In less than four weeks our competition saw over 1,000 photos uploaded to Flickr, generating over 30 pieces of press, online and broadcast coverage.
The challenge
As part of a broader PR campaign to encourage people to rediscover cycling, Transport for London (TfL) asked us to deliver a digital strategy to drive people to a revamped cycling section on their website. In addition, they wanted to generate coverage in regional and local media.
Our response
We developed a photography competition, run through Flickr, to engage with existing cyclists and encourage them to share ‘hidden gems’ they’d discovered while cycling around the Capital. To drive traffic to the TfL website, the Flickr stream was set-up to display the newest entries in a gallery on the site.
We identified cycling-related photography already on Flickr and approached the photographers to ask for their permission to add them to the TfL Flickr group. We used this to launch the competition to bloggers and online and offline media.
We then worked with existing groups including London Photobloggers community, Facebook and Flickr groups and London’s most prominent bloggers to spread the word.
Results
Over 1,000 photos were uploaded as part of the competition and over 30 items of coverage generated in London press and online channels. This included a gallery of the winning photos on BBC London online and a three page feature and cover photo in the London Cycling Campaign’s magazine. In addition, the blogger behind London Daily Photo wrote an article for us on cycling and photography in London, which we placed on BBC London online.
