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	PLAY SAFE KEEP SAFE CAMPAIGN FOR WARBURTONS

SOUTER
Landmark House
Station Road
Cheadle Hulme
Cheshire, SK8 7BS

t. 0161 486 9102
f. 0161 485 5631

e. sues@souter-rmc.co.uk

Objectives
As a major food manufacturer family bakers Warburtons is committed to implementing stringent health and safety procedures across its 11-strong bakery network. To underline its corporate safety commitment Warburtons briefed Souters to develop a safety-led initiative in the community. The agency had to consider the theme in the wider context of the brand and ensure that Warburtons values of family, care and quality were upheld. Souters focused on child safety – resonant with families (a key target audience for the brand) and an issue of increasing concern. In 2002 statistics revealed that 10,000 children a year were disabled following an accident and house fires accounted for 46% of all child fatalities.

Against this backdrop the objectives were agreed as:-

to find a safety education initiative which directly benefited children in our trading area and increased their awareness of safety issues
to create opportunities for individuals within Warburtons to get involved in their local communities
to develop links with new schools – especially in low awareness areas
to steer the location and media reach of the activity to meet wider brand building objectives for the region (although North West is heartland for Warburtons there are parts of North Wales, South Cumbria, South Cheshire and Derbyshire borders where brand awareness is much lower than Bolton/Burnley/Oldham bakery triangle)

Planning

We researched a ‘safety in the community’ partner to help us channel our resources effectively

We identified the individuals – from Warburtons business development teams - across five locations who would help us deliver the activity

We created a press release template to help us manage the press interest and maintain consistency of message

We worked closely alongside our ‘safety’ partners & Warburtons to agree goals, deliver the work and evaluate post-initiative

Implementation
CSEF, the Children’s Safety Education Foundation www.csef.net is one of the UK’s leading providers of quality safety resources for parents, teachers and children. It works in line with the National Curriculum to produce lively, informative materials and then creates public and private sector partnerships to fund distribution. CSEF offered Warburtons the opportunity to sponsor a teaching publication called Play Stay Keep Safe. The booklet was aimed at 7-11 year olds and covered all aspects of child safety including spotting potential dangers at home to making 999 calls to bullying and drugs awareness.

Warburtons sponsored 1000 Play Stay Keep Safe publications which were distributed FREE to 33 primary schools (classes of c 30 pupils). The sponsorship funded the print run of the books. The booklets featured a message from Warburtons Chairman Jonathan Warburton and a website-linked food safety competition to win a pogo stick.

We identified 33 towns which we wanted to target across the region. CSEF then matched primary schools to those towns and approached them first to see if they would be interested in receiving the booklets.

Souters then worked with individual school heads to co-ordinate presentations by Warburtons and photocalls with local media. Of the 33 schools we had c 28 individual media opportunities (eg there was some joint targeting).

Souters managed a complex programme of presentations with 5-6 individuals to agree when they would take place over a two month period. This was supported by pre and post-briefing to all those taking part. The agency also created and sold in tailored releases and photocall notices to encourage local media to cover the presentation.

Budget
Total cost of the activity was c £5300, including costs of using a photographer at three of the presentations for record purposes. It excludes agency fees.

Evaluation and measurement of the campaign

1000 children in 33 schools received their personal copy of the safety booklet

10,000 children and teachers were aware that their school was benefiting from the initiative

23 different local newspapers ran coverage of the initiative, many with colour pictures of the presentations taken by their own photographers. The story made the front page of the Buxton Advertiser. Three papers did follow up stories on the competition winners and their pogo sticks!

The total circulation of the media coverage was 350,000+ which gave the project a reach (based on circulation x 3) of 1 million+

All coverage was on message and in the right target media to meet original objectives.

Relationships have been established with new schools who have now requested school visits and other interaction with the company.

Warburtons individuals involved in the campaign talked of the welcome they received, the quality of the materials, which reflected favourably on the brand, and the enthusiasm of schools

CSEF were a professional partner who gave us high quality support across a complex programme of giving

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