Driving record sales with winning media coverage

Following a successful three years of collaboration, this year was no time to rest on our laurels. We needed a comprehensive PR delivery plan to run throughout the year, which led to the following core objectives: 

⏺  Drive awareness of Graham Budd Auctions as the UK’s most experienced and knowledgeable sports memorabilia auctioneer

⏺  Drive interest in, and bids on high-value lots

⏺  Attract new bidders who haven’t previously considered investing in sports memorabilia

⏺  Drive new consignments for ongoing auctions  

⏺  Position Graham Budd Auctions as a successful, growing business

Based on this brief, we committed to issuing at least one press release each month, combining this with proactive ideas that could contribute to further brand-building in earned media. 

We set a KPI of an average of 6-8 pieces of media coverage in target publications per month, spread out across the year to account for peaks (months when auctions took place) and troughs (months when they did not). 

The key to our ongoing success with Graham Budd was our deep understanding of the media agenda, and specifically how to build strong, creative stories from the hundreds of items sold every quarter by the auctioneer.  

After working across several auctions for the client, our relationships with key journalists and publications were foolproof, and we took learnings from previous successes to inform our press office plan for the year.

For example, we learnt that while the estimated item value is important to the media, provenance, topicality, data and human interest matter just as much, and we made sure to draw out these factors as much as possible. 

To do so, we worked with the individuals selling unique items, drawing out the personal and emotional factors to create first-person narratives around auction items.

For example, during Graham Budd’s Road to Manchester auction, which featured a range of items from former Manchester sporting legends, we worked with the team to hold a press day and offer interviews with Viv Anderson, England’s first black football player, using his unique personal story to highlight the value and legacy of items he had offered for sale. 

This human interest approach helped us to work efficiently and effectively, delivering exceptional coverage results.

We combined this planned approach, with proactive angles designed to boost coverage outputs during quieter months when auctions were not taking place. 

For example, we used The Budd Index – Graham Budd’s catalogue of historic auction data – to calculate that vintage sporting tracksuits are now more popular than their designer equivalents, securing coverage on TalkSport as a result.