Legal PR team deliver on digital – with campaign featuring huge TV reach and social media competition

SUCCESSFUL solicitor estate agents, Warners was determined to stay ahead of its competition – so called on our digital PR experts to turbocharge the firm’s online presence.

When the company launched a slick and modern new website we made sure it was a major success, reaching a massive audience and delivering a major bump in visitors.

That included securing the firm a once-in-a-lifetime sponsorship opportunity on a new TV channel, organising a popular online competition and delivering runaway audience reach. In fact, the success included:

• Sponsoring the launch of new, daily Edinburgh TV programme, the Fountainbridge Show, with 166,000 viewers
• Conceiving and delivering an online competition which brought in almost 200 new business leads
• Coverage of the competition in two of Edinburgh’s biggest news outlets – reaching 100,000 people
• Associated social media activity which reached an audience of tens of thousands
• A 240% increase in website visitors
• A 300% increase in website page view

Long before the launch we were working with Warners on its digital profile including creating the firm’s Twitter account in 2009 – years ahead of its rivals – and introducing the company to the use of online video from 2008.

WEBSITE

However, the imminent launch of a new website caught the full attention of the Warners partners, focusing them on the wealth of opportunities afforded by working with digital PR experts. That gave us a chance to shine – a chance we grabbed with both hands.

Ahead of the launch we carried out an extensive digital audit of the firm’s main competitors, producing a slick, 4500-word, 11-page report packed full of actionable insights and providing a detailed route map for the firm and its staff to build and promote the business via social media and other digital platforms

While the new website was being created, we also liaised closely with developers and SEO experts to ensure it would be built with content at its heart, to ensure Warners would rank on page one of Google searches for a wide variety of search terms.

Meanwhile we assisted with the creation of copy to make the new site as punchy and user-friendly as possible and delivered an exhaustive, six-month calendar of blog posts for the new site.

The results spoke for themselves. In the first three months of going live, the number of visitors to the website more than doubled while the number of page views tripled, compared with the same period in the previous year.

TV DEAL

However, the masterstroke was in using our extensive media contact to help Warners secure a sought-after sponsorship slot on the STV Edinburgh’s flagship programme, the Fountainbridge Show.

Indeed, Warners publicly launched its new website on the same day that the new show aired for the first time.

With a presenting team led by popular TV personality Ewen Cameron, The Fountainbridge Show aired every weekday from 7-8.30pm, taking a relaxed magazine approach and reaching a major and influential audience in Edinburgh and surrounding area – the Warners’ heartland.

The 10-second long Warners sponsorship “bumper” appeared 12 times in each show, with the strapline “Edinburgh’s hottest property”.  Since each broadcast also got two further repeat showings, that meant Warners’ messaging was being served to viewers 36 times a day.

Because we were able to introduce Warners to the STV team so early, they were locked in well in advance and therefore were able to negotiate an excellent deal, which also saw them secure numerous free advertising spots during the three-month project.

COMPETITION

Despite the brilliant TV exposure, we didn’t rest on our laurels – in fact we conceived and delivered a month-long social media competition, with the property-themed hashtag, #DinnerOnTheHouse.

As well as highlighting the new website, the main aim of the intensive social media push was to promote the firm’s free pre-sale valuation  (PSV) service. This was hugely important because those potential customers who undergo a PSV with Warners are far more likely to choose the firm when it comes to selling their home. That’s why the Warners team carry out up to 160 PSVs per month.

Thanks to the STV sponsorship, we were able to work with celebrity chef Mark Greenaway – who appeared regulalry on the programme – to offer an all-expenses meal for two at his highly-rated restaurant in Castle Street as the competition prize.

We made sure a blog post on the Warners site explained the competition was open to everyone who signed up for the free valuation service, while another prominent post appeared on the restaurant’s popular website.

As an added bonus we also secured coverage for the competition on the STV Edinburgh website and in the Edinburgh Evening News, which between them have enormous reach in the Scottish capital and surrounding area.

Social media promotion of the competition got Warners in front of at least 51,000 people on Twitter, while  also achieving a reach of 6000 on the Warners fledgling Facebook page, where there were 276 engagements.

The number of PSV signs up during the month smashed all previous monthly figures.

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