Britain On The Move

Consumer PR and CSR campaign – Britain on the Move for ITV Granada

ITV’s national 2005 Corporate Social Responsibility initiative was Britain on The Move (BOTM) spearheaded by ITV Granada in partnership with the Home Office, Community Service Volunteers and the Volunteering England Consortium.

BOTM’s aim was to get people to take more exercise and to position ITV as a socially responsible organisation.SKV were appointed to work alongside ITV’s in-house PR team to generate cuttings as evidence of the channel’s nationwide commitment to Public Service Broadcasting.

Objectives

• To highlight health benefits of walking to the public
• To get across key message ‘Get Off Your Couch and Go For a Walk’ – especially on National Walking Day on September 17
• To encourage the use of step-o-meters
• To partner with the Home Office’s Year of the Volunteer, which promoted the benefits of volunteering
• To generate coverage of ITV’s CSR activities Implementation

SKV PR negotiated a feature in Observer with ITV CEO Charles Allen to kickstart the campaign; worked with celebrities and community case studies to reach diverse audiences; publicised the activities of regional ‘Local Heroes’ by working with ITV publicity offices and newsrooms across the UK.

Creative Input SKV recommended that a giant potato – a ‘couch potato’ – be created and Coronation Street stars Bruce Jones, Jane Danson and Nikki Sanderson were briefed by SKV about the issues with prepared sound bites.

SKV persuaded Samia Ghadie and Nikki Sanderson to talk exclusively to the Mail On Sunday about their favourite country walks, organising a photo-shoot of the actresses in kagoules and backpacks.

SKV persuaded Lorraine Kelly to take part in a Daily Telegraph Health interview talking about why she loved walking.

Results:

• A national press photo-call on the set of Coronation Street resulted in nationwide press coverage and a live item on GMTV
• 160,000 calls to the ITV BOTM action line
• 1.2m people taking part in Britain on the Move 2005 events including National Walking Day
• £1.3m raised for charity, including British Heart Foundation and Prince’s Trust
• Royal acknowledgement with a reception for Local Heroes at Buckingham Palace
• Internally, ITV persuaded Granada TV to include the issue in Coronation Street storylines

Coverage highlights:

National Broadcast

• GMTV broadcast Coronation Street photo-call, interviewed actors and displayed telephone number for action line
• This Morning interviewed Bruce Jones (Les Battersby)
• Coronation Street storyline and BOTM action line highlighted at end

National Press

• Observer interview with CEO Charles Allen
• Daily Telegraph interview with Lorraine Kelly
• Daily Star piece with Coronation Street
• News of the World page article

Evaluation

AEV for media coverage for BOTM from July – September was £2,644,110.