Network Rail Buildings & Architecture team

THE CHALLENGE

How often do you take the train? And how often do you pay attention to the incredible infrastructure around you as you do? The Network Rail Buildings and Architecture team is responsible for so much of the customer experience of rail users. They’re responsible for setting the standards, policy and long-term planning for our built environment. 

Two key areas of focus were securing media coverage for an international design competition with the RIBA to re-imagine new solutions for small to medium stations across the UK for the 21st century. 

They needed a team that understood the industry and had a perfectly placed network of international media contacts to secure significant coverage. To encourage as many global entrants as possible, it was important to generate interest worldwide. Secondly, their partnership with the Design Museum on an exhibition: Margaret Calvert: Woman at Work, required support to collaborate with the museum and manage the PR and digital media activity for both the opening and to drive footfall to the exhibition over time. 

OUR SOLUTION

Sandford worked with a number of partners for Network Rail to ensure activity was supported on all their digital channels. 

Working closely with the RIBA, the internal press team at Network Rail and the architecture practice involved, we developed press releases and international media plans for both announcing the launch of the competition to encourage submissions,
and then the winner of the competition at the end. 

Likewise, we worked with the LFA to do the same when launching their competitions, and worked with other PR teams at the Design Museum to sell in interviews with Margaret Calvert and manage the launch.

The releases were circulated to key press and using our extensive network of contacts, we were able to secure broad coverage across many publications, all relevant to the target audiences.

Social media was a key component in spreading the word for both the exhibition and the RIBA design competition. We worked closely with the Network Rail social media team to plan announcements from the Building and Architecture team, campaign approaches and track activity/engagement to see which things resonated the most with their audiences.

Across the RIBA competition and Design Museum exhibition, we secured 109 pieces of coverage in key international publications for the competition announcement, with a combined readership of over 3.05 billion people.