Publicity Work

Okay seeing my face all over social media can get annoying, and most people who know me understand why I am entering the competition and how I am fundraising for charity. As part of the publicity round I’ve been looking into different ways of getting my message out there, and different mediums too.

Newspaper
The Southern Daily Echo recently did a full page spread in their Saturday edition of the paper on my charity fundraising efforts for BWAP and Southampton Hospital Charity. With circulation figures of 70,374, this paper is the best way to get your name out there in the Hampshire area I think, and are the main media sponsors of the competition. Plus this newspaper can lead to nationwide reach – I’ve since signed a deal with Chat/Pick Me Up magazine for a story later in March/April and the ABP Marathon PR firm are looking into Women’s Running magazine coverage since the newspaper article broke.

Magazine
Your Health Hampshire is a quarterly magazine distributed to Daily Echo readers, and is also produced by the newspaper. The magazine covers hospital and health news across the south and featured a smaller version of the article in the newspaper, along with a few quotes from myself on how and why I am fundraising. As one of my platforms for the competition is health and fitness this type of publicity meant a lot to myself and I hope to continue my work with this publication.

Television
That’s Solent is a new TV channel available on Virgin and Freeview. It is a public news channel and reaches residents in Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. I appeared on their 5-6pm slot – prime time! I discussed with their presenter what being involved in Miss Hampshire is like, and how great the competition is, as well as how modern it is nowadays. I also discussed with the presenter my charity fundraising and experiences with the NHS – hence my keenness to raise awareness of how brilliant the NHS is and also how important it is to see a doctor when you feel something isn’t quite right.

The appearance was so successful I’ve secured two live slots in April – just before and just after running the Southampton half-marathon. The team at That’s Solent are wonderful and I want to continue working with them as their coverage and news stories are so diverse and really show what the south coast is all about!

Radio
The Julian Clegg Breakfast Show is one of the most listened to radio shows in Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight. Plus my mum is an avid listener so I HAD to get on this radio show. Luckily Miss Universe Great Britain Grace Levy (a former Miss Hampshire no less!) was speaking on the radio about her new business venture in London. Julian asked listeners to ring in if they had stories of being involved in Mr & Miss pageant competitions and luckily I was the last caller to get through!
I spoke to Julian about how my confidence had been helped through such competitions, and how career opportunities had happened because of Miss Hampshire. He then asked to end on me telling him about the finals on March 14th, so I hope the listeners out there heard me mention the Alton House Hotel and when to come and watch!

Online
A large part of my job is drive people to online pieces of work, and with more and more people spending their time hooked up to the Internet, it makes sense to really embrace this publicity medium. I started my blog initially as a way to recruit girls into the Miss Hampshire competition before deciding to enter one last time!

Covering advice and tips, as well as public appearances, charity/ voluntary work, pageant myths and perceptions and everything else in-between, my blog has had over 3,000+ views (plus you are reading it nowJ) and it has really engaged my fellow contestants. I’ll keep this blog up no matter what happens as it is such an easy way of reaching people globally. While the majority of readers are UK based, I have a number in the U.S, as well as Poland, Slovakia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, France and even Australia! This proves that you can get amazing publicity – you just need to be clever about it and work hard!