Cambridge Regional College

Objective

The main objective was to secure ongoing positive media coverage in both local areas, as well as wider regional and national coverage of success stories related to the Cambridge Regional College (CRC), staff and students. Press activity would look to highlight the strength of different subject areas, sporting successes and wider news that promoted the college as a whole. A key component of this task would be increasing visibility of unseen achievement, which would happen regularly within the college community but receive little external publicity.

The process

WSA implemented a pro-active campaign to run on an ongoing monthly basis. A comprehensive pipeline of activity was devised for both sites and updated with weekly telephone calls and monthly meetings. Access was granted for direct communication with key departmental leads. The agency sent representatives to work from the college campuses on occasion, ensuring they were available on site to obtain interviews when multiple story opportunities were identified. Every release devised was produced with multi-channel media in mind, so that it was relevant and appropriate for online, print and broadcast coverage. Relationships were cultivated with key media publications and utilised to secure interview opportunities.

Over the course of 12 months, the external relations campaign achieved significant coverage from targeted regional media. Successes included multiple examples of featured coverage across all three mediums of the BBC – Television, Radio and Online. This included the CRC Principal being interviewed live in the Look East TV news studio, as well as a student teaching a BBC presenter how to cook during a live radio breakfast segment.

The college increased its output of news to around 8 external pieces per month, yielding a substantial uplift in media coverage and raising positive awareness amongst the local communities of both campuses.