2.
Overview
Soapbox PR was engaged by Kalgoorlie Boulder Pure Gold to assist
with promoting Kalgoorlie as one of the chosen locations for Ewan
McGregor’s new film, ‘Son of a Gun’.
Kalgoorlie Boulder Pure Gold saw an opportunity to showcase the City
to a global audience during Ewan McGregor’s visit and also when the
movie is released to worldwide audiences in 2014.
A PR/Marketing proposal was prepared based on two phases:
• Phase 1 - Immediately before, during, and after filming in
Kalgoorlie
• Phase 2 - Before, during, and after the movie’s release in 2014
Phase 1 commenced in late March 2013, consisting of the following
elements:
• Branding - developing a logo to reflect the movie’s association
with Kalgoorlie
• Blogging - creation of ‘Son of a Gun’ blog posts for the
Kalgoorlie Boulder Pure Gold website
• Social Media - creation, development and maintenance of a
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account
The timeframe for Phase 1 was limited to just 7 weeks (22/3/13 -
10/5/13), in which time ‘Son of a Gun Kalgoorlie Experience’ achieved
significant engagement, predominantly through social media platform,
Facebook.
The completion of Phase 1 has created a platform on which to build
Phase 2 of the campaign - the branding and audience have been
established; and the communication channels are in place.
The following pages demonstrate the activity undertaken throughout
Phase 1, and the subsequent results achieved.
3.
Branding
Objective: To develop a logo that reflects the association between
Kalgoorlie and ‘Son of a Gun’.
How this was achieved: We developed 6 brand concepts for the client
to review. These were all based on the official movie logo combined
with images of Kalgoorlie’s landscape/landmarks as used by
Kalgoorlie Boulder Pure Gold in its tourism marketing collateral.
Concept 3 was selected for its use of imagery and suitability
throughout the life of the campaign, whilst showing a clear link to the
movie’s official branding.
Concept 3:
Official movie logo:
4.
Blogging
Objective: To assist in setting up a blog page within Kalgoorlie
Boulder Pure Gold’s existing CMS (Content Management System), and
develop blog content to be uploaded to the website and shared on
social media.
Blogs should show website visitors what Ewan McGregor got up to
while in Kalgoorlie, encouraging tourists to visit Kalgoorlie and
experience what the City has to offer.
How this was achieved: We liaised with the website developer to
discuss the option of setting up a blog function within the CMS, then
developed blog posts in conjunction with Kalgoorlie Boulder Pure Gold
to upload.
Blog topics were agreed with the client in advance, and included:
• ‘Son of a Gun showcases Kalgoorlie Boulder to global audience’
• ‘Kalgoorlie Boulder to feature in new Ewan McGregor film’
• ‘Son of a Gun movie crew have arrived!’
• ‘Ewan McGregor visits Kalgoorlie International Speedway to
shoot Son of a Gun’
• ‘Ewan McGregor plays tourist in Kalgoorlie Boulder’
• ‘Ewan McGregor unwinds with a round at the Kalgoorlie Golf
Course’
• ‘Ewan McGregor’s TV appearance on The Project’
Blog banner on website’s homepage:
6.
The blog’s homepage received 190 page views and 110 unique page
views during the month of April.
The blog post titled ‘Kalgoorlie Boulder to feature in new Ewan
McGregor film’ received 124 page views and 81 unique page views.
Social media
Objective: To report on Ewan McGregor’s and the film crew’s
whereabouts while in Kalgoorlie, share photos, comments, and media
coverage related to the movie and Kalgoorlie, and encourage others to
share their ‘Son of a Gun’ experience including photos with the
movie’s stars and photos of the movie being filmed.
How this was achieved: Using the ‘Son of a Gun Kalgoorlie
Experience’ branding, we created a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
account, which would be used to share photos and information
relating to the film, its cast, and crew; and to provide a space for
others to share their ‘Son of a Gun Kalgoorlie Experience’.
Facebook
7.
The Facebook page attracted 249 ‘likes’ throughout the 7 weeks of
Phase 1, achieving almost 50 ‘likes’ in the first day.
Almost 50% of the total ‘likes’ were from those aged 25-44, and the
majority of the 249 ‘likes’ were from Kalgoorlie residents (184 out of
249).
The page’s timeline received 1,281 views (from 5 April when the page
was created, to 10 May) showing a clear spike in visitors to the page
when the cast and crew were in Kalgoorlie:
The page has also maintained all 249 ‘likes’, despite filming finishing
and the crew leaving Kalgoorlie. This suggests that people will
continue to support the page and refer to it for information when the
film is released:
8.
We can also see that people were not only viewing the page, but
engaging too, as shown by the graph below:
This resulted in a ‘viral reach’ peak of 4,289 people (during the week
11/4/13 - 17/4/13). ‘Viral reach’ represents the number of unique
people that saw the page via a friend:
10.
Twitter
The ‘Son of a Gun Kalgoorlie Experience’ Twitter account was created
in support of the Facebook page, and was also used as an information-
sharing tool.
Ewan McGregor’s active Twitter presence was monitored and his
tweets about Kalgoorlie, Son of a Gun, and his time in Australia were
retweeted on the ‘Son of a Gun Kalgoorlie Experience’ page:
11.
Despite only attracting a small number of ‘followers’ (32), the page
was visible to all Twitter users, including Ewan McGregor and other
cast members.
We regularly mentioned Ewan McGregor in tweets to show Kalgoorlie’s
hospitality towards both him and the rest of the film’s cast and crew.
Instagram
The ‘Son of a Gun Kalgoorlie Experience’ Instagram account was set
up to share photos and to follow Ewan McGregor, an active Instagram
user.
The account enabled us to keep track of Ewan McGregor’s activity,
with Instagram often being our source of information.
Ewan McGregor’s Kalgoorlie Instagram photos:
12.
Using the Storify tool, we were able to develop a blog post to
showcase Ewan McGregor’s Instagram photos:
13.
*View the full Storify blog post at kalgoorlietourism.com/sonofagunkalgoorlieblog
