11•12•2024

The Ideal Home Show win the award for 'Best Use of PR' at the EN Marketing Awards

 

Winners at last night's EN Marketing Awards for Best Use of PR for the Ideal Home Show. 

Judges comments:
Super innovative - super impactful, impressive.
 
Entry summary:
 
The use of influencers when teamed with partners in this campaign worked incredibly well. The use of AI for trend predictions, then resulting in feedback from experts within the industry provided the perfect content that would both engage an audience and drive them to attend. The growth in relevant content and its reach pushed this event into front of its target audience in a way that caused all those relevant stakeholders to not miss it.
 
PR campaign
 
The PR campaign was designed to elevate the 116th Ideal Home Show with a focus on keeping IHS’s messaging front and centre in national, consumer, and broadcast media. It used innovative methods to stand out and adapt. We leveraged AI, a fresh tool for us, to generate trend predictions that we then challenged with commentary from real-life experts from the show - the conflict between AI and experts created talkability and drove coverage. We also partnered with trusted brand TimeOut, using their podcast channel to run pre-show and live interviews, driving broader coverage. Additionally, the PR team attended live talks by key figures at the Show, including Martin Lewis, capturing expert insights and comments to share with the media in real-time.
 
Highest performing broadcast examples
  • The TimeOut podcast with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen attracted over 80,000 listeners, with coverage bolstered by tagged editorial and social media posts.
  • The King Charles Show Home proved a media success, enhancing the show’s visibility and expanding its reach, resulting in coverage across major outlets, including the Daily Mail, Daily Express, and The Independent.
  • Our approach to “Predicting the Future with AI” brought a fresh angle, creating a compelling narrative that highlighted our unique talents, achieving 78 pieces of coverage.
  • IHS was prominently positioned in media by developing impactful consumer research ideas . Data was strong and credible, enabling us to pitch compelling stories that resulted in coverage with links (93%) driving web traffic, and in turn ticket sales.
  • “Overheads” was a key tactic for maintaining momentum during the 17-days, providing fresh, newsworthy content. This delivered 345 pieces of real-time media coverage across the show, helping drive conversion.
Our campaign saw strong media engagement, increasing coverage by 23% YoY, with 706 pieces in 2024, up from 568 in 2023. 76% were regional pieces, with 33% in London and the Southeast, reaching our core audience. Partnerships with key talent expanded our reach, connecting us with a new audience.

Well done to all involved, you smashed it and we are so proud of you guys!