It has been over a year since I have entered the world of PR and I have certainly had a lot of crazy experiences. Along the way I had the privilege of working for a lot of different clients but working on the Weston Pier strategy is one of my most interesting roles yet.
My speciality was always the online world and my challenge was fusing that with conventional PR strategies. When the Weston Pier fire story broke it was massive news both in the conventional media and online. The BBC video of the fire was one the most viewed videos ever on the site. The story also made international news everywhere from the USA, to Canada, to South Africa, to Australia.
A month ago our company, Empica, was appointed to handle the PR for Weston Pier. We are overseeing all parts of the strategy from the disaster itself to rebuilding of the pier. It has been a rollercoaster ride since then and we have had to deal with Radio, TV and the Press all wanting the latest news. For my part I am in charge of Weston Pier's online strategy which includes monitoring stories online and social networking.
There has been an overwhelming reaction on facebook as well with many Weston Pier groups being set up. The biggest of these is in the region of 14,000 members.
The big news that broke yesterday was that of the new designs of the pier. Everyone in the media was literally scrambling over the pictures of the designs (the phones were red hot in the office!). I must say that I have never seen anything like this let alone be working on the project. You can see the top of this post for one of the designs and check out the rest on the BBC website.
I look forward to see how the story unfolds as the rebuilding of the pier commences.
