Case studies

Over the Rainbow: Tewkesbury Back in Business

Background

In July 2007, Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire was devastated by floods. The image of the town surrounded by water made headline news around the world. Hundreds of people were forced from their homes, places of work and businesses and many lived and worked in mobile homes, caravans and temporary accommodation for several months while their properties were dried and repaired. Residents spent more than a week without clean, running water.

During the floods, the Abbey played a prominent role both physically and spiritually for the community. On the first night more than 50 people camped in the Abbey unable to get home through the floodwaters. One year on, the Vicar of Tewkesbury, Canon Paul Williams wanted to help the community move on and, once again, prosper. As a Tewkesbury-based business we had seen at first hand how devastating the floods were for the community and we were delighted to be asked by Canon Williams to be part of a recovery initiative.

Through the concept of Over the Rainbow: Tewkesbury Back in Business, a day of activities was planned for 20th July 2008; the year anniversary of the day the rains came. Vivid was part of the organising committee and it led the communications activity. The aim of the event was to make Tewkesbury the centre of attention again, but this time for positive reasons and create an optimistic sense of community in the town. Activities included a church service, free concerts, a children's fairground, closure of roads in the town centre so that shops could spill out on to the streets and benefit from an extra trading day and a spectacular finale of fireworks.

Aims and Objectives

The aims were to successfully communicate the purpose of Over the Rainbow to local people, encourage maximum participation from Tewkesbury businesses and residents and generate national and international media coverage. This had to be carefully balanced with the need for sensitivity as three people had died during the floods.

The objectives were:

To encourage businesses to support Over the Rainbow with donations or sponsorship in kind
To generate interest from all ages to attend the Over the Rainbow
To attract positive media coverage and demonstrate the vibrancy of the town
To engender pride in the town for a legacy above and beyond Over the Rainbow
To start to change the culture of Tewkesbury from one of flood victim to prosperous market town
To provide traders in the town with additional business.

Target Audiences

Businesses in Tewkesbury town centre and business parks
Residents of all ages
Community groups
Civic leaders
Economic development influencers from throughout the South West
The Media - local, regional, national and international

Strategy

To use a combination of personal contact, integrated communications initiatives and media relations to communicate the features and benefits of Over the Rainbow

Implementation

Targeting Businesses
Tactics included a programme of media relations and personal contact from committee members - primarily Canon Paul Williams - and Ian Mean, Editor in Chief of Gloucestershire Media.

Residents
Residents were targeted via media relations, dedicated leaflets and posters and five banners placed at the key entrances to the town to gain visibility. There were also dedicated leaflets distributed to all primary schools distributed in pupils' book bags. The aim was to attract an audience of 5,000 people.

Community Groups
Local community groups in and around Tewkesbury were invited to be a part of a free exhibition in the Abbey Grounds.

Civic Leaders and Economic Development Influencers
Guests were targeted through personal invitation from the organising committee.

The Media
All target media were contacted and kept informed of the programme for the day well ahead of the event and there followed a steady stream of press releases and photo opportunities sent to the local, regional and national media.

A Media Centre with dedicated phone lines and wifi access for journalists was provided by Vivid in the Fitzhamon Room at the Abbey's Visitor Centre. It was open from 7am until 11pm on Sunday 20th July. Aerial photography and filming was set up with via helicopter to syndicate the creative centrepiece; the Abbey community hug.

Creativity

The creativity at the heart of the event was to replicate the image of the Abbey as an island surrounded by water; instead the community would 'hug' the Abbey with a sea of people and this would be recorded with aerial film and photography symbolising how the Tewkesbury community had recovered.

Cost Effectiveness

Vivid's consultancy time was given on a pro bono basis as our contribution to the town's recovery. Based on our general consultancy daily rate of £565 the value of the service we provided for Over the Rainbow exceeded £21,000.

10,500 attended in total on the day (total verified by Gloucestershire Police). The town's population is 18,000.

Sponsorship totalling £36,500 from businesses operating in and around Tewkesbury. There was considerable support pledged by businesses and organisations in kind to provide a vast range of products and services to stage the event. The value of this exceeded £30,000. Gloucestershire First match funded the money raised and given in kind.

Results

Locally, Vivid recruited two key media partners for Over the Rainbow - The Gloucestershire Echo and BBC Radio Gloucestershire who featured the run up to the event as well as covering the event on the day. BBC Radio Gloucestershire broadcast live from the event. Coverage locally and regionally included the Gloucestershire Echo (on Monday 21st July the front page was a wrap-around of the aerial shot of the Abbey), BBC Radio Gloucestershire, The Admag, Tewkesbury Observer, Western Daily Press and BBC Points West. National coverage included The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail, BBC TV News, Radio Five and Sky News; All used the image of 2000 people hugging the Abbey; a key objective of the campaign. Evaluating the media coverage on a simplistic AEV rating amounted to more than 150,000.

Furthermore as a result of the media contacts made during Over the Rainbow, Vivid was contacted by the BBC in March 2009 to see if the town would be interested in being part of the BBC2's Money Programme hosted by retail guru Mary Portas. The production team wanted to investigate how Tewkesbury had been hit by the recession so soon after the floods. We facilitated a series of interviews and a public meeting in the town which produced so much material that the Tewkesbury element became the major feature. The programme broadcast on 23rd June 2009 was viewed by 1.8 million people and the success of the town's community in driving its own recovery was a key feature.

Guests at Over the Rainbow included Dr Tim Brain, Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Constabulary, Chief Fire Officer Terry Standing and Tewkesbury MP Laurence Robertson and representatives from Gloucestershire First, Gloucestershire County Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council. Furthermore John Healey MP, the Government's floods minister attended in a private capacity. 12 groups in total requested exhibition space at the event.

Vivid was awarded Gold in the Community Relations category at the 2009 CIPR West of England PRide awards for this project.

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