PR

PR – Background 

Belle Ame is a leading hair salon based in Lancaster, UK. I currently help Belle Ame with all areas of marketing including PR, social media marketing, web design, SEO marketing and brand collaborations. The team of stylists is highly-skilled, passionate and dedicated to making their clients feel amazing both inside and out. They are committed to both delivering unforgettable hair experiences and making clients smile, in line with the company strapline “hair that feeds the soul”. 

The launch of the Barbie film in July 2023 was surrounded by a global PR frenzy. It gave Belle Ame and Small Business Marketing Consultant the ideal opportunity to create a PR campaign that was topical, fun, kind and in line with brand values.

PR Idea

I brainstormed ideas with the client at the beginning of Q2 2023 of what activities we could get behind for the following months.

Two major themes came up – the cost of living crisis and the launch of the Barbie film. 

We discussed the concept of saving money during the cost of living crisis, whilst embracing the playful and lighter themes of beauty and Barbie.

A PR Idea started to be developed, that could be supported by social media.

PR Campaign

The PR Campaign we chose to run with was a Ken & Barbie “His & Hers” Hairstyles Promotion.  The idea was for clients to book themselves and another in for a Barbie & Ken colour and cut – and Belle Ame would only charge for Barbie.

I gave the press release the title “Get Ready to Smile: Successful Lancashire Hair Salon Offers Ken & Barbie Hairstyles Promotion to Spread Joy Amidst the Cost of Living Crisis“. High-quality photos were created, with a couple of client models, that captured the mood and were newsworthy.

I published the press release across a selection of UK media titles three days before the film release. Within an hour of the release being published, I received a call from a journalist from Global (the UK’s no 1 commercial radio company, owners of Heart and Capital).

PR Results

Within 7 days of the press release being published, we achieved the following PR results:

• Interviews on Heart FM x 3
• Lancaster Guardian front cover
• Lancaster Telegraph feature
• Lancashire Evening Post
  feature
• The Visitor on Facebook feature with 17k followers
• Lancashire Magazine feature on social media
• Thousands of impressions and a whole heap of engagement through social media shares and comments
• Backlinks from online media that help with search engine optimisation