Viva. PR

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• Case Studies

  • Alder Grange: Top Class Results
  • Blackburn College
  • Belfry EcoPod
  • The JJO Journal: Spreading the news
  • Lanway
  • Maysand: Power behind the stone
  • Architect Your Home: The plan
  • Mulderrigs: A national campaign
  • Hurstwood: Building a proflie
  • Jack Ross: City image adds up
  • Bolton Wanderers: Team players
  • Sean Ruane: Headline act
  • Hyndburn Life: Partnership role
  • Community and Business Partners
  • Jo Tabiner: Start up success
  • Reebok years brought to book

• Mulderrigs: A national campaign

  Project: Personal injury specialists Mulderrigs turned to Viva when they uncovered a worrying trend. Working on a client’s accident at work case, they discovered that some firms were working without up-to-date Employers’ Liability Insurance. This means their workers aren’t covered if they suffer an accident at work and therefore won’t be able to receive any compensation for the injuries they have sustained.

  Objectives: Having discovered three similar cases in a matter of months, Mulderrigs wanted to expose the issue as a cause for real concern. They wanted to make employees of all firms aware of what was happening, and warn them to check their firm had cover. By law, firms should have their certificate of Employers’ Liability Insurance on show quite clearly in their place of work.

  Strategy: For maximum impact we realised immediately the need to show the real human cost of these cases, which were otherwise very dry technical offences. In other words, it was case study time. Mulderrigs allowed us to speak to a victim who had suffered an accident at work while carrying a marble slab up a flight of stairs. Mulderrigs believed they had a strong case for a substantial compensation claim, somewhere close to £10,000, until they discovered the client’s firm had no Employers’ Liability Insurance in place. This meant our case study ‘victim’ Trevor would not receive a penny.

 Part of our strategy was to include a key message warning all employees to check they were covered. Having put together the case study and covering release to explain the situation to journalists, we contacted the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) to try to give the story a national twist. Unfortunately on this occasion they were unable to help us too much, as these cases were a new phenomenon for APIL.
  We decided to try to gain maximum publicity by approaching a national newspaper and offering them the story exclusively. The media likes to break its own stories and is less interested in a news item if the news has gone out everywhere. We knew the Daily Mirror were running a ‘Protect Our Workers’ campaign and felt this case would be of interest to their campaign team. We were right. What they liked was the campaigning angle, the fact we had a case study prepared and quotes from the victim, who was prepared to be photographed, and, most importantly, they had the story exclusively to themselves.

  The Result: The Mirror team ran the story in December, under the headline ‘Don’t Risk A Boss Like Her’, and included a photograph of the employer who had failed to renew the cover. The story was later distributed to regional and trade press.

  They said: “In late 2009 we came across this very disturbing trend and felt strongly the public ought to be made aware of the situation. That’s why we decided to commission Viva to try to ensure the scandal was exposed.
  The Viva team very quickly grasped the issues involved and the human cost. They then developed a strategy designed to meet our objectives. Within 24 hours of the commissioning meeting, Viva agreed an approach and arranged to speak to one of the victims. We were impressed by how media savvy and professional they were, and the clarity of the draft releases they then produced.
  Of course, the true test of any campaign comes when you examine the results. For a relatively small financial outlay, Viva managed to secure national media coverage in such an extensive manner they exceeded all our expectations. We felt we had uncovered a good story but Viva were able to give it the sort of platform it really deserved.
  Their approach is polished and effective and I will happily use Viva again. In fact, I was so pleased with the result that I immediately emailed 2,000 of my business contacts and recommended Viva.”

  Paul Mulderrig
  Mulderrigs