Lamb Watch Driving Business Out Of Season Andy Woodward Chief Executive Farm Stay UK 20 April 2012

Lamb Watch - Requirement Need to increase business in shoulder and low seasons, away from peak times (summer, national and school holidays) Bookings “softer” for business in Spring than Autumn, which is traditionally popular with empty-nesters and couples Idea to build a PR campaign around “New Life and Spring”

Lamb Watch - Concept Need to find concept attractive to consumer but also deliverable by farmer Concept to be low impact for farmers requiring minimal new investment in time or expense Need to consider Health and Safety issues of visiting guests

Lamb Watch - Concept Being farms, lambs appealed as the most likely target to build a campaign around The BBC have a TV series called “Lambing Live” which proved very popular with guests and provides vehicle to deliver free publicity about lambs, lambing and the countryside

“Lambing Live” averaged 2.5 million viewers per night during run over 7 days Lambing runs from January in the south of England to May in Scotland giving a programme longevity Despite two popular series, BBC decided to cancel programme due to costs however we decided to use the “good will” of the programme to carry on and launch campaign, maximising current trend for the countryside

Lamb Watch – Action Plan Shared concept with Members - not all livestock farmers, some arable, fruit etc Created website Icon for participating members and landing page on website Identified members willing to participate with PR programme

Lambing part of advanced search options 98 members offered holiday options Icon sits within facilities and is available as search

Lamb Watch – Action Plan Created PR programme and offer for key journalists to visit farms that had started lambing Utilised Social media to start sharing – Farm Stay blog links to all key social networking sites

Lamb Watch - Results Major PR articles in National Press such as Sunday Times, Value EAV: £49,500

Lamb Watch - Results Major PR articles in National Press such as Sunday Observer, Value EAV: £64,000

Lamb Watch - Results Mail on Sunday Travel Questions page = additional opportunity

Lamb Watch - Results Sunday Mirror Travel Questions page

Lamb Watch - Results Sunday Mirror On-line

Lamb Watch - Results Farm Stay UK coverage Evaluation DateMediaOTSAdvertising valueEditorial EquivalentFeatured 18 Marchwww.guardian.co.uk63,589,633--Lambing 17 MarchThe Times - Weekend409,060£16,500.00£49,500.00Lambing 17 MarchThe Observer266,659£64,000.00£192,000.00Lambing 11 MarchSunday Mirror1,702,008£15,040.00£45,120.00Lambing 11 Marchwww.mirror.co.uk3,800,000--Lambing 12 FebruarySunday Mirror - homes & Holidays1,702,008£4,680.00£14,040.00Lambing 11 FebruaryThe Times - Weekend409,060£2,400.00£7,200.00Lambing Februarywww.countryfile.com---Lambing 2 Januarywww.dailymail.co.uk21,842,107--Lambing TOTAL 93,720,535£102,620.00£307, GBP1 = 5PLN

Lamb Watch – Social Media

Twitter feed shows interest for story – random and world wide but popular

Lamb Watch – Web Traffic 32.88% increase in web traffic on 16 March, date of major article being printed

Lamb Watch – The Big Question Q.Did we get additional bed nights? A.Undoubtedly yes, but as a referral business it is difficult to measure Q.Would we do it again next year. A.Absolutely, YES

Thank You