Launching Animate – Ruffling Feathers

The Brief

As part of its three-year contract with Preston Towns Fund board, Limitless PR was responsible for delivering a communication campaign regarding the £200 million regeneration of the Harris Quarter in the city.

The flagship £45 million Animate leisure and entertainment destination is one of the key projects in the comprehensive regeneration programme and the baton was handed to Limitless to help secure coverage of its launch and a special unveiling of a statue of Feather’s McGraw by its creator and famous Prestonian, Nick Park.

Campaign

Working alongside Preston City Council’s in-house media team, Limitless helped coordinate a media relations plan to implement a strategy that would secure pre and post event media coverage. It also comprised a press conference held in Animate’s state-of-the-art Arc Cinema.

The team began by briefing key journalists and then completing a long media sell-in and follow-ups and managing subsequent media interviews with key officials from Preston Council and Nick Park. The unveiling itself was also hyped up by stating that a famous villain was spotted in the city and the public were to be on their guard. 

Results

Using the unveiling of Feathers McGraw by Nick Park to mark the launching of Animate helped secure more than 42 pieces of media coverage across outlets including the BBC, ITV, London Standard, Express, Independent and even the Yorkshire Post! Media coverage of the event was seen by over 1.9 million people.

Preston Towns Fund Board member Rob Binns spoke about the campaign. He said: “We were bowled over with the level of media interest. We knew Nick Park unveiling the statue would help put us on the media agenda, but the way in which it was executed was extremely professional and achieved more than we hoped for bearing in mind today’s media landscape.

“It was an important event which would secure important media coverage to communicate what we’re doing here in terms of the regeneration of Preston’s Harris Quarter. Hats off to team Limitless for their hard work on this project.”