Background
BioCity is a groundbreaking healthcare and bioscience innovation and incubation centre in Nottingham City Centre. It is the result of an effective collaboration between Nottingham Trent University, the University of Nottingham and the East Midlands Development Agency.
The Brief
The PR brief was to tell a local and national audience about the aims and successes of BioCity and to put Nottingham on the map.
A further part of the brief was to help BioCity’s tenants understand the value of PR and how to use it for their own, individual purposes.
The Campaign – Ongoing
Press Releases
Relevant stories are identified and targeted at key press including national broadsheets, industry titles including bio and pharmaceutical targets and a number of key websites.
Media Workshops
Louise delivers media workshops for the tenants of BioCity to help them use PR as a tool for themselves.
Meet the Editor Events
Louise regularly invites key journalists to BioCity to interview the Chief Executive and to meet a number of the tenants.
Award Submission
Louise was instrumental in putting together BioCity’s winning submission to the “2008 Enterprising Britain Awards” and managed a local PR campaign to cover the announcements and the visit of the national judges.
Results
BioCity has seen its national profile increase significantly in the last year. Coverage has been achieved in broadsheet titles such as The Financial and The Sunday Times. A particular achievement saw a complete turnabout in the opinion of Financial Times’ Jonathan Guthrie. In an article he penned in 2002, he referred to BioCity as a potential white elephant. This year, following a visit to one of Louise’s Meet the Editor events, he has been quoted as saying BioCity is “a successful lab experiment”. He is now looking forward to returning to Nottingham in the near future to meet further tenants.
“It’s been really great working with Louise. She is very easy to get on with. It’s also obvious that she actually cares about BioCity and its aims. We’re not just a client to her, she’s very much part of our own team and that’s very important to us.”