ROADCHEF: RETURN TO THE ROADS
- Total campaign OTT of 242 million
- 193 pieces of print, online and broadcast coverage
- Widespread national and local coverage including The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Express, Liverpool Echo, BBC Radio Sussex & BBC Radio Surrey and more…
As COVID restrictions began to ease from 12 April, British roads were expected to be busier as people were finally allowed to embark on domestic holidays with their households, providing they stayed in self-contained accommodation.
In anticipation of a rise in summer staycations, leading motorway service area provider Roadchef started preparing to welcome non-essential road users back to its UK-wide sites. Part of the ‘Return to the Roads’ plan included a huge recruitment drive across its entire estate to prepare for the surge in travellers. From April – July 2021, the company aimed to grow its hardworking team by a third. This involved recruiting an additional 1,000 new team members – from entry-level through to manager roles across the UK – to ensure all outlets stayed open and fully operational over the summer months.
Against a backdrop of unemployment and job cuts across UK retail and hospitality sectors, Storm worked with Roadchef to highlight this unprecedented recruitment drive, as well as reaffirm its commitment to offering a first-class experience for its customers on their journeys around the UK.
Perfectly timed with English Tourism Week (18 – 24 April), Storm’s Corporate team delivered a hard-hitting media relations campaign with the national news media which delivered print and online coverage across titles such as The Evening Standard, Daily Express, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The i, The Daily Star, MSN and Yahoo.
A regional campaign was also instigated alongside to highlight the number of roles available at each motorway service area. This generated print and online coverage in key titles including Bournemouth Echo, Wirral Globe, The National Scot, Southern Daily Echo, Oxford Mail, Northampton Chronicle & Echo and The Argus.
To extend the coverage further, Storm also reached out to broadcast media to offer exclusive, on-site interviews with Roadchef CEO, Mark Fox on April 12 as the “stage two” of lockdown lifted. BBC Radio Sussex & BBC Radio Surrey spoke to Mark on the telephone live from Clacket Lane service area, producing a three and a half minute interview discussing the recruitment drive, staycation summers and Roadchef’s continually improved offering for electric car drivers. The interview also featured on talkSPORT radio and Times Radio, in total reaching over 3.2 million people via broadcast channels.
