Laura McLellan, head of business development, Evolve Housing + Support and Kate Beard, account director, Amazon PR Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Homeless in a Heatwave
Laura McLellan
Head of Business Development, Evolve
@EvolveLDN
Kate Beard
Account Director, Amazon PR
@amzpr
#CharityPR

3. Getting our ducks lined up
Once the press release was drafted, we worked quickly to:
› Brief staff on what to do if they were approached for comment
› Brief spokespeople so they were prepared for interviews
› Add the press release to our website and develop collateral for
social media
› Identify case studies and make sure they understood how sharing
their story might impact on them
› Watch the media to see how the story was developing
› Start to engage on social media using #HeatwaveUK

7. Media coverage
› 281 pieces of media coverage
› ‘Opportunity to see’ of over 24 million
› ‘Advertising value equivalent’ of £906,000
› 27 pieces of national coverage (most online)
› 1 piece of national broadcast coverage
› 15 pieces of coverage in London media (print and online)
› 238 articles in regional media
› Highlights included BBC online, The Guardian, Telegraph, Mail
Online, The Sun Online, Metro.co.uk, I, Evening Standard online,
Refinery 29, Huff Post, Time Out London, Channel 5 News

8. Outcomes
Website daily visits

9. Outcomes
Website traffic

10. Outcomes
Facebook engagement

11. @MetroUK 287,000 followers @BalanceLDN 7,070 followers
@standardnews 598,000 followers
@5_News 21,400 followers

12. Lessons for other charities
› Timing is everything – we jumped on the story before others did and
were central to coverage of the heatwave
› Practical lists and case studies are key – case study Keiron Day
appeared on Channel 5 News talking about his own experiences
› Provide a visual element – we had to pass up some broadcast
coverage because we weren’t able to provide filming opportunities
› Hone your call to action – our call to action was practical, which
resulted in awareness rather than donations
› Extend the story for the media – because of the fast pace of the
news agenda most coverage was online. Think about how to extend
the coverage with an image or news story

13. Thank you!
#CharityPR
@EvolveLDN @amzpr

14. PR moments:
using cultural trends and seasonal
events to make the news
PR Network
12 March 2019
London
#charityPR

15. Visit the CharityComms website to
view slides from past events, see
what events we have coming up
and to check out what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk