Case Studies
CIPR West of England PRide Awards 2007 - Gold Award
Category: 8. Low Budget
Name of Entry: Cheddervision.tv
Organisation entering: Bray Leino PR
Background:
Bray Leino was appointed by West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers in 2005 to raise the profile of its newly developed brand. The client produces West Country Farmhouse Cheddar which carries Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status, placing it alongside internationally celebrated products including Parma Ham and Champagne. While this has an appeal for premium food buyers its significance for the general consumer is sometimes hard to explain.
Objectives:
Intending to convey key messages of provenance to as many consumers as possible Bray Leino came up with the idea of www.cheddarvision.tv to raise general awareness of the USP of the client's product, drive traffic to their main website and carry the key messages of the campaign.
Planning:
Bray Leino's ongoing PR campaign is designed to communicate the unique characteristics of the product – traditional, handmade with time and care, on West Country farms. Bray Leino also decided to position the group as industrious artisans who take their product more seriously than they do themselves. What better way to demonstrate these values than to show them 'in action'?
Some careful site research and a hands-on briefing with web designers, combined with a little ingenuity and a roll of gaffer tape, made cheddarvision a reality.
Implementation:
At first sight, the website is nothing more than a 24/7 live webcam focused on a round of Cheddar cheese, watching it slowly mature over the course of a year. While the inherent boringness of watching a cheese mature was the ideal PR hook, the site was intended to convey the message that 'real' Cheddar needs time to mature. Cheddarvision was also set up as a microsite of the group's main website to carry the brand identity, product information and click through buttons to the main pages. Visitors are also able to download the site as a screensaver, encouraging repeat viewings.
Creativity:
To make Cheddarvision even more appealing to the media, Bray Leino decided to position the website as the idea of a group of passionate farmhouse cheesemakers. As such the webcam was installed on a shoestring in a barn and even fixed in place by parcel tape. To increase the likelihood of media pick-up, Bray Leino planned the launch for the quiet news period between Christmas and New Year 2006. A witty press release was issued to UK media saying that the farmers were so proud of the time it takes for their Cheddar to mature that they had put a webcam on a cheese 24/7 to show the whole world. The website was also described as an alternative to watching paint dry or yet another re-run of The Great Escape. The resulting national print and radio coverage sparked web visits from thousands of people throughout the UK and subsequently around the world. Thus the intended snowball effect began – coverage begat visitors and visitors begat coverage.
In March, Bray Leino used the landmark first quarterly tasting of the cheese, together with official web statistics showing the site had had 400,000 visitors, as another opportunity to reinvigorate media interest. Bray Leino also sold the story in to Reuters who dispatched a crew to Somerset which then led to the story being run on news shows around the world.
Infrequent but exciting episodes were planned to punctuate the sedate life of the cheese to inspire further coverage and click-through to the main website. Significant dates such as Valentine's Day and Red Nose Day were marked with the momentary inclusion of a card and a Comic Relief nose respectively. Bray Leino also created an offshoot web presence on MySpace, which led to the cheese being invited to a wedding, and on YouTube where visitors are able to see a time-lapse movie of the cheese's life featuring the few significant highlights mentioned above. This has, in turn, led to a growing community of fans and driven further traffic.
Results:
Bray Leino has undisputedly created a global internet phenomenon, promoting comment on food, media, technology, business and cultural pages. BBC, ITV, ABC and CNN film crews have followed Reuters to the farm and the client has given more than 30 interviews to local, national and foreign radio stations. Cheddarvision has 1,175 friends on MySpace and the YouTube movie of the cheese's life has attracted more than 270,000 viewings.
Bray Leino has used Cheddarvision to leverage coverage for their client on the news pages of the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Independent, Times, Daily Star, Daily Sport, Daily Express and a raft of regional titles. The appeal of Cheddarvision has attracted analysis in the Guardian's media diary, inspired a front cover and double page spread in The Guardian G2, discussion and live viewings on GMTV and This Morning, bulletins on SKY, BBC, BBC News 24 and ITV news, website of the week on Steve Wright's Radio 2 show, numerous mentions on Wake Up To Wogan, an interview on Radio 4's Today programme and drivetime debate on Radio 5 Live. Further afield, the site has attracted feature coverage in the New York Times and on CNN's and ABC's nightly news shows.
STOP PRESS: In the latest resurfacing of the cheddarvision story, entertainment correspondents and TV critics in the UK and US have likened watching the Victoria Beckham mockumentary to a stint in front of cheddarvision.tv – proof positive that it has become part of the media vernacular.
Number of articles: 172
Total print readers: 18,500,000
Total online readers/viewers: 177,000,000
Total listeners: 53,000,000
Total viewers: 49,500,000
Total audience reach: 298,000,000
Distinct visits: 1,350,000
Click through to www.farmhousecheesemakers.com: 39,600
Coverage in media reaching target demographic (ABC1): 91%
First key message – 'cheddarvision.tv' - in 93.5% of articles
Second key message – 'West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers/Cheddar' – in 72% of articles
Total AEV: £1.06million
ROI: 13,490%
The client reported a year-on-year uplift in sales for the period Dec 2006-March 2007 of 25%, 10% higher than the group's prediction prior to the creation of Cheddarvision.