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PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN REPORT

Campaign Overview

Ruby Public Relations was engaged by Little Athletics Australia and Bravehearts to coordinate the media and
publicity campaign surrounding the launch of a joint initiative educational program, Supporting Hands Worskhops,
which were rolled out across Australia as part of Little Athletics’ State Association Conference programs for 2014.

The objectives of the PR campaign were threefold – To promote the joint initiative between Bravehearts and Little
Athletics that was set to benefit close to 96,000 children around the country, promote Little Athletics Australia as an
organisation that is being proactive in the protecting of its participants, as well as profiling local Little Athletics
centres and members who had taken part in the initiative to their local community.

The Supporting Hands Workshops were held at five state conferences between June and August – Queensland, ACT,
Tasmania, NSW and South Australia. The PR strategy was broken down into two stages, the first stage being publicity
surrounding the workshop taking place in each respective state/town, followed by stage two, a follow up to the
workshop event that was held in each state, which was regionalised and distributed to each local news outlet of all
delegates that attended.

Targeted media for stage one included major metropolitan, regional and local media (TV, print, radio and online),
while stage two focused on regional and local media (predominantly print and radio).

Ruby Public Relations completed the following media activities throughout the campaign:

• Preparation and distribution of official press release – With quotes from LAA CEO Martin Stillman and Hetty
Johnston. This formed the official press release that would be regionalised and distributed to all states
throughout the duration of the campaign.
• Media Call – A media call was held on the Gold Coast with Bravehearts CEO Hetty Johnston, Little Athletics
Queensland CEO Simon Cook and local athletes from the Ashmore Little Athletics Centre, to mark the launch
of the first of the state workshops, which kicked off on the Gold Coast at the Mercure Hotel.
• Preparation and distribution of a post-event press release – Included interviews from each respective state
representative and was distributed to the local media outlets in each attendee’s home town.
• Interview and on-site photo shoot - Set up with Wynnum Little Athletics Centre Tony Roche

The resulting media coverage included a mixture of regional and metropolitan media coverage, predominantly in
print and radio.

Coverage focused primarily around the topic of Bravehearts teaming up with Little Athletics Australia to help make
local children safer through the joint initiative, which educated staff and volunteers about the myths and the facts
and figures that surround child sexual assault, while teaching them how to deal with disclosures or reporting
concerns.
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PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN REPORT

Breakdown of Media Coverage

> There were 25 media stories that appeared across the campaign
> 13 print pieces, 10 radio pieces, 1 television and 1 online piece appeared

Media Outlets

> TV coverage achieved was on Channel 9 Gold Coast off the back of the launch media call

> Print coverage was generated in:

QLD: Gold Coast Bulletin, Gatton Lockyer Brisbane Valley Star, Toowoomba Life, Caboolture News, Albert
and Logan News and the Wynnum Herald

NSW: Goulburn Post, Daily Liberal

TAS: Kingborough Chronicle, Burnie Advocate, Huon News

ACT: Northside Chronicle

SA: Barossa & Light Herald

> Online media coverage appeared on local Gold Coast news and lifestyle website MyGC.com.au

> Radio coverage came from Juice 107.3FM Gold Coast, ABC Gold Coast and 102.9 Hot Tomato, 2LT Radio
Lithgow NSW, Rhema FM and 2PK Radio NSW, ABC South Australia, ABC Northern Tasmania and City Park
Radio, Launceston TAS.

Coverage Reach

> The campaign media coverage reached a total of 334,510 people from various target markets
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PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN REPORT

Key successes

This campaign generated a lot of media interest and resulted in some widespread, quality coverage across various
media outlets. See below some prime examples of our success throughout the campaign.

Left – Goulburn Post 20.06.14

Above - Gold Coast Bulletin 14.06.14

Left – Kingborough
Chronicle 01.07.14
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PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN REPORT

• Drafted launch of joint initiative press release to all state media, seek approvals from LAA and Bravehearts
• Distributed launch press release to all state’s metropolitan and regional media outlets
• Drafted regionalised press releases for each state and seek approvals through LAA, Bravehearts and
individual state associations
• Distribute regionalised press release to all attendee’s home town media outlets
• Drafted media call for Gold Coast launch
• Distributed media call and followed up with all local media to attend launch
• Hosted media call at Ashmore Little Athletics Centre, Gold Coast
• Coordinate photo opportunities for media
• Pitch radio interviews with state spokespersons/ Bravehearts spokespersons in each state
• Responded to press office enquiries and coordinate media interviews with state spokespeople/ Bravehearts
spokespeople where appropriate
• Monitor and collate media coverage, reporting back to LAA/ Bravehearts as coverage appeared

Limitations/ Recommendations

While Ruby Public Relations was happy with the results achieved for this campaign, it is important to note there
were some challenges throughout the campaign’s duration, which meant some of the media activity in the approved
PR strategy was not able to be executed and may have affected coverage results. These included:

• Restrictions on availability of Little Athletics state representative/ spokespersons for media calls to be held
week before workshops
• Limited media access to workshop events and availability of spokespersons to speak to media. E.g.: NBN
Newcastle was secured to cover the Cessnock NSW workshop, however the opportunity was lost as there
was only a 15-30 minute window that the TV crew were able to interview spokespeople and gain footage,
and they could not guarantee they could meet this time slot.
• Difficulty getting in contact with nominated Little Athletics spokespersons from each state for timely media
interview opportunities
• Children not available for some of the proposed media calls/ photo opportunities which led to losing media
interest
• Slow turn around on some media release approvals through state associations – Tasmania & NSW
• Lack of Bravehearts spokespeople on the ground in each state
• The strategy originally proposed and approved for post-event releases to include the names of those who
attended each workshop, for distribution to local media outlets was cancelled, significantly reducing the
local newsworthiness of the stories for each region
• Limited media outlets (TV and press) in some of the more regional locations of the workshops, meaning local
coverage was in some cases unattainable, while metropolitan media wasn’t possible either due to remote
locations