Alive & Kicking in 2010
Substance PR has been working in partnership with Ubiquity Comms to promote football charity Alive & Kicking, a social enterprise employing adults in Kenya and Zambia at a fair wage to make footballs, netballs and volleyballs. The balls are hand-stitched and carry health warnings about AIDS/HIV, malaria and TB, and are donated to children in refugee camps, orphanages and schools in sub-Saharan Africa.
In just a few months we’ve generated coverage across BBC and ITV television, national radio including Five Live Drive and TALKsport, and on Sky News, Sky Sports News, newspapers and across the Internet. Spirit of Football is using an Alive & Kicking ball as the World Cup's equivalent of the Olympic Torch. In January this year, the Spirit of Football team set off with an Alive & Kicking ball from Battersea Park on a 10,000-mile journey to the World Cup opening ceremony in South Africa. On the first leg of the journey, the ball was involved in an amazing new world record as football freestyler Dan Magness did keepy-uppys for 36 miles and 14 hours across London, vising all of the city's Premier League grounds. This secured widespread coverage, capturing both the public’s and media’s attention.
The E-Day Experiment
Our media work for Dr Matt Prescott’s Earth Summit and E-Day experiment, which happened on the Isles of Scilly on October 6, achieved more than £1m of coverage. E-Day, which was sponsored by the Department for Energy and Climate Change, attempted something never done before - an entire community's effort to cut its energy use was recorded online in real time.
Blanket coverage on local radio stations and prominent positioning in local newspapers ensured residents on the Isles were alerted to the Earth Summit and aware they should be conserving electricity on E-Day. The Isles of Scilly community responded positively to the E-Day experiment challenge and collectively cut its electricity consumption by 3% when compared to the rest of the nation, an effort that if replicated by the rest of the UK would mean we’d save £3m per day and a power station could be turned off.
BBC Breakfast broadcast live from the Isles of Scilly on E-Day and on the following day, when results of the experiment were revealed. The BBC also broadcast news and interviews on the News at One, the Today Programme, PM, BBC America, BBC News 24 and on its various national and regional radio stations. National newspapers including the Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Times and The Sun picked up on E-Day's news and ensuing debates highlighted the importance of where our energy comes from and how we use it. Other coverage generated by our work includes a double-page spread in Reader's Digest, as well as pieces in BBC Countryfile magazine and BBC Wildlife magazine.
Dr Matt Prescott says: "Substance PR did a fantastic job raising awareness of E-Day and the Isles of Scilly Earth Summit amongst target journalists and media outlets. With the benefit of Substance PR's help, advice and contacts, E-Day is now firmly established in the UK and has been able to reach local, national and international audiences in ways that have opened up many new and exciting opportunities."
Judge 3D
We're a few months into our media campaign for commercial management specialists Judge 3D, and it s going fantastically well. So far we have placed expert articles from founder John Judge in Construction News, RICS Business, Contracts Manager, Railway Strategies and a special double-page feature in Irish World. There have also been interviews with The Guardian and Construction News. John has 20 years experience overseeing multi million pound construction and engineering contracts in the UK, Italy, Indonesia, Nigeria and Sri Lanka for clients including WS Atkins and London Underground Limited. Recent projects include advising on the redevelopment of Farringdon Station, North London Line Re-Signaling, East London Line and TfL's underground telecommunications system for the emergency services.
