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Tag: case studies

What Does a PR Agency Do? Briar Chapel’s Spicy App

What Does a PR Agency Do? Briar Chapel’s Spicy App

January 18, 2018January 31, 2023 Clairemont InternAwards, Blog, Case Studiescase studies, PR Agency, PR Awards, PR case studies, PR social media, real estate PR, what does a PR agency do

More exposure and higher attendance were the goals of the Briar Chapel marketing team as it planned its 9th Annual Pepper Festival to support North Carolina agriculture. Briar Chapel is one of the largest master-planned green communities in Raleigh-Durham and part of Newland Communities, the country’s largest private residential real estate developer. It turned to Clairemont Communications to reengage past festival participants and grab the attention of new audiences.

Strategy

Clairemont spiced up Briar Chapel’s approach with a creative social media personality quiz designed to promote the Pepper Festival to Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill residents. Clairemont had two objectives in mind: to increase visibility for the Pepper Festival and build third-party credibility for the event.

Execution

Spark Social Sharing

Clairemont wanted to expand the event’s social media strategy to incorporate a fun, interactive approach that would attract audiences untapped by traditional efforts. We researched the most effective types of personality quizzes and crafted a short online experience that would encourage users to share with a network of friends across multiple platforms, hence organically expanding the festival’s visibility.

“How Spicy Is Your Personality?” Quiz!

Rather than settle for traditional promotions, Clairemont turned up the heat to design an interactive social media quiz that piqued viewers’ interest with a play on words: “How Spicy is Your Personality?” For an unexpected twist, we crafted seven short questions that had little connection with festivals, food, peppers or Briar Chapel. Instead, the quiz featured queries like “What’s your getaway vehicle?” or “Pick Your Poison” – a question followed by four beverage choices ranging from wine to milk with cookies. The quiz posed other clever questions like “If your pants were on fire, you would …” and “your favorite hot spot is …” to emphasize the heat theme of the event. Clairemont peppered the content with twists of wit and humor along with themed verbiage connected to spice, fire and heat commensurate with the Pepper Festival.

The Spicy Personality Results

Once users took the quiz, they found results that stretched beyond the expected, standard “mild, medium or hot” descriptions. Instead, Clairemont crafted five positive personality types that featured popular phrases or song lyrics related to heat, fire and smoke. These descriptions told people if they were a Mild Child, a Sweet Heat, a Spiced Just Right, a Firecracker or a Flamethrower, which contributed to our goal of unexpected and quirky content.

Participants could then share their prescription and accompanying image on Facebook, encouraging friends to take the quiz as well. The quiz also included an opportunity for viewers to enter for a chance to win tickets to the 2016 Pepper Festival, along with details and links to the festival.

Results

Clairemont exceeded each of its objectives of quiz shares, visits and entries, boosted attendance by 10 percent and rolled out the largest festival to date.

The work Clairemont Communications conducted in partnership with Briar Chapel earned an Award of Excellence for Creative Tactics and an Honorable Mention for Social Media from the North Carolina Public Relations Society of America. We are proud that this campaign represents two of the 175 awards we’ve received since starting Clairemont in 2010.

To read more about the work we do with clients, please visit the case study section of our blog.

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What Does a PR Agency Do? Fire It Up! Briar Chapel’s Pepper Fest

What Does a PR Agency Do? Fire It Up! Briar Chapel’s Pepper Fest

November 13, 2017January 31, 2023 Clairemont InternAwards, Blog, Case StudiesBriar Chapel, case studies, Clairemont PR agency, Pepper Festival, PR case studies, Public Relations Agency

Briar Chapel is one of the largest master-planned communities in Raleigh-Durham and part of Newland Communities, the country’s most prominent privately held residential real estate developer. Hosted on-site at Briar Chapel, the annual Pepper Festival features local culture, food, music and art, while inviting the community to support North Carolina agriculture. With more than 50 participating chefs, the festival has grown to be one of the largest chef competition in the state. As the Briar Chapel marketing team planned for the 9th Annual Pepper Festival, greater exposure and higher attendance were the primary goals.

Strategy

Clairemont established an event strategy targeting two main audiences: local media and influencers to drive exposure and Triangle residents with interests in new homes, food, fashion and sustainable agriculture.

Execution

Since research revealed that prospects valued a sense of community, Clairemont highlighted how the festival benefits local farmers, celebrates local culture and provides family activities – like a kid chef competition – in marketing messaging, media pitches and event activities, creating a draw for festivalgoers.

Inaugural Spicy Kid Chef Competition: The 9th Annual Pepper Festival paired seven of the Triangle’s top chefs with elementary-aged students, challenging the “peppery pairs” to craft their most creative pepper-themed dish. Students and chefs kicked off the contest with a meet-and-greet hosted at a local restaurant to tour the kitchen, learn cooking skills and brainstorm recipes with their chefs. They even received personalized aprons as “Tiny Top Chefs!” Highlighted at the festival, the kids debuted their recipes to a panel of four prominent media judges (and the judges’ children). The competition resulted in radio, print and online coverage along with a pending regional magazine feature article.

“How Spicy is Your Personality?” Quiz: To boost online visibility and social sharing, Clairemont created an interactive social media quiz peppered with twists of wit and plays on words. Seven short questions posed fun, unexpected queries, like “What’s your getaway vehicle?” and “Pick Your Poison” – a question followed by four beverage choices ranging from wine to milk. The results stretched beyond “mild, medium or hot.” Clairemont crafted five positive personality types that featured popular phrases or song lyrics related to heat, fire and smoke. Are you a Mild Child, a Sweet Heat, Spiced Just Right, a Firecracker or a Flamethrower? Participants could then enter for a chance to win Pepper Festival tickets, share their results on Facebook and encourage friends to take the quiz or buy tickets. With a goal of 100 quiz entries, we secured approximately 130 quiz entries and 1,700 views.

“Hot” Glam Fashion Show: In order to appeal to a new audience and media, Clairemont rolled out the pepper-red fashion carpet; we challenged local designers to create pepper-themed couture out of eco-friendly materials, tapping into the festival’s themes of agriculture, sustainability, arts and local culture. The event secured attendance and coverage from fashion media – a first for the festival.

Judging Panels and Spicy Media Pitches: Clairemont invited key members of the media to serve as food and beer judges, targeting highly visible reporters who personally enjoy spicy dishes and craft brews. We secured attendance from busy and hard-to-reach targets by assembling a panel of prestigious reporters from print, radio, blog and TV outlets that correlated to resulting media coverage. Creative and individualized pitches were used to pique the interest of target influencers.

Results

Turning up the heat on the Pepper Festival, Clairemont exceeded objectives with the following results:

  1. Secured 19 news stories, posts and magazine articles across local and regional outlets.
  2. Bolstered online visibility with third-party social mentions from bloggers and reporters to almost 75,000 combined followers on Twitter alone.
  3. Boosted ticket sales more than 10 percent.
  4. Garnered a record attendance of 2,200 people.

The work Clairemont Communications conducted in partnership with Briar Chapel earned Best in Category for Events and Observances and an Award of Excellence for Events and Observances from the North Carolina Public Relations Society of America. It also received a Gold Award in Special Events from the Raleigh Public Relations Society. We are proud that this campaign represents two of the 190 awards we’ve received since starting Clairemont in 2010.

To read more about the work we do with clients, please visit the case study section of our blog.

Images courtesy of Briar Chapel.

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What Does A PR Agency Do? Event Marketing, Media Relations, Social Media

August 29, 2012January 31, 2023 Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Public Relations, Raleigh PR AgencyBlog, Briar Chapel, case studies, event marketing, Facebook, media relations, Newland Communities, Public Relations, Social Media, social networking, Twitter

People commonly ask us what a PR agency does. We thought the best way to answer that question would be to share case studies from our work that was recently recognized at the North Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (NCPRSA) InSpire Awards. Clairemont won 14 InSpire Awards, and we hope that this “Award Winning Wednesday” blog series will inspire you, too!

Jonathan Bloom, author of “American Wasteland,” speaks to a group of Earth Day attendees.

Client: Briar Chapel

Situation Analysis: Opened in 2008, Briar Chapel is the largest master-planned green community in North Carolina and a division of Newland Communities, the country’s most prominent privately held residential real estate developer. In 2011, approximately 200 families called Briar Chapel home, leaving more than 2,100 lots available before the community reaches capacity. To embrace the interests of existing residents and potential homebuyers, as well as to honor the company’s commitment to support the larger communities around its developments, Briar Chapel relied on Clairemont Communications to help implement a community relations program as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Objectives: Based on extensive primary and secondary research, Clairemont devised a plan to focus on three main community relations events for the year, designed to engage area residents with known topics of interest while benefiting The Abundance Foundation, a local charity that supports sustainable foods and fuels. Objectives included the following:

  • Demonstrate Briar Chapel’s continued commitment to supporting the larger community, predominately in the areas of education, health/wellness and environmental protection by: a) increasing attendance at Briar Chapel’s annual Earth Day Celebration by 50 percent, b) adding an initiative to Earth Day to recruit area chefs to improve school lunches in the county and achieve a 10 percent increase in participation of the lunch program and c) creating and hosting a new signature event to bring at least 500 people on property to see newly opened areas of the community, while raising an additional $2,500 for charity.
  • Raise market awareness of Briar Chapel and its attributes that relate to the identified community interests by securing at least five local news stories about the community relations events.
  • Continue consistent social media outreach to support events and media relations.

Execution:

Event Marketing: With Briar Chapel’s designation as the largest green community in North Carolina, hosting an Earth Day event for the third year in a row was a natural fit. With existing community support and local media awareness of the event, we focused on new elements of Briar Chapel’s Earth Day Celebration. In order to generate excitement in advance of the event and to shed light on nutritional challenges school cafeterias face, the Chatham County Chef Challenge was born.

Building on the area’s growing interest in locally grown and healthy foods, the Chef Challenge was designed to debunk the myth about bad school lunches and educate the public about healthier choices. Local award-winning chefs created special recipes using only ingredients and cafeteria equipment available to the schools, while following USDA guidelines. They also held culinary workshops for the schools’ cafeteria staff so the recipes could become regular school lunch menu items budgeted at $1 per student and full of fruits and vegetables. The response from students was overwhelmingly positive with more than 85 percent voting to add the chefs’ recipes to their menus.

At Briar Chapel’s Earth Day Celebration, guests sampled the dishes made for the schools. Also new in 2011, Hunt for the Green engaged visitors in a smart phone QR code scavenger hunt through the model homes that hosted the chefs and the amenities of the property. Hunt for the Green educated guests and residents about sustainability. Back by popular demand, the Earth Day 5k Race attracted 130 runners, up from 100 in 2010. Designed to promote Briar Chapel’s focus on health and wellness and to feature its outdoor amenities, the race showcased Briar Chapel’s protected open spaces and extensive nature trails.

With the success of the Earth Day Celebration in the spring and a desire to create a fall signature event, Clairemont conceptualized OktoberBEST, a day of old-fashioned fun at Briar Chapel. Prizes were awarded throughout the day to backyard athletes, armchair athletes and canine athletes who came out to “give it their best” by participating in games that were staged in newly opened areas of the community. To maximize participation, we strategically scheduled and promoted OktoberBEST as the pre-event leading up to the Fourth Annual Pittsboro Pepper Festival, which was held in Briar Chapel’s newly opened Briar Commons Park later that afternoon. Both events benefited The Abundance Foundation.

Media Relations: With local media coverage being the most relevant to Briar Chapel, creative pitching and relying on our established relationships were a must since most media outlets feel like they have covered Briar Chapel as a community. We combated this challenge by crafting pitches around the events, and when possible, we focused on the students, the charity or participants in our events so that our pitches had more feature appeal. We pitched by phone, email and social media. We also submitted community calendar listings on media outlet websites to promote our events.

Social Media: Briar Chapel relied on Clairemont for social media strategy, training and support. We developed a 2011 editorial calendar for Briar Chapel’s blog, conducted research on post topics, prepared questions for blog interviewees and edited content. Additionally, we provided content direction for Briar Chapel’s Facebook page and Twitter stream, and helped develop a smart phone QR code scavenger hunt. Much of the content throughout the year focused on Briar Chapel’s community relations initiatives.

Evaluation: In direct correlation with our stated objectives above, our results were as follows:

  • We exceeded our goals by achieving a 100 percent Earth Day attendance increase (100 guests in 2010; 200 in 2011), boosting the school lunch participation program by 22 percent, attracting nearly 1,200 people to OktoberBEST and Pepper Festival, and increasing The Abundance Foundation donation by more than $3,500.
  • We surpassed our goal of five local news features by securing more than 10 stories in priority outlets such as News & Observer, Chapel Hill News, Triangle Business Journal, WUNC public TV and WCHL, as well as garnering coverage on several community-focused blogs.
  • We continued to leverage social media to support our primary objectives and increased the frequency of Briar Chapel’s blog posts from 45 in 2010 to 55 in 2011. Approximately 65 percent of those posts, as well as Briar Chapel’s Facebook updates and tweets, supported community relations initiatives. We also added a smart phone QR code contest to one of our events.

What did you think of this public relations case study? Was it helpful? We’re here to answer any questions you may have!

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