Mid-Sussex Timber Remembrance Campaign
Creative Pod worked with Mid-Sussex Timber to honour Remembrance month and share some of their very own history about their founder RD Waters and his time during WWII in aid of The Poppy Appeal.
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Background
Established in 1929, Mid-Sussex Timber (MST) remains to this day a family-run business with its Head Office based in Forest Row. With three other locations in East Grinstead (including a showroom), Haywards Heath, and Crowborough, they are direct importers and are one of the largest stockists of Timber in Sussex. They specialise not only in Softwoods, Hardwoods, Panel Products, Window Frames, but also, Building Materials, Fencing & Garden products, Painting, and Decorating supplies.
Mid-Sussex Timber started working with The Creative Group back in July 2019 and Creative Pod became their full-service outsourced marketing and design department, covering elements of;
- Marketing strategy
- Campaign creation
- Social media marketing
- Monthly email marketing
- Press coverage and outreach
- Digital and print design assets
- Facebook events
- Blog content
- On-site visits
- Merchandise design
Situation
To honour Remembrance month, Mid-Sussex Timber wanted to share some of their very own history about their founder RD Waters and his time during WWII, with diaries written during his time as a POW, alongside press cuttings and his telegrams from 1940 in aid of The Poppy Appeal.
Solution & Results
We decided to run MST’S Remembrance Month campaign throughout November in aid of Remembrance Day. To maximise the awareness of this campaign, we implemented a multichannel approach, covering various marketing and design activities including organic social media marketing, press release content, web content, email marketing, branded social graphics and headers, and one special area, in particular, was vinyling the MST lorries with Poppies. Find out more below:
Organic Social Media Marketing
Throughout November, we sent out regular social content across their four channels; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We designed a series of graphics that included quotes, facts, and images from R.D Waters’ diary entries. The initial response on social was fantastic:
Total Engagement Rate:
- Twitter engagement increased by 262%
- Facebook engagement increased by 52%
- Instagram engagement increased by 112%
Total Likes/Impressions:
- Facebook received 50+ likes
- Instagram received 80+ likes
- LinkedIn received 1,934 impressions
- Twitter received 4,157 impressions
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Website
We worked closely with MST's website agency, to create a dedicated landing page on their website. We used this page to direct traffic from their social media platforms and e-blast and this can be found here: https://www.mstc.co.uk/remembrance/
The website included a branded hero image banner, branded images, and content from the press release, which told the history of R.D Waters.
Branding
Mid-Sussex Timber is very well known in Sussex, as a family-run business, customers, and clients recognise their fleet of lorries and vans. Therefore, we decided to have vinyl poppies printed on the sides of the lorries and vans to support Remembrance Day and this was seen by customers receiving deliveries from all four branches.
Press Release Coverage
We sent out a press release and had an exclusive double-page feature in both Ashdown Forest Living and East Grinstead Living magazines, as well as an exclusive single-page spread in Sussex Living. MST was also featured in the Mid Sussex Times and as an agency, we were incredibly pleased that the press release was also picked up from the BBC South East, with interest to have a possible feature ahead of Remembrance Day.
Email Marketing
Using Mailchimp, we designed an e-blast to send out to current and previous customers with images of the telegrams and diary entries, with a link to the dedicated landing page on the website, which received a great response rate:
- 21% open rate
- 59% click-through rate
Next Steps
This was an exciting campaign to work on for MST and the response that they received was incredible. We already have several campaigns lined up for 2021, so watch this space for another update!
If you are interested in outsourcing some or all of your marketing activity or would like to discuss your requirements further, please get in touch at hello@creativepod.net.
Background
Established in 1929, Mid-Sussex Timber (MST) remains to this day a family-run business with its Head Office based in Forest Row. With three other locations in East Grinstead (including a showroom), Haywards Heath, and Crowborough, they are direct importers and are one of the largest stockists of Timber in Sussex. They specialise not only in Softwoods, Hardwoods, Panel Products, Window Frames, but also, Building Materials, Fencing & Garden products, Painting, and Decorating supplies.
Mid-Sussex Timber started working with The Creative Group back in July 2019 and Creative Pod became their full-service outsourced marketing and design department, covering elements of;
- Marketing strategy
- Campaign creation
- Social media marketing
- Monthly email marketing
- Press coverage and outreach
- Digital and print design assets
- Facebook events
- Blog content
- On-site visits
- Merchandise design
Situation
To honour Remembrance month, Mid-Sussex Timber wanted to share some of their very own history about their founder RD Waters and his time during WWII, with diaries written during his time as a POW, alongside press cuttings and his telegrams from 1940 in aid of The Poppy Appeal.
Solution & Results
We decided to run MST’S Remembrance Month campaign throughout November in aid of Remembrance Day. To maximise the awareness of this campaign, we implemented a multichannel approach, covering various marketing and design activities including organic social media marketing, press release content, web content, email marketing, branded social graphics and headers, and one special area, in particular, was vinyling the MST lorries with Poppies. Find out more below:
Organic Social Media Marketing
Throughout November, we sent out regular social content across their four channels; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We designed a series of graphics that included quotes, facts, and images from R.D Waters’ diary entries. The initial response on social was fantastic:
Total Engagement Rate:
- Twitter engagement increased by 262%
- Facebook engagement increased by 52%
- Instagram engagement increased by 112%
Total Likes/Impressions:
- Facebook received 50+ likes
- Instagram received 80+ likes
- LinkedIn received 1,934 impressions
- Twitter received 4,157 impressions
Website
We worked closely with MST's website agency, to create a dedicated landing page on their website. We used this page to direct traffic from their social media platforms and e-blast and this can be found here: https://www.mstc.co.uk/remembrance/
The website included a branded hero image banner, branded images, and content from the press release, which told the history of R.D Waters.
Branding
Mid-Sussex Timber is very well known in Sussex, as a family-run business, customers, and clients recognise their fleet of lorries and vans. Therefore, we decided to have vinyl poppies printed on the sides of the lorries and vans to support Remembrance Day and this was seen by customers receiving deliveries from all four branches.
Press Release Coverage
We sent out a press release and had an exclusive double-page feature in both Ashdown Forest Living and East Grinstead Living magazines, as well as an exclusive single-page spread in Sussex Living. MST was also featured in the Mid Sussex Times and as an agency, we were incredibly pleased that the press release was also picked up from the BBC South East, with interest to have a possible feature ahead of Remembrance Day.
Email Marketing
Using Mailchimp, we designed an e-blast to send out to current and previous customers with images of the telegrams and diary entries, with a link to the dedicated landing page on the website, which received a great response rate:
- 21% open rate
- 59% click-through rate
Next Steps
This was an exciting campaign to work on for MST and the response that they received was incredible. We already have several campaigns lined up for 2021, so watch this space for another update!
If you are interested in outsourcing some or all of your marketing activity or would like to discuss your requirements further, please get in touch at hello@creativepod.net.
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