Partnership Marketing: A case study

Gnashional Trust!

Where do we start?

• National Trust wanted to energise families with children to visit across England, Wales & N. Ireland

• NT have invested significantly in amenities and facilities at their venues & wanted newsworthy activity that would tie into their “Kids go Free” summer promotional offer

• Looking for a partner to help cast off their (unfair) “keep off the grass” perception by families

• They turned to Britain’s best and most famous comic for help!

How was this partnership executed?

• Recognition through DCT Youth Insight research & NT research that was a good crossover between respective audiences & good classic brand fit

• National Trust wanted to “take over” an issue of The Beano but instead we agreed;

• Let Beanotown characters “take over” the National Trust!

• NT suggested the properties for feature and our Beano creatives did the rest!

• Uniquely, we integrated the respective NT properties, attractions and facilities into 5 of the Beano’s most popular comic strips, covering 9 different venues

Dennis & Gnasher

Minnie the Minx

The Bash Street Kids

Billy Whizz

The Numbskulls

Not just comic strips…

• A character-branded promotion/competition within the pages of The Beano

• National Trust advertising – but with a Beano twist!

• A take-over of the Beano.com site, with integrated content, advertising and jointly branded downloads

• A joint approach to generating PR coverage of the unique tie-up targeting national media

• A jointly-produced short film detailing the process of creating – promoted through NT site + Beano.com

– Now also being used in educational channels

Advertising

Online engagement

Venue engagement

• We also worked with NT to develop materials for each of the featured venues

– Giant poster artwork (from line art through to completed comic artwork) for viewing

– Activity sheets for comic drawing & colouring competitions created for hand-outs & downloads

– Appearance by Dennis costume character

– Engagement with NT staff & volunteers

• This joint approach ensured design/message consistency and an integrated promotional & marketing feel to activity

Activities for visitors to NT venues

[NT/BEANO VIDEO HERE]

Staff communication

Staff engagement & excitement

Dennis at NT Headquarters at Heelis, Swindon

The Beano drives PR coverage!

• Worked with National Trust’s PR agency, Mischief, to drive national coverage of the tie-up

• Promoted as “2 National Treasures” working together

• If Dennis & Beanotown pals can take over National Trust, then they can deal with any & all children!

• Targeted sell-in to national newspapers, local press and radio to drive footfall to specific NT locations

• Promote the “kids go free” promotion

What we achieved in 3-4 days…

• UK National newspaper articles: 6

• UK Regional newspaper articles: 18

• UK Broadcast items: 15

• Online items/articles: 239

• PR value in excess of £250k!

Great results all round…

98% 92% 98% 87%

91% 83% 74% 29% 68%

Based on 477 respondents through www.beano.com

Prompted brand recall of “National Trust”

Agreed that they “really enjoyed this issue as it was a bit different”

Agreed “I loved Dennis & Gnasher’s adventure at the castle. I didn’t know castles were so fun”

Agreed “I want to go one of these places & explore myself”

Would like to visit one of the locations after reading it in The Beano

Kept the issue to read it again

Passed the issue on to a friend

Have or plan to ask family to go to one of the venues

Thought the issue was “good” or “excellent” (79% “excellent”)

• Spike in Beano sales: 25.9% uplift vs previous wk (there was a 1.2% increase w-o-w in 2010)

• Beano.com received 2059 referrals from nationaltrust.org.uk

• Beano.com’s various pieces of NT content received 23,570 visits

• c. 1,500 separate downloads of NT branded wallpapers & content

Great results all round…

Results from National Trust…

• Over 1,000 downloads of Kids Go Free voucher on the Beano pages at nationaltrust.org.uk – c. 40,000 overall

• Superb on-the-ground reaction from properties “The staff are all so excited about being on the cover, there’s a real buzz. Just what we needed at the peak of the season.”

- Anna Orton, Property Manager, Powis

“…thank you for organising the Beano partnership. It has been fantastic at Lyme Park and we had over 600 children do the Billy Whizz Quiz around the house, It was so popular, we put it on for 3 extra days! Loved by children & adults alike. A fabulous idea!”

- Georgina Ferguson, Property Manager, Lyme

And NT HQ say nice things about us too…

“Working with the DC Thomson guys has been absolutely fantastic from start to finish. Their enthusiasm, flexibility & ability to think much wider than the initial ideas proposed allowed us to work together to deliver a hugely exciting & successful campaign. Not only did the campaign widely exceed its targets in terms of PR exposure but at our properties, our teams were able to up-weight it in their own relevant way….The great results achieved are testament to their hard work & creativity. Big thanks from all at National Trust!”

- Laura Appleby, Visitor PR & Marketing Manager, National Trust

This makes Dennis & Gnasher very happy…

Summary

• Real integration of product into our content – a genuinely unique & creative proposition

• From original discussion to delivery: 4 months

• PR power of The Beano & our characters generates headlines & drives footfall

• Opportunity to communicate to a motivated & engaged audience of Beano readers – they seek things out

• Promoted through various media channels – comic, online & through our licensed partner on radio, FunKids

• Halo effect of association with one of the most famous children’s publishing brands

• Working with The Beano generates results!