The Jersey Beach Art Championships was a simple but beautifully executed PR campaign involving media relations and event management.The campaign, which aimed to showcase the natural beuaty of the island of Jersey, achieved strong national coverage and tangible results in the form of increased traffic to Jersey.com showing that the images generated by the activity had prompted awareness and put the island in the consideration set of potential holidaymakers which was spot on brief.

We started local, creating a dedicated Jersey Beach Art Website to host images by each artist and ignite excitement for the event.We conducted an aerial photoshoot with the local beach artist in May 2010 to pre-promote the event.

On-island support was so strong it was decided to extend the event into a two day festival. A sponsorship deal with a local company (MyMemory.com) was negotiated to make this possible.We sourced rake artists from around the globe to participate - San Francisco, UK, France and Jersey.The event took place on 29th and 30th October, including an exhibition of work by the sand artists in St Helier and the championship day. Each artist was given a beach to use as their ‘canvas’ and a PA photographer took aerial shots that were sold into media in the UK, France and Germany.

Generated over 169,000,000 opportunities to see and 42 pieces of coverage in the UK (66 including France and Germany). 100% achieved a brand key message. 86% contained an image. Cost per thousand was £0.00011.

Pre-event media outreach secured a feature in Metro as well a double page spread in BBC Coast magazine and coverage on telegraph.co.uk, The Sun and Daily Express. BBC Coast filmed a dedicated programme on the championships – due to air in summer 2012.After the final images were released, coverage was obtained in Metro, The Guardian, The Telegraph online and OK! Magazine. Between 28th October and 2nd November visits to Jersey.com increased by 75.6%, with over 90,000 page views. Compared with 2010, site visits were up 133%. Views increased by 28% on the days of competition. Media coverage had a significant impact on page ‘likes’ and views, increasing by 300% on the 30th October.