visitbirmingham.com - The Big Blues Football Curry
Overview
We were appointed in September 2009 by Marketing
Birmingham, the city’s destination marketing
agency, to carry out a sponsorship maximisation PR campaign for Visit
Birmingham’s sponsorship of Birmingham City Football Club.
The goal was to use the partnership to highlight
the city’s destination offer to home and away football fans and UK wide
potential visitors.
Objectives
Our brief was to develop a cost effective stunt to attract national
and international media attention and drive positive perceptions about
Birmingham as an entertainment destination, with a view to increasing future
visitors to the city.
In the face of a competitive sports news
environment, our task was to deliver an idea which would engage the fans and
the media, ensuring cut through
Campaign Objectives
· Deliver three standout national media hits for the
campaign promoting Birmingham as a great sport and entertainment destination
· Align visitbirmingham.com with Birmingham City FC
· Showcase the visitbirmingham.com brand and engage
directly with football fans, generating awareness of The City of Birmingham.
Strategy
With Birmingham being famous for its culinary
excellence and, in particular, being known as the birthplace of the Balti, we
identified National Curry Week as a platform from which to launch a specific
Birmingham City FC campaign.
The concept was to create a very special Blues
(BCFC) themed curry, designed to highlight Birmingham’s heritage/offer and showcase
Birmingham as the perfect weekend destination, combining top class football and
the nation’s best Indian restaurants.
The initiative would then
be launched ahead of National Curry Week, via sampling at St Andrews at the
Fulham home fixture on Saturday 21st November.
Activity
We devised a three-stage media and event
strategy to attract and maintain media attention, interaction and interest in a
visitbirmingham.com curry stunt.
Launch
Event Launch of
the Blues Curry-Off
With the help of award-winning Birmingham restaurant
Lasan, the two players (James McFadden and Frank Queudrue) went head to head to
produce their very own curries for Blues fans at the Birmingham College of Food.
The two creations were then judged by a panel of
local representatives, including journalists, local chefs and BCFC Vice
President, Mike Wiseman.
Media attendance included Soccer AM, Soccer
Saturday, Sunday Mirror, Premier League World, The People, BBC West Midlands
and ITV Central.
Broadcast media, in particular, ran fantastic
branded pieces, with the curry eaten live on air by football legend Jeff
Stelling and his pundits on Soccer Saturday, as well as Soccer AM presenters
Max Rushdon and Helen Chamberlin encouraging Blues fans to head to the pub
serving the curry on the day of the game.
Pre
Event
To drive interest and engagement, fans were given
the opportunity to vote for the perfect name for the specially made curry via
visitbirmingham.com. The competition received over 250 entries, with local
Blues fan Ian Treadwell choosing the name, The Blue Queudrue.
The name was revealed in the week leading up the
game via media relations, social media and club channels.
The
Event
Over 1,000 samples were given away to hungry Blues
fans at the Royal George pub next to the ground on the 21st November.
The Daily Star ran a full page in the morning of the game and BBC Radio West
Midlands carried out a live feed from the pub. Announcements on the PA system,
along with the match-day programme and web coverage ensured fans were informed
of the activity. The Blue Queudrue was also served to around 2,000 hospitality
guests at the ground.
Before the game, all the attendees in the press box
were given the curry as their pre-match meal. In match-reports the next day,
visitbimrmingham.com had a large presence within a number of national
newspapers, including the News of the World, Sunday Express, Sunday Telegraph
and The People.
Outcome
· Over a three week period stand out media coverage
on the BBC, ITV, Sky Sports, Sky Sports News and Premier World
· The media coverage delivered an opportunity to
see/hear OTS figure of 15.8m above target
· The campaign generated an equivalent media value of
£509,220 and a 3864% return on campaign investment
· Media coverage delivered verbal and visual mentions
for the Visit Birmingham brand and a call to action with reference to Visit
Birmingham website – hits to the website spiked over the weekend of the event
· The campaign engaged directly with hundreds of
fans, who voted to name the curry and drove positive association with BCFC. The
campaign directly engaged with 25,000 plus attendance on the match day,
promoted Visit Birmingham talk-ability and tasting of The Blue Queudrue was
carried out with both home and away fans.
· The activity was highly commended in the 2009 Fresh
Awards in the Freshest PR Stunt or Event
Kate Eccles, Marketing Birmingham PR Manager:
“The
team at Hatch have
been quick to understand the strategy behind Visit Birmingham’s football
partnership deal and the key objectives driving the campaign. They worked
effectively with Visit Birmingham and Birmingham City FC to ensure the curry
stunt was well organised and well attended. They also delivered relevant
coverage in target media; both print and broadcast. We are delighted with the
outcome of the stunt and what has been achieved so far.”
Johnny Phillips, Soccer Saturday presenter:
“Hatch
did a fantastic job organising the event. We were delighted to be invited down
and got everything we needed when required. Curry tasted just as good!”
