Viper Marketing

Adding Value to Press Call

Author: Jim Hardcastle

Jim has helped organisations and groups communicate more effectively for nearly 20 years. His background in the countryside and rural sectors provide him with a wealth of experience. Fueled by coffee with Post-Its at the ready, he’s here to help .

I know I added value thanks to my background but I had to know when to keep quiet.

Thanks to Viper, MEP Graham Watson and MP Tessa Hunt were visiting young rangers on the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) to help celebrate the first time that England is hosting the International Junior Ranger Camp.

Later this month 40 young rangers from the Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, the Netherlands and Slovenia will be visiting Mendip. During their weeks’ stay at the Europarc camp, the junior rangers will enjoy outdoor adventure such as caving and climbing, visits to Cheddar Gorge and the historic town of Wells and will get involved in a variety of conservation tasks.

At this weekend’s launch event, the Mendip Hills young rangers got the MEP, who is the Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for South West England and Gibraltar, to try his hand at some dry stone walling. This is where my background knowledge kicked in. Before my life with Viper I spent 15 years as a ranger and the last 6 of those years on Mendip. Dry stone walls became a pet subject of mine. I know more than enough. I kept chipping bits of information in: how to date a wall, why are some falling down etc?

Andy Mallender the current Project Officer for the Mendip Hills AONB Unit was great, chatting away with the dignitaries. Together we were formidable. I could chip in lots of background info while being conscious that this was Andy's show, organise the other press photographers, leaving Andy to liaise between the dignitaries and young rangers.

Everyone got what they wanted. The MEP and MP got their chance to talk to the young rangers and find out about the camp, the press got their shots and words and the client got their story in the news. Happy client, happy MEP and MP and happy press. Job done.  

To find out more click here
 

- Posted on Monday 12 Jul 2010 at 10:58 by Jim Hardcastle

Tags: aonb (31), area of outstanding natural beauty (17), countryside (20), europarc (4), europe (6), jim hardcastle (33), launch (4), mendip hills aonb (5), press (2), rangers (11), rural (32), value (3)