Christmas at Trentham

ILLUMINATING HISTORIC GARDENS

THE BRIEF

After successfully working with Trentham Gardens, in Staffordshire, for several years we were recommended to leading events team, Kilimanjaro, to PR their brand-new event at the estate, ‘Christmas at Trentham’ in 2021 and 2022.

The Christmas at Trentham event is an illuminated trail designed to accentuate the flora and fauna and see the stunning historic landscape at Trentham in a new light.

Christmas at Trentham was the first Christmas light trail to be held at the estate and the only one of its kind in Staffordshire. We were tasked with raising awareness of the events with regional and national press, as well as influencers.

In 2022, we were also appointed to manage all social channels for Christmas at Trentham, including a brand new TikTok account. As part of this we gathered huge amount of content pre-event and during to drive awareness and ultimately increase footfall and ticket sales.

THE PROCESS

With the event being both a regional and nationwide attraction, we set about raising awareness with press by issuing announcement press releases, sneak peeks and going hard with personal pitching sent to specific press for round ups.

We also held a press preview to generate interest with regional press, influencers and VIPs, including the Mayor of Stoke.

In 2022, Christmas at Trentham announced children’s charity, NSPCC, as its charity of the year and we worked closely with them to help raise awareness of their work, as well as hold a fundraising walk on the press preview night, giving members of the public a chance to experience the trail before anyone else.

THE RESULTS

In 2021, COVID was rearing its head again, but this meant there was a huge demand for outdoor events. On our first year of working on the event, we secured 37 pieces of national and regional coverage from September to December. These pieces had a total online readership of 1.17 billion, 2.22 million estimated coverage views and an overall circulation of 236K.

Notable features included The i Paper, Stylist, Country Living, Daily Express and Yours Magazine, as well as regional broadcast interviews with ITV Central and Signal Radio.

Thanks to influencer coverage from the preview night and throughout the event, we generated a combined influencer reach of 166K.

The press previews were a huge success both years with over 100 influencers and members of the press in attendance.

Our work throughout 2022 saw a total of 43 pieces of coverage with an audience of over 531 million. This included features in Stylist, The English Garden, Dog Destinations, and the BBC.

Regionally we saw coverage in Secret Birmingham, Stoke Sentinel, Burton Mail and Staffordshire what’s on websites and guides.

Live broadcasts saw Christmas at Trentham on BBC Midlands Today News, Signal Radio and BBC Radio Stoke Sunday morning show.

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