Lancashire PR duo shortlisted for prestigious award for joint work on Rivington Heritage Trust campaign

Shortlisted for their collaborative work with shared client Rivington Terraced Gardens’ Squarea Campaign, KRPR and Ad Hoc-PR have been nominated for 'Best Community Engagement Campaign' and 'Best Low Budget Campaign' in recognition of their work in helping raise funds for the Rivington Heritage Trust.

The trust faced a fundraising challenge to find the £100k annual maintenance costs for the Terraced Gardens in lockdown after events were cancelled due to the pandemic. The trust instead turned to to the ‘Squarea’ concept, where members of the public could sponsor a 10m-sq virtual patch of the gardens for £20 to help towards the renovation costs for the next five years.

“We hit the ground running with the influencer campaign, and the results were immediate, with Mark Radcliffe, Dave Spikey, Sammy Winward, and Steve Royle coming on-board within weeks to support the initiative," said Kara Rose, MD of KRPR. "Tess Daly and Vernon Kay also pledged their support and provided a quote and image to be included in the campaign push which was a huge coup and certainly encouraged people to dig deep and pledge their support.

“In addition, Mark Radcliffe has become a patron of the gardens as a direct consequence of the outreach campaign," added Kara. "That’s the sort of result money just can’t buy.”

The agencies - based in Chorley and Ramsbottom respectively - came together to share PR tactics, a strategic approach and their bank of contacts to maximise awareness of the campaign whilst also appealing to those further afield.

Emma Starrs, MD of Ad Hoc-PR, said: “It’s been brilliant to work with KRPR on this project and achieve fantastic results for the Trust. Rivington is such a beautiful asset to the area and we’re both glad to have been able to help raise awareness of the work of the Trust and the volunteers to keep the gardens maintained for even longer.”

Richard Galloway, a Director of Rivington Heritage Trust said: “The PR management and execution was pivotal to the campaign’s success. The results in just a short space of time and the celebrity involvement secured is nothing short of remarkable and we are very happy with what the team brought to our campaign.”