National Trust - Gone For a Walk

National Trust – Gone for a walk

A digital word of mouth campaign to promote the National Trust’s Great British Walk campaign to those stuck behind desks in the East of England region.

What was the problem?

The National Trust East of England, wanted to promote ‘The Great British Walk” campaign. They were aiming to reflect the spirit of their founder Octavia Hill, by asking people to show their love for their local outdoors. By engaging with both existing National Trust supporters as well as potential supporters who enjoy a walk, the goal was to position the Trust as a passionate champion of outdoor experiences.

The campaign ran nationally, but the East of England region wanted to promote it to potential supporters – in other words, those who don’t currently visit National Trust properties and landscapes but would, if they knew about them. The audience for this would primarily be office workers in Norwich, Cambridge and Chelmsford.

The Trust wanted the brief to be answered in a way that used digital word of mouth in a clever way rather than relying on print.

And how did we solve it?

We created a campaign called ‘Gone For a Walk’ to inspire those stuck behind their desks, to take three minutes out and enjoy the calm by experience a virtual walk via video, whilst also nudging them to want to go for a National Trust walk on the weekend. As a team, we produced the film, reached out to bloggers and the press, whilst also managing the online advertising to key target audiences via Google and Facebook.

The results were superb – the campaign worked exactly how we wanted it to and reached the client’s target audiences in Norwich, Cambridge and Chelmsford. Through word of mouth amongst those stuck behind a desk and blogger outreach, the video had over 145,000 views in a little over three weeks, had been favourited 341 times and liked over 145 times.

In terms of PR – BBC Radio Norfolk did a great 5 minute interview with the National Trust about this campaign to get office workers out there exploring the walks.

Overall, the campaign gave the region the exposure it needed to an audience it traditionally struggled to reach.

The Results?

Through word of mouth amongst those stuck behind a desk and blogger outreach, the video had over 145,000 views in a little over three weeks, had been favourited 341 times and liked over 145 times.