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The last two years have seen the UK awash with buntings, street parties and community get-togethers.
From the freeing of lockdown parties to all things royal like the Platinum Jubilee and the recent Coronation; it’s provided everyone with an enormous amount of marketing opportunity.
Everyone has heard of the phrase “content is King”… but now for the first time in over 70 years, the King is finally content…
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, communication teams up and down the country became the port of call for businesses. For us, it meant managing our own comms as well as our clients.
From the moment we were warned of her ill health, we hit pause on any planned activity for the remainder of that week and began to put into action our planned response. From closing our laptops at 5:30pm, only to be back online by 6pm, when Buckingham Palace confirmed The Queen’s death.
Operation London Bridge was underway and our comms team (who were spread across Gothenburg and the UK at the time) started to get to work.
For our B2B clients we paused activities and followed the national period of mourning, a simple social post to pay their respects and no advertising or media announcements throughout the period of mourning. For Hull Trains, daily calls were put in with various government bodies to ensure all comms aligned with the Palace, we had travel advice for the public travelling to pay their respects, announcements on board to update the public on queue times for lying in state and new media provided by the palace to display across social channels and stations.
It shows just how important a crisis communication strategy really is in times of uncertainty.
But of course, we knew the whole time that following the death of Queen Elizabeth II there would eventually be a Coronation for our new monarch.
The celebrations for our clients ranged from big and grand all the way down to a social post and we loved it all.
Hiab UK and Jet Plant Hire highlighted the Coronation with social posts that congratulated the king in their own unique ways, from a MOFFETT product lifting the crown to road planers in action with the union jack lighting the background, showing you can mark the occasion without losing your brand.
For Hull Trains, the Coronation was a chance to give back to their community and that’s exactly what they did.
They hosted a week-long collection for their local Trussell Trust brand in aid of The Big Help Out, an initiative launched by the king to be to encourage people to help out in their local communities.
It took weeks of planning to partner with the charity, create a standout donation point, publicise the donation ahead of time and get the public interested!
A press release and three radio interviews later and the steady stream of donations from the public began to come through. The Hull Trains team also came together internally and through their own Big Coronation Lunch collected over 200 tinned goods to add the donation point!
But that wasn’t all, what better way to celebrate the Coronation that with their very own street party! On board their 08:24am service on Thursday 4th May, they welcomed 20 passengers from numerous community and charity groups they have been working with over the past few years to say thank you to people that do so much for the city of Hull.
On the service guests enjoyed afternoon tea, coronation themed activities and even a singalong.
The service proved popular with the media too. ITV Calendar hopped on board to document the trip and share on their 6pm evening show. A great bit of coverage for a great cause!
All in all, the scheme resulted in five radio interviews, multiple TV appearances across ITV calendar, and dozens of shares across social media throughout the week and into the Coronation weekend.
Here at CWA, we never pass on the opportunity to host our own event, and nothing is more British or royal than a good old-fashioned street party.
Now it wasn’t quite on board a train, but it was a real street party. We opened the doors to CWA HQ to our neighbours, some of which have lived by our office for over 30 years.
We provided a true culinary experience to the street of Fish and Chips and inspired by the work of our clients’ we collected donations for our own local Trussell Trust branch.
It was a great chance to let our neighbours know what we get up to here at CWA and to hear their stories of what they remember our office being and tales of Glenfield. From a spitfire factory to a marketing agency, our building definitely has some history.
Alongside this, we held a Great Royal Bake Off for all of our colleagues to get involved. The bakes ranged from cheese straws to cookies, and we even saw a quiche, a nod to the King’s choice of Coronation food. The bake off saw us Coronate our very own King, Chris Nobbs, with his showstopping Jaffa Cake Brownies. He bagged himself an afternoon tea for two at Kilworth House and most importantly, bragging rights.
At the end of the day, we had collected a whooping 71kg of donations for our local foodbanks, enough to feed three families of four for a whole week!
So as the confetti settles on this Coronation, the cake stands are put away, and the bunting comes down, we can get our thinking hats on for how to mark the next occasion, whenever it comes around…
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