Charity campaign launch makes noise in the press

An appeal made across Scotland for old bagpipes to be donated is a media success thanks to Edinburgh PR agency

A piping trust giving free tuition to more than 1000 pupils in schools across Scotland has become a media sensation after they launched their campaign appealing for instruments for the youngsters to play – with a little help from our PR team.

The Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust (SSPDT) unveiled the Bagpipe Amnesty appeal called Old Pipes for New Players on Monday 25^th January.

The trust has been set up because the vast majority of pupils in Scottish schools do not have the chance to learn the pipes and drums in the classroom on the same basis as other instruments. The SSPDT trustees believe there must be hundreds of sets of pipes lying unused in cupboards and attics that could be given a new lease of life and they want to give the children of Scotland the opportunity to learn.

View original release here

Holyrood PR was instrumental in the success of the launch event. As fire stations across Scotland had joined with SSPDT to accept donations of bagpipes, our award winning team arranged a unique photo call at Govan fire station with the fire brigade and children from Govan Primary Schools who had previously benefitted for work carried out by SSPDT.

We invited top broadcast journalists and photographers to attend helping secure prime time TV coverage for the campaign on BBC news, STV and STV Live at Five.

In addition to the launch photo call, Holyrood PR issued a media release to key national newspapers and adapted the release for each region in Scotland to send to local newspapers. This generated 42 pieces of coverage across Scotland, massively raising awareness of the campaign and encouraging people to donate to the worthwhile cause.

The coverage achieved from the event was so powerful that within the first three days of officially being able to donate, ten bagpipes had been handed over – one of them coming from across the pond in America.

Donations of pipes can be made from February 1-14. Call 0808 281 9405 to find your nearest station or find out more information on all aspects of the Bagpipe Amnesty from www.sspdt.org.uk. The appeal is also being supported by a comprehensive social media campaign (insert FB/Twitter handles), which includes a gallery of videos (insert link the video gallery)

This PR activity comes as part of project work for SSPDT which commenced in 2016.

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