Case study
Northumberland National Park is a 400 square-mile jewel in the North East crown. It is a living, working landscape with a commitment to ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to connect with nature.
As the park’s communications agency, we were asked to put together a strategy that would help them navigate visitors and residents through the unexpected challenges presented by the global pandemic.
Northumberland National Park is not owned by a single entity; it’s a shared landscape made up of diverse communities, including farmers, small businesses, village residents, and home owners.
As such, communication and engagement were vital with this diverse spectrum of audiences ranging from those living within its boundaries to those who occasionally visit or travel through the Park.
As the global COVID-19 pandemic kept people indoors and away from the outdoors, many began to suffer physically and mentally. Record visitor numbers in 2020 showed how important the outdoors is to our physical and mental wellbeing, and we saw it as vital that we spread awareness of these benefits and why preserving the outdoors was crucial to let this continue.
Our brief was to identify topical themes within the media that would allow us to display our key messages and to do so effectively, against the backdrop of the media being heavily focused on pandemic related Government messages and campaigns.
Our idea, working with the NNPA Communications team, was to engage with all audiences by finding out what most mattered to them during the COVID -19 pandemic. This included:
Using this research, and based on our objectives, we confirmed our key messages would be anchored around:
It is this insight and research that led to our ‘Recover Together’ strategy.
We wanted this to be a completely inclusive campaign – talking together with our stakeholders and the wider public – and not be an organisation preaching or talking down to people.
Our aim was for our message to resonate with people, and mental health was a concurrent theme in the media.
For this reason, we ensured in all our media activity (from one-to-one briefings, to press releases) that mental health was a top agenda subject and by giving on message exposure to the Park, journalists would be doing their part in addressing the needs of their audiences in respect of mental health needs.
15 separate pieces of coverage on regional broadcast including BBC Newcastle, ITV Tyne Tees, and BBC Look North, with focus features on family events, wildlife protection, and the sustainable management of the increased visitor numbers post COVID-19.
Opportunities to see / Opportunities to hear 2,794,912.
2 National features in the travel sections of The Sunday Times and Daily Mirror. Combined reach: 690,719.
143 regional and national pieces of coverage, including two full page front covers of The Journal, the North East’s leading newspaper.
Combined reach: 25,296,752.
Consistent coverage in Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle, Hexham Courant, and Northumberland Gazette. Combined reach: 4,443,329.
Focus features on digital platforms, targeted at younger audiences including High Life North and Living North. Combined Reach: 30,700.
Social media was managed by the client, but it made strong use of the media collateral we generated. Our work also contributed to Northumberland National Park being voted as the best National Park in the UK by Which? Magazine.
