Pippa Gibb, Director at In The Bag PR, gives an insight of how we work together in marketing Weymouth to support business.
Hi, I’m Pippa at In The Bag PR and I’m part of the team that manages the PR and marketing for We Are Weymouth. In The Bag PR is a Weymouth-based PR agency and we’ve been going for almost 10 years.
A big focus for the work we have been doing for We Are Weymouth has been to increase the visibility of Weymouth both nationally, and closer to home. Our aim is to showcase all the town has to offer, as well as publicise the events that have been put on by We Are Weymouth.
Using our experience and contacts, we’ve worked hard to welcome journalists to Weymouth over the past 12 months and the write-ups we have received have been outstanding. We’ve been really lucky to work with some fantastic Weymouth businesses when it comes to hosting journalists, from stays in hotels and guest houses to jet ski experiences to meals and cocktails in the town – these journalists have had an authentic taste of what’s on offer.
As well as our press trip campaign we’ve worked with the team at We Are Weymouth to identify campaigns throughout the year which aim to support the town and drive that all important footfall. I’ll talk more about our campaigns and successes later but the importance of these campaigns, and having events or topics to go to the press with has been vital to the success of our work and we’re excited by the 2022 campaign plan.
Our PR Newswire is distributed to levy payers each week. This is an email mail out with journalist requests which we hope will be relevant to some of our levy payers. These requests range from recipes, expert comments, press trips requests and much more and span a number of sectors. We’ve had requests for cocktail recipes, thoughts on the housing market, products to feature in gifts and lots more. We would urge our levy payers to check the newswire each week and get in touch if they think there are any requests that they can contribute to. We do the leg work with this – we just need the info from you and sometimes a photo or weblink and this is a great way to build up some PR exposure for your business or brand.
Finally, we work with the team at We Are Weymouth to help with the overall marketing. This is slightly different to PR as it focuses on design, advertising and paid for opportunities. We’ve helped the team negotiate advertising space, radio advertising, photography opportunities and filming opportunities.
We use social media to target visitors from further afield but also to let the local community know what’s going on in the town. The targeting available through social media means that we can use small budgets to reach large groups of people and build up awareness and interest in the events that are being run by We Are Weymouth and our local businesses.
Why Weymouth Beats Bournemouth Every Time – The Independent
If you are a BID levy payer and would like to discuss how We Are Weymouth’s marketing and PR opportunities can benefit your business, or be added to our PR Newswire, please contact us.
