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August 16 2004 at 10.00
AM
Pink
Lady® Atlantic First timeline
1.
Sponsorship announced by Pink
Lady® Apples – April 23
2. The
Pink Lady and crew depart from Newfoundland, Canada – June 30
3. The
rowers reach their first 500 miles – July 11
4.
Pink Lady reaches half way – July 24
5. The
rowers are picked up after the storm – August 8
6.
The rowers arrive back in the UK – August 9
After a week of intense media coverage, most people now know that the
Pink Lady® sponsored 2,100-mile Atlantic row from Newfoundland, Canada
to Cornwall was stopped by the tail end of hurricane Alex just 300-miles
from the UK. The rowers were picked up early Sunday morning by a
Scandinavian vessel, the Scandinavian Reefer.
The public relations agency, The YES Consultancy, who negotiated and
managed the sponsorship, achieved over 216 million ‘opportunities to
see’ Pink Lady coverage before Sunday’s storm with its freak wave.
Following the event, the agency is still receiving dozens of media
enquiries. Current analysis shows that the story has achieved in excess
of 20 times reach that it did before the expedition’s abrupt
termination.
The impact of the coverage has been extremely high too as the Pink Lady
story led many UK news channels for much of the two days on August 8 and
9. The news reached every part of the globe in particular Australia,
Canada, the USA and Ireland.
Andy Macdonald, director of Coregeo Ltd said “Our experience
demonstrates that it is possible to successfully sponsor adventure
sports as long as the participants’ approach to safety is beyond
reproach, as it was with the Pink Lady crew.
“We are very proud of what Mark Stubbs, Pete Bray, John Wills and
Jonathan Gornall achieved and I feel honoured to know four such
determined men who have quite deservedly became heroes overnight.
“I am very disappointed for the crew in being so close to achieving
their record crossing but the fact that they came through the ordeal
virtually unscathed is a credit to the hours of training they undertook
for such eventualities.
“This was the first sponsorship undertaken on behalf of Pink Lady®
apples in the UK and to achieve so much media exposure in such a short
time was amazing. The dedicated event website (www.gopinklady.co.uk)
also received 1.2 million hits during the 36 hours immediately following
the pick-up, supported by over 400 news articles on the internet.
“Pink Lady® apples have, I am sure, received more media and internet
coverage than any other fruit sponsorship. The fact that our PR agency
was well organized and had film footage and branded photos already
lodged with national and international news organizations certainly got
the Pink Lady message across.
“Seeing this tiny pink boat bobbing up and down in the Atlantic created
an enormous following and we were fortunate to have all the mainstream
media supporting us and providing coverage at every opportunity.”
“The crew and Pink Lady are extremely grateful for the support of HM
coastguard, the RAF and the skipper and crew of the Scandinavian Reefer
who picked them up. Also, the kind words of support from the British
Heart Foundation – the beneficiary of the fundraising – were much
appreciated.
Ironically the Scandinavian Reefer vessel that helped the Pink Lady
rowers was carrying bananas and pineapples.
Paul McCaffrey
Account Director
The YES Consultancy
Regent House
24 Nutford Place
London
W1H 5YN
Please
visit:
www.gopinklady.com
Photographs of the
Pink Lady® boat and crew are available by
visiting http://www.yesconsultancy.com/PinkLadyAtlanticFirst
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