Drink up, it’s good for you!

Keep it Light! was launched by agency Connected PR in May 2010 to improve hydration health in the UK for its client, Juice Doctor. The main aims of Keep it Light were to encourage good drinking habits and provide free educational material to the general public. A key message of the campaign was to urge people to frequently check the colour of their urine, setting the nation a goal to “keep it light“. The campaigns aims included securing support from large employers across the UK so that they would promote key hydration health messages to their own work forces. Other campaign targets were to:

• Find a print partner for the campaign to print materials for workplace distribution.
• Get at least 20 top-tier journalists from national, regional and lifestyle media who cover health, fitness and slimming, the food and drink trade magazines, and business and HR publications, to attend a launch event in a central London location with presentation from Sir Steve Redgrave.
• Re-introduce the Juice Doctor range of naturally isotonic drinks with a new product range and new branding

Methodology

A work-place hydration survey was carried out that provided newsworthy results on drinking habits and lack of hydration awareness in UK. The research was carried out by Opinion Matters, an independent Pan-European market research agency. Qualitative and quantitative data gathering techniques were used across 1,000 UK-based office workers. Findings showed:

• 75 per cent of UK office workers cited their first response to a headache as taking headache pills rather than drinking more water
• Less than 4 per cent were actually getting the recommended 7-plus glasses of water per day
• Almost three-quarters of the respondents admitted to drinking either no water at all or only one to two glasses
• The vast majority (83.5 percent) of office workers surveyed admitted that being thirsty affects their productivity at work, yet most continue with poor hydration regimes.

To highlight these findings and promote Juice Doctor, key documents were produced, including a work-place hydration survey executive summary, boilerplates for Juice Doctor and Keep It Light campaign information.

Two launch events were organised in London, which meant sourcing an appropriate venue; inviting and securing the target media; managing invitations; and arranging product sampling and press kit distribution. It was also vital to ensure that the face of the campaign, Sir Steve Redgrave, was free to attend, and that was available for photo opportunities· Also a ‘Juice Doctor ambulance’ and Juice Doctor drinks were displayed to provide light-hearted images for lifestyle media.

Five individual press releases (based on the workplace hydration survey results) were produced to target five different media audiences: General health/fitness/slimming industry, Food/drink consumers, Food/drink trade, business/HR publications, and the health and beauty sector.

All attendees to the event were followed up via email and phone with product information, offering full results of the survey and images.

Other key parts of the campaign included arranging product sampling to key people unable to attend the events. There were also competition product placements with key publications. Two key websites were revamped, www.juice-doctor.co.uk and www.keepitlight.org.

Results

A major achievement was securing support for the campaign from several large employers across the UK including Plantronics, Birds Eye, Wyke Farms, Carphone Warehouse and the RNLI, reaching over 20,000 employees. Another key aim that was met was securing the print partner, Love Online Print.

Particular highlights were:

Getting excellent attendance of 27 top-tier journalists across both events

Having coverage in nine print titles, 14 online titles, and two broadcast media and securing future coverage in 14 other titles

Having a total PR reach figure of over 1.9 million (to date)

Achieving a total PR AVE of around £30,000 (giving 200 per cent ROI to date on the initial investment).

Budget

The entire campaign budget was less than £10,000, including agency fees, venue, food and materials.