Gilchrist Collection: Traditional PR Case Study

OVERVIEW:

With an estimated reach of 30,760,030 the Gilchrist PR campaign was a massive success.

Partnering with celebrity bartender Merlin Griffiths from Channel 4’s First Dates, the ‘Anything but a Mocktail’ campaign leveraged Sober October combined with topical data surrounding drinking habits at weddings - and the press loved it!

THE BRIEF:

The Gilchrist Collection is the largest collection of wedding venues in the UK, with nine venues in Britain and three in the USA. Founded and run by former wedding photographer Samantha Gilchrist, the Collection wanted to elevate its own PR efforts to increase brand awareness and recognition across online, print, broadcast, and social media.

Each venue in the Collection is unique, so any campaigns had to work for both English castles and Texan Barns.

The client’s goal was to increase brand awareness of the entire Collection, and its founder and CEO Samantha Gilchrist, in both consumer and industry press.

OUR STRATEGY:

We created our ‘one of a kind’ umbrella theme

and identified pillars within it that best supported the brief, including ‘one of a kind venues’, ‘one of a kind business’, and ‘one of a kind career’.

Within these pillars we began pitching regular expert commentary and tips, business updates, CEO profiles, and trending topics stories to consumer and business media as part of an always-on press office.

After a few months laying this foundation of coverage and news, we began planning our first integrated campaign that would feature new data as well as an influencer partnership, video and photography content for use in the media and on social, and some digital PR elements (because why wouldn’t we?!).

Because Gilchrist Collection is a personal business, and part of our remit is to increase founder and CEO Samantha Gilchrist’s profile, we interviewed her early on to find any potential campaign ideas and hit upon gold - Dry Weddings.

As a non-drinker herself, Samantha was tired of attending classy and expensive events just to sip on warm soft drinks or water all day. Gilchrist Collection venues already offered a no- and low-alcohol drinks menu for its couples, but we wanted to take things to the next level for them.

We were 6 weeks out from Sober October when the campaign came together. We partnered with Merlin Griffiths, star bartender from Channel 4’s First Dates and put him to work. We held a cocktail making masterclass at Highley Manor and filmed and photographed the whole day. We also ran a 2,000 person survey into current attitudes towards alcohol at weddings and found that a quarter of 18–34 year olds actually weren’t drinking alcohol at the weddings they attended, alongside a load of other stats we could use nationally and regionally.

The statistics came back with some great results. Revealing that 18-34 year olds were most likely to stay sober at weddings, leaning into the cultural attitude shift towards drinking.

The statistics came back with some great results. Revealing that 18-34 year olds were most likely to stay sober at weddings, leaning into the cultural attitude shift towards drinking.

We started soft-pitching, including sending media mailer gifts of cocktail shaker kits, glassware, and other goodies to top tier journalists, the last week of September, and the campaign ran from there!

Merlin acted as a great hook for the story. His star power, plus the statistics got the media talking. A personalised approach to the sell in ensured different areas of the media were targeted in different ways to ensure maximum impact and we secured interview requests not only for Merlin but Sam Gilchrist too.

RESULTS:

Estimated
reach:

30,760,030

Pieces of coverage

Prime time tv appearances

Pieces of coverage

Online pieces (89% linking to Gilchrist Collection)

Estimated reach:

30,760,030

To date, the campaign has achieved 42 pieces of coverage - including two live broadcast interview - with 89% of online coverage linking to our onsite campaign page. The coverage hit everything from bridal magazines and women’s lifestyle press, to industry media and food and drink titles.

We also received hundreds of reactions and comments across Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok on campaign videos and images both on Merlin’s channels and Samantha’s own.

But it’s not done there! We repackaged the content and data we have (including a new case study) and earned coverage around the Christmas period and around Dry January including a BBc radio interview. By timing the campaign this way, we’ve given ourselves three pitching windows in which to secure coverage, ensuring all campaign spend is working as hard as possible to enhance the brand over the long-term.

We also received hundreds of reactions and comments across Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok on campaign videos and images both on Merlin’s channels and Samantha’s own.

Some of our favourite links:

I am so proud of the team for how this campaign came together and the results it’s achieved for Gilchrist Collection already. With bigger integrated campaigns like this one, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes before a press release or email pitch is even written, and there’s always that scary moment the night before launch day when you wonder if a campaign you’ve worked so hard on to that point is actually as great as you think it is!

Thankfully those fears, as always, were quickly put to rest as the first of the coverage started coming in and I’m excited to see what the refreshed versions of the campaign do for the brand too. Hollie Tanker, Traditional PR Manager, Reboot

Hollie Tanker, Traditional PR Manager, Reboot

The PR mocktail campaign with a 30M estimated reach