Background:

Brewin Dolphin is one of the UK’s largest independent private client investment managers with over 40 offices throughout the country. The company has a success founded on a track-record of helping clients, trusts, charities and pension funds create and preserve wealth through a wide range of financial services.

As the official sponsor of the 2012 Cheltenham Cricket Festival, Brewin Dolphin wanted to promote their investment in the event as well as kick-start a PR and marketing strategy in the region. apt was chosen for our connections to the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club (GCCC) and experience with the festival, having two other of our clients already positioned as major sponsors.

Working alongside GCCC, apt orchestrated a press announcement at the site of the festival, the Cheltenham College Cricket Pavilion and drummed up excitement by keeping the name of the sponsor under wraps, not sending out any press information until after the event. We sent out invitations to all local business and sport reporters, national sports journalists and sports trade press, as well as all marketing and sponsorship publications in print and online.

We organised for a number of high profile players such as Alex Gidman, the Gloucestershire Captain, Will Gidman the Player of the Year and Jack Taylor to attend and used social media to post updates from the event.

By not disclosing the identity of the new sponsor, all the local press were keen to get the news out first so a vast number of journalists and photographers attended the announcement. The Gloucestershire Echo and The Citizen as well as the Wilts & Glos Standard attended with photographers. BBC Radio Gloucestershire carried out interviews with key spokespeople at Brewin Dolphin and GCCC and BBC Points West interviewed Tom Richardson. Regional Lifestyle magazines Cotswold Style and The Cheltonian now also plan to cover the new sponsorship extensively within their editorial pages.