Royal Bath and West of England Society

Brief

The Royal Bath and West of England Show is the most prestigious countryside event in the UK and has been a key focal point in fulfilling the Society’s charitable aims to encourage agriculture, manufacture, commerce and rural craft. In 2006 the Society launched a unique sustainability area at the Show – the EcoZone – thereby becoming one of the first agricultural showgrounds in the country to promote sustainability and renewable energy.

The brief has been to help attract high profile players in the green energy sector to exhibit, provide interesting visitor features and provide a strong educational element, working closely with one of the principal supporters of the project, the Renewable Energy Foundation.

Issues

As a regional event, the Royal Bath and West faces a challenge to attract national companies without a specific regional interest in the west of England. The location of the showground near Castle Cary is also a long way from London-centric journalists and requires innovative and persistent public relations implementation to ensure mainstream media coverage for the show.

Campaign

A series of themed media campaigns have been created in order to stimulate maximum interest – such as positioning the chief executive, Dr Jane Guise, as an environmental entrepreneur. In addition, we have created newspegs through entering Awards such as the First Women Awards with Dr Jane Guise jointly winning the Tourist and Leisure category in 2007.

Results

National companies such as Worcester Bosch have supported the initiative, with a good cross section of ongoing national media coverage achieved including features in the Daily Telegraph and Independent on Sunday.

Following the success of the pilot, the showcase was expanded in 2007 to position the EcoZone as one of the key highlights of the Show. Since then, our brief spans working closely with the organisers and REF to help obtain continuing visibility and awareness within the media for the Zone and Show. This involves promoting participating key sponsors, recommending new features to secure additional exhibitors in lifestyle sectors such as eco tourism and fashion, and exploiting opportunities such as Awards.

In addition, we are currently working with the Society on a major new assignment to redevelop the showground into the first energy self-sufficient showground in the UK.

Testimonial

"The Green Energy Group operates with a national perspective. They see the big picture and applied this successfully to the show. They have a real awareness of green issues and were able intuitively to understand what we needed."
Dr Jane Guise, Chief Executive of the Royal Bath and West of England Society.

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