Our Member of the Month this November is the PR powerhouse, Working Word. From capturing the Cardiff's Homeless World Cup to hatching the story of a dinosaur on the loose in Cardiff - they've been busy! They've been telling strategic stories and unleashing their creativity on some of Cardiff and Wales' biggest PR campaigns for 20 years. As they're celebrating two decades of powerful storytelling, we decided to catch up with them to ask about their favourites throughout the years. Here they are...
Homeless World Cup
500 players with lived experience of homelessness and social exclusion from nearly 50 countries took part in a week long festival of football and much more at the 17th Homeless World Cup in Cardiff in summer 2019. Working with actor and activist Michael Sheen, we designed and delivered a multi-channel strategic communications campaign aiming to change public perceptions about the issues. We worked with media across the world- BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 news, The Guardian, Sunday Times, Reuters and many more- helped organise a debate tent with talks on the issues and performances from The Guilty Feminist, Sara Pascoe and Shreds: Murder in the Dock, and made a series of films and social media content making heroes of homeless footballers.
National Museum Cardiff: Dinosaur Babies
National Museum Cardiff was looking for an agency to run a digital campaign to promote its family-friendly ‘Dinosaur Babies’ exhibition. An experiential campaign led by event specialists SC Productions saw installations appear across Cardiff city centre over the course of 10 days leading up to the exhibition launch, which shaped the narrative of a dinosaur on the loose. Playing with the fake news era, our digital campaign created a newspaper and daily TV report called ‘The Daily Draco’ (the Welsh dinosaur the exhibition was based on was called the Dracoraptor) which reported on the happenings as if in real life. The campaign helped contribute to record ticket sales and visitor numbers at the Museum, winning awards from Chartered Institute of PR for Best Social Media campaign and the International Design and Communications Awards in Los Angeles.
Gwlad - Future Wales Festival - 20 years of devolution
Someone else celebrating their 20th anniversary this year was the National Assembly of Wales. We worked with them on a celebratory festival, coming up with the brand (Gwlad), organising speakers, securing partners and co-ordinating and filming celebrity congratulations.
BAFTA Cymru
Our team works with BAFTA Cymru on their annual awards, running the red carpet, managing media interviews for celebrities and making sure the stories make it to the national and regional media. October’s event resulted in coverage in the Sunday Times for stories with Gavin and Stacey’s Ruth Jones and Star Wars Anthony Daniels (he’s C3PO!).
Dydd Miwsig Cymru
The Welsh music scene is going through a golden period- and lots of that music is being made in the Welsh language. Dydd Miwsig Cymru- Welsh Language Music Day celebrates all forms of miwsig, from hip hop to rock, electronica to indie. Our PR and social media campaign tips off audiences that their next favourite song might just be made in the Welsh language, a highlight being getting Huw Stephens on the BBC Breakfast sofa to talk about the tunes. And better than finding your new jam? 74% of survey respondents cited that Welsh Language Music Day made them want to learn more Welsh, key to the government’s target of 1m Welsh speakers by 2050.
Burns Pet Nutrition
Dogs are helping children read in parts of #Wales @Burnscommunity #Dog #TherapyDogs @educationsu @SwanseaUni pic.twitter.com/clXIfQqDlO
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) April 18, 2019
Meet Brambles and Jonesy. These two hunks are the stars of our wonderful client Burns Pet Nutrition’s charity arm, Burns in the Community. The Burns by Your Side initiative is a volunteer-led programme which sees dogs visiting schools and sitting with children who read aloud to them with the aim of boosting their literacy and communication skills. The scheme, which has been piloted in 60 schools across South Wales, is now expanding, and we arranged for BBC Breakfast to come along to see the reading dogs in action sparking off interest from schools around the UK.
Plaid Cymru party political broadcast
Our team work with Plaid Cymru on party political broadcasts shown ahead of elections, like this stop motion animated short that played on BBC, ITV and S4C ahead of 2018’s European Elections.
Food and Drink Wales
To coincide with St David’s Day, we worked with Food & Drink Wales on a campaign to promote the diverse range of foodie producers coming from Wales. Our media relations campaign involved securing and arranging five press trips, including the London Evening Standard and Olive magazine, where they got a ‘taste’ of some of the best producers and chefs working in Wales at the moment. As well as pitching and securing coverage for a variety of producers across national media, we also organised an influencer brunch event at Welsh chef Tom Simmons’ London Bridge restaurant where some of London’s best food influencers got to try a bespoke Welsh-inspired menu on St David’s Day and share on their social channels.
National Lottery Good Causes
The National Lottery wanted to celebrate decades of changing lives through contributing millions of pounds to good causes in the Wrexham and Flintshire areas by launching a campaign championing local extraordinary people. Over the past 25 years, National Lottery has contributed nearly £101m to more than 4,600 good causes in the area. Our campaign told some of their stories, securing coverage in the Sunday Times. A post-campaign survey showed the stories really helped increase awareness of how Lottery funding supports local good causes.
Visit Wales
We’re working with Visit Wales on a range of content- films, long reads, Instagram stories, Pinterest boards and more- for the #ThisisMyWales campaign. Our latest story, with Lisa Jen from the band 9Bach on her favourite places to visit around Bethesda makes us want to hit the road north...
Working Word is our Member of the Month for November, if you'd like to know more about the work they do you can check out their Creative Cardiff profile or head to their webiste.
Website- www.workingword.co.uk. Twitter- @workingwordpr . Instagram- @workingword
