After an outstanding media success on Vancouver’s 30th anniversary of the dragon boat festival in 2018, how would Peak attract another 90 media hits, in addition to the 28 event listings a year later? The goal was to attract the same or more media coverage, in advance of and during the festival.
The Campaign
Peak went out and pitched the same media for stories, interviews and calendar event listings. We crafted creative profiles and backgrounders. In early June, three weeks before the festival, Peak held a news conference to preview the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival and unveil a new light-weight dragon boat that was in development. We also gave media the opportunity to get into the newly built boat and race against the older models.
The Results
In 2019, Peak drove an astounding 68 per cent more media coverage than in 2018. This is one of Vancouver’s biggest annual festivals and fun events, so it is worthy of repeat coverage. The morning news conference with real news received a significant amount of media coverage in the lead-up to the festival itself. That was a differentiator. Peak also harnessed established media relationships to ensure success in 2019.
To engage the Vancouver public with the Kitsilano Showboat, to tell its stories, and to encourage people to attend the shows.
Campaign
Peak worked pro bono to help Kitsilano Showboat garner publicity relating to their 80th anniversary season from June-August. To help achieve media results, Peak created targeted pitches for local media outlets, including a pitch about Canada Day.
Key Results
Media coverage resulted in over 1.8 million media impressions and included:
Great River Fishing Adventures (GRFA) wanted to publicize a record sturgeon catch. The goal was to highlight the unbelievable size of the prehistoric monster fish, the excitement of the catch would attract more business as a result. Great River Fishing wanted to express their underlying passion to see that the Great White Sturgeon population is preserved and maintained by the catch and release and tagging program.
Campaign
Peak worked with Great River Fishing Adventures when an elderly British couple caught a 12 foot – 4 inch long Great White Sturgeon on the Fraser River in July 2012. Peak Communicators worked quickly to have media interview the visiting tourists aboard a Great River Fishing boat with hand-out visuals provided. With dozens of TV, radio and print stories that resulted, the story had International media coverage.
Every time a huge sturgeon is caught, Peak has turned on the publicity machine. It’s worked every time.
September 2012 – A Kamloops accounting firm doing a 30 person team-building
Paul caught a 10 foot – 10 inch long sturgeon
June 2014 – 19-year-old Paul Jarvis and his dad from Atlanta on their first fishing trip together
The firm owner caught an 11 foot – 8 inch sturgeon
June 2015 – A nine year old boy and his dad from Atlantic City, NJ dreamed of catching a big sturgeon
The 4 foot tall boy pulled in a 10 foot – 1 inch long sturgeon
Key Results
Over a four year period, Peak and GRFA’s marketing man have worked effortlessly together. We secured hundreds of online articles and traditional media hits. In the process their business has grown and they are industry leaders. They are acknowledged by Trip Advisor as the #1 boat tour and water sports company in Chilliwack and they’ve attracted fishing TV series from all over the world to do episodes and segments on their company.
Nine year old Kegan Rothman caught an estimated 600 pound Great White Sturgeon on the Fraser River near Chilliwack on a fishing charter with Great River Fishing Adventures.
Harbour Air Group, consisting of Harbour Air Seaplanes, Westcoast Air and Whistler Air, has become the largest all-seaplane company in the world. Harbour Air has been in business for over 30 years and has more than 40 aircrafts.
Client objective
Harbour Air came to Peak in 2013 originally for media training, and soon realized the benefit that pro-active media relations and crisis preparation could bring.
The goal of the PR program was two-fold:
Prepare for issues and ensure communications to stakeholders were effectively and efficiently executed
Increase brand exposure in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island
Campaign
Peak works with Harbour Air to provide communications support in several key areas:
Identify and share newsworthy stories with media
Provide counsel on issues management
Assist in partnership relations
Social media campaign support
Key results
Peak has successfully provided crisis council on various issues and aided the company in increasing its already strong brand recognition.
Since 2013 over 100 pieces of print, TV, radio, trade and online coverage have been achieved. Highlights include:
Securing stories on the front page of the business section of the Vancouver Sun and Times Colonist several times
Coverage in every traditional print publication in every market they operate
Nearly 40 million impressions across the Lower Mainland
The City of Trail had a long outdated image of being a dirty smelter town that couldn’t be further from the truth. Although Teck Resources lead and zinc smelter has operated in Trail for over a century, the company had spent a billion dollars making enormous improvements to air and water emissions. Trail is a beautiful southern B.C. city right on the Columbia River but it needed a new image.
Client objective
The City of Trail brought Peak on board to act as an extension of its communications function. The goal was to highlight the benefits of Trail for people looking to travel, move to the region permanently or do business in the city.
Campaign
Peak worked with the City of Trail for over a decade. Our scope of work ranged from issues management and public consultation to media relations and communications counsel.
At the heart of the PR program was the e-newsletter we created quarterly, which contained a number of local stories that had potential for national appeal. This e-newsletter was pitched to journalists, who then selected their favourite stories for publication. A selection of journalists came to know and expect this newsletter as a source of real-life stories.
Key results
Over a three year period, we secured 200+ articles online and traditional media hits for the City, promoting a variety of community and cultural stories. These stories highlighted the benefits of Trail as somewhere to live and work, and a city worth visiting as a tourist.
One story highlighting the inexpensive homes for sale overlooking the Columbia River resulted in a housing boom in Trail, new families moving into the City and business being started.
