The Huntington & Langham Estate consists of a pair of high-end, family-owned specialist care homes geared towards those with enough wealth to choose a home based on the quality of facilities and the culture of care as opposed to simply going by the cost.
With this in mind, the estate tasked us with creating a campaign that promoted culture above all else – emphasising the estate's focus on resident wellbeing.
Within this, the estate wanted a broad geographical spread of coverage – with a focus on local, but also creating national awareness too.
There were three specific objectives:
The estate's owners were keen to broaden awareness amongst its high-end target market – positioning it as a care provider with outstanding facilities and an outstanding culture of care.
The target audience was mixed. Whilst keen to put themselves in front of the retirement age generation (the likely residents), the estate was also looking to appeal to residents’ families – especially their middle-aged children who might, ultimately, be making the decision.
Emphasis was put on achieving print and broadcast coverage – mediums most embraced by its target market.
To do this, we looked to combine PR with eye-catching imagery, proposing a campaign that sought to tap into the wealth of memories and lived experience in the home – as well as the memories yet to be made.
A six-month timescale was broken down into three distinct parts:
Memories of a landmark event – With the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing in July 2019 – we focused on this first, asking residents what they remembered of the day, and how they were inspired. We then created a supporting video, merging original footage of the moon landing with residents reminiscing about their experiences of the day. This was then passed to press and shared on social channels.
Bucket list wish fulfilled – We asked residents if there was anything they’d longed to do but not been able to, before making it a reality. A resident called Barbara had always wanted to ride a Harley Davidson, having been mesmerised by the ‘beauty’ of one when young. To arrange this, we liaised with a motorcycle club and a local branch of Harley Davidson to organise a trike with sidecar for Barbara, a Harley Davidson jacket and helmet – and 20 bikers to accompany her on laps of the estate grounds.
Reliving a past experience – Talking to residents, it emerged that one, Lesley, was a former model, who’d modelled for YSL and Dior in the 1960s and who would love to relive her modelling days. We then looked to recreate this by hosting a fashion shoot – with photographer, makeup artist and wardrobe assistant in attendance. By coincidence, a visitor to the home who was meeting another resident had previously worked with Vogue Italia. We connected the two, arranging a full fashion shoot to help Lesley relive her modelling heyday.
With 54 pieces of individual coverage, each element achieved media coverage in its own right. The Moonlandings featured on the Express online, along with Eagle Radio – a local radio station that played recordings of the memories on repeat throughout the day.
Barbara’s bike ride saw a camera crew and reporters from ITV Meridian and ITV London attend, along with BBC Radio Surrey. On top of this, it achieved widespread coverage across the estate’s key local news titles both online and in print.
The third element, Lesley’s modelling shoot, really took off, with almost blanket national coverage, including prime print coverage on page three of both the Daily Mail and Daily Express, and page 25 of The Sun and The Daily Mirror, and page 19 of The Metro – all of which were syndicated online. Additional online coverage included The Times, BBC News, The Telegraph, Countrylife and more, as well as all the relevant Surrey local press.
The pièce de résistance though, was the hero shot from Lesley’s modelling shoot making the front page of The Times. The positive feedback from this directly impacted The Times’ editorial policy, as Rose Wild, Archive Editor, expressed in her ‘feedback’ column entitled ‘Good news, we’re on the lookout for more cheer’ that the paper would actively look for positive, uplifting stories going forward, crediting Lesley.
At the height of the campaign, the estate received record enquiries – doubling on previous months and achieving the highest figure since they started recording the monthly target in 2015.
Web traffic saw a distinct spike for each aspect of the campaign with an average increase of 300% across the campaign as a whole, while general site traffic increased by approximately 20% once each campaign aspect had finished.
While meeting all three target objectives, the beauty of the campaign was its effect on the residents themselves, providing two-fold benefit. Not only did it promote the estate’s offering, the residents enjoyed experiences they could savour and cherish.
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