Hughes Public Relations, Adelaide

BankSA
Principal Partner of Adelaide Fringe 2006.

The Situation. On entering the partnership, BankSA was determined not to threaten the artistic integrity and popular culture of the Adelaide Fringe - Australia’s biggest arts event. However, it wished to support the event and leverage its involvement as a means of building its brand among 18 to 35 year-olds in a non-commercial manner.
The consultancy brief was to:

• Raise awareness of BankSA’s association with the Adelaide Fringe as Principal Partner;
• Engage and create goodwill regarding the partnership from the community, artists, customers and staff;
• Launch and drive awareness about BankSA’s three new Adelaide Fringe initiatives;
• Position BankSA as ‘adding value and fun’ to the Fringe; and
• Achieve and reach key target audiences during the busy month of March.

Objectives. Hughes Public Relations’ task was to develop and implement a plan in support of the partnership including:

* Establishing key media as ambassadors for the three BankSA Fringe initiatives;
* Encouraging media ownership by positioning Support Act and TalkFringe as tools / initiatives the media could use and become involved in;
* Ensuring impact and coverage was gained before commencement of the Adelaide Fringe Festival and associated activities; and
* Ongoing liaison with media during the Fringe to ensure the initiatives were top-of-mind and all opportunities were harnessed.

Elements.

• Regular meetings with key decision-makers from the Fringe and its public relations consultancy to ensure all parties were across BankSA’s plan and to avoid any cross-over;
• Establishment of a ‘marketing team’ comprising representatives of the BankSA Sponsorship and Marketing Team, BankSA Public Affairs Manager Sonya Rogers and Hughes Public Relations. The team met weekly and was constantly in touch via email and phone;
• The drafting and updating of an outcome-focussed PR Plan and Calendar, with each communication opportunity linked to the objectives of the overall strategy;
• Planning sessions to confirm precise timings for the roll-out of each BankSA Fringe initiative;
• Sourcing key media talent in the form of artists, Fringe fans and Fringe staff for potential media and interview opportunities;
• Developing a target media list of “Fringe-aware” key SA journalists from print, radio and TV;
• Creating an innovative media kit including fact sheets detailing BankSA’s three Fringe initiatives, branded t-shirts, posters and tattoos, which was sent to those on the media list;
• Organising an event in the hub of Fringe territory near Rundle Street East to announce the partnership, which consisted of a short presentation from key Fringe and BankSA spokespeople, combined with freestyle performances from colourful and loud Fringe entertainers;
• Issuing a news alert and news release prior to and on the day of the announcement and managed their attendance on the day and all subsequent interviews;
• Coordinating a consistent approach to all publicity activities and launches with the consultancy identifying quality opportunities which were provided to the media at intervals to avoid saturation;
• Securing a BankSA-branded ticket giveaway and weekly Support Act story opportunity with the Adelaide Confidential column in The Advertiser;
• Launching each BankSA Fringe initiative by targeting media ambassadors and co-ordinating the use of appropriate talent;
• Keeping the media informed of the take-up and success of the initiatives; and
• Leveraging and forming relationships with media ambassadors and key journalists who had responded favourably to the partnership and its associated media opportunities.