james ellington: running on empty

Running on Empty Third City April 2013

Founded in 2011 14-strong team Big agency mentality, small agency agilityStrategy and insight ledWinner - PRCA’s Small Consultancy of the Year 2012Finalist for PR Week’s Best New Consultancy 2012 and Best Sporting Campaign 2012

About Third City

Credentials presentation March 2013

Brand & communications strategyDigital & social mediaCampaign & channel planning Consumer insight & analyticsEvents & sponsorship Issues & crisis planning Media relationsMessaging Stakeholder engagement

What we do

Credentials presentation March 2013

The campaign

James Ellington – Running on Empty

PRCA Awards – Winner PR Week Awards – Highly CommendedCIPR Excellence – Highly Commended

The Brief

James Ellington is one of Britain’s most talented sprinters, yet six months before the Olympics he was facing a training season with no sponsor. Jeapordisiing his ability to qualify or London 2012.

He asked us to help him.

ObjectivePrimary – Secure James the sponsorship he would need to train full time

Secondary – Secure longer term sponsorship commitment and push for a more solid inclusion in the GB team

Tertiary – Raise James’ profile as ‘the people’s Olympian’

AssetsNo budget, but look do have:

-A good looking GB Olympic athlete -Connections within the athletics industry-A nation obsessed with Olympic news

Considerations-Still very noisy, would need disruptive rather than a selective approach

The idea

The nation love an underdog, but they need to be a positive go-getter with belief in themself.

We wanted to promote James in a positive light, as a man taking things into his own hands to fulfill his dreams.

Only through an inspiring story did we feel we could capture the public imagination and motivate a corporate sponsor to bring him on board.

James would put himself on eBay to secure the sponsorship.

Execution

Phased approach dealing with chapters of story:-1. Up for sale-2. Winning Big-3. Corporate rescue?

Launch

Eye catching photo-stunt to accompany the story at Crystal Palace National Stadium

With hard work in the background:-Website-Media training-Twitter training-New wardrobe

http://www.creativebrief.com/agency/feed/19933/all/third-city?search=1

Overall results

• Full sponsorship from King of Shaves and Olympic team selection

• 14 national news pieces, with just under half including photographs of James from the photo-call, including a double page spread in the Daily Telegraph

• 47 broadcast pieces, including 18 national interviews with James including BBC Breakfast (x2), Channel 4 News (x2), CNN and TalkSport (x3)

• More than 500 online pieces on news portals across the globe, including Retuers, Yahoo, Huffington Post, and Sydney Morning Herald

• Now part of GB Elite training squad in Loughborough (high performance)

Key learnings

- Make a good story great- Build longevity into a campaign- Add the drama- Photo-call over creative picture? - Good idea flies with less push required - Selective pro-bono pays off (morale, commercial)

Talk to us

Twitter: @third_city@blackwood_c