Words from Chris Pharo, MD of 72Point.
I’ll look back on 2021 with many mixed emotions. Like many others across the world, dealing with the Covid pandemic and everything that has come about because of it has been hugely challenging on a personal level.
From a professional perspective I’ll look back on it as the year 72Point came of age, with an immense amount of pride in our team and a deep sense of gratitude to the many, many clients who trusted us to deliver on their behalf.
By blending our innate knowledge of what publishers want with the ever more demanding need to make headlines for our clients, I think we’ve kept our side of the bargain this year.
We’ve achieved record levels of coverage from a record number of campaigns – achieving more than 50,000 published pieces for the first time in our history.
We’ve landed more coverage in print than ever before and have seen a huge increase in digital coverage as we expand our capabilities in video, pictures and digital design, all of which are vital in achieving digital cut through.
The OnePoll team have handled more than 4.7 million surveys during the year and have asked an extraordinary 52,000 questions of our panel over the past twelve months, receiving an impressive 80 million answers.
And for those clients for whom news generation is not enough, we have PLAY. Launching a comms shop in a pandemic was not without its risks and I’m incredibly proud of our sister agency, which landed New Consultancy of the Year at the PRWeek awards.
Crunching Numbers
Over the course of 2021, we landed 765 stories for our clients, which generated 50,387 pieces of coverage. With a 34% increase in stories landed from the previous year, we landed 2403 print and 47,984 digital pieces. We all know quality and quantity are both significantly important in our industry, so we were proud to have achieved 18,628 top tier pieces with a domain authority exceeding 70.
We carried out some stellar work for our clients throughout the year!
We gave passengers of the ‘Tranquil Train’ a 15-minute moment of calm for Heathrow Express.
The concept of the ‘Tranquil Train’ was created in order to give passengers a 15 minute moment of calm when travelling on Heathrow Express whereby they could be taken through a guided yoga session by a top instructor and influencer, Celest Pereira. The carriage was decorated with a floral display of lavender and eucalyptus, known for their calming aromas. Passengers were also treated to goody bags featuring a face mask, hand sanitizer and a sleep balm as well as a booklet containing the seated yoga sequence to continue on their onward journey. Coverage highlights included a piece in the Times, MailOnline, New York Post and regional broadcast titles.
We worked with Premier Inn to solve the dilemma of meeting friends and family from far away. Meet Inn the Middle landed 141 pieces of coverage.
It all started with a relatable creative idea about the dilemma of meeting friends and family from far away, deploying research to underpin the concept and boost appeal top publishers. Oath then created a striking digital asset that is central to the story. The result was top coverage in Sun, Express, Mirror, MSN and more, an asset that serves both our client and publishers, and a highly relevant story that will live on.
Our poll for TPF and BLAZE went international, with 148 pieces of coverage across UNILAD, Deadline, TMZ, The Daily Express, and Independent, leading to mentions of US and UK broadcast channels.
A campaign for TV channel BLAZE polled Brits to find the top 20 celebrities or public figures they believe would be best suited to deal with an extra-terrestrial threat. Arnold Schwarzenegger topped the list, and even tweeted about the campaign to his 4.9M followers, thanks Arnie!
Supporting Guide Dogs on the launch of their 90th anniversary appeal resulted in 200+ pieces across the press and 10.6k click throughs on social!
72Point supported Guide Dogs on the launch of their 90th anniversary appeal where the globally renowned portrait photographer Andy Gotts pictured some of the UK’s most -loved celebrities and their four-legged friends. The team secured widespread coverage of the anniversary celebration with a bespoke media sell-in strategy that landed coverage in Express, Mail, MailOnline, Mirror, Telegraph, Times, Metro, Sun, Star, Independent and Scotsman.
I’d like to also give recognition to all the brilliant campaigns we’ve seen from across the world of PR. The Kiyan Prince FIFA 21 campaign by the Engine team was a particularly poignant piece of work that has stuck with me. The creativity applied by Cow, who created a new shade of Pantone to raise awareness of menstruation, was also particularly brilliant.
Wrapping up for Christmas
I’m sure I’m not the only person to have seen their team struggle through the past two years, only to watch as they showed extraordinary resilience, talent and commitment to overcome some challenging odds.
Our team has moved mountains throughout the year and I’m deeply grateful for their efforts. It’s an honour to lead them.
I’d also like to say a huge thank you to all our clients for trusting us to carry out work on their behalf during these troubled times. I hope we’ve repaid it and look forward to continuing the journey in 2022, when hopefully life returns to some semblance of normality.