We were commissioned by mental health organisation State of Mind to co-ordinate the media coverage of their themed round of Super League, Round 25 in August.
State of Mind was established in 2011 to raise awareness of mental health issues, tackle stigma and signpost support to rugby league players and fans who do not access help.
The objective of our campaign was simple – to reach out to as many fans as possible.
There was a short turnaround for the event, and as such, our work was condensed in to an intense period of six weeks.
The key was to engage and communicate with as many clubs, official channels and media publications as possible, to ensure that State of Mind enjoyed the coverage it deserved.
We worked to provide all outlets with as much content and information that they required to ensure maximum publicity.
ENGAGING WITH CLUBS & RFL
All 14 Super League clubs were engaged, and received content produced by Sportbox:
- State of Mind Round 25 launch press release
- Player feature article tailored to their club
- Game specific press release, including planned SOM activity at the game
- Trojan Horse video article, including video embed and/or link to video on SOM website
- 10 ways to look after your mental health article
- League and State of Mind partnership press release
- Facebook/Twitter posts for their usage
All clubs were also encouraged to share content via their social media channels, and as a result, our campaign reached out to more than 2.5m people via Facebook and Twitter.
We also secured unprecedented coverage from the game’s governing body, the RFL, who displayed several articles across their channels, and also distributed the State of Mind press releases to their channels.
LOCAL & NATIONAL NEWSPAPER COVERAGE
Using our wide network of contacts, we liaised with national, local and freelance journalists to assist with coverage of the State of Mind weekend in their respective publications.
- All local press were supplied with a player feature tailored to the region of their publication
- All national press were pushed to include a feature on State of Mind
- We instructed all publications that we would be happy to provide content on request
- Journalists were encouraged to set up their own interviews if they so wished
The results were a significant reach. There were some fantastic articles, in particular in the Daily Mail, Yorkshire Post and Warrington Guardian, that were beyond our expectations.
Several local publications also ran with the content that we supplied them with.
TV, RADIO & OTHER COVERAGE
Our support enabled some fantastic coverage on Sky Sports programme Boots N All, as well as features on BBC Look North and local ITV news. Sky Sports themselves also ran an extensive feature in the build up to one of their live games.
We set up radio appearances for State of Mind co-founders Ernie Benbow and Malcolm Rae on BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Leeds respectively, while Ernie also featured on Wish FM and Wire FM.
We also supplied content to the rugby league press, including our own website www.loverugbyleague.com, which meant the campaign received even more support.
A colour feature was also produced for popular magazine, Forty-20.
FEEDBACK
Round 25 covered Super League games played from Thursday August 15 to Sunday August 18, with State of Mind activity taking place at all grounds on game day. We were even there to chip in ourselves!
Sportbox MD James Gordon led this project, with assistance from one of our Content Assistants, Nathan Lawrenson.
We received the following feedback from State of Mind.
State of Mind commissioned James Gordon to oversee and develop our Media Strategy for the 2013 raising awareness and tackling stigma campaign.
We were delighted with his efforts and what he achieved on our behalf.
The media coverage was comprehensive and included print, TV and radio and also innovative social media including facebook and twitter.
My colleagues and I were impressed with the quiet but assured manner in which he went about his work and how he readily kept us informed and reviewed progress.
We are confident that the substantial media exposure achieved an increase in the likelihood of commercial support for our future campaigns.
We are happy to acknowledge the professional and high calibre outcomes achieved.
Malcolm Rae
State of Mind Programme Director
