agency prides itself in supporting youth
development projects. Andrew himself is a chair of ‘Oracles’ at
Caldwell Youth, in which Oracles are people committed to
fundraising for and supporting that cause.
Not only were Blue Square a very committed sponsor strategically,
but they also embraced the roadshow run reportage that I was
planning. I was a few weeks into the tour and standing outside
Guildford Cathedral when I spoke with Andrew Leaver. “We’re
running a Samsung roadshow”, he told me, and there are bound to
be dates that will coincide with your running routes. I will send them
over.”
Highlights from the PR and Media coverage
53 pieces of coverage, 3.08 million views, 1.2 billion total publication
wide audience. I appeared on every news website from the BBC to
Evening Standard to PA News to MSN and Yahoo and in print in
everything from Runner’s World to the Church Times.
TV and Radio saw me appearing on BBC, Sky and ITV, with an
especially satisfying live interview for Sky Breakfast as I prepared for
the last day of the tour. The total TV and Radio audience was 2.7m –
17 radio stations and 3 TV stations.
Reflex International
One part of the supplier support I thought would be a given was the
screen printing with my sister running the family printing business.
It came as a shock then when I asked her to make me some running
t-shirts and she had just sold her screen printing equipment.
Into that breach stepped Reflex International, having quite the best
reputation of any promotional business for supplying uniforms to
brand experience teams.
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Winter 2025
How could he be so sure, I wondered, but that was explained when
the dates came through. Samsung’s AI tour was looping the country
in two double decker battle buses and it had been a long time since
I had seen such a comprehensive tour with such a long list of
destinations, including several stints at the Bullring in Birmingham,
the location that very happily coincided with my run schedule. It
would also, later coincide with my run when I went through
Liverpool, but by then I had received an outstanding welcome and
enjoyable tour of the bus in Birmingham.
This tour was also indelibly linked with FMBE Magazine and Awards
as the agency won our shopping centre/roadshow category last
year, a category that lead Awards sponsor SpaceandPeople added
extra value to with an incredible £25,000 to spend at any Network
Rail promotional location.
Focussing on the culmination of Tour One, Andrew Bodwick, Client
Services Director, SpaceandPeople commented:
“It’s been amazing to work with Blue Square on their epic
roadshow supporting Samsung. Tour One spanned over 3
months, with 21 stops and 82 live days. They were particularly
excited to activate at London King’s Cross Station where they
used their prize for winning the Most Effective Roadshow or
Shopping Centre Campaign Award at the 2023 FMBE Awards!”
