Entrepreneurial Spark: March 2016 Budget

Challenge

In the last year, as part of its PR and marketing retainer, Muckle Media has undertaken activity to increase Entrepreneurial Spark’s profile and position it as the ‘go to’ place for entrepreneurs, such as: Created and run a fortnightly #AskJimDuffy, where people can pose business questions to Entrepreneurial Spark’s CEO on Twitter Publicised when high-profile businesses joined the accelerator and promoted good news from entrepreneurs/businesses Conducted media relations when businesspeople and politicians visited Hatcheries including Michelle Mone and Jeremy Corbyn Conducted media relations around events, awards, yearly impact reports and proactive/reactive ideas With the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget Statement due in March 2016, Muckle Media identified it as a news hijacking opportunity for Entrepreneurial Spark.

Strategy

For the hotly anticipated Budget Statement expected from George Osbourne, 16th March 2016, the Muckle Media team knew that if it could deliver comment from Jim Duffy, CEO of Entrepreneurial Spark, within minutes of the Budget Statement being announced, then it would steal a march on the competition vying for column inches. Muckle Media approached the campaign with military precision. Members of the team analysed projections from pundits and leading commentators in advance of the Budget Statement. Muckle Media then shared a list of measures most likely to be announced by the Chancellor with Entrepreneurial Spark with recommendations of where the business accelerator should comment. This meant that by the day of the Budget Statement, Muckle Media had a list of likely measures to be announced coupled with reaction from Entrepreneurial Spark. Muckle Media also made sure the client was available to approve media copy in real time. Finally, the team identified a comprehensive set of media targets. Within minutes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer pausing for questions, Muckle Media had a media statement to the client who approved it within a minute! The Muckle Media team then hit the phones to media and issued the statement.

Results

The campaign resulted in 28 articles with a total reach of 4,280,505. Highlights included coverage in the Financial Times, Dailymail.co.uk, The Scotsman, The Herald and The Sunday Times. Coverage included quotes from Entrepreneurial Spark CEO Jim Duffy on aspects of the Budget that would impact businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as descriptions of Entrepreneurial Spark’s business accelerator ‘Hatcheries’ across the UK.