Father of the Year PR delivers for Shepherd Centre

The Shepherd Centre recently faced its annual challenge to derive maximum PR leverage from the event it runs in consultation with the Australian Father's Day Council – namely, “The Shepherd Centre Father of the Year”.

Australian media love the concept of the Father of the Year, but don't always include the Shepherd Centre in their description of it or indeed acknowledge the key role played by the Shepherd Centre in sponsoring the event.

This year Palin Communications worked with the Shepherd Centre to orchestrate the announcement to media that former world-class ballet dancer turned stock broker Li Cunxin had won the award for 2009. Li's is an inspirational story about growing up in abject poverty in China and to then later excel in the international spheres of the arts and business.

But how to maximise value for the Shepherd Centre?

The Palin team developed a strategy which focused on the strategic placement of Shepherd Centre signage for TV, clear “key message” briefings for all spokespeople, direct editorial links to a commercial Father's Day appeal running at the same time and diligent briefing of media on the importance of referring to the sponsor within the context of the award.

All TV live crosses (morning news for 7, 9 and 10) and morning talkback carried reference to The Shepherd Centre or showed Shepherd Centre signage.

The campaign generated 19 national and state based TV news programs, 14 national and state based radio programs (news stories and live interviews), 194 newspaper articles (including Cumberland Courier coverage) and 8 online articles.

The Shepherd Centre was mentioned or shown in 70% of the coverage.