WREN
Client and background:
WREN is a not for profit business which distributes funds generated from the Landfill Communities Fund to community, conservation and heritage projects located within 10 miles of a WRG landfill site. Established in 1998, it is the UK’s largest distributive environmental body and has given away more than £147m in funding to over 5,700 projects that deliver lasting benefits to local communities.
Challenge:
In 2009, Tribe was appointed to help communicate WREN’s key messages to political, media and stakeholder groups. Our task was to boost WREN’s national profile, create greater awareness and clarity about what the organisation does, and to reach and influence politicians, the wider waste industry and potential applicants.
Solution:
New communication methods such as online video and social media activity on YouTube, Flickr and Twitter have been successfully integrated with traditional media relations campaigns to good effect. Celebrity endorsement has also attracted a buzz around WREN’s work, driving traffic to the website and boosting applications.
Tribe has helped WREN to build relationships within national government by producing briefing papers about key ministers and government departments. And by facilitating meetings with key political figures such as Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Creative Industries, who visited WREN funded projects in his constituency of Wantage and Didcot.
To help raise awareness of the impact of WREN’s money at a grass-roots level, a PR guide was created to share PR top tips with funded projects. The guide gives projects the tools to tell their local media and other audiences about how WREN’s money is making a real difference in their local area.
Results:
Campaigns have generated coverage with the Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, AOL News, Virgin News, Press Association, Guardian Environment, Third Sector, letsrecycle.com and Recycling & Waste World amongst other national titles. As well as coverage with priority regional media including BBC Radio Oxford, BBC Three Counties, Edinburgh Evening News and the Eastern Daily Press.
Six videos have been created to help WREN attract quality bids for funding while raising awareness of the organisation’s work. Featuring interviews with BBC child star Daniel Roche, renowned conservationist Baroness Young and Ed Vaizey MP; to date they have attracted more than 2,800 views online.
“We needed an agency that could pinpoint our audiences and communicate our key messages on a national scale. Tribe has done just that. Hiring a PR firm on our Norfolk doorstep with the ability and know-how to generate national interest was a masterstroke. Not only do Tribe deliver excellent results but they challenge us by offering new, fresh and alternative ideas to get us in front of the audiences that really matter. They’re great people to work with who are very good at what they do.
Peter Cox, managing director, WREN .