Andy Rowlands is head of PR at EC Harris. He recently helped to engineer the national coverage of St Michaels and All Angels Church in the village of Withington , deep in the Cotswolds. Why has a virtually unknown church suddenly been thrust into the spotlight? Andy Rowlands gives us the low down…
A couple of weeks ago you might have noticed a story in the news about an old Norman church in the Cotswolds. St Michaels and All Angels Church in Withington has been in existence since the 12th century, faithfully serving its local parish, but it’s largely gone unnoticed by the rest of the world. ….that is, until now. Since August this year, this little church has been courting the likes of BBC, ITV, Press Association and national newspapers who’ve been falling over themselves to feature this building in their environmental output, but why?
Conduct the ‘So What?’ test…
In my role, I must first ask myself a) does a story actually exist? and b) is it genuinely interesting? If I think it’s as dull as ditchwater, chances are so will the journalists and the audience! St Michaels is the UK’s first carbon zero church complete with solar panels and biomass boiler. This is a great story or ‘hook’ because anything with a ‘green’ angle is good media fodder at the moment, and if the story features a ‘first’ or a truly unique angle as well, then you know you’re onto something. St Michaels is an old church which everyone expects to be run down and behind the times, but an old church sporting new technology is surprising and out of the ordinary – these are all ingredients of a good story.
Know your media outlets...
I became aware of this carbon zero project through our Head of Sustainability who happens to attend St Michaels. I offered to give him some help to publicise the project together with the local Gloucester Diocese Press Officer. All we had to do is ‘package’ the story in a straightforward press release that told the story simply and concisely. Between us, we tailored each press release to make it relevant to each media outlet who serve different audiences. I pitched the story to the nationals, property and environmental media and the Diocese pitched it to the local and Christian media. Check out our story in some of these media outlets...
National; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-11123992
Property trade press; http://www.24dash.com/news/communities/2010-10-11-UKs-first-zero-carbon-church
Environmental; http://www.environmenttimes.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?news_id=1321
Picture it...
The old saying, “a picture tells a thousand words” is very true. We took some good photographs of the outside of the church and the solar panels on the roof which basically summed up the story. We made them available to our chosen media outlets along with our press releases and the photos were widely used as a result.
Build momentum and keep the story rolling...
Journalists began reporting on this story when work first started on the church. The completion of the project was another excuse to invite the journalists back. St Michaels also plan to hold a service of celebration in November which should hopefully still keep the media interested. Journalists are always looking for new developments to report on.
Timing is everything...
Getting your story onto the Press Association news wires is a great way to generate coverage. Many editorial teams in various media outlets have limited resources, so they rely heavily on the Press Association to alert them to news. I gave this story to the Press Association’s Environment Correspondent on the Friday, but embargoed it until the Monday, so she had time to write it up before it went live first thing on Monday.
Be bold and stay focused...
Unfortunately the Church and Christianity often get negative coverage in this country. This story positioned the Church positively, demonstrated innovation and took responsibility for limiting its impact on the environment. We should not be scared of approaching the secular media - we should strive to develop stories that can promote positive values of our faith. We should recognise that we too can confidently cut through the noise of media clutter, if only we develop a nose for a good story.
I hope this is helpful. Happy pitching!
Andy Rowlands, Head of PR at EC Harris