Press Release

31 July 2000

FEATURE LINK: THE PERFECT TAKE-OFF
FOR BRITANNIA AIRWAYS

With the help of the Newspaper Society’s Feature Link service, charter airline Britannia Airways ran an awareness campaign across 58 Scottish newspaper titles generating PR worth eight times the media spend.

Boeing provided Britannia Airways with a marketing budget to promote the next generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft being introduced for short-haul holiday flights from Glasgow International Airport.

"The objective was to promote flying with Britannia Airways from Glasgow as a convenient, comfortable and above all safe way to start a holiday," explained Russell Ison, media relations manager at Britannia Airways. The regional press was an obvious vehicle for communicating this message and all NS Marketing members in Scotland were invited to pitch to Russell at the Feature Link Scottish regional meeting.

"There is no medium more trusted by the general public than the regional press, nor more widely read – particularly in Scotland," explained Feature Link manager Charlotte Luffman who worked closely with Britannia Airways and the network of Feature Link co-ordinators at the newspapers to ensure that feature opportunities were maximised.

Britannia Airways created a press pack containing a wordsearch competition, articles on holiday packing tips and facts about the new aircraft which was sent out with instructions on how newspapers should run the feature and use it as a platform to generate revenue. A 20 x 4 starter ad was booked with each title on the schedule and 20 £200 Thomson holiday vouchers were allocated for the newspaper groups to offer as competition prizes.

Britannia Airways was delighted with the coverage. The campaign ran in 58 Scottish newspapers with a combined circulation of 1.7 million. Several titles ran double page features and many provided follow-up editorial by publishing the results of the wordsearch competition. For a media outlay of less than £25,000, the PR value of the campaign was calculated to be worth nearly £200,000, based on independent evaluation by Britannia Airways’ appointed PR research agency.

Russell Ison said: "The Britannia Airways name has become well known in Scotland through the regional press. Feature Link provided the ideal framework and support to generate this level of success."

Charlotte Luffman agreed. "Feature Link taps into the strong relationship built on the trust the community place in their local newspaper. For a minimum cost you get maximum editorial coverage, national impact and a return on your investment."

The Feature Link service provided by the Newspaper Society gives clients the unique opportunity to obtain branded feature coverage across 1300 member titles, without the headache of co-ordinating the campaign. The Feature Link network consists of 750 co-ordinators across the publishing groups who are responsible for putting together advertising features in their newspapers.

Every two weeks Feature Link sends these co-ordinators bulletins and press packs from clients who want coverage – this can range from editorial to reader offers, competitions and even outdoor events. This information is also available on the Feature Link website. Advertising is then generated to complement the subject and build it into a page feature, or in some cases a supplement. Often the client allocates a starter ad budget to secure coverage within selected titles.

For further details contact: Anna Barden or Charlotte Luffman at the Society on 020 7636 7014 or
anna_barden@newspapersoc.org.uk or charlotte_luffman@newspapersoc.org.uk

The Newspaper Society, the voice of Britain's regional and local press, represents over 1,300 daily and weekly, paid-for and free, newspaper titles in the UK.