Journalists are bombarded with hundreds of press releases every day. Creating a compelling pitch that makes them sit up and take notice is no easy feat, but we’re experts in generating top-tier media coverage through strategic communications.
If there’s an upcoming event, collaboration or new product release, it’s easy to know what to focus your press release on. But sometimes there isn’t anything “new” to talk to the press about. These situations present an exciting challenge, as it’s our job to essentially create the news. We recently did this for our client Eden Mill.
Introducing the Wildcard Gin
Eden Mill is a Scottish distillery that creates the finest craft gins and Scottish whiskies. For the second year it partnered with the Lawn Tennis Association as the “official spirit of British tennis” and as part of this collaboration, it produced the delicious Wildcard Gin using local Scottish raspberries and strawberries with a hint of peppercorn – a fruity gin with a twist, and the perfect accompaniment for summer entertaining.
As the Wildcard Gin isn’t a new product and to give the consumer press appealing new content for their readers, we set up a photoshoot to champion three new serves – The Cross Court, The Ace and The Wildcard G&T, all featuring the Wildcard Gin. We collaborated with talented industry stylists to create the themed background and overall design of the images, ensuring the shots are visually enticing to intrigue and excite both journalists and readers.
How we really made the most of the partnership
We capitalised on the LTA partnership and invited key press to watch the tennis at Queen’s and Eastbourne as a relationship-building piece of activity. Attendees included Neil Ridley (presenter), Eastbourne Lifestyle, Telegraph Magazine, HELLO!, YOU Magazine and The Spirits Business. We also executed a campaign to mobilise influencers and get them behind Wildcard Gin and its bespoke serves.
A target list of influencers (from micro to those with over 100,000 followers) with a focus on lifestyle, food and drink and gin in particular was created, with the view to sending them a hamper featuring Wildcard Gin, serve suggestions, a pink tennis ball and garnish from Mixologist’s Garden.
The influencers were sent a briefing email with details about Eden Mill’s partnership with the LTA, the creation of Wildcard Gin and with a request for them to create their own Wildcard Gin serve. We asked influencers to post the content during Queen’s final weekend to create a peak in online activity around the hashtag #WildcardGin.
Thanks to the informative brief, the influencers produced highly creative and engaging social content around the LTA hamper (including reels, static grid posts and Instagram stories), featuring the creation of their own Wildcard Gin serves and perfectly showcasing the gin itself. The captions and copy the influencers also used to describe the activity helped to emphasise the product and the LTA partnership too.
It’s important to note that this was a gifted campaign – these influencers weren’t paid for this activity and were only given the hamper – yet the content produced was of an exceptionally high standard.
The results
The results speak for themselves. Here is a snapshot of the influencer coverage and since pitching the serves, we’ve also had coverage in titles including Cosmopolitan Online, The Spirits Business and across over 20 Reach titles including Bristol Live, Devon Live, Essex Live, Nottinghamshire Live and more
Ready to get your business noticed?
We’re confident that we can get your business in front of the right journalists and achieve top-tier media coverage. If you’d like to learn more about how we work, please get in touch.
