Successful PR Campaigns - Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

We knew we had to act quickly and develop some fun and successful PR campaign ideas that would appeal to national journalists. We didn’t have time to spend months in scoping and development, but we did ensure we understood the brief and the wider marketing objectives.

Over summer, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard’s overarching theme for marketing was ‘unexpected experiences’. And what could be more unexpected on a visit than finding a professional mermaid telling you about the site? We helped the Dockyard advertise for a professional mermaid, merman or merperson in response to an unprecedented number of enquiries from the public. And we let the media know about the unexpected vacancy.

Looking further forward, October 11th marked the 41st anniversary of the day the Mary Rose was raised from the Solent – a moment etched in our collective national memory. After a big focus for the 40th celebration last year, a 41st anniversary was a harder sell to the media. In response, we launched a search for the nation’s Marys and Roses, all of whom would receive a free ticket to visit the Mary Rose Museum on the anniversary. Having sourced as many Marys, Roses as we could (a few Rosemarys even snuck in), we announced the search to national media, organised an advance photo shoot with one very special Mary Rose and arranged a media event on the day, staging photography, hosting live interviews and managing TV crews.