How we created clicks for bricks with innovative digital public relations for luxury house builder

IN THIS digital age any savvy business want its PR campaign to reach the new breed of online influencers.

Of course, traditional media coverage remains an essential part of any successful PR campaign and we go above and beyond to land major print and broadcast coverage. However, with a multitude of social media platforms and a constantly changing online landscape, we also work hard to find exciting new methods to tell the business stories of our clients.

We recently achieved this in real style by arranging for luxury house builder CALA Homes to throw open the doors of a stunning £1 million Cumberland show home in Trinity, Edinburgh.

It was CALA’s  first ever dedicated blogger event, proving a hit with online influencers who often feel overlooked by big brands and companies. Significant social media activity was generated, with results including:

• Photos of the showhome on Instagram generated at least 100 likes and reached at least 45,000 people.
• Influencers sharing the hashtag #CALACumberland, which directly reached at least 3,500 Twitter via Tweets and photo uploads.
• Alll of those accounts were Edinburgh-centric ensuring exactly the right target audience was reached.
• A further 30,000 Twitter users reached via “favouriting” and retweets.
• In Particular, key CALA related favourites came from two pivotal twitter users – Made in Scotland Magazine and Scotland Food and Drink CEO James Withers – collectively accounting for a reach of at least 21,000.
• At least 100,000 social media users exposed to CALA Cumberland content in just 24 hours.
• All activity came from Edinburgh and Scotlandcentric- accounts meaning a vast proportion of users would have been within CALAs key target audience.
• Beyond social media the event also yielded a three page glossy feature in luxury magazine Scottish Woman.
• Three other major media features in the pipeline – with imminent publishing dates.

As an award winning public relations agency our strategies for achieving successful results for clients need to be innovative. We don’t wait for our clients to suggest new ideas, instead we proactively pursue them. Our bloggers event was certainly innovative – heralded as a group-wide first for CALA Homes, which operates across the UK.

Read on to see the rave reviews from journalists, bloggers, social media users and find out how we organised the event for CALA Homes.

TAPPING INTO A DIGITAL AGE

Times are changing and so are we. To create an innovative event, we had to think differently. As PR experts we tapped into the growing number of niche bloggers and online writers.
There is no doubt these new media practitioners are often different from the journalists on mainstream news titles – and that means outreach to them has to be handled carefully with respect to their preferences.
For that reason care and thought went into the best way to send the e-invites to those active on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
We generated a substantial amount of global activity just from our invite alone – which is an early warning system to tell whether your event will be a hit or a miss.
The beauty of tapping into digital markets mean those interested in your event can share the occasion at the touch of a button with other niche writers interested in the same pursuits.
And the beauty of reaching out to online writers ensures your content is post perfect and delivered in an instantaneous fashion – ensuring it will be alright on the night.

THE BACKGROUND

The “New Year, New Home” was arranged for a Thursday evening, focusing on the release of the showhome property and intended to give niche lifestyle, property and interior writers a background to the home and its style inspirations.
Guests were given the opportunity to tour the home – with a mood board in each room providing an at-a-glance guide to the design behind each room. Drinks and refreshments were also provided with canapés and prosecco available for all guests – and entry to a luxury raffle.
Edinburgh based organic brand, JustBe Botanicals, was also in attendance – providing guests with samples of luxury infused tea and herbal chocolate.
CALA Homes staff and sales advisors were on hand to provide a wealth of background knowledge to guests about the property, the Trinity Park development – and its history.
Meanwhile, the team from Jeffrey’s Interiors – who were behind the uber-sytle kit out of the property – also provided their interior design predictions for 2015 , while also providing more context to the Cumberland style inspirations.

The idea behind the event was to tap into an untouched market, wherein Scotland has a large blogging community which has not been previously synced with the property market. By inviting a mix of traditional print press and bloggers/online writers – we hoped to achieve a variety of targeted and niche coverage – and that we did.
The premise behind focusing on bloggers allowed for instant results and instantaneous coverage on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (and various blog platforms) – which should widely covey the launch of the property to a significant target audience.

SIGNING ON THE DOTTED LINE

We merged all attending brands, guests and writers together to create a showhome event to rave about.
The event was a demonstration of innovation. Not only did it create plentiful online buzz and valuable print media coverage, it was a hugely worthwhile and enjoyable way to develop relationships.
By inviting a mix of similar and niche brands we certainly ensured this. A mix of key print and online press is a great way to cover all bases for your target market – especially when the writers and posters are completely within your demographic.
At our Edinburgh PR agency, we are totally-focused on results – and we delivered in spades with our million pound show home blogger event. We were delighted with the positive feedback from CALA Homes, was entirely in line with the compliments we received from all other guests and publications – that the event was a show stopping success.

FIND OUT HOW OUR SCOTTISH PR AGENCY IN EDINBURGH COULD HELP YOUR BUSINESS

If you’d like to find out how our PR services – including media relations, PR photography and PR video – could boost your bottom line, then we’d love to have a conversation.

You can contact our team on 0131 561 2244 or fill out the simple form below and we’ll get straight back to you.