Having registered almost 300 media ‘hits’ and achieving a global reach exceeding 300 million people, a campaign by Visit Jersey, in association with Becky Houzé and the herd from Lodge Farm in St Saviour, has been recognised with a prestigious industry award.
The campaign took the Public Sector title in the Dare Awards, run by the UK branch of the Public Relations and Communications Association, the world’s largest professional PR body.
Louise Ashworth, head of marketing for Visit Jersey, said the campaign had created huge interest, with coverage on news channels such as Sky and the BBC, the Jonathan Ross Show (ITV) and enquiries from as far afield as New Zealand.
‘We were excited about the campaign, and the media certainly got into it as well,’ she said. ‘We launched at the beginning of a pretty “heavy” week in December, with lots of news about Brexit and the UK General Election, and this was something playful and fun in the build-up to Christmas Jumper Day.’
The latest industry statistics show a total of 287 separate mentions in the media, of which 93 were global ‘hits’, and a total potential audience of 306 million people.
Miss Houzé said she had been delighted to take part in the project and get the models ready for filming.
‘People thought we’d been trying to get the cows to step into the jumpers and it would take ages, but the jumpers all had fasteners that meant we just needed the cow to stand still – it only took five minutes to get them ready,’ she said.
‘I’m really keen to advocate the dairy industry in Jersey and promote the Island, so this was the perfect campaign for us – and it was great to win an award.’
This year’s PRCA Dare Awards took place virtually as a result of current restrictions relating to coronavirus, but a trophy is currently on its way to the Island as a memento of the project’s success.
