CASE STUDY

Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh receiving Freedom of Stratford

Publicising Shakespearean legends
Stratford Town Council Logo

Client

Stratford Town Council

The Situation

Stratford Town Council wished to publicise Shakespearean legends Dame Judi Dench and Sir Kenneth Branagh unveiling the council’s recently-restored Shakespeare statue at the Town Hall and also receiving the freedom of Stratford-upon-Avon at a special ceremony.

The ceremony involves the new ‘freemen’ herding sheep down Sheep Street in Stratford – as this was the ancient right of those with the freedom of the town – making for an amusing photo and filming opportunity for media.

The council hired PLMR Advent to draw up publicity and manage the media on the day.

What we did

PLMR Advent identified a list of target contacts from national, regional and local media and put together a media invite.

To increase exposure, Advent hired PA Media to send a photographer whose photos would be guaranteed to go out on the wire.

We then worked alongside Dench and Branagh’s publicists and the council to confirm the running order for the day and how to coordinate the media and the public while the event took place.

Pre-event publicity was generated through a press release detailing Dame Judi and Sir Kenneth’s planned visit, which helped create a buzz in advance of the day.

On the day itself, PLMR Advent arrived in plenty of time to ensure the PA photographer knew his brief, vet media who turned up to allow them into the media area, and to help select photos to go out onto the wire.

We also made sure each media outlet had a chance to put questions to Judi and Kenneth and have plenty of room to film and photograph them herding their sheep.

The Result

The day received coverage all over the world thanks to PLMR Advent’s services, with more than 220 hits across print, online, TV and radio.

Stratford Town Council were delighted at the publicity received, and Judi and Kenneth had a wonderful time returning to Stratford.

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PLMR’s crisis communications experience is second to none, and includes pre-emptive and reactive work across traditional and social media channels. We work with a range of organisations to offer critical communication support when they are faced with difficult and challenging scenarios.