ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Sport Relief - The Billion Steps Challenge
THE PROBLEM:
Every other year renowned and much-loved charity Sport Relief invites the nation to get fit, raise money and change lives. In 2018, we worked with the inhouse comms team on a national and regional brief to drive mass participation and awareness of the incredible range of UK projects funded by the charity. We were also asked to launch a brand-new proposition for 2018: ‘The Billion Steps Challenge’. For the first time ever, Sport Relief launched an app, to get the nation moving, in a bid to do a billion steps per day. Rather than a single fundraising day, or a fundraising event, Sport Relief wanted to get the whole country active and raising money – for a whole week. It’s fair to say we were straight off the blocks to get going.
THE SOLUTION:
To make the campaign a success in our regions we turned on our newsroom function (which starts at 7.30am every morning), crafting stories to suit the brand and arranging visits to Sport Relief ‘projects’ – groups that gain funding from the charity. Our digital influencer strategy was a first for the brand, working with relevant micro and macro influencers across the regions. We also created two mass participation events that encapsulated the campaign tagline, ‘Whatever moves you, do it for Sport Relief.’
WHAT WE DID:
In the East we held ‘The Great British Row’ – a fun take on the Oxford vs. Cambridge boat race at Blenheim Palace. In the South we worked closely with nine out of the ten English Football League clubs from Norwich City to Southend United, to promote the 2018 campaign.
Throughout the campaign we worked closely with local BBC stations to gain media coverage for their individual presenter challenges. We also recruited some incredible influencers including Honest Mum and Carly Rowena to help us promote the ‘Whatever Moves You’ message across social media. We took a vlogger to a project in Nottingham to film a moving project vlog, a first for our client.
There was a constant drumbeat of coverage and activity throughout the campaign across the regions, with two other mass participation moments: the Science Museum Lates and a mass-participation event in Covent Garden providing the cherry on the cake.
For the Science Museum Lates event, we worked on the press and influencer guest list and secured interviews for Charlie Webster with Stylist and the Huffington Post. We then organised ‘Dance for Sport Relief’ from scratch – a mass-participation event held in Covent Garden. Former Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt took on the brilliant Louie Spence in the ultimate dance battle on a huge light-up dance floor as part of the Nation’s Billion Steps Challenge.
THE RESULTS:
We achieved a total of 75 pieces of coverage across a range of print, online and broadcast media, both regionally and nationally – with a total readership of 1.36bn and an estimated 1.34m coverage views (that’s a lot of eyes)! The social results were also fantastic with 3,600 shares across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by working with 7 brilliant influencers with a combined reach on Instagram of 340,000.
Overall the campaign was a huge success and on the night of TV, the nation reached ONE BILLION steps!