Holland’s Pie Panel campaign bids for prestigious award
March 19, 2009
One of the most successful client campaigns run by Bluestorm’s PR team is bidding for a national award.
The Holland’s Pies Pie Panel campaign, which was picked up by regional and national newspapers, local radio and television stations, and the BBC, has been entered into the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Excellence Awards 2009.
The campaign will challenge entrants in the Media Relations category, which rewards campaigns that capture the imagination of targeted media and meet client/project objectives. A shortlist will be announced in April, and the awards will be presented at the CIPR Excellence Awards Dinner in June.
The Pie Panel came about when Bluestorm’s first news release for Holland’s, nine months ago, received worryingly negative feedback about the diminishing quality of the product. Unfazed, Holland’s MD Neil Court-Johnston ordered an immediate review of the quality of pies and puddings, and asked Bluestorm to think about how the passion of this feedback could be harnessed to the benefit of Holland’s.
Bluestorm rose to the challenge with the idea of recruiting a Pie Panel of Holland’s enthusiasts to work with Holland’s team to improve the quality of pies and puddings.
The Pie Panel campaign was so successful that it gained three separate waves of media coverage, which is estimated to have reached 24m people. It attracted more than a thousand contestant applications in 48 hours, and contributed to a 10% surge in sales and a return to profit for Holland’s Pies after two years of losses.
Holland’s Pies MD Neil Court-Johnston said: “In just over nine months, Bluestorm has helped to start to turn our business around. The Pie Panel concept addressed the negative feedback we had received and turned it into positive news, thus reminding customers about Holland’s, and ultimately driving sales. At the same time it has provided us with a valuable team of people who we can continue to turn to for advice about our products, allowing us to reinforce our ongoing commitment to quality.
“We can now look forward to 2009 with confidence and will continue to work with Bluestorm to grow our business.”
